A mini-debate on philanthropy through donating your time and donating your money appeared very randomly in my linear algebra class yesterday of all places. My professor quipped that "The key to success is moving quickly. For you guys it means finishing your entire quiz on time, and for me it means getting them graded fast enough so I can volunteer at my local soup kitchen tonight." We never ended up taking that quiz, because the class suddenly, whether it be genuine interest or simply a desire to delay the quiz they were unprepared for, became very interested in my professor's volunteer work.
Of course many of the ideas we brought up in the first class came up in the discussion; mostly a person's motivations to want to be philanthropic. The most intriguing part for me, however, was when one student asked, "Who cares if you miss volunteering tonight? You can just donate money to them instead." This question seemed to offend my professor. He felt that donating money was more impersonal, which he greatly disliked. Upon personal reflection I realized that I agree with him.
I would much prefer to give my time to a charitable cause than my money. I see no fault with monetary philanthropy, because without it all charities would lack the funds to function. It is an essential part of philanthropy and will be a large part of my personal philanthropy. Despite this, if I had to choose one, I would prefer to give my time. Monetary philanthropy feels more impersonal to me. I enjoy seeing the elation on the faces of the people I come in contact with while volunteering, whether it be the children in the recovery room of my local hospital where I was a transporter for three years or the elderly members of my local nursing home where my friends and I played in a wind quintet classic music every week. It's this kind of tangible impact that I like, because I know exactly whose days I made better. I can't get this from a monetary donation in many cases (though obviously sometimes you can).
I would love to hear everyone else's opinion on this. Have any of you pondered this topic before? Does this time vs. money idea influence how you go about your philanthropy?
~Richard Hoffer
I very much agree with both you and your professor. Giving money, while an absolute necessity to keep programs functioning, seems impersonal. I would much rather give my time and be able to see, in the moment, the reactions of the person or people that my efforts are helping. I wonder though, is it selfish to want that personal validation? Should writing a check with the knowledge that the funds are going to help someone be enough?
ReplyDeleteAs I wrote in my comment to Chelsea's blog post, I don't feel as if life has put me in a position to donate significant amounts of my money or my time. I'm hopeful that this class will expose me to the options and lead me to find a cause that I am passionate enough to support on a consistent basis, ideally through volunteering my time in some way or another.
At this point in my life, I agree with you, your professor, and Courtney. Upon finishing the Singer book, where the author lists the seven steps he would like all readers to take in order to help the cause and save a life, I found I was more apt to participate in the items that donated time instead of money, such as calling political representatives. Being a student, I don't feel as if I am in a position to donate a significant sum of money, although Singer would probably disagree.
ReplyDeleteI also concede the point that it feels much more gratifying to personally see the difference you are making in donating time as opposed to money. Although, is this selfish of us? Does this mean we are more interested in gaining something out of philanthropy than giving something?
I have been considering that question myself, Dina.
ReplyDeleteIn 2011, when Hurricane Irene hit close to home, I was able to donate my time (and a small amount of money) to help with disaster relief. A friend and I traveled with a youth group to Schoharie, where we helped alongside the victims to clear out debris from their homes and neighborhoods. This experience was incredibly satisfying for me. Being personally thanked and told how much my help was appreciated was touching. One elderly woman even baked us brownies to show her gratitude! I volunteered the next weekend, too, just because it was such a heartwarming experience.
In this case and many others, I gained personal satisfaction from volunteering. While that may be one factor that motivates me to volunteer, I do not think it makes me a selfish individual. I donated time/money, not with the hope of gaining praise or a plate of brownies, but with the goal of helping those who needed it.
If people do volunteer/donate for selfish reasons, though, is that necessarily a problem? When the goal is to help others, does it really matter what drives individuals to do so?
I agree with all of your statements and have a similar experience to yours, Emily.
ReplyDeleteLast year, when Hurricane Sandy destroyed my entire neighborhood, many people were left without power, heat, and more severely, their homes. Although I was lucky enough to have my house intact after the storm, many of my neighbors, friends, and schoolmates were not.
As Singer mentioned in his book, many people prefer to help people that are closer to home. Driving around my neighborhood and seeing my town in shambles, I noticed many signs posted on poles and trees that offered their homes to anyone in the neighborhood that needed heat, a charging station, and even a home-cooked meal. I was extremely touched that my community would reach out to strangers and invite them into their homes, with no previous knowledge of who they are, and give them a place to stay while they were in need.
Through my school, I volunteered my time one Sunday morning to go to a neighboring town and help a family in need. Their house was completely destroyed by the storm and all of their personal belongings and valuables were ruined. My peers and I knocked down walls that were ruined, and tried to get rid of the mold that was inhabiting their house. While we were working, the owner of the house stopped by and was extremely touched that a bunch of high school students were helping save her house. She started to cry and thanked us profusely.
This satisfaction I received from my volunteer work makes me prefer to donate my time rather than my money. Had I just donated some of my money to the Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund, I would not have received the satisfaction that the owner of the house gave me from helping her. However, does this make us selfish? Do we just donate our time to make us feel better about ourselves while also helping others?
I think both this post and the other post "The Importance of Time" bring up some very important issues, especially after reading Singer's book. Even the first few pages of Singer's The Life You Can Save left me with feelings of guilt for having a water bottle and cup of Starbucks next to me while reading. He says on the very first page: "What if I told you that you, too, can save a life, even many lives? Do you have a bottle of water or a can of soda on the table beside you as you read this book? If you are paying for something to drink when safe drinking water comes out of the tap, you have money to spend on things you don't really need."
