Library solicitors are not the best gateway to giving back
Library solicitors are not the best gateway to giving back
By: Brad Hurvitz
Posted: 4/9/10
How could we ever know how lucky we are without seeing those who are less lucky? How can we understand what is good without encountering the bad? How can we decidedly believe that our glass is half full without any comparison?
These are necessary questions to ask yourself when making important decisions.
I recently returned from five months of volunteering in an Indian boarding school, where I was involved in several different forms of teaching the students.
When I saw their faces during my final public goodbye to the school, I knew that it was one of the best decisions I could have made in my life.
I planted a seed within each student to achieve their goals, and they in turn planted one within me to always have a desire to give back.
Adjusting back to the American culture was a beautiful yet tragic awakening. Besides the initial observation of overindulgence we Americans seem to “require,” I also realized we have more opportunity for expression and availability to accomplish any dream than any other country in the world, and it is invigorating to see.
Yet, sometimes we Americans try to achieve these goals in negative ways. I will give an example of an experience I recently had in front of the library, an example that must be familiar to many other students on campus.
While leaving the library, I had a person with a binder approach me with an extended hand. “Yes, of course,” I thought to myself, “She is trying to shake my hand in hopes that I would not be rude by avoiding the social mores she threw at me. All right, let’s see what this person has to say.”
Within the first minute of conversation, the female volunteer called me “brother” four times and implored me to sponsor a child in poverty.
Of course I inquired about her experience with poverty, and she explained that she already had sponsored three children, none of whom she had ever met, but she quickly asked me if I had ever seen Bengali handwriting before – the kind I used to see from some of my students – because it is “so beautiful.”
I asked if the child was from Kolkata and she stared at me blankly when I explained that it was the capital of the state of West Bengal, [long pause], “in India,” I disappointedly retorted.
She was clearly using sales approaches in order to separate me from my money.
“Brother,” she explained, “you have seen the poverty and you know the condition that some children live in, in this world, you of all people should sponsor a child! I understand your tuition might be costly, but look how little they have.”
I agreed with this notion – with visual memories of children in more need than we can imagine – and tried to refute her by telling her that donating is something I will continually do, but not to her organization, and not at this time.
She raised her voice in frustration at a potentially easy sale gone awry, and went to the far corner of the quad to smoke a much-needed cigarette, a habit that, if she quit, would enable her to sponsor one more child.
I am sure I was not the only person recently accosted by the volunteer’s rabid approach to pull at the heartstrings and instill guilt to force one’s generosity.
Donating your hard-earned money – or for those of us receiving a loan, slightly extending our future debt – because you felt bad for the children in this program, will not, and should not, satisfy your own inherent desire to care for others.
Adam Smith, known to be the father of capitalism, stated, “How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortunes of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.”
Relenting to the person who presses you for donations is not the best method of satisfying your desire to give. There are other ways of helping people in need!
I will give a few easy examples fitting for students, of how to donate without spending too much time and without breaking the bank.
First is through www.goodsearch.com. You simply find a specific non-profit organization that you may be interested in providing money to – for instance, “Concern Foundation,” a Southern California nonprofit that donates money to cancer research.
Once the organization is set, you simply search as if you were using Google for anything on your mind, and with every inquiry, Goodsearch donates a few cents to the organization of your choice. Simple, quick and efficient.
Secondly, and my personal favorite, is Vittana.org. We as students know how challenging it may be to pay our tuition, especially when fees go up.
In many developing nations, such as the countries on the previously mentioned sales volunteer’s list, students may not be able to afford their tuition, which sometimes may be less than a small fee at OSU, and will not be able to get a loan because a student loan is a foreign concept in their country.
Vitanna.org connects with the local NGOs and provides a solution to their lack of funding through micro lending.
Take Trj, a Vietnamese business student who needed $813 U.S. to enter into a local business school, where, upon completion, his annual salary would significantly rise.
After several other Vittana users loaned him some money, I completed his loan with a small donation. He can now go to school and will soon begin repaying the people who loaned him money.
Just last week I received an interim payment from Trj, and at some point in the near future, I might have the entire loan paid back in full.
Now that is a concept we as students can comfortably embrace and extend our hands to.
Not everybody has the chance to go abroad and physically change people’s lives, but we all have a chance to help others from a distance.
We are lucky, and I mean LUCKY, to be living in this amazing country full of excess and opportunity. If you look at your glass as half empty, then you must talk with those around you who have seen what an empty glass looks like.
There are people who need help around the world and within our own country. Donating your time or money to a certain cause should not elicit the negative feelings of anger, frustration and guilt that were present when I was talking to the sales volunteer.
We can help fill the glass of those who are thirsty, and we do not need to individually pour in a lot of water into this glass of opportunity; a simple drop will do.
If we can all subscribe to this idea then our generosity can be measured by actual results instead of monetary value.
Take a look at your savings account; you can probably afford 25 dollars for a student in need of it, and before you know it, those 25 dollars are back exactly where you left them…
To spend on the frivolous filet mignon dinner you may have once believed to be necessary to existence
Don’t be afraid of giving; it is inherently pleasing.
Just find the best location for your good deeds and make sure you are giving for the right reasons.
