Charity shows have been all the buzz a few years ago. You can hear people on the streets talking about the stunts someone performed during the show. You may also hear some asking other people how much have they donated. On the other hand, many people also criticise charity shows saying that all these stunts were unnecessary and an ultimate waste of time.
Personally, I think that these stunts are just gimmicks to “compel” people into donating. The stunts give people the wrong mindset. They let people think that “in order to donate, I must see someone in peril or doing something dangerous” or “when I see someone doing something dangerous, I must donate more”. Why put someone to risk just to ask for a “fatter” donation? I think that for those that really have the heart to donate, they will donate with or without the stunts. They will even donate without the shows. I think that compassion should come from the bottom of someone’s heart and that the amount one donates does not matter. A right mindset should be instilled in the people. The people should know that we should not hesitate to help others who are in need regardless of any return. We should help them because we feel that we really want to help not because we feel compelled because of the stunts.
Furthermore, there are overhead expenses to run the show due to advertising, stage setup, on air fees and so on. On top of that, a large amount of money is needed to invite extremely famous overseas celebrities over just to appear in the show. All these will add up to a sizable amount of money and it is a total waste of resources. The organiser can put this large amount of money to better use by handing out the money to more needy people. On top of that, instead of having artiste pull of stunts, why not call them to engage with the poor and needy which is more meaningful?
Next, I think that instead of having artiste performing stunts, there should be more focus on the charity organisation’s transparency. After the recent embezzlement cases including the CEO of Ren Ci Charity and the former NKF head, many people have second thoughts about donating money to charity shows. What the people really need to see is the operations of these organisations. They also need to see exactly where their money goes to. When there is no transparency and people suspect that something is amiss, they would rather hand money to any random beggar on the street instead of dumping their money into a bottomless pit. Furthermore, we can see many students holding tin cans at public places like MRT and orchard road. This will cause us to ask ourselves: “we have donated so much yet there is still a shortage of funds. Is there something wrong?”
I think that the charity organisation should show people who they tie up with and how the cash that the public donated is used. They must also account for who is directly benefitting from it. These way people are more likely to donate as they know that their money would not be embezzled by anybody. Until full transparency can be achieved, everybody can’t help but have this burning question at their back of their head: “Where does my money really go to?”
In conclusion, I think that the charity should focus more on clearing the many doubts of the mass public first instead of trying to achieve more and more dangerous stunts, so as turn gain more donations. Compassion is also something that is self-initiated and should not be milked.
Personally, I think that these stunts are just gimmicks to “compel” people into donating. The stunts give people the wrong mindset. They let people think that “in order to donate, I must see someone in peril or doing something dangerous” or “when I see someone doing something dangerous, I must donate more”. Why put someone to risk just to ask for a “fatter” donation? I think that for those that really have the heart to donate, they will donate with or without the stunts. They will even donate without the shows. I think that compassion should come from the bottom of someone’s heart and that the amount one donates does not matter. A right mindset should be instilled in the people. The people should know that we should not hesitate to help others who are in need regardless of any return. We should help them because we feel that we really want to help not because we feel compelled because of the stunts.
Furthermore, there are overhead expenses to run the show due to advertising, stage setup, on air fees and so on. On top of that, a large amount of money is needed to invite extremely famous overseas celebrities over just to appear in the show. All these will add up to a sizable amount of money and it is a total waste of resources. The organiser can put this large amount of money to better use by handing out the money to more needy people. On top of that, instead of having artiste pull of stunts, why not call them to engage with the poor and needy which is more meaningful?
Next, I think that instead of having artiste performing stunts, there should be more focus on the charity organisation’s transparency. After the recent embezzlement cases including the CEO of Ren Ci Charity and the former NKF head, many people have second thoughts about donating money to charity shows. What the people really need to see is the operations of these organisations. They also need to see exactly where their money goes to. When there is no transparency and people suspect that something is amiss, they would rather hand money to any random beggar on the street instead of dumping their money into a bottomless pit. Furthermore, we can see many students holding tin cans at public places like MRT and orchard road. This will cause us to ask ourselves: “we have donated so much yet there is still a shortage of funds. Is there something wrong?”
I think that the charity organisation should show people who they tie up with and how the cash that the public donated is used. They must also account for who is directly benefitting from it. These way people are more likely to donate as they know that their money would not be embezzled by anybody. Until full transparency can be achieved, everybody can’t help but have this burning question at their back of their head: “Where does my money really go to?”
In conclusion, I think that the charity should focus more on clearing the many doubts of the mass public first instead of trying to achieve more and more dangerous stunts, so as turn gain more donations. Compassion is also something that is self-initiated and should not be milked.
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