2010.
I’ve decided this is the year I start giving — my charitable contributions until now have not been significant. There were a couple of things encouraging me lately, I must confess the thing that finally pushed me over the threshold was a silly little tax thing, i.e. selfishly motivated.
The tax form I had to fill in permits a deduction for charitable contributions. I’m told I can fill in a certain number there even if I didn’t make a contribution, since the authorities don’t challenge the numbers, don’t insist on proof, unless they’re large enough. Except, I have this honest bone in my body that insisted I fill in a zero there. It left me feeling cheated since most other people aren’t that honest (aka stupid). The simple solution? Actually donate to charity so that I can honestly deduct it from taxes! 
(Note: I’m not in South Africa anymore, I don’t know what the South African tax policies are.)
So yes, I will be giving money away so that I will no longer feel cheated. And I will be giving away much more than I would save in taxes if I simply fill in that small number every year.
Other things also contributed towards this motivation, I won’t share them all. There’s the simple hedonistic desire to do good, of course. More than a year ago I blogged about Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save. All talk and no action on my part. But seeds take some time to germinate and grow, more so to bear fruit.
Social influence (peer pressure!) helps. Blogging about making contributions intends to encourage others, and also serves as a public pledge to help motivate myself. (Note to self: maintain caution to avoid turning it into a “look how great I am for giving money away!”) For my first small donation I’m considering a wikipedia contribution, also as a result of social influence: Cobus van Wyngaard recently tweeted:
OK, finally made my yearly donation for wikipedia. #keepitfree Donate here: http://bit.ly/9lGuFr
Tax-deductibility information for Wikipedia donations can be found on the Wikimedia Foundation’s Deductibility of donations page. South Africa isn’t listed, but that’s not a good reason for not also contributing. Every little bit helps.
Now is thus also the time for me to start researching what else would be good and effective things to contribute to. I’ve heard great things said about microfinance for example? NickKristof retweeted an extract from his article:
RT @DavisKate “Charity is limited, capitalism is not. To change the world we need market-based solutions” http://nyti.ms/c9JvCr
That was an enticing tweet, as I was busy pondering the problems of capitalism. The nyti.ms link presented me with a page that insists I log in. I found that following the link from a Google search for the title was an effective workaround. Oddness. Nick presents the case for microfinancing in the frame of a solution to extremism and terrorism: Here’s a Woman Fighting Terrorism. With Microloans.
More thoughts: a friend of mine always does his giving to local South African charities that have children as beneficiaries. He does not make contributions to big in-the-public-eye causes, as he feels they get lots of money already. (That was with reference to Haiti.) Local giving has the additional motivation of making a positive difference in your own community, so you can actually reap some benefits yourself, or less selfishly framed, more easily observe and recognise where the needs are and what contributions make the biggest difference.
In my case, I’m still keen to give to charities active in Africa, South or not, since irrespective of where I lay my head at night, much of my heart still lies there.
What do you do?
7 responses so far ↓
1 Franzi // Nov 22, 2010 at 1:44 am
love this post! When I moved out of my parents house to go study age 19 I felt privileged. I was the first in my family to completely have all choices of study, and also was spoiled to get my own apartment straight away. Hence I decided to monthly donate to a charity project that helps education financing for one child, as well as health and nutrition support for the kid and the family.
There are many organization like this out there and I chose one that allows me to stay in touch with my “sponsored child”. So I write more or less regular letters to Beena in Nepal and Renato in Brasil. The organization provides me with regular reports on their school achievements, health status and well-being of the whole family, as well as progress within the community. The kids will send me photos and little pictures they draw for me. Beena did a little bracelet out of knots for me a while ago.
I dont write them as often as I want to. Even feel bad that I sometimes just pay my monthly agreed amount but do not put more personal effort in. I really have planned to visit both of them, but always something else comes up. Not sure if the guilt feeling of “just donate” is normal, but as long as it will keep me going and trying to improve with writing more letters to them, I guess I cant complain.
