Purpose of Charity and expected outcomes
The concept of charity has always been one that was close to my heart. The social and economic inequalities between the rich and poor continue to grow with no end in sight to this trend. I consider giving the underprivileged as a balancing act to curb this trend. I could not have put it better than Anne Frank, who succinctly said, “No one has ever become poor by giving” (Frank, et al., 1989). The purpose of this paper is to provide a reflection on the experiences highlighting the learning and process of achieving it (Hinett, 2009).
Personal experiences
It was with this concept in mind that we attempted to raise funds for a charity. The initial plan was to go to Alton Towers and organize a talent show, and then end up on Broad Street to sell liquor on the street to the people waiting in line for their chance to enter bars. However, this plan did not materialize due to a lack of organization on our part as it was unclear who was willing to participate and whether individuals would back out at the last moment. To me, it also signaled a lack of commitment towards charity from certain members of the group. I realized at that moment how difficult it would be to motivate people for this task of raising funds for the charity as the concept does not appeal to everyone. Maybe, it was not that; it could have been for the sole reason that people were not simply willing to participate or be part of a team. A properly functioning team is a rare experience as I witnessed later.
After the Alton Towers fiasco, if I may call it that, we decided to book Martin Luther King to host a talent show, but it did not work out as the platform size was not sufficient to cater to what we had in mind. We, then, thought of selling popcorn and smoothies with a chocolate fountain and photo booth. The photo booth idea was cost-prohibitive so we ended up posting photos on Facebook and allowing people to vote, but that act elicited disappointing results. So, we ended up with food and drinks. Although results were mildly satisfactory in terms of funds being raised, I was left with a guilt-ridden feeling in the pit of my stomach that we could have done better.
Henry Ford was famously noted for saying the following, “Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success”. By that definition of success, it is clear in my mind that we did not gel as a team to achieve the desired goals. To dwell deeper into the mystery, I asked myself two questions: what were the actual goals? And Were the goals of individuals the same as those of the group as a whole? I subjected myself to this scrutiny and can safely say that our personal goals from this exercise were not in coherence with those of the group. The goals and thoughts of a person, who chooses to conceal them, can remain obscure to every other mortal being (Tracy, 2010). So, the only way to make assumptions about the other team members’ goals is by observing their actions first hand. Initially, everyone who took part in this event seemed excited with the idea of having a fundraiser for charitable purposes. Ideas were shared, and then plans were made. However, when it came to the actual implementation of the decided plans the participation dwindled. Although people were physically present, the drive that was evident in the planning phase was missing.
This showed to me that it was possible that people were motivated more by the thought of being perceived by others as being generous rather than actually being generous. Pure altruism is explained by Phelps (1975) is different from “cooperative egotism” in which case a person gives to charity while expecting something in return. The expectation of a benefit in return for giving to charity disqualifies the act from being one of pure altruism. Therefore, it becomes a simple act of giving and take. For example, if a person gives any sort of assistance such as financial, moral or voluntarily helping in order to raise charity, and expects any recognition, rewards, or any sort of self-glorification then that person is not exhibiting altruistic behavior (Bolton, 2010). Rather only selfish ulterior motives are dictating his actions. I believe that is what happened on that particular day when we tried to help. I would not be as bold or vain to claim that I was the sole exception in the whole process.
All of us were motivated by various reasons, which ranged from having a great time with friends, and gaining a good experience in the process, securing a good rapport with our professors for engaging in such a worthwhile cause, feeling good about ourselves (and possibly boasting to others of how noble we are), to just going along for alcohol. These are all intangible benefits of the process of charity and we were all culprits in this act. Just by reflecting on how behaviors of the group changed when we discovered that the activity was going to involve selling food or drinks rather than alcohol, I can assume that there were definitely ulterior motives involved. I can also vouch for myself that although I do not partake in this ritual of drinking alcohol so frequently, I too had been anticipating what it would be like, experiencing selling of alcohol to a potentially large crowd and observing effects that it had on people. Therefore, I too was not completely innocent in this whole scenario.
Personal learning
For people who wished to be recognized for their efforts, and gain some admiration, there is a quote in Matthew (6:3) which is, “But when you give alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does”. As per my knowledge, this quote means that giving for charity is supposed to be a private affair and the person involved in this generous act should choose to remain as anonymous as possible. This includes the person receiving the charity, if possible. Try and give charity through discreet channels with a pseudo name. This would possibly be as close to true altruism as we can hope to achieve in these times. Of course, that was not possible in this case with more than one person involved in the acts of fundraising for charity and all our advertisements claiming to help charity letting people know what we were doing. However, the point is that charity is supposed to be for a simple act of giving and not expecting any returns from it. Since people were not sufficiently motivated by this noble cause, therefore, it is safe to assume that none of us have truly grasped what charity is all about. It is not about giving or helping people with an aim to get something for the efforts, whether it is money or recognition or any other prize.
Achievements
The fact that we were able to raise ninety-four pounds for charity in less than a day is not a minuscule achievement for a group of young people having their first experience regarding something of this magnitude. However, I still feel some guilt that all of us could have done better. I am sitting here writing this while blaming the entire group for our failure in not doing as much as we could. I could have spoken to the group, taken over as a leader, and tried to inspire my team members to consider a broader spectrum rather than sit back.
Overall reflection on the experience
We could have gotten off our backs to try and approach customers rather than relax and consider it ‘un-cool’ to go and ask people to purchase our products for the sake of charity. We were all conformist in our approach in this regard, while we might be suffering from the delusion that we were displaying individuality with our laid back approach. Sante (1999) explains that this behavior is not individuality, but rather the lack of it, with the following words:
“Even if you engage in some kind of radical piercing, like encasing both eyebrows in tight rows of small rings, and by this means emphatically announce to the world that you are not employed in middle management at a Fortune 500 company, you are hardly doing something unprecedented. The fact that you have carried out such a thing virtually insures that you’ve taken notice of all other humans in your town or on your travels who have done the same” (para 3).
A similar observation is made by Niedzviecki (2006) where he mentions how individuals now claiming to be different are all actually the same. This sums up how it feels about the “fiasco” for the lack of better work that took place that day.
List of References
Bolton, G 2010, Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development, SAGE, London.
Frank, A, Barnouw, D & van der Stroom, G 1989, The diary of Anne Frank: the critical edition, Penguin Books Limited, New York.
Hinett, K 2009, Improving learning through reflection – part one, Web.
Niedzviecki, H 2006, Hello, I’m Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity, City Light Books, Canada.
Phelps, E S 1975, Altruism, Morality, & Economic Theory, Russell Sage Foundation, New York.
Sante, L 1999, Be Different! (Like everybody else!). Web.
Tracy, B 2010, Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want — Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, CA.