Why Is Hands-On Charity More Satisfactory than Sending $?

Noddy, as you know, I will never trust the Red Cross again. Frankly, I would rather give money to folks here and know that it is helpful, than take a chance that whatever I donate will never reach that person.

I am rather surprised that there hasn't been a clothing drive here or some such thing for people who cannot find a denotation site nor get to it.

In our local newpaper the charity organizations and shelters have been so overwhelmed with donations of goods and clothing they have asked people to stop. There's nowhere to put it. Seriously. We have money being raised at a frantic pace from every direction and rental agents are donating whole houses.

http://www.newsobserver.com/front/story/2792334p-9230709c.html

I believe it, bear. Americans and other countries have been very generous to the victims. I guess I just have a strange philosophy about giving.

BM

having worked with some of the victims personally..
i can tell you from their mouths,
they want and need human contact.
Money doesnt push water out of a town. People do.
All of the available money in the WORD can be waiting for someone.. but if noone offers them a car ride to get to it , it does them no good.

Most of these people just want someone to hold their baby so they can go to the bathroom. Take a shower. hug them because they lost their family. Help them with their laundry. Give them rides around the new city they are in so they can get thier barrings straight. Someone to talk to them about normal every day things and give them a break from the 24-7 tragedy reflections.
Money doesnt buy that.

Shewolf wrote:



Actually money does by hands-on relief. Local donations have paid for the gas and living expenses of two Searcy and Rescue teams, three carloads of trained Red Cross volunteers and a trained delegation from the Salvation Army.

Good will is wonderful--but training trumps good will in disaster relief.

Now that kicky is unemployed he'd probably be happy to help some of these people with the hands on release that only sweet sweet love can bring.....

Noddy-
that is very true.
Money buys ALOT of man power and human contact for these people.

there is such a huge need for it though that here in austin , at least, you can just walk into the convention center with a valid ID and be checked in and put to work.
The money people donate are funding the security guards and the computer systems they use to ' check someone out' before they volunteer , to ensure the safety of the victims, volunteers and anyone else there for that matter.

I guess I forget how much money is behind everything..

Shewolf--

I don't necessarily like the idea, but:

Money makes the mare go.

Even dedicated volunteers need gas money, a reasonably dry place to sleep and three MRE's a day.

I friend of mine is waiting to join the 100 German volunteers that are already in New Orleans - like those, he has left work quite a few times to help personally at floods etc.

I think, it's the fact that you see the results of your help in the same moment, which makes the difference, plus the personal contact.

(Since I had been professionally engaged in 'helping', I've personally a different approach to that.)

Btw: The Chronicle of Philanthropy newspaper, which tracks the contributions, has calculated that Americans have given at least $587m.

This compares with $239m in the 10 days after the 9/11 attacks, and $163m collected nine days after the tsunami.

source: BBC

One thing about the Red Cross we've learned the hard
way. If you don't specifically make a notation on your
check that this money is given to such and such
relief effort, than the cash will go into the general Red Cross
funds held for other purposes as well.

When San Diego experienced those terrible brush fires
last year and thousands of homes were lost, people donated
heavily into the Red Cross funds assuming it will be used
to help the fire victims. Wrong! Most of the collected monies went into a general fund for the Red Cross.

Dto. for the World Trade Center victims


http://www.amerrescue.org/red_cross.htm

So if you choose "Hurricane Katrina" for your donation purpose online you are saying it goes somewhere other than that?

No Bella: if you specify it under "Hurricane Katrina"
then the funds will be allocated to the hurricane relief fund.

If you don't specify, then it will go into the general Red Cross fund.

Ah, ok. Just checking.

I can see--and envy--the satisfaction of working directly with the victims of the disaster. What I have trouble seeing is the people who would rather buy $25 worth of goods (which may or may not be useful and for which transport may or may not be available) than write a check for $25.

One place where contributions of goods is helpful is making up packages for members of the armed forces serving in hardship zones who can't do their own shopping.

Calamity Jane--

A woman active in fund raising for our alma mater said the problem with restricted giving (For Katrina victims, for scholarships, for library books) is no one ever earmarks a gift for plumbing or garbage disposal or the electric bill.

Charity has lots of hidden expenses which don't necessarily tug at a donor's heart strings, but those bills still have to be paid.

Noddy -

Every non-profit organisation can deduct a percentage
of donated funds and allocate it to operating expenses -
that is perfectly legitimate.

Slightly off topic, but not really...

A few years back I walked with my children as they went door to door collecting for UNICEF. Many people donated and the girls were feeling pretty good about what they were doing. At one house the husband said, "UNICEF? Aren't they pro-abortion and advocate birth control?" He yelled up the stairs to wifey who concurred that UNICEF was on the hit list of charities their church had told them to avoid. He proceeded to give my girls a lecture about why they shouldn't be soliciting for murderers. This was a neighbor who we knew just well enough to ring his doorbell. The girls looked at me with "HUH?" on their faces. I said thanks anyway and we went on to the next house.

My point is that some people are so bug-dust about how every penny of the money they donate is used within an organization they'd rather buy a toothbrush and know a toothbrush has been purchased than take a chance on donated moneys being used for administrative or morally objectionable purposes.

Calamity Jane--

Thanks for the information.

J_B--

Good point.