Research history

Current published edition

When Charity Harms

As recorded by 2026-10-27T08:31:31.000Z. This is a dated public record of drafts, changes, sources and review declarations. A page, checksum or merged pull request does not establish a scientific result or independent review.

Edition: edition:2026-10-27-initial
Edition checksum: 63af9ab52aa86652f81ea1fac0b7c40aaad46cd8623865918d41ec347f9b2cd3
Projection checksum: 08a373e3b85d7ed44d36bc472444b5773f7cbd1dde11f60e0053b3ba4884b65c
Period: 2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z inclusive to 2026-10-27T08:31:31.000Z exclusive.
Starting baseline: Unknown before the recorded capture. Present states are not backdated to January.

JSON retains the complete pinned edition. CSV covers every recorded event in this edition; view filters do not change either download.

Recorded activity and qualification

43Stable records
45Subject versions
43Recorded events
0Review declarations
0Subjects with qualifying source review
0Peer-reviewed manuscripts
0Qualifying research results
1Editorial correction artifacts
2Changed claim subjects
23Open problems
0Partially resolved problems
0Solved problems
0Problems under review
0Unresolved challenges

Qualification follows the exact recorded public declarations. The ledger cannot establish identity, independence, source reading or truth by itself. Editorial corrections, proposed methods and software checks are separate from qualifying research results.

Coverage and limits

40 source entries are covered by this edition. Claim-level records cover only their selected wording and context; they do not qualify a whole manuscript. Source-derived case labels describe the published summaries, not Charitology fieldwork or charity ratings.

This initial capture establishes current draft coverage, not a known January baseline or an earlier status history.
The one PR-backed artifact is an editorial correction to two claim subjects; it is not a scientific result, independent review or problem resolution.
Source-derived case descriptions and manuscript bylines do not establish performed Charitology fieldwork or documented complete human authorship.
Public GitHub observations describe only the named objects at their recorded inspection time. An empty returned review list is not proof about reviews elsewhere.

Entry links open the present site. The separate pinned source text retains this edition’s exact archived bytes.

When Charity Harms · Research problem · version 1

Source review: draftProblem: open

problem:when-charity-harms

No current qualifying whole-entry source/framing review is recorded.

Effective problem state: open
Last recorded state: open
Current support: baseline
Last recorded disposition: No scientific disposition is recorded.

Qualification follows the exact recorded public declarations. The ledger cannot establish identity, independence, source reading or truth by itself.

Versions and exact subjects

Version entries 1–1

Version 1: When Charity Harms

Current subject in this edition

Subject checksum: 17ccebba01d250e3cb1b350a3e3601bcfc785909c698698a265b35d58a9e86b3
Version checksum: 89a971058a7277952da4ef3b4d1c31726839f254358b12c7b907e9ef16d91c4a
Authorship declaration: unknown; completeness unknown.

bounty

Unfunded. The Question Bounties program will attach prizes once it is funded.

conditions

[
  {
    "collection": "conditions",
    "id": "symptom-trap"
  },
  {
    "collection": "conditions",
    "id": "silence-about-failure"
  }
]

number

progress

A catalog of documented harm mechanisms, with the conditions under which each appears, drawn from real cases.

statement

When does charity cause harm, through dependency, crowding out local markets or governments, or delaying reform?

Exact archived Markdown body

Inert source text, including its original formatting. It is not executed as page markup.

## Why it matters

Good intentions are not good outcomes. Some programs have made things worse, and others may have delayed the structural fixes that would have helped more. A science of giving has to study harm as carefully as help.

## Where to start

The [Failure Archive](/record/failure-archive/) collects documented cases. The work is to find the patterns that connect them.

Pinned source capture

src/content/problems/when-charity-harms.md · whole entry
6991d2c355b79a85177fe8bd6c8268b75813acf9f1942a54ad3deddbeb6943b4 · 832 UTF-8 bytes · commit 8df2d0ddbc6d91b9841c6bbb94dbde1fc7c00137

Exact version fields and declaration references

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  "subject": {
    "body": "\n## Why it matters\n\nGood intentions are not good outcomes. Some programs have made things worse, and others may have delayed the structural fixes that would have helped more. A science of giving has to study harm as carefully as help.\n\n## Where to start\n\nThe [Failure Archive](/record/failure-archive/) collects documented cases. The work is to find the patterns that connect them.\n",
    "collection": "problems",
    "frontmatter": {
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      "conditions": [
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          "id": "symptom-trap"
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          "collection": "conditions",
          "id": "silence-about-failure"
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      "number": 20,
      "progress": "A catalog of documented harm mechanisms, with the conditions under which each appears, drawn from real cases.",
      "sources": [],
      "statement": "When does charity cause harm, through dependency, crowding out local markets or governments, or delaying reform?",
      "title": "When Charity Harms"
    },
    "type": "entry"
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  "subjectHash": "17ccebba01d250e3cb1b350a3e3601bcfc785909c698698a265b35d58a9e86b3",
  "version": 1
}

Timeline in recorded order

Public occurrence time and ledger recording time are different. A coverage baseline records what was present at capture; it does not invent an earlier history.

Events 1–1

Coverage baseline

Recorded order: 39; sequence 1 for this record.
Public occurrence: Undated / no earlier occurrence asserted · undated
Recorded in ledger: 2026-10-27T08:31:31.000Z

Initial capture of current source wording; no earlier independent review or historical event time is asserted.

Observed baseline: version 1; problem open.

Exact event fields

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  "initialProblemState": "open",
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  }
}

Review declarations

No public review declaration is recorded for this subject in this edition.

Dated public metadata observations

These observations record only the displayed metadata at inspection. A merge, closed issue or empty review list does not establish research or independent review.

github-pull-request · 2026-10-27T08:20:16.587Z

Observed public object

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  "mergedAt": "2026-10-27T08:10:57.000Z",
  "number": 15,
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}

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github-pull-request · 2026-10-27T08:20:16.587Z

Observed public object

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1ec26b57bd6ef466311b11958d47e9d144ec150ea5689838ae8036eb363aacbf

github-review-list · 2026-10-27T08:20:16.587Z

Observed public object

{
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  "reviewIds": []
}

3b7b719dbdd25b9937ba6c640f7234921611db30818b5675db41b9fa3534d926

github-issue · 2026-10-27T08:20:16.587Z

Observed public object

{
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  "number": 1,
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}

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