Not-For-Profits: Leave Me Alone!

My father once told me that he always tithed a certain percentage of his yearly income. He did it because it was part of his faith. Whether he was an active church goer or not - he always gave money as his Christian duty. I too, give a percentage of my yearly income. Not because of any specific religious beliefs or commitments but because I believe that those of us who have - need to share with those who have less. But we can all give something - whether it is money or time in our communities.

For the last decade or so, I have not given very many Christmas presents. For the last five years I have given none. I do donate, on behalf of my two adult children, money to an international charity. Right now my favourite is Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). The two younger grandchildren choose what kind of animal they want me to give and I send the money to Plan Canada; my two older grandchildren in Sudbury pick a local charity that I can donate to on their behalf. When they were younger they did chose animals for a few years and then moved onto choosing an individual to support through KIVA.

It makes Christmas shopping very quick and easy. I avoid all of that hassle of worrying what I am going to buy and whether or not they will like it. The lack of any gifts from me under the tree makes Christmas morning a bit anti-climatic for me and I do have to resist the urge to run around on Christmas Eve buying presents. But I know that what I am doing is a good thing, hopefully because the money is needed and well used but also because my grandchildren may remember when they are adults that giving to strangers is part of being a good citizen of the world.

But what I do not like is the daily reminders from groups that I have donated to or I have decided not to donate to (e.g. my universities) that it is "giving Tuesday". I resent the constant reminders that if I give today I can double the value of the donation or that some poor family in some other part of the world needs my help. It is worth noting that the only reason why these organizations have my email address is because I gave it to them when I donated money. Perhaps some folks respond well to being nagged. I am not one of them. I dislike it so much that I am almost inclined to not donate next time. Getting redundant emails is marginally better than those same organization wasting my money on mailing me stuff, but it still annoys the hell out of me.

I suppose that there is never enough money for all of those good organizations to do everything they feel needs to be done. There will (apparently) always be a war somewhere in the world, and that war will inflict upon the local people unimaginable pain, suffering and dislocation. Someone needs to something to help those people. The possibility of working to eradicate wars by reducing or even better stopping the sale of weapons and equalizing the distribution of resources seems to be an impossible dream. So for the foreseeable future, good people are going to need to nag and harass other good people to donate money. But I wish they could take my name of the mailing list at least for a little while after I have donated my money.

All of the commercials tell us that it is the season for giving. I would never negate the importance of sharing this time of year with family and friends, and of demonstrating our affection for them. However, we, who in this country are so blessed with reasonable security and some hope of the rule of law, should not need to be reminded that there are others who have nothing - no food, no shelter, no security and no where to call home. We need at the very least need to extend our definition of family and community.

And we should not need to be nagged to do so.