I have recently realized that the word “charity” has a very negative ring to it in many peoples ears. When I hear the word I think of “a foundation created to promote the public good”. Apparently many think “the providing of goods or money to those in need” and by that relate it directly to the first part of the old saying "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life.". Even though my interpretation of the word includes teaching the man how to fish, I can’t change peoples view of it. That’s why I have decided to stop using “the word” all together. But that presents a problem... What should I use instead that?
As I state in my profile, the innovation I have come up with will be able to drive more money to any “foundation created to promote the public good”. We have decided that we should focus mainly on those working with the UN Millennium Development Goals, and in my mind these goals are all about sustainability (or “teach a man to fish”).
I, personally, have no knowledge of how to save the world. If I tried I would most certainly screw things up even worse then they already are. What we can do with this innovation is generate more money to organizations that know how to save the world. These organizations are the once working to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, but we can help them do so by providing means.
Back to the question. What should we call the organizations that we want to generate money to, and the action of giving money to them? Should we focus on the word “causes” and say e.g. “giving to a cause”? “Cause” is a good word but in my mind it is zooms out on a macro level; many “foundations created to promote the public good” can focus on the same cause. Any help on this would be very appreciated...
Thursday, August 7, 2008
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5 comments:
How about support?
A positive word that express more or less what you describe. I can agree that charity has a negative sound to it (charity case).
But you can support other organisations. You're not just giving them money, you're supporting them.
How do you like the sound of that?
To use "support" instead of "give" is good. "Give" can have a negative ring to it, while "support" doesn't. I'm still searching for a better word for "charity" though... Maybe "cause" complemented with "organisation" is the way to go, I don't know.
Philanthropy?
Altruism?
Some thoughts from a thinking fellow:
"Support" is a good word but still has a tinge of "charity" to it. How about looking at something in the region of the word "bridge" instead?
"To bridge the gap"; isn't that what we are trying to do in a sense?
Isn't a bridge a kind of support or at least a kind of extension to the word "support"?
A longhot: you can build a bridge and you can build software?
Any takers?
"Philanthropy" is a good word which I use a lot. But "altruism" isn't really what I'm going for here...
The problem I have is that the word "charity" says more then one thing; it is both something you engage in and an organization that does good... This is why it is so usefull. Nowdays I usually talk about "causes" and "philanthropical engagement".
To "bridge the gap" is good when it comes to describing what we want to do... I'll keep that in mind.
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