Effective Philanthropy
Philanthropy has been one of the good virtues followed by people of the middle and higher rungs of the society since long ages. Broadly speaking, the act of contributing to the welfare of others from one's own pocket, either in cash, kind or in deeds, can be regarded as philanthropy. The most commonly understood meaning of philanthropy is the monetary help provided by people to the institutions and organizations working for the welfare of society.
The beneficiaries of such philanthropy include Educational Instituations, Religious organizations, Non Government organizations (NGOs), Government bodies working in a specific field of upliftment of the society etc. Although there is a lot of funding allocated from the Government's budget for these welfare activities in every country, but in most cases, the alloted budget would suffice only a fraction of the underpreviliged factions of the society. There is still a large majority of needy people who have to be catered to, this is where the donations from selfless individuals of the society come into help.
There are variegated driving forces behind people involving themselves in philanthropy. We have to appreciate the willingness of people to contribute money out of their pockets to help the poor and destitutes and to save them from starving and making sure that they get good food, shelter and education. However there are other reasons to for people donating money to these organizations.
A study conducted by the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University shows that in United States, a major chunk of donations go to the religious organizations. The next big share goes to the Eduction, Health and Science, followed by Human services, Arts, cultures, social welfare etc. But the point which stands out in this study is that the amount of money that goes into running the religious organizations and institutions is remarkably high considering the whole pie of money involved in all activities of Philanthropy.
What does this show? It proves that the human beings, out of their fear and insecurity and in a hope of being happy at the cost of keeping God happy, donate a major share of their donations to the religious institutions. Thinking of it, I realise that this defeats the very purpose of philanthropy! It is also proved in the remaining parts of the study mentioned above, that the redistribution of wealth is not effective in case of religious institutions as compared to the other areas like the Human welfare organizations and the Education, Health and Science fields.
One more aspect of this whole Philanthropy has been discovered in the same paper. With an illustration, they have demonstrated the donations given out by people is actually a serious cost to the Government. This is because any amount given out in charity is directly deductible from the total amount that is taxable for that individual. If a person had donated $1000, the actual cost to him would be $650 out his pocket, since he saved the 35% tax that he/she would have otherwise paid to the Government, which amounts to $350. This means that the $1000 donation by an individual costed the Government a $350. In the same lines, the total donations by a group of people of $1 million, will make the Government lose out $350,000 of the tax money. This is true with America only because of its lenient tax system in the purview of charitable contributions. Moreover, a practical study also showed that such a deduction of tax amount benefits only the upper class of the society who are aware of these tax tricks, leaving the lower and middle class at a disadvantage due to their lack of awareness, thus deepening the divide between the rich and the poor.
Every individual has to think and donate judiciously to the various avenues of social welfare. It is our responsibility to make sure that the money that we donate is directly helping somebody in thier basic needs, thus making our contribution worthwhile. We have to weigh the importance of each of the above mentioned benefeciaries and divide our contributions appropriately, rather than blindly pushing all the money into a religious institution with the ignorant hope that God will save me from all my misdeeds. I am not condemning the actions of the religious institutions. But I am against the overspending done by the religious institutions in builing more and more extravagant temples and churches, and still keeping a large group of people fighting for their fundamental requirements. I understand that a lot of spiritual organizations are doing splendid work in educating people thus enabling them to lead a happy and peaceful lives. Truly these organizations deserve great contributions.
The religious organizations have to realise that religion and spirituality have great potential in gathering and redistributing wealth for the needy and the poor. These organizations should leverage this potential and contribute more effectively to the society. Also every educated individual should recongnise the need of the society and donate intelligently ensuring its application in the needed field with swift actions.
The beneficiaries of such philanthropy include Educational Instituations, Religious organizations, Non Government organizations (NGOs), Government bodies working in a specific field of upliftment of the society etc. Although there is a lot of funding allocated from the Government's budget for these welfare activities in every country, but in most cases, the alloted budget would suffice only a fraction of the underpreviliged factions of the society. There is still a large majority of needy people who have to be catered to, this is where the donations from selfless individuals of the society come into help.
There are variegated driving forces behind people involving themselves in philanthropy. We have to appreciate the willingness of people to contribute money out of their pockets to help the poor and destitutes and to save them from starving and making sure that they get good food, shelter and education. However there are other reasons to for people donating money to these organizations.
A study conducted by the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University shows that in United States, a major chunk of donations go to the religious organizations. The next big share goes to the Eduction, Health and Science, followed by Human services, Arts, cultures, social welfare etc. But the point which stands out in this study is that the amount of money that goes into running the religious organizations and institutions is remarkably high considering the whole pie of money involved in all activities of Philanthropy.
What does this show? It proves that the human beings, out of their fear and insecurity and in a hope of being happy at the cost of keeping God happy, donate a major share of their donations to the religious institutions. Thinking of it, I realise that this defeats the very purpose of philanthropy! It is also proved in the remaining parts of the study mentioned above, that the redistribution of wealth is not effective in case of religious institutions as compared to the other areas like the Human welfare organizations and the Education, Health and Science fields.
One more aspect of this whole Philanthropy has been discovered in the same paper. With an illustration, they have demonstrated the donations given out by people is actually a serious cost to the Government. This is because any amount given out in charity is directly deductible from the total amount that is taxable for that individual. If a person had donated $1000, the actual cost to him would be $650 out his pocket, since he saved the 35% tax that he/she would have otherwise paid to the Government, which amounts to $350. This means that the $1000 donation by an individual costed the Government a $350. In the same lines, the total donations by a group of people of $1 million, will make the Government lose out $350,000 of the tax money. This is true with America only because of its lenient tax system in the purview of charitable contributions. Moreover, a practical study also showed that such a deduction of tax amount benefits only the upper class of the society who are aware of these tax tricks, leaving the lower and middle class at a disadvantage due to their lack of awareness, thus deepening the divide between the rich and the poor.
Every individual has to think and donate judiciously to the various avenues of social welfare. It is our responsibility to make sure that the money that we donate is directly helping somebody in thier basic needs, thus making our contribution worthwhile. We have to weigh the importance of each of the above mentioned benefeciaries and divide our contributions appropriately, rather than blindly pushing all the money into a religious institution with the ignorant hope that God will save me from all my misdeeds. I am not condemning the actions of the religious institutions. But I am against the overspending done by the religious institutions in builing more and more extravagant temples and churches, and still keeping a large group of people fighting for their fundamental requirements. I understand that a lot of spiritual organizations are doing splendid work in educating people thus enabling them to lead a happy and peaceful lives. Truly these organizations deserve great contributions.
The religious organizations have to realise that religion and spirituality have great potential in gathering and redistributing wealth for the needy and the poor. These organizations should leverage this potential and contribute more effectively to the society. Also every educated individual should recongnise the need of the society and donate intelligently ensuring its application in the needed field with swift actions.
posted by Rajit at
7:37 PM
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