Morning Folks!!
We each have our ways of being charitable. To me, sharing what I have learned along the way is the way I give back. Personally I think it trumps dollars. Investing ones time is about as charitable as you can get. Others are directly involved with animal rescues and such.
To me it starts and ends with the old saying that goes something like this...."If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime."
But it goes deeper than that. Those that give fish for the day and doing it over and over again are not being charitable. In fact they are doing great harm. They would be better off eating it themselves then to do harm. If you were feeding some marine life or wild animals you could be fined. Why? Because it does harm.
Here is just one such example:
"Most people mean well and probably believe that they are helping wild animals by tossing them their snacks," said Ron Velarde, northwest regional manager for Colorado Parks and Wildife. "However, they are in fact causing more harm than good and we will do what we can to educate the public and discourage the practice, including issuing citations."
So make sure you are actually doing good instead of just feeling good.
Sometimes money is a shortcut. But it is just that. A shortcut.
So I just want to show you that some charity is not really charity at all. Where do you draw the line between charity and enabling? Enabling a negative result and not a positive result. You may be doing harm when you believe you are doing good. If you were to discover that, would you not want to change that?
The oldest law of man and animal that trumps all others is "Survival of the Fittest". We do what we can to help the less fortunate survive. That is also a very old law of man and animal.
Of course the worst is being scammed by some entity disguised as a charity. So I really have a hard time giving $$$ to a middleman with overhead when I can go direct and be more hands on. I think it was United at one time that took 90% of the $$$ and said it was for "Administrative Costs". That changed the way people gave and chose a charity. If you give, you want to be certain it goes to the effort you choose. Today, United gives 90% and costs are 10%.
Point is, make sure your charity is going to the intended recipient or better yet, deliver charity yourself. In person. With a smile. YOUR TIME is the ultimate giving no matter which charity floats your boat.
:-)
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
Homero A. Gonzalez
Rick, we agree 100%. Giving one’s time, ear, and attention is the most charitable thing one can do. Helping those who stumble, and or fall down, get up and retake control is one of the most satisfying things one can do. I have two charities which I admire and would like to mention them here so that your readers check them out, these are; The Doe Fund http://www.doe.org/ and http://www.modestneeds.org
go to their websites and read what the do. I think this is the right way to help out, in addition to listening and sharing knowledge and experience with others as Rick and others in the domaining world do. Thank you Rick. Keep it up!.
UFO
Given charities have tax advantages they should be subject to social audit and results published. The level of overheads/administration should be shown along with statements of kickbacks and payments to those facilitating donations. Here in Britain we call them Chuggers. (Charity Muggers who are actually PRIVATE companies getting a commission to deliver donations). You know, the b&stards that (Such as Greenpeace) get you to sign up for monthly direct debit donations but don’t tell you the first £500 will go to their fees. How about checking out the ‘honesty box’ for charities and you’ll see that generally 0.5% of the price goes to the charity even though their name is plastered all over the point of sales merchandise.
Joelle Wyser-Pratte
I agree. Helping others and doing charity works are noble activities to do. It can give satisfaction and true meaning of life, or why until now you are still alive. I just hope that those organizations which have done charity works will really have pure intention of what their missions are. I have heard that some of them are just doing it for “business” so that they can earn money not for other people, but merely for themselves alone.