Flashback: Give What Back to Whom? | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: The article below appeared in John Hood's daily column in his publication, the Carolina Journal, which, because of Author / Publisher Hood, is inextricably linked to the John Locke Foundation.

I've been racing to meet a couple of deadlines this week. So today I offer a piece originally published in 2008 that turns out to be plenty timely, as North Carolina charities begin their end-of-year fundraising drives. I wish them well, but I also wish they would make better arguments. Back later this week with a fresh DJ.

    RALEIGH Leaders of Triangle-area philanthropies, already sharing the national pain as charitable giving follows the stock market into decline, are decrying the region's level of generosity when compared to peer metropolitan areas. They've even launched a new initiative to promote charitable giving among newcomers, be they households or businesses.

    I'm sympathetic to their cause. Not only do I head a nonprofit with annual fundraising goals (that will be a challenge to meet in today's environment), but I've also long been involved in a number of other nonprofits and charities in the Triangle - click here to learn more about my current fave, the Community Music School in Raleigh.

    But it is entirely possible that one reason charities aren't reaching their full potential is that they so often pitch donors with a barely disguised mixture of contempt and accusation. Consider, for example, the name of the new initiative: "Triangle Gives Back."

    Gives what back to whom?

    If you give an item back to someone, that implies it was originally owned by that someone. You can return a good that you borrowed, presumably with interest (which compensates the owner for the time he or she could not make personal use of the good). Or you can return a good that you stole.

    In a market economy, wealth is neither borrowed nor stolen. It is created, by voluntary exchange among individuals who are all made better off by the transaction. Most people who are wealthy do not consider themselves to have borrowed or stolen resources from those who may now find themselves in need. Approaching them on the assumption that they are morally obligated to "give back" their ill-gotten gains is unlikely to motivate most of them to invest more resources in your philanthropic project.

    Another sense of the phrase "giving back" is less accusatory, but still reflects muddy thinking. The argument is that because those who prosper in the market owe their success in part to social and intellectual capital - the kind attention of teachers and caregivers, the web of social networks that form strong communities, the accumulated stock of human knowledge - they should recognize that part of their wealth isn't really theirs but is somehow owned by society at large and should be returned as philanthropy.

    But "society at large" is simply a collection of specific individuals, living or dead. When they teach, heal, invent, trade, or minister, they receive compensation for doing so - be it in the form of money, employee benefits, intellectual stimulation, or personal fulfillment. To suggest that one is morally obligated to "give back" resources to them again suggests that they have been robbed of something, or that the cost of goods and services don't already reflect the time and toil associated with nurturing and training people or coming up with new ideas.

    That's not to say that there aren't occasions when invitations to "give back" aren't appropriate and effective. But they typically involve specific institutions from which a donor has derived a specific benefit in the past - such as alumni donating to their alma maters. Educational institutions, however, aren't the ones struggling the most with attracting generous and consistent donors. It's the soup kitchens, the homeless shelters, the programs for at-risk kids and vulnerable seniors that need a more effective pitch.

    Perhaps I'm just naïve, but I think the best way to make their case is an appeal to the love of humanity, be it a manifestation of divine inspiration or of secular empathy. The words we use, philanthropy and charity, convey this meaning. In the Greek, phil means love and anthropos means humankind. In Latin, caritas means caring, putting a high value on something.

    Rather than calling into question the legitimacy of their personal economic accomplishments, fundraisers should assure donors that if they give, they'll have new accomplishments to feel good about - suffering alleviated, children put on the right path, artistic and cultural legacies preserved for future generations.

    And fundraisers should also keep in mind that for there to be private wealth to dispense, there must be continue to be opportunities to create private wealth without it being confiscated by government. Philanthropy is voluntary and ennobling. The welfare state is coercive and enervating.
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