Now that I’m in an age and income bracket that can afford it, I’ve been trying to be more liberal with donating to causes that seem worthwhile. Yesterday my partner and I were walking around a large cultural event thing in Kiel (Germany) - thousands of people, lots of overpriced food trucks, lots of local bands and artists.
One artist had a workshop in a little glass cube and was making wooden sculptures all day. Huge crowd all around watching him. He had a sign up front explaining that he had been struggling financially because art is a luxury and one of the first things people stop buying when the cost of living goes up. The sign also had a QR link to his Gofundme, so I tossed him 5 bucks with no second thought. Kind of assumed that he’d be getting plenty of little donations like that, just because there were so many people and the event overall was very “12€ avocado toast” coded.
But once I got home I checked the donation history and it turns out I was the only one who donated at all that day:
Ngl, I was kinda upset about that and even checked the Url from different devices to make sure it wasn’t a website caching thing. I definitely will be upping my donation once I get home tonight, but in the meantime I’d be curious to learn about the average consensus on donations - How much and under which conditions do you donate (or would donate if you could afford it)? Do you do rare but big donations or small ones spread over lots of causes?
I keep track of my online donations and will show a portion of it below. But first, my philosophy and a story explaining it.
When I was in my early twenties, my dad came to visit me and a guy approached asking for money. My dad gave him $20. I asked how he felt comfortable giving so much not knowing how it would be spent. He answered in two parts.
“First, if he’s going to humble himself enough to ask, he clearly needs it more than I do.” And second, if he spent it on drugs or booze, “if that’s what he needs to get through the night, who am I to judge?”
This stunned me. And I’m happy to say that it shaped my model going forward ever since.
I will never decline someone who asks me to buy them food out of principal. I will give cash when I don’t get a bad feeling about someone and will not when I do; I trust my gut when someone feels off. I don’t give cash in person very often because I usually don’t carry cash, but I do at times. I try not to let the person see the amount because I usually do either $20 or, in rare cases, $100. I fold the bill while they can’t see it and give it to them and walk away before they can have a look. I’m not doing this for clapping.
I’m in a financial position to be able to treat it this way. I’m not suggesting that anyone is a bad person if they can’t be this loose with donations. When I had much less financial security, I gave less often and at lower scale.
Online donations:
$100 1x CCF Fund, Disaster, Los Angeles - Wildfire Recovery Fund $100 1x Mastadon via GiveButter ($118 total after fees) tax-exempt $100 1x Luigi defense fund $100 1x Ukraine $100 1x Trans-inclusive vagina museum $50 1x Ultraviolet (Andrew Tate petition) $50 1x Internet Archive lawsuit music labels $100 1x woman tortured and paralyzed found in storage bin $100 1x Michigan Pro Palestine defense fund $200 1x former software engineer with major depressive disorder $100 1x Kshama Sawant for Congress $100 1x food gift card [email protected] $100 1x SF Bay Area Bench Collective