NEWS
10 Obiter Dicta
Philanthropy
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which begs the question why one wouldn’t simply
donate quietly. This rings especially true in light of the
fact that, as it stands, the objective of raising awareness is a red herring: virtually everyone has heard of
the als Ice Bucket Challenge, but a vast majority of
the participants are no more educated about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis than they were a month ago.
A second oft heard concern pertains to the donated
funds. Many have questioned where funds go, how
they are used, and whether they are truly reaching those most in need. These are complicated questions, ones which require investigation and research
to answer adequately, and which cannot be genuinely addressed in a generalist op-ed. But they are
certainly questions worth raising. Supposing for the
sake of argument that donated money is only going
to transparent, well-intentioned charities, operating
without the slightest trace of corruption and against
whom such suspicions could not, in good conscience,
be raised (hopefully that sounds as unlikely to you
as it does to me), a more productive conversation
can be had about the emphasis placed on the project
of raising funds. Variously labelled as “slacktivism,”
“clicktivism,” and “lazy hashtag activism,” the als
Ice Bucket Challenge rewards only the most shallow, facile, and non-committal way of engaging with
charitable initiatives. Problematic though this is (and
I’ll expound the parameters of it momentarily), I realize that participants who neglect to donate and also
genuinely don’t care about the cause are outliers. Be
that as it may, if such instances are unrepresentative
by virtue of being worst case scenarios, we might ask,
what is the “best” outcome that the als Ice Bucket
Challenge aims for? All that its supporters can point
to are the increased donations to als organizations.
While I am not saying that charitable donations
are unproductive or unhelpful, focusing on them to
the exclusion of other, more meaningful ways to aid
a cause relates to our society’s growing non-profit
industrial complex, which measures the success of
philanthropic initiatives by the intuitively sensi &