Charities & Why we do what we do
Tonight wrapped up a weekend full of benefits for the Library Project. Overall, the weekend was successful. Tom, the founder of Library Project was quite happy with the overall turnout of the weekend's events, and the money that was raised was enough to build three, possibly four more libraries out in the countryside of China. Don't quote me on this though, I'm not the LP accountant by any means.
The one thing we'd talked about though that stuck in my mind the most was why people do this sort of thing. I looked at my own case first.
I run a small website hosting & development company here in Shanghai. As always, I want people to know about it and use my services. Duh! What small-business owner doesn't. In walks Tom of the Library Project.
I've known Tom for quite sometime actually, as we'd been colleagues in a company based in Dalian, China. Good company, a bit mis-managed sometimes, but overall, enthusiastic and active in the LP. He told me of his plans that eventually became the Library Project charity.
Fast-forward one year. Personally, I'd set up one event to get books for his charity, and at that time, it wasn't exactly established. Not registered in the US, not registered in the PRC either. He simply did it in his spare time. I took my website name, JinanLIVE.com and threw it at LP. We raised about 40 books for his project.
Fast-forward another 2 years... now, in Shanghai for the last three years, and again, still in contact with Tom. But now I run TeraScape. Thus starts my own case of shameless self-promotion. Our 3-sentence closing conversation ended with a simple unanswered question, why do we, why do the people who showed up & contributed, why does anyone do what they do for charity? Why do I and others involved in this weekend's events do it? I organized a big barbeque fund-raiser for LP at Kommune Kafe, here in Shanghai. Why?
Because I can PROMOTE it. I'm a prolific poster on Shanghai Expat with close to 8000 posts on that site. Everytime I post, my sig file is on there. What's my sig file?
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~ Website Hosting in ChinaC:/Dos ~ C:/Dos/Run ~ Run/Dos/Run
"
Short, not very clever, but the image links to my company. I promote LP on Shanghai Expat and with every promotion, my OWN link goes on there. Overall, it's indirectly self-promotion. I also use my company login on other sites, like City Weekend, SH Magazine, Shanghaiist (new favorite website!) That's Shanghai... you name it, all promoting Library Project, but all with some small, unsymbolic link back to me and my company.
"So what the hell is your point?" you're asking yourself now. The point is, those of us involved with charities, don't always do it because we want to help charities. It's also self-serving.
"Sounds AWFUL!" you say to yourself (or you've already stopped reading). But it isn't. I couldn't do a THIRD of what I did this weekend if it weren't for my clients. I couldn't do a FIFTH of what I did if it weren't for other charities and the lessons I learned there (Warren Jaycees, Kudos!).
The point is, support your local charities, but also support the people behind the charities. If they don't have business, then they're not going to be in any position to support or be a part of any charities. When we do stuff, it's not always because we simply can. We want to because our situation allows us to do that. We actually enjoy doing this, and if your situation doesn't allow you to be active, all you have to do is support the companies whose situation does. In the overall big picture, you're also doing something for charity.
More on Library Project at http://www.library-project.com.
Labels: Charity, Library Project, Personal
