Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to re: Manacles

Two questions:
Mary Anne — (archived)

How many charitable donations are included in the first link that are really people giving to their own churches? I didn't quite make that out. I mean, I see nothing wrong with that, but to me, if you give to an organization that takes care of you and your cohort, that's not charity. That's insurance.

Do entrepreneurs really truly think that they're creating a better world by not giving to relief agencies whose work providing basic necessities is the foundation of all advancement? If I didn't know better from reading the article, I might think people whose donations ignored the obvious were more interested in giving to an organization that could immortalize them by naming a building after them. You can't really put a plaque on a jar of peanut butter. But since it's their money, they can put it where they want. If that happens not to be where the need is greatest, oh well.

Charity is out there, yes. But it's not dependable, not monetarily and not in other ways. I love my volunteers, but you know, if something interesting comes along, they call to say they won't be in. This is their privilege and their option, and I'd never take it away from them. After all, they're giving their time, which I appreciate. But that means you can never, ever count on a volunteer the way you can count on an employee to be there. It's all carrot and no stick with volunteers, and if a bigger carrot comes along for a week, or a month, we're left in the lurch. One of our many little side businesses that we run in order to make money to run this place is a used bookstore. It's closed when we don't have a volunteer to man the register and watch the inventory. It was closed today. Oops.

We've had to cut hours. People complain and say we should be open more. We agree. We tell them we can't afford to be, but would you like to donate to the library so we could start looking at ways we could be open more? They say they'll give if we open more hours first, like we're just playing freakin' poker with them, as if our accounts weren't public by law. Depending on charity when this is how it is will make a person absolutely nuts.

I'm sure we could make a go of this place if we charged a subscription for use, but that would defeat the purpose. I want to be able to do my job, and do it well. I need a budget of more than zero dollars to do some of the things we need here. Excuse me if I've noticed that charity is not doing the job, and I say so.

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