Donor With a Cause: Save Your Money, Boost Your High

Save your money.

It’s a tough world, kid, and you shouldn’t need to dish out your dough.  Especially in this economy.

Foundations and donations to charity are huge moneymakers in Western culture.  Look at Gaps RED line, or the Breast Cancer ribbon.  Remember the Live Strong bracelet things?

It’s fashionable to be charitable.  But not in the help-out-in-the-soup-kitchen way.  Rather, it’s more in the vein of “pay-for-this-overpriced-sweatshop-produced-mass-marketed-shirt-and-we’ll-donate-3-cents-to-a-nation-of-starving-people.”

There are countless charities for the same cause.  Look up your favorite celebrity, and they’ve all got their own, or support a couple that are well known.

So in the chaos of all these foundations pleading for donations, and the minor local charities looking for hand-outs, there is a plethora of good causes out there willing to snatch up your Washingtons, Lincolns, Hamiltons.

But exactly how much good does it do?  Your donation has got to be spent in a few of the following ways:

• Staff
• Office Supplies
• Advertisement/Awareness
• Working materials (Say, if it’s a job with Habitat for Humanity, nails, lumber, etc.)
• Technological stuff, such as phone lines, internet connections.

Say you see the picture of the kid who’s dirty and hungry at the grocery store, and decide to drop your change in the little plastic box.

Divvy that change up, and it doesn’t leave much for that kid.

How can you help, effectively and — for the spendthrifts — cheaply?

Donate Time. For as many different organizations seeking money from you, there are exactly that many that would be ecstatic to have you as a volunteer.  Find one your like based on your interests and see if you can do anything on their behalf.

Make it a group activity with your family or friends, and it’ll give you a bigger, better, helper’s high than if you spent cash.

Vote with your wallet. Know where the rest of your money is going.  Support good companies and corporations (not ALWAYS an oxymoron) that do good deeds.  Check out Knowmore.org for help with brands.

In the words of Vanilla Ice, “Stop, collaborate and listen.” Read up on your issues.  Talk about developments.  There’s a saying that goes something like, “if you can’t do, teach.”  Discuss with anybody who’ll listen and that just might spark a truly grassroots movement.

I’m not advocating you stop donating money, but what really creates change?

It’s not the dollars, foundations or slogans.  It’s people helping people.

At Home Activism: Things You Can Do To Help

Money isn’t always everything.

I’ve brainstormed some ways you can make a difference without donation money or political groups, and with minimal effort on your part.

• Don’t enable your peers. Laughing enables by reinforcing negative prejudices. This is listed first because this has potential to wield the most beneficial results, but could be fairly straining on relationships.  The trick here is to really observe what your friends are saying.  If you find it offensive, just don’t laugh.  The next step would be to attempt to persuade your friend that their behavior or belief is offensive, but that requires a bit more gusto.
• Buy responsibly. Find out company policies.  If the CEO has had several sexual harassment charges brought against him, don’t buy from him. KnowMore.Org is an EXCELLENT site for research.
• Read. Read books.  If you’re a news-junkie, try to read at least a couple different takes on the same article.  Google News is an excellent for doing this.
• Play responsibly. Look at your leisure activities, particularly which television programs and movies you watch.  It’s popular to make fun of disability, both physical and emotional.  It’s also popular to typecast roles for women and raced characters.  While I think it ideal to stop, if you’re a huge fan of a show, try to watch with a critical eye.  Understand what they’re doing to make you buy-in to discriminatory ideals.
• Question everything. Even yourself.

I really hope this has been helpful.  There are steps you can take to make a difference, even if I’ve not listed them here.

Be well.