Movember is almost over (full details tomorrow) and that’s got me thinking about how generous people can be. My initial fundraising goal was $100 as I had no idea how much people might give (or how many people.) But when all is said and done, I’ll have raised over $500!
Everybody will have a different approach for how they respond to the numerous requests you encounter for donations – some will only give to causes they believe in while others will only give to people they have a personal connection with. Some may not give anything to anyone – either because it can add up so quickly to do so or otherwise. On the other hand, some will try to give something to everyone.
I’m sort of in that last camp but not completely. When the various requests come out at RPL (which is the main place I get hit up for money but obviously not the only one), I try to give $5 or $10 to every request (or buy what’s being sold as long as it’s not much more than $10. That rule applies whether it’s for a farewell gift for a retiring employee or a charitable cause – be it cancer research or someone selling chocolates for their kids. If it’s something where I get the full value of what I’m buying (gift cards, coupon books) or more, I have been known to spend $50 or even $100.
There are two main reasons I do this – as a librarian, I’m one of the highest paid employees at the library and also in a personal financial situation where this isn’t a hardship. It’s also good karma (as perhaps evidenced by the reciprocal support I got with my own request?)
I don’t make judgements (or at least I try not to) about people who don’t donate or follow a similar rule as, like I said, everybody has their own reasons why or why they don’t donate. (One person said they would’ve donated to me but someone else got their Movember donation already. Someone else said their family allots their charitable dollars at the start of the year as part of their family budgetting so they don’t get caught up in all the “little” requests which can leave you with a “big hole”. On the other hand, someone told me they don’t give to all requests but since their family had been touched by cancer, they always gave to cancer charity requests like mine. Someone said they liked that I sent out my request with a humourous message about Pace needing funny pictures of his dad and others found this touching as they had their own fond memories of their dad’s moustaches.)
The reasons are as varied as the people who you know in your life and in the end, it’s all good!
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