I was at a music festival a few years ago and spoke with a grassroots activist about this very issue. I told him I thought it was more effective for me to give his cause money than time, and he enthusiastically agreed: the leverage that we get from supporting the cause, together, with my money and their activist smarts, is far greater than the dilettante effort that I could myself muster.
Since then donated a few $K to the cause via monthly deduction, and they’ve had several major wins in that period.
People who want to give time when they could better spend the money aren’t really (or only) trying help the cause: they’re trying to buy themselves absolution.
when you volunteer your own time and energy to a cause, and experience the ″charity process″ firsthand, you increase your emotional investment and thus future commitment to it. sending a cheque is easy to forget; spending an afternoon with like-minded Cause Enthusiasts doing whatever it is volunteers do is not so easily forgotten, and the feel-good, warm fuzzy memories may even be conflated with the cause itself.
you want supporters who will stick around and proselytize. you will not succeed by having them just give money. you will succeed by having them invest an -experience—directly in the cause and the institution supporting it.
everything in the post is true but could easily lead unthinking activists to a long-term losing strategy. -you must combat ″care decay″ and foster commitment or you will lose-.
I was at a music festival a few years ago and spoke with a grassroots activist about this very issue. I told him I thought it was more effective for me to give his cause money than time, and he enthusiastically agreed: the leverage that we get from supporting the cause, together, with my money and their activist smarts, is far greater than the dilettante effort that I could myself muster.
Since then donated a few $K to the cause via monthly deduction, and they’ve had several major wins in that period.
People who want to give time when they could better spend the money aren’t really (or only) trying help the cause: they’re trying to buy themselves absolution.
when you volunteer your own time and energy to a cause, and experience the ″charity process″ firsthand, you increase your emotional investment and thus future commitment to it. sending a cheque is easy to forget; spending an afternoon with like-minded Cause Enthusiasts doing whatever it is volunteers do is not so easily forgotten, and the feel-good, warm fuzzy memories may even be conflated with the cause itself.
you want supporters who will stick around and proselytize. you will not succeed by having them just give money. you will succeed by having them invest an -experience—directly in the cause and the institution supporting it.
everything in the post is true but could easily lead unthinking activists to a long-term losing strategy. -you must combat ″care decay″ and foster commitment or you will lose-.
On the other hand, the goal (to the charity) of acquiring Cause Enthusiasts is to acquire money.