incentives and charitable acts
22 November 2013. Charitable acts and incentives.
“Why should I do anything at all for anyone else without something in it for me?” that is the attitude of some people before doing a charity work. In today’s society we live in a world of opportunity but unfortunately not everyone get an opportunity. For those who are less fortunate, receiving donations may be the only way those people get to survive. In many high schools, clubs, and organization, charity drives are sponsored in exchange for incentives. In Randy Cohen’s column “The Ethicist” in the New York Times Magazine, he is told that “Some teachers offer bonus points on test and final averages as incentives”. Some people say to provide an incentive to do charitable acts undermines the purpose of charity itself. However, this does not mean that it is ethically wrong for incentives to be offered in exchange for charitable acts. Therefore I agree that incentives should be offered in exchange for charitable works. Fundraising is a form of charity which is done almost everywhere. The purpose of fundraising is to raise money to reach a certain goal. Offering incentives can increase the amount of participants to reach that goal. For example, in my sister middle school they were told to sell a book to raise money for class activities. In order to get everyone to participate in this fundraiser, teachers said that if everyone in the class sold at least one book they will have a class party. This worked really well because everyone wanted to have a class party so everyone participated and lots of books were sold to get money for the class so they were able to have the class party. However, some people argue that given incentives for charitable acts takes away the idea of charity being voluntary and it is not for personal gain from additional incentives but in reality, incentives help to get more charity for organizations that normally do not get enough people to participate. The idea of charity is to help
“Why should I do anything at all for anyone else without something in it for me?” that is the attitude of some people before doing a charity work. In today’s society we live in a world of opportunity but unfortunately not everyone get an opportunity. For those who are less fortunate, receiving donations may be the only way those people get to survive. In many high schools, clubs, and organization, charity drives are sponsored in exchange for incentives. In Randy Cohen’s column “The Ethicist” in the New York Times Magazine, he is told that “Some teachers offer bonus points on test and final averages as incentives”. Some people say to provide an incentive to do charitable acts undermines the purpose of charity itself. However, this does not mean that it is ethically wrong for incentives to be offered in exchange for charitable acts. Therefore I agree that incentives should be offered in exchange for charitable works. Fundraising is a form of charity which is done almost everywhere. The purpose of fundraising is to raise money to reach a certain goal. Offering incentives can increase the amount of participants to reach that goal. For example, in my sister middle school they were told to sell a book to raise money for class activities. In order to get everyone to participate in this fundraiser, teachers said that if everyone in the class sold at least one book they will have a class party. This worked really well because everyone wanted to have a class party so everyone participated and lots of books were sold to get money for the class so they were able to have the class party. However, some people argue that given incentives for charitable acts takes away the idea of charity being voluntary and it is not for personal gain from additional incentives but in reality, incentives help to get more charity for organizations that normally do not get enough people to participate. The idea of charity is to help