There are two things that bother me. 1) Check book Christianity and 2) Donating things people don’t need.
I understand the basis of this challenge. To enrich the lives of kids and lessen the burden felt by the school system. The thing is, I have no idea what they need. I could go out and buy a bunch of stuff, paints, crayons and such. But they could also way too much of that and not enough construction paper.
So I am left in a pickle. I know what it is like when people donate too much of one thing and not enough of another. But I also know what it is like to simply write a cheque and walk away. There is no encounter with people. There is not the action of going to the store, buying something and delivering it. The writing of a cheque is impersonal.
So what to do when caught between the two positions? Cave and write a cheque. To assuage me of my guilt, I did pen a letter explaining the reasons for the cheque rather then art supplies.
Marty there are basically 2 kinds of cheque writers.
One group is angel donors. The value either your work or what your organization is trying to achieve and write a cheque with no secret agenda or strings attached.
The other groups have an added component to their donation. They still are choosing you and your organization to support but they could also want … power, influence, love, respect, wanting to get you out of their office as quickly as possible, making an exchange (I have money and no time and you have other people with time but can’t afford to help so get them the materials they need) and the biggest donors of all are those who were identified and encouraged to become whatever you are but made a bargain that they would show their gratitude for escaping that lifestyle through their cheque book.
The donor who wins the prize for wanting the biggest miracle from his donation is Vlad the Impaler. He made Hitler look like a saint but he gave a monastery an enormous donation to pray for his soul after his death until the end of time that his soul might eventually be freed from hell.
Not sure what Vlad has to do with my last years Lenten challenge and reflections. The post was reflecting upon making a donation of a specific thing, in the case art supplies, without knowledge of whether they even need such a thing. It was the struggle of deciding what people need that I was wrestling with, not writing a cheque.