I've now been involved in the Holidailies writing project in December for three years. To my surprise today, there's an announcement that Holidailies is planning on doing some sort of a charity drive via the site, and that today's prompt was to write about ideas.
I have to admit that I'm a little bothered by this. And to prevent myself from sounding like a grinch, here's why:
Charity, when done correctly, is something that's personal, in my opinion. I don't need to broadcast who I've given money to, nor who I've donated time to. Quite frankly, I don't feel comfortable announcing what I've done because it sounds far too much like grandstanding to me and a case of who's outdonating who. I have my personal interests of where to donate my money and my time, and I leave it at that.
And it bothers me a bit that a few days into Holidailies, there's now a press for charity, and the "if every participant gives xyz"... NO. I understand it's optional to give, but it's the principle of the thing. If you're planning that sort of a side-project, state that up-front. It sounds disingenuous to me a few days into the project. I don't appreciate peer pressure to give - particularly at a time where I'm scraping every penny and every minute of time to figure out what way is up because yes, it's the holidays AND particularly not through a journal portal that has a completely different focus.
And... if for no other reason, I simply don't have the time and energy during the month of December to go research the charitable organization that may be chosen. And yes, I am extremely picky as to where I donate my money and/or time. Because many charitable organizations are tied to larger organizations or corporations that I do not want to associate with if possible.
Donating my money so Holidailies can continue? Fine. No problem.
Donating my money to a charity organization as of yet unidentified? No. Absolutely not.
If you want donations for charity, please get the site up prior to five days before Holidailies starts so folks can research your planned charities.
And I'm sorry to sound grouchy about it, but considering that no one's commenting on my entries for Holidailies anyway, what does my opinion matter, eh?
Ramblings of a Geeky Witch
About Me
- Measi
- 40 year old Montana native, transplanted to New England. Married to Erich and mom to Max. Home Owner. Cat slave. Live in Rhode Island. Work in Massachusetts. Pagan. Cross-stitcher, Knitter, Dungeons & Dragons geek, World of Warcrack, Doctor Who addict. You'll find my blog over at the following address: http://www.measi.net/measiblog/
4 comments:
You are not alone in feeling this way.
I already feel enough pressure about everything else, and then throwing in "December is the season of charity, give some money" on top of that kind of pushes me to meltdown level.
Sorry, but I'll worry about charity giving sometime during the other 11 months when I have less to stress about.
I completely agree with you on every point you've made. Quite honestly, when I saw the charity link go up, along with sales pitches, I considered going off Holidailies all together. The writing prompt has taken it a bit far too, IMO. You'd think with 7 years under their belts they'd have considered this before. If they want to do a charity, why not charge people to blog the portal and then donate the money to pre-announced organization?
Let me start off by saying I agree. Yet I can come to it from the other side. I work for a said charity that receives all the gifts this time a year. However you can not just decided to give to a charity. Due the reserch there are so many organizations out there that say they benifit such and such but if you research only a small portion of the funds you give go to the acctual need. The rest is buried in overhead cost. Its called planning peopld. Most of my donors who give this time of year have saved up through the year to give the donation. They dont just decied one morning that they are going to give to a charity today.
I found your post via the link on Jette's post regarding the Holidailies charity lineup. She had made a comment about how hurtful your post is, and I wanted to see what all of the uproar is about (since this post has apparently been making the quiet email circuit).
I have to say, your post is NOT the nasty, hurtful post I was expecting. In fact, you make some very important and good comments about charity and the importance of research. Your post seems quite honest and carefully worded.
So I'm not sure what their problem was unless they just wanted to hear happy, happy, joy, joy bonding over their good but not original (and poorly timed) idea.
Skimming above, I'm sorry that you're not continuing with the Holidailies project. But I doubt I would either if I'd been singled out in such a rude fashion.
- Kayleigh @ Words and Lines
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