Voluntary giving to those in need is seen in most climes as a social responsibility. While giving is widely regarded as a positive human endeavour, several factors tend to prevent individuals who may be expected to participate in the benevolent act of helping those in need from doing so.
Reasons why a lot of people do not participate in donating to charity include:
Lack of resources:
Donating to charity is not an exclusive reserve of the rich. As a matter of fact, several charities exist where donations as low as $1 or less are accepted. Nevertheless, there still exist individuals who sincerely may be willing to donate to charity but are unable to do so due to genuine lack of funds.
Procrastination:
Many people who want to donate to charities eventually don’t because they keep shifting such an opportunity to a future date. The “I’ll do so later” syndrome seems to be getting the better of a lot of individuals who end up not doing anything at all.
Personal sentiments:
Human beings are a product of their encounters and experiences. The events of life eventually forms the mindset of every human being, thereby influencing their perception towards life. Sentiments on giving can be developed as a result of an individual’s belief system. This could be based on religious or cultural values. For instance, a member of a group may believe so strongly in the inevitability of death that making donations towards research against terminal diseases becomes prohibited.
Non-transparency:
Most charities seeking donations, especially in the era of the internet are often overwhelmed with huge traffic of donors. Without a formidable system, keeping track of the inflow of funds and resources becomes a difficult task. In the end, some of these charities tend to operate a closed network system, where only the administrators may be privy to the internal workings and audit (if any) of such charities. This lack of transparency puts off donors who may hold any form of suspicion of graft or embezzlement of funds.
Suspicion of diversion:
A lot of individuals that could donate to charities and NGOs become easily discouraged with rumours or news of the eventual diversion of funds/products before reaching their primary targets.
This development is common in underdeveloped nations where most of the time, the staff and administrators of such organization are underpaid, therefore they turn to stealing from donated funds/items just to make a living.
These possible acts induce non-satisfactory feelings into donors who may feel robbed, therefore they stay away from future donations.
Government irresponsibility:
A lot of times, especially in the developing parts of the world, most issues tackled by charities and NGOs are supposed to be projects executed by the government of the day. Therefore, certain individuals who may have the capacity to make donations towards a given course would rather question the irresponsibility of the government in delivering such benefits to the people.
Inconvenient donation procedures:
Some capable donors back-out of such exercise due to cumbersome processes of making donations.
For certain organisations, the need to visit a physical location such as a bank, the organisation’s office or specific donation centres happen to be a discouraging factor. Others may involve several stages of an online process, thereby causing some participants to abandon the exercise midway. Stressful processes will discourage many possible donors, especially when they feel that there isn’t any direct compensation in performing such an exercise.
The reasons why people fail to make donations towards helping the needy and less privileged may go on and on. Even as charity organisations and NGOs work towards more transparent, corruption free and less stressful processes. However, personal orientation and the need to appreciate social responsibility for what it is remains an important subject towards building a better world for everyone living in it.
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