Erosion of Lao charities
Labels, are they important? Is it important to distinct that an Orca is a marine mammal and not a fish? Both fishes and Orca’s swim in the sea, eat other sea animals and generally move in the same manner; what is the difference? Does that difference matters? To zoologists it matters.
Is a spider an insect? Not really, spiders are arachnids and insects are on their menu. Apart from that they look like insects, and perhaps to many, they are as creepy as insects. So does it matter to distinct insects from spiders? To biologists it matters.
Suppose there is a concert that is labelled “a charity”. The proceeds of the concert are $5,000 and $100 goes to a noble cause, $4,900 disappears into the deep pockets of promoters and the artist. Is that a charity? Sort of…. $100 has been paid to a charity and that makes it a charity? Or perhaps not. Does it really matter and does anyone care?
Yes it matters to us and yes we care. Lao people do care. If charities are abused and no one cares about it, the meaning of charity will hollow out, become empty and eroded. All charities will suffer including the good ones for the sheer pleasure of those who like to ride the charity bandwagon for the benefit of their own pockets.
Charity means all profits will benefit the charity. A charity concert implies your profits will go to the charity. It should be simple and crystal clear.
Then, when you decide to participate or create a charity, be precise about what the charity is and what you will contribute to it exactly. Why? Because it is a matter of trust.
A quarter of a charity is not a charity. Half a charity is not a charity. Why label it a charity when it mostly benefits your dollar account? Integrity is the only guard against the erosion of charities. Guard it with your life because many lives depend on charities. It is not your or anyone’s play thing.
LOL! I was wondering when we will get to read this since I knew it was coming.
It’s a bit sad to see corruption in this type of situation and when spoken up, only to be called name and such, this I’ve experienced myself, I was called a homophobic and racist and if the truth be told, that person has no right to call me due to that person low morality standard, using charity in the name for personal gain is a bit pathetic and disgusting to me, how can anyone ever stoop that low. I feel that if you can’t give 100% of proceed to charity, that’s what you call it, then you sell your soul to the devil and sadly maybe that person is just a devil in disguise. Watch out as to who you give money to, don’t let the word ‘charity’ blind your reasoning and judgment for it might not go for the cause because money talk, and ….you know the rest. I do care where my money goes to, if it’s for charity, then I expect 100% to go for the cause, and not in someone’s pocket. This is a good post, most Lao people don’t like to speak up because they don’t want to give charity a bad name, if that’s the case, how else would we be aware of the evil doers.
Ginger, I agree this is a good post. I just open my computer up and visit Laovoices.com. The topic came right on time. I just had lunch with some of my key supporter for the event I plan to have in March 2008.
This is my voice in this, we can see that there are so much need for genereous donors. There are so many people out there who need a chairity. If there is a will, there is a way. Bad people with bad intention will do what they do.
Being a part of the fundraising event with a Laotian base organization with a 501c3 status, I always making sure that our donors understand where their money goes.
Let use the Charity ball we host annually. When we asked our sponsors to give money at the night of the charity ball, which is our annual celebration. They did. So all the proceed that night from the sponsors is raised just for the college student scholarship grant. A few months later the sponsors who can come will give the money back out to the scholarship winners in a form of check that they can cash.
Beside the money we raised from the sponsors (gold, silver, bronze), we try to raise a seperate fund to pay for the funding of our running projects and programs and we do it on the same night of the charity ball. We sell tickets which pay for food and drinks. This is in kind donation. We also try to make more money by having our beauty pagents sell flowers, our team members sell raffle tickets to win prizes. We have people donate prizes for our silent auction. Money made this form go to our community’s projects and programs. So it’s clear to everyone that at the end of the night one chunk go to scholarship grant and the other one go to community projecsts and programs.
We use the check and balance system. We have not create a misceleneous expense account. I think its good that way. All the money go in and out is verified by our treasurer and president. They, then give report to the board of directors.
Well, that was my voice. But I see big organization(s) out there doing what they do. Bless their heart. Ours is just a small organizaton, Laotian, we try our best.
We made money for the scholarship grant. We didn’t make any money from selling tickets and other stuffs to cover the expenses. Still, the purpose was served.
I wonder how other Laotian organization do the fundraising.
Hosting an event is hard. We use up our time and personal moeny at each events. At one point, we all agreed to just write a check out 300 dollars each and skips all the runnng around. But then we agreed that the purpose wouldn’t be serve. Laotians in our community like to dress up and come out to meet and greet one another and most importantly, have a great time. I do too.
So, consequently, the needy are getting nothing for nothing. The term charity (donation, fund, benefit, relief, etc) should be protected with our life, because the lives of those in need (or their education) may be in jeopardy.
Because if charity is abused, then those that really need it can suffer because the usual contributor may stop contributing.
Most people would, if they could, bring the money directly to the receiver just to make sure their money is utilized, but that isn’t so easy.
The organizers might as well use the term tax avoidance instead of using such a lame excuse. It wouldn’t disappoint us as much.
Another reason is morality. Creating a concert is a morality guidance to some. Kids will say, "if Britney Spears did that, then I could too." I’m not saying that Britney Spears is doing this. Britney is just an example. I have good faith upon artists. It may not be the artist’s fault, but most likely the fault of their financial officer, the producers or even the geographical location which the organizers are from.