Here we are again at that time of the year when we begrudgingly haul a year's worth of crinkled up receipts and spuriously work related purchase invoices in to the accountants, ask them to make sense of it all and provide us with a fat refund cheque at the end. Inevitably at some time in the conversation between justifying six hundred dollars worth of stationary and explaining that your 'Guitar Player' magazine subscription was in fact necessary for keeping up with industry trends, the accountant will ask you about donations to charity. If you are like most of us you will donate a few bucks at the traffic lights, maybe sign up to sponsor a friend for a marathon for a worthy cause, maybe sponsor a child or give to the salvos a few times a year. Generally for your efforts you will receive a pin, a sticker, a fridge magnet or in some cases even a sticker to display proudly your affiliation with said charity which brings me to my point. How much of our motivation is the actual 'sticker' itself or indeed how important is displaying our affiliation with the charity to others and for what reason do we do this. In Melbourne currently the 3RRR radiothon is up and running. 3RRR for those who don't know is a community based radio station which relies solely on subscriber donations to keep it on the air. Every August they have a subscriber drive and through donations they offer subscribers the chance to win prizes for subscribing during this month. Perhaps the best thing you get for your money though is a shiny 10cm x 20cm sticker that simply says 3RRR to display proudly your affiliation with this station. But what does this sticker actually say about you and why would you choose to display it so prominently on your car/house/bike/ etc. Well for starters it says that there is a fairly high chance that you live/work somewhere north of the river or have done at some point in your life and are vicariously staying there by listening to 3RRR on a regular basis. It says you are into independent music, interviews and thought provoking discussion on a wide variety of topics. It says that you reject being subjected to shit music trying not to be too offensive with the purpose of getting you to stay tuned until the next advertisement is blasted through your speakers stimulating your desire to consume endlessly. It also says that you were willing to spend seventy bucks to keep a station that promotes free speech and independent music alive. And isn't that a lovely image of yourself to put forward to the world. I bothered to spend money on a worthy cause. And 3RRR is by no means the only organisation that does this. Consider all of the Amnesty International stickers on the backs of cars around town. It's pretty nice being able to instantly tell people that you are a proud supporter of human rights, a community radio station and that you like to vote green all simply by getting stuck in traffic. However think for a minute about all of the worthy causes that don't have stickers. And also think about all the kids that are starving in the world that weren't lucky enough to have World Vision take their photo and write a blurb in English appealing for help. I'm not saying for a minute that the charities that use stickers as part of their marketing campaign are not worthy of your dollars, I am simply making a point that the idea that true charity is anonymous is a point worth thinking about. Many charities require behind the scenes help, often with no actual interaction with the recipient of the benefits. That's not to say that the guy that volunteers to clean the Amnesty International offices once a week, or the guy that letter drops all day hoping to raise awareness of the plight of malnourished children in developing countries, are not doing just as much as those who receive recognition through displaying their affiliations and donations to the world. As I mentioned before, true charity is anonymous. It feels great to hand over a fiver to the guy selling the Big Issue on the corner and watching him smile as you hand over your money but the feeling is slightly different when you hand over a donation to a doorknocker for the same cause. It is a hollow gesture that is made simply to make us feel better about ourselves, but can you really disagree with the fact that at least part of the reason for donating is to feel like you have been a decent person and done something good? Even the most giving and selfless souls in our society are driven by the self motivation that making the world a better place is the right thing to do. Rather than devaluing this feeling and making anyone feel bad for having it I am encouraging the contrary. After you have subscribed to 3RRR (and you should), and received your 'xxxxxxx' sticker in the mail from 'xxxxxxx' charity, consider doing something for which you will receive no recognition, no payback, no thanks and indeed no sticker.
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