The Man-Creator cares not only about himself, but also about others. But how to learn to help people from the position of the Creator? I’ll try to figure it out.
What do we have? Assistance can be material or non-material. With the material, everything is clear — money, things, goods, and so on. And behind non-material assistance there is always another resource — our time, which is superimposed on our connections, our experience, or our desire to help and spend our time in some other way.
This is important, because recently most people understand charity and social responsibility only as material benefits, forgetting about time — the only non-renewable resource that we also often use to provide assistance. Thus, embarking on the path of the Creator of good deeds, we have time and finances, and often in different proportions. It’s time to decide where we can invest it. Yes, it is to invest, we are the Creators, and we consider any resource spent as an investment. And we expect dividends, and not only for ourselves.
Since we are talking about investments, I propose to consider any charitable activity as an investment project. That is, a project that benefits us (as investors) and other parties (people, country, society). With our benefit, at first glance, everything is clear — it is almost always internal, and satisfies our need to take care of others (we are the Creators, right?). But with the benefit of others, everything is more interesting. Let’s look at examples:
Imagine a situation: a homeless man on the street asks for money. Giving him money, I understand that today he will buy food and vodka with it. What am I investing in? I make his evening happy when he gets drunk. And that’s all. How much benefit from my investment? Zero. What am I reinforcing in his behavior with my action? What you need to ask for alms and they will give you. This is the Victim. And in this case, my money — donation. That is, help related to survival or comfort. This also includes help for the weak, the terminally ill, the unfortunate. Those who feel sorry for, including cats and dogs.
Another real story. A child in a low-income family. Excellent and diligently engaged in music school. The teacher, realizing that the child has talent, involves a group of volunteers who collect funds and send the child on a trip to a music competition in Italy. And the boy becomes a laureate (1st place) of the prestigious children’s music competition there. What is the benefit of these investments? I am sure that we will still hear the name of this boy at the world level. In this case my money is charity. That is, assistance related to development, creativity and perspective.
My experience
In 2014, I met a man who heads the Russian Union of Rescuers movement in Rostov-on-Don. He infected me with the idea of implementing the charity project «Children’s Field Camp» The Future of Russia «, the meaning of which is to teach children (12-14 years old) the skills of first aid and survival in extreme situations. Together with a group of other volunteers, we organized such a camp in June 2014, raising over $3. More than 000 children studied and lived in the camp for seven days (more details can be found here and here). For seven days the children live in 000-seat army tents in the field. Training is conducted by professional rescuers using special equipment and mannequins provided by the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Every day in the evening there are discos and creative competitions. How much benefit from this project? We do not keep statistics, but I know for sure that almost any child who has passed the camp, finding himself in an extreme situation, can save not only his own life, but also the life of someone around him. After my child almost died in a fire in 500 due to his stupidity and ignorance, this project has a special meaning for me.
In 2014, we made a commitment that this project would live on. In 2017, there will be the fifth camp in a row …
Summing up, I want to summarize:
- You need to be able to distinguish between charity and donation. Donation is help related to the survival or comfort of other people. Charity is help related to development, creativity and perspective.
- Charity from the position of the Creator is an investment activity. You need to be able to see the usefulness and return on investment for yourself and other people.
- I decided for myself: of all the resources allocated for good deeds, I spend 80% on charity, and 20% on donations.
- When choosing a project for charity, I look for answers to the following questions:
- What problem does the project/activity solve?
- What will be the result, what is the benefit?
- What is development and who gets it?
- How many people are affected by the project?
- How important is this to me?
PS many different interesting projects for charity here (www.planeta.ru).