Other subject: Do donations that are just kept straight away from your salary for a religious institution count as well?
2 Hugo // Nov 22, 2010 at 3:21 am
Hey Franzi! Do you have a link / web address for this organisation? I remember you telling me about it, it sounds pretty cool! You mention there are many such organisations, I could simply poke around and see what I can find, but I’m still curious which one you’re working through.
If I understand correctly, you get feelings of guilt when you only donate instead of doing more? (That “Not sure if…” sentence wasn’t completely clear.) I have no idea what’s normal and what isn’t.
The personal contact (though long distance) is great, and could probably be valuable in terms of inspiration and the direct feeling that “someone out there, somewhere, cares!” I guess correspondence is a good way to know whether the money is spent well. Any possibilities of abuse? (E.g. a drunken father wasting the money?) I would expect not, the money maybe goes directly to the school? (Then it would just be a question of whether the school uses it efficiently.)
Surely the financial support is certainly better than nothing? If contributing financially causes more feelings of guilt than not contributing at all… that would be unfortunate! But also understandable: a specific person, a specific family, suddenly the problem of poverty has a face.
On the religious institution front (in some European countries, you register as being part of a religious community, then money gets deducted for the institution in the same manner as taxes), I’m left wondering how the institutions spend the money. Are these institutions’ books accessible to the public, or at least to members? Or how answerable are they generally w.r.t. their efficiency? That would depend on the institution.
On whether it counts or not: of course it counts towards giving in some ways, and in some other ways it doesn’t count as much.
Examples of the latter: the subjective experience of choosing to give, choosing on a regular basis, is missing. (I think that regular choice is valuable, though I don’t speak from experience.) Another is the question of institutional inefficiencies / impact, but that question applies to any charity organisation.
3 Don’t Let Your Donations Stray… // Nov 23, 2010 at 2:20 am
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4 wouter // Jan 12, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Hugo,
Once again a post I can relate to! Your last paragraph especially. Thanks to you I have read “The life you can save” and was exposed to givewell.net. Givewell have led me to villagereach. I have made several donations to villagereach and try to keep track of what they do and who they are.
FYI, I have no problem when people give just to lower their taxes from so called selfish motivation. The end result is what matters. If we have a whole bunch of selfishly motivated people donating to increase child vaccinations in rural Mocambique it really is not a bad thing to me
5 Hugo // Jan 12, 2011 at 8:39 pm
This “selfish” giving can really just be selfish in terms of spite (won’t give the government my money!) since the end result is still a lower final bank balance for the giver.
Now givewell and all these sites have a US bias, right? I need to find similar info on other charities. Europe, Africa… My tax optimization last year stopped at figuring out all the pension stuff, and my charitable giving ended up punted to this year. To be done in the first three months though, so I am still on the case, as soon as I’m back from vacation!
6 mom // Jun 14, 2011 at 12:10 pm
I am not sure how I landed on this page ….but it is so nice to see there are still people out there who want to help and make a difference.
When you have a child, you love them unconditionally and will do anything to protect them.
My plea – is for my son…..
This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do or ask, but I am looking for someone to sponsor him or donate funds towards his drug rehabilitation. He is 16years old and we are trying to get him into “healing wings” rehab in Nelspruit, South Africa. It is a Christian based facility with a long term holistic approached to rehabilitation.
I have met quite a few people who have been to there and it is amazing to hear their stories and see how their lives have been transformed.
I am trying to raise the initial R25,000 for the first 3 month’s rehab and have already received a donation of R5k.
No money will come to me but paid directly into the rehab’s bank account.
I can send him to a medical clinic for 3-4 weeks –which my medical aid will cover but I feel the time is too short for any real recovery or transformation. I also feel there is something great working in our lives that lead me to Healing Wings.
If you are able to make a donation or know of anyone who might be able to help, please contact me at momsluv4eva@gmail.com or 076 635 0680.
Many thanks
Desperate mom
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