25 May 2021
Donation Context
Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea fundraiser was today & my first in helping setup, but giving a donation can be tricky.
For many years I had a donation dilemma. Many of you may have experienced the same thing. You hear about the administration costs of organisations but want to get your funds to the right place; that is the cause you’re trying to support. It took me many years before I realised this was an excuse for me not to donate. This reason may not be your reason, of course.
It occurred to me the administration charges are paying someone in Australia, paying a middle person in another country and getting the money to the frontline. That’s three people at least benefiting from my one donation. I began to ask myself: did I want to deprive an Australian working in a non-profit organisation of a proper wage just to get money to someone else?
Donation Funds Go Further
My travel experiences in developing countries also taught me that money has different values in different countries. Not just in a dollar for exchange rate situation, although that is true. But even the value based on the lifestyle of the country’s inhabitants adds a different value to their money.
For instance, in the year I visited Nepal (in the early nineties), I got 33 Nepalese Rupee to the Australian dollar. Think of it this way, that’s $33 local money to one Australian $1. At the time, a week’s Nepalese wages was about AU$24 or Ns792 (Ns = Nepalese Rupee). My wage was about AU$700 or Ns23,100 per week. In two weeks, I would have made a year’s Nepalese’s wage. The conversion rate had me looking like a multi-millionaire each fortnight! The tour group I was with reasoned that’s why many travellers in the 60s sold their return tickets to stay longer.
As you may have worked out, money in a developing nation goes further. For a total of two Australian dollars, I was able to purchase: breakfast and dinner in a fancy restaurant, three t-shirts, lunch at the market, catch two taxis at tourist prices, bangles, snacks, bottled water, visit a temple (free), make a donation of Ns10, and a puzzle book. All the purchased stuff would still cost more, even if it had been AU$66. The fancy breakfast alone would have cost AU$25 or a Nepalese’s full weekly wage.
Something of a Donation
So, money is simply different. If I gave $100 a month to a charity and the organisation used $10 for the Australian employee, $30 for the “doctors, nurses, teachers, without borders” type people to be there. Then sadly, $20 for bribes in the local country or anywhere in between.
That means $40 is still getting to where it needs to go. If the money were going to a country like Nepal in the early 90s and converted at 33 to 1, it would be nearly three weeks’ wages (Ns2,310 or $2,310 local currency). I’d be happy if even a week’s local wages made it there, I would be satisfied. The help staff could purchase a lot for the communities with a week’s local wages.
On the topic of bribes, yes, it shouldn’t happen. But it’s a way of life in some parts of the world. You need to decide whether you want something to get to the people or nothing; if you were to get principled, the needy would get nothing – I eventually opted for something.
Donation to Cancer
For many years I didn’t like the idea of giving money to pharmaceutical companies to do cancer research into drugs that “would keep people alive” while it pretended to look for a “cure”. Cures are bad for pharmaceutical businesses; helping keep people alive, supported and pain-free that’ll work too. I disagreed with the developed wonder drugs being too expensive for the people who help fund the research.
The Australian Cancer Council is not a government-funded organisation. It’s a standard response for people not to trust our government, but our government is the only thing they have any control over. I don’t like them; that’s fine, but we put them into office, and we can vote them out of office if it doesn’t look after all Australian citizens. I’ve got a whole rant on the “role of government”, as I see it somewhere – I’ll drag it out and post it – when I find it.
I believe the government being voted in by its citizens should be looking after those very citizens. That includes those in regional Australia, those who are rich and those who are poor because each contributes to Australia’s function as a whole.
Therefore, cancer research funded by it should result in a product or a cure available to all Australians. If you have an organisation with a raft of contributors, but some are business-minded, then it’s going to be about making money and profits that go to shareholders.
Again, it’s better to give something to research than not have any research at all. Eventually, a business has competition and competition can reduce the price.
Today's Cards
The Cards - Analysis
Carryover Cards
One card carried over from yesterday; Mind moved from the Now to the Outcome position. The significance of the move doesn’t affect the reading, but confusion is certainly an undertone.
Cross
Completion is in the Now influenced by Adventure. This year was my first year helping to organise “Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea”. Today was the Completion of all the lead-up activities for the event – I’ve been looking forward to this being over but excited by the Adventure of seeing how it would turn out.
The lead in the committee didn’t have a lot of faith in people turning up to the event, let alone meeting the donation goal the team had set ourselves (based on her experience).
The Goal of Sharing is undoubtedly what the morning tea was about at the office.
I can guess why I ended up helping; for some strange reason, I felt I had an Abundance of time and energy in the Distant Past. The Abundance around my mindful and meditation sessions roped me into being part of the Wellness Committee. Hence, the We are the World card’s appearance in the Recent Past. We are the World being the card that represents working together for an altruistic cause.
The event was quiet, as predicted by our lead. Still, we had a Breakthrough (in Future Energy) when one of the attendees began walking around her floor desk to desk collecting donations from those who had wanted to attend but couldn’t participate due to work commitments. We ended up reaching our donation target.
Base
When it came to pack-up the event, while the team were out visiting desks, I was embracing the position of Feelings and the Immediate Future card of Aloneness. It was me packing up, and I loved every minute of it. It was rewarding.
For some strange reason, the Others’ Views of me is a change in their perspective. The Transformation card certainly reflects that change. Maybe they’re just seeing me in a new and different light.
As I’ve mentioned in the Donation Context above, raising funds for cancer has been a sensitive issue because I don’t’ really know how I feel about it. But I’ve adopted the “something is better than nothing” approach because the funds also support the sufferers of cancer and their families – this is something with which I wholeheartedly agree.
The Hopes & Fears has the Fighting card, which is about being hypersensitive to anything triggering an explosion. I hoped to get through the day without feeling the need to explain my situation, and I feared I would be unable to take a stance if I supported the cause, which might put me on tenterhooks.
It seems by the end of the day, and the Outcome is Mind. Mind in Osho is about confusion and lack of clarity.
References
- Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7
Affiliations, Cancer Council Australia collaborates with a range of professional bodies
Cancer Australia’s review of funding to research projects in Australia 2016-2018
Definition
Altruistic: “selfless concern for the well-being of others; unselfish.”
