Showy Giving
It is already March and this is only my second article for the blog, despite the fact that I promised myself to write one every month. Thanks to the ‘Spirit of Giving’, I got a subject so irresistible to write about – not that there haven’t been any subjects worth writing about in the last two months.
Two week ago, my son brought a fundraising ticket from his school in support of the Red Nose Day. I did not know what this was about, so I asked a friend who has lived here for almost a decade. He explained that this was an ‘annual fundraising by Comic Relief’. More trouble, what the flipping nail was ‘Comic Relief’. I decided not expose any more of my ignorance and chose head for the internet – this has been the main source of information for me since I moved to this country and 99% of the time, it has been useful. As I was driving home, I realized that my friend had used the word annual - how come I did not hear about this in the previous 2 years. This meant that even after living on this island for close to three years, I still hadn’t got hold of all the major dates, jeez they must be many. Armed with my ever obedient laptop, I set on a mission to find out about Red Nose Day.
Red Nose Day, is ‘one of those great national events’ one site that I cant remember proclaimed and ‘it is the main way in which Comic Relief raises money’ Wikipedia attempted to put me out of my misery. After a few minutes of browsing through a couple of other sites, I had got all the information that I wanted about Red Nose Day (RND) and Comic Relief (CR). Red Nose Day is like one of those new names that you hear for the first time and soon after meeting the person with that name, it seems as if every other new person you meet goes by that name. In the last two weeks all media has been full of Red Nose Day and Comic Relief that I am wondering how I could have missed this hullaballoo in the spring of each of the last 2 years. Every celebrity known and unknown (to me) seems to be hell bent on separating us from our hard-earned cash. I did not have much beef with this until yesterday when someone came up with an appropriately sounding catchy phrase ‘showy giving’.
Those who know me will testify that, for long I have been against this giving motivated by ostentation. On the other hand supporters argue that money is money, whether you get it because someone wants to show off or not, it will still help a cause. Well, yeah… may be. I have both secular and revered objections to this kind of giving. First of all, most of the time, the people (celebrities) who pretend to give or encourage us to give come from the same crop of people that have been caught evading or avoiding taxes. Back to Uganda, where I come from, they are not normally celebrities but the high and mighty in society (who comprise of public servants and businessmen) that put on a show to appear to give generously, yet they are the same corrupt people that are usually responsible for creating the mess that they are contributing to. Listen to this; a senior public official will steal money meant for the entire budget to construct a primary school and then show up at a fundraising event and give an amount that will cover the costs for the roof. In the process they dupe us law abiding citizens into a form of voluntary tax because we feel obliged to give and find it difficult refuse to give when the sponsorship form or basket is thrust towards our rotund and well-fed bellies. You may say this is alright, given that it is the unfortunates that benefit. But it is the worst sort of brazenness when you learn that 90% of the people who pledge during these fundraising events never fulfill their pledges. It's all very showy and meant for the public to know how much money we have - if we can afford to part with some of it, usually for a cause that we are not beneficiaries. I am part of a membership group where each of the members who contributes a certain amount is given a badge to identify him. Seeing how successful this group has been in raising that minimum amount from every member, I suggested to a fundraising campaign that I was part of that coming up with something that identifies those who give may be a good way to raise funds and trust me the response was much better.
This brings me to my next point. In churches were members of the congregation are invited to tithe their incomes and give privately, quietly and with humility, those churches don’t get as much as were the figures are publicly announced and members encouraged to compete against each other. I have certainly neglected and will continue to refuse to respond to fundraising events that seem to encourage showiness (even mawkish as it may be). How can 50 members of an elite group fail to complete a school project of US$ 20,000, yet about half of them can easily raise US$1,000 each that is recognized with a given identification?
Two week ago, my son brought a fundraising ticket from his school in support of the Red Nose Day. I did not know what this was about, so I asked a friend who has lived here for almost a decade. He explained that this was an ‘annual fundraising by Comic Relief’. More trouble, what the flipping nail was ‘Comic Relief’. I decided not expose any more of my ignorance and chose head for the internet – this has been the main source of information for me since I moved to this country and 99% of the time, it has been useful. As I was driving home, I realized that my friend had used the word annual - how come I did not hear about this in the previous 2 years. This meant that even after living on this island for close to three years, I still hadn’t got hold of all the major dates, jeez they must be many. Armed with my ever obedient laptop, I set on a mission to find out about Red Nose Day.
Red Nose Day, is ‘one of those great national events’ one site that I cant remember proclaimed and ‘it is the main way in which Comic Relief raises money’ Wikipedia attempted to put me out of my misery. After a few minutes of browsing through a couple of other sites, I had got all the information that I wanted about Red Nose Day (RND) and Comic Relief (CR). Red Nose Day is like one of those new names that you hear for the first time and soon after meeting the person with that name, it seems as if every other new person you meet goes by that name. In the last two weeks all media has been full of Red Nose Day and Comic Relief that I am wondering how I could have missed this hullaballoo in the spring of each of the last 2 years. Every celebrity known and unknown (to me) seems to be hell bent on separating us from our hard-earned cash. I did not have much beef with this until yesterday when someone came up with an appropriately sounding catchy phrase ‘showy giving’.
Those who know me will testify that, for long I have been against this giving motivated by ostentation. On the other hand supporters argue that money is money, whether you get it because someone wants to show off or not, it will still help a cause. Well, yeah… may be. I have both secular and revered objections to this kind of giving. First of all, most of the time, the people (celebrities) who pretend to give or encourage us to give come from the same crop of people that have been caught evading or avoiding taxes. Back to Uganda, where I come from, they are not normally celebrities but the high and mighty in society (who comprise of public servants and businessmen) that put on a show to appear to give generously, yet they are the same corrupt people that are usually responsible for creating the mess that they are contributing to. Listen to this; a senior public official will steal money meant for the entire budget to construct a primary school and then show up at a fundraising event and give an amount that will cover the costs for the roof. In the process they dupe us law abiding citizens into a form of voluntary tax because we feel obliged to give and find it difficult refuse to give when the sponsorship form or basket is thrust towards our rotund and well-fed bellies. You may say this is alright, given that it is the unfortunates that benefit. But it is the worst sort of brazenness when you learn that 90% of the people who pledge during these fundraising events never fulfill their pledges. It's all very showy and meant for the public to know how much money we have - if we can afford to part with some of it, usually for a cause that we are not beneficiaries. I am part of a membership group where each of the members who contributes a certain amount is given a badge to identify him. Seeing how successful this group has been in raising that minimum amount from every member, I suggested to a fundraising campaign that I was part of that coming up with something that identifies those who give may be a good way to raise funds and trust me the response was much better.
This brings me to my next point. In churches were members of the congregation are invited to tithe their incomes and give privately, quietly and with humility, those churches don’t get as much as were the figures are publicly announced and members encouraged to compete against each other. I have certainly neglected and will continue to refuse to respond to fundraising events that seem to encourage showiness (even mawkish as it may be). How can 50 members of an elite group fail to complete a school project of US$ 20,000, yet about half of them can easily raise US$1,000 each that is recognized with a given identification?
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