Generation Cherry by Tim Drake

Author:Tim Drake
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RedDoor
Published: 2016-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

2. GIVING THROUGH PHILANTHROPY

The most straightforward form of giving is direct philanthropy. Donating money to an individual, a movement or a cause is worthwhile and seems easy.

But it’s not always that easy.

Even a simple one-to-one donation in the street – giving to a homeless person asking for money – is complicated. The arguments in your head might go thus: ‘This person needs help. I can give something that will marginally reduce their need.’ ‘Yes, but most homeless organisations counsel that giving is wrong. It reduces self-respect and any desire for self-help to improve their situation.’ ‘Yes, but even if this person is conning me, he or she still probably has less than I do, and they’re freezing cold sitting there.’ ‘They’ll only spend it on drugs or alcohol, making their situation worse.’ ‘At least drugs or alcohol will give them a small release from their misery.’

And so on.

Wherever you look it tends to be complicated. Giving to charities operating in disaster zones or famine relief also has challenges. Where are the blankets being sourced? Are the relief goods putting local tradespeople out of business? Is too much of the money being syphoned off by corrupt local officials?

I remember being appalled at finding out how much the managers of a well-known charity were paid, and how much they were spending on going to conferences, entertaining each other in plush hotels, when the charity concerned was meant to be helping the displaced and destitute.

I later spoke to a friend who had recently joined the charity sector to find that even that was not as simple as it seemed. Charities, she said, had to employ well-paid professionals and go to global conferences, otherwise they wouldn’t be seen as serious. Which meant they wouldn’t get funding from governments and the major trust funds and foundations. These large funders couldn’t risk putting money into charities run on a shoestring that might not be here tomorrow, let alone in five years’ time. It made sense.

The fact that it’s not easy shouldn’t put you off.

There are many reasons why not, but two are paramount. One is that – as all religions counsel – it is profoundly right to share what you have with the less advantaged.

It’s not just ‘There but for the grace of God, go I,’ which is in a sense like paying a kind of insurance premium against a potential future personal misfortune. Giving spontaneously to help others less fortunate is different. It is a generous, empathetic response. We understand and we feel their pain. So we give. It confirms our humanity.

The second reason is that globally governments are overburdened with debt and finding it very difficult to balance the books. Austerity in one form or another therefore looks set to be with us for some time to come. So having adequate, let alone generous, social security budgets is likely to be a real challenge.

This means governments’ contributions to the social sector will continue to shrink. This in turn means the other players in the

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