Do you have giving fatigue during this season of giving? Stay with me, I am not going to preach why you should give. Rather, I want to share a story about my own question, “why should I… give?”
Last Saturday morning after swim, Claire asked me “You know today’s the last day Susan is collecting for Sean, right?”
We were both coming out of the shower in the ladies locker room of our gym. I felt the urge to respond positively and quickly when asked a baffling question while half-naked, “collecting for Sean…?”
“Didn’t you get the email?”
Looking dumb and stunned, she cut in before it clicked. “You must not be on Susan’s list.” “I am on Susan’s list! Oh…that Susan. Right, I got her email earlier this week but I didn’t recognize her name. I get so many emails this time of year asking for donations. Her name and content didn’t immediately resonate, so I deleted it”
When Susan walked out of her shower, I followed her to apologize and told her I would chip in. She smiled graciously, pulled out her plastic bag of name list, pencil, and a holiday card. Soon enough, a small gathering of women swarmed up to sign a card that is already half-filled with signatures! I didn’t realize how much Sean is loved and appreciated by this group, I felt an instant warmth from every woman around me.
“Sorry Susan, I wasn’t quite prepared because I didn’t recognize that email as coming from you. I am giving you what I have today.”
It’s just $7. But Susan gives me a beaming smile, I immediately felt good about giving what I had when I could, especially when I felt confronted in my half-naked state.
Truth be told, I was asking myself this question, as crazy as it sounds, “why should I… give?”
Susan, Claire and I are part of a ladies water aerobics class on Saturdays. Sean is our coach. I usually attend once or twice a month. I tend to get my solo swimming done earlier than class time because of my schedule. I also rarely hang around although I know most women by face and have chatted with some. Yet, I feel less emotionally involved than the rest who have been coming regularly for a much longer period of time, and have formed a stronger tighter bond with Sean.
In this season of giving, I find myself tending to a mountain of emails and solicitation letters from charitable organizations, including our own (One in a Billion Productions) fundraising drive! So I ask myself this practical question that perhaps also weighs on your mind, “Why should I give?”
In the end, this is how I think about giving.
Need
I never gave charitable giving much thought until I got into my 40s. In my 20s and 30s, I gave whenever something appealing and urgent spoke to me. My income was less and I needed to save for emergencies. So I reasoned that I would give only to causes related to disaster, hunger or poverty relief. Big and established organizations like UNICEF, Save the Children and the Red Cross, among other one-off urgent disaster relief funds, always get my donation.
As I have gotten older, my donation list has grown longer and longer as I added my new concerns for music, the arts and social enterprises. While I’ve been blessed with resources to share, they are not limitless. Over the past years, I have been supporting something that is not life or death – One in a Billion Productions, a non-profit (501 c3) I founded earlier this year to give stage to Chinese millennials about their success and struggles in America. The goal is to foster empathy and build ommunity through personal storytelling.
Is there a need for this? The answer is yes and no.
Since it evolved from China Personified website, it’s reached more than half a million readers, viewers and visitors to our video, blogs or podcast through a range of distribution platforms. That aside, I’ve received many individual emails and verbal encouragement to keep this storytelling platform going.
But no, this is not a dire need. It is serving a niche, growing but underserved segment of young Chinese and American millennials who believe in a safe space for them to open up and share stories.
Belief
I shared that belief early on and have been funding this digital platform and global mobile millennial community, with strong support from my husband. Besides us, does anyone else believe in the vision and mission of our work to write a check to join our commitment to this public charity?
The answer is Yes. So far, we have a handful few since our Fall Fundraising Drive was launched two weeks ago. Like Susan in our water aerobics class, our email lists are limited and targeted. We thought these specific individuals have participated in storytelling and events would want to give their support. However, the lackluster response so far might suggest they act and react like me. They didn’t see or recognize our email. Or, they didn’t feel the need or believe in our work enough to support us with a donation. Whatever the reason, with and without donations, I find myself steadfast in my interest in helping the rising generation overcome bias and barriers through storytelling and community building. This effort will likely scale up or down, or pivot to a different direction as I see our team of volunteers, writers and producers come and go, or move in and out of town, across the country and around the world.
Charity
Giving in the purest sense is charity. Giving without expecting a return. When I gave that $7, I was not expecting anything but hoping that it can be a token of my appreciation for Susan, as the organizer, for Sean as the coach.
But I did not do so without asking myself that question “why should I give?” as I weighed my limited resources against my financial responsibility over asset allocation and a well-considered approach towards supporting not just one, but a steadily growing list of charities, groups, and individuals over the years.
At the end of the day, “why should I give?” is a luxury question. It assumes one has something to give. But ultimatlely, it is also a question of need, belief and one’s sense of priority, responsibility and sheer generosity.