August 20, 1997

Charities should give thoughtfully

A growing number of people argue that charities can take the place of government welfare programs and do a better job of taking care of the needy.

Can charity replace welfare? The question is up for debate. One thing is certain, however: private, voluntary efforts will fail if they merely mimic government welfare programs.

Dr. Marvin Olasky, a noted author on American charities and their history, sees current trends as an opportunity for nonprofits and charities to shine. But to shine, he notes, many charities must change their ways before they truly help others.

Dr. Olasky, a former Bend Bulletin reporter, draws this conclusion from academic research and personal experience.

While researching for his provocative book, The Tragedy of American Compassion, Olasky spent some time posing as a homeless man on the streets of Washington, D.C. He got a first person understanding of how the down and out were being helped. What he found was compassion without thought.

Olasky discovered that those who purported to be helping the needy were in fact fostering dependency. He found many programs merely prolonged the need-they didn't lift up the needy.

From his experiences and a year of research in the Library of Congress, Olasky identified seven key characteristics of successful charities. The ABCs of successful charities are important to know. Helping others means fostering self-reliance and personal responsibility, not giving food away free for the asking.

According to Olasky, effective charities share many of the following characteristics:

• Affiliation-They renew, establish, and strengthen ties between family, friends, and community.
• Bonding-Develop close relationships between those being helped and those helping.
• Categorization-Tailor solutions to fit the individual.
• Discernment-Distinguish between those who want a helping hand and those looking for a handout. This also means helping individuals recognize and change behavior or decision-making processes that have put them in their predicament.
• Employment-Effective charities offer job-skill training that helps lead to self-sufficiency.
• Freedom-Skill training can include an exchange of work in return for benefits received. For example, individuals who eat at soup kitchens can purchase or prepare food. The goal of successful programs is to promote independence and foster self-sufficiency.
• God of spirituality-Finally, faith plays a major role in turning lives around. Thus, successful programs attend to spiritual, as well as material needs. At a minimum, they help develop a sense of self-worth.

Three examples immediately come to mind of successful organizations whose charitable programs embrace all of the above characteristics in some form: Goodwill Industries, Habitat for Humanity and Portland's Union Gospel Mission. Many, many more exist.

Too many individuals' lives have been merely sustained by well-intentioned, ill-conceived, programs-compassion without thought.

A charitable program should not simply sustain lives; rather, the goal should be to enable individuals to attain their highest potential through the development of their respective abilities and the application of the talents.

Further, charitable programs should give, but they should also ask something of those being helped. By doing so, programs will nurture personal responsibility and a respect for the human dignity of all.

Those who contribute to, volunteer for, or run charities are encouraged to review their activities to see how many of the above ABCs are embraced.

A program that needs managerial fine-tuning, but has a strong philosophical foundation, can positively change individuals' lives. However, the best-run program will not succeed in changing lives if its philosophical foundation is weak.

Dr. Olasky puts if succinctly, "Giving by itself, we need to remember, is morally neutral. We need to give rightly, so as not to impede the development of the values that enable people to get out of poverty and stay out."