Uncharitable Thoughts

If Tiger Woods had said “I’m doing it for charity” he would have got off scot free …

An art dealer with Crohn’s disease, let’s say, is setting out to ride round Australia on an electric skateboard, setting a world record for the longest electric skateboard trip – and he hopes to raise $1 million for Crohn's charities. There’s an upbeat human interest story for you.

Unless, it has to be said, you’re the treasurer of the Crohn’s charity eagerly awaiting a $1 million cheque , in which case you may have very mixed feelings about it.

Our art dealer is attracting a lot of local media, which is good, but the charity treasurer may find herself grinding her teeth slightly as she reads what they’ve been saying. “I've got no idea how much we've raised so far," our art dealers says expansively, "But if we raise $10,000 or $100,000 or $1 million, it's all good.”  Yes, but it’s not as good. Specifically, $10,000 is $990,000 less good than $1 million.

“It's not really about the money,” our art dealer says. “This trip is really about having fun and showing people I meet along the way that anything is possible.” Well, that’s a good thing, too – but how good? 

Because while the financial benefits of outings like this may be slightly wobbly the costs are entirely concrete. The whole trip will take about a month and a half, the intrepid skateboarder has a volunteer support crew of two people and a van, it takes $2500 worth of petrol, and he says that "One of the things I have to do when I finish this trip is repay all the money I've borrowed from my mother and the bank, because I've blown my life savings on this trip.”  This may well be a great adventure, and a great opportunity to raise the profile of Crohn’s disease, and a great story; but it’s not shaping up to be such a great fundraiser.  Most of these projects don’t.

If he’d got major commercial sponsors on board it would be different, but our art dealer hasn’t – that’s not his area of expertise.  If he was backed by a nationwide Crohn’s charity that could leverage donations, that might be different, but he’s working with a small organisation with limited resources. They’re not going to raise nearly as much as they would have got if the adventurer had simply stayed home and written them a cheque for those life savings. 

Mind you, you can see why that didn’t happen. Yes, the skateboarder is putting in an immense effort – that’s why he thinks you’ll make a donation. But he’s not making the effort of doing something he doesn’t like . It’s not often you see the appeal: ”This man is going to spend 12 months working in a dead-end job with people he hates in a job that gives him ulcers – just to raise money for charity! Won’t you help?”

People do these things because they’re fun, and to publicise a cause, and to raise money for a cause, and all these are in themselves good things.  But they must each be accounted for separately, in both moral and financial terms.  And none of them should be confused with the very good thing that is reaching into your pocket for your own money and giving it to your chosen cause.

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