ReplyDeleteWhat a way to start - directly calling out and criticizing his readers. It's true in a way - as college students, we always complain that we are broke and have little spending money, but really, and this might sound terrible, but when it comes to me and most of my friends, we have a constant source of money flowing from our parents into our bank accounts.
Most people I know are in no way lacking money - yes, it'd always be nice to have some more but the people I am surrounded by are not suffering and impoverished, and it's terrifying to think that somewhere out there "a billion people struggle to live each day on less than you paid for that drink". Maybe it's true that we should all be donating our money and realizing how much we spend in excess, but at the same time, I agree with what has already been said on the comments to this blog post. I, and most of my friends, enjoy a comfortable style of living. Perhaps Singer finds many of the things we do unnecessary and excessive but I can't see myself giving up so many of the things that I spend money on.
Maybe this is a selfish thing to say but I think that for so many college students, giving their time is a much more valuable thing than money. It is through volunteering and giving time and directly helping others that we make personal connections and are able to help people. I wish I could donate money now - and soon, I hope to be able to do just that. But right now my time seems to be worth a lot more than what I can donate myself. Someone else said this on another comment in the other post on donating time, but time and money go hand in hand - they are equally important parts in giving and without one, the other is going to be a lot less useful.
Singer focuses a lot on how we should be giving our money, and to a certain extent, I agree with that and hope that soon I will be able to give money to causes that need it, but right now, what I have is an excess of time and we should try to give what we have - considering where I am in life right now, that is time.
There is definitely a difference of donation time versus donating money, mainly because usually you can donate money easier than your time. From everyone's comments it seems that donating time is preferred, which doesn’t mean that it is better but rather that we enjoy the connection and the way we feel after helping people directly. Most likely if I had to choose to support a not-for-profit organization I would rather donate my time than my money. And I would rather donate my time because I have had great experiences volunteering and helping others in my community. But we also must realize there is a limit as to how much the organization can benefit from our time. While I am sure we can impact people and help them, would it be more beneficial to provide money to the organization?
ReplyDeleteAs everyone has said, volunteering makes us feel good and we like being able to see the people we are helping. For an extreme example, we say we like to donate our time over money; so instead of sending money for children in Africa to receive necessary vaccinations we decide we want to go to Africa and give the vaccinations ourselves. We could have actually helped more children by giving money to an organization instead of going there ourselves. And yes this is a ridiculous example. Or even a dog shelter, while it benefits from our time cleaning out kennels or walking the dogs, it still needs money to provide food and necessary medical treatments.
Maybe before deciding which donation will better benefit the organization, we should better evaluate what our money would provide versus what our time would provide to the organization. Because as much as we want to help it is important to make the best of what we have, both time and money included. Each organization is so different that donating time or money cannot be easily decided, so yes maybe preference makes it easy for you to choose, but if we are truly trying to benefit the organization be sure that even limited funds may be more useful than a couple hours a week of volunteering.
I am in no ways trying to demean those that volunteer, I highly respect those that give their time as I have done so myself and love it! I am just starting to realize (thanks to reading Singer’s The Life You Can Save) that it is important to ensure that donations of both time and money are used to their full potential, and that it is up to us, the donors, to ensure that we are investing wisely.
I agree wholeheartedly with what the above comments, notably Meredith's, have said. I do see the value in donating one's time and I know from personal experience volunteering at my local Salvation Army that the joy on the faces of those you help is indescribable. The personal connection felt is very moving and you can immediately tell that you've made a difference whereas with donating money, it may be less apparent that your philanthropic ways have made an impact.
ReplyDeleteThis aside, in the world we live in, money has such a bearing on the way people are able to live their lives and how not-for-profit groups are able to conduct their efforts to try to better the lives of others. Although I do agree with Richard that monetary donations do seem a bit more impersonal, I believe that they are as important if not more important than donations of time. Now, I do not mean to detract from the importance of volunteering; this is just a personal view. As trade and economic interests become increasingly global, the emphasis our world puts on money becomes even more pronounced. It has become more and more apparent that you need money to get things done.
No matter how you choose to donate, whether it be a monetary donation or time donation, all gestures have unequivocal value and should be incorporated into our everyday lives.
After reading this blog post, I sat at my desk, deeply consumed and rather conflicted at the question you brought to my attention. Somehow, what seemed to be a rather obvious and clear-cut question had me tangled in my own thoughts and beliefs. But then it hit me. The reason why I had such trouble distinguishing rather I would donate my time or money to a beneficial cause is primarily centered around how valuable time is to me. I would much rather donate $100 of my money to a cause then donate an hour of my time. However, after reading your blog post regarding the immense amount of satisfaction your professor receives from donating his/her time to the soup kitchen, I began to view philanthropy in a different light. Not only can the act of philanthropy be interpreted as the emptying of one's wallets, but rather as the dedication of one's valuable time. After thinking some more on this topic, I began to formulate a better idea of how I'd like to appropriately allocate my time and money. Being a full time undergraduate student, I am not provided with the cushion of time that an adult may have. Strictly because of this time-constraint, I am unable to so comfortably travel to third world countries to engage in philanthropic and charitable events. Thus, I can center the dedication of my time to local events while simultaneously reaching third world regions by donating money. I do not believe we should discount how valuable money can be to those who are in dire need. However, your blog post, Richard, opened my eyes to a form of philanthropy that is just as valuable and beneficial as money can be.
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