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Why do people donate money to Quechua Benefit? This question is of paramount importance to the charity: One which the board of directors gives a considerable amount of thought to answering. Quechua Benefit knows that alpaca breeders from around the world are generous; they have donated more than $1,000,000 to the charity since 1996. But if we can definitively discover the “why” we will be able to become more worthy and therefore raise more money and address more needs among one of the poorest populations on earth. The heart of the answer lies with you.
Mother Teresa said “If I look at the masses I will never act, if I look at one I will”. This simple wisdom reveals a facet of the question; why do people donate money to Quechua Benefit and also may tell us a little about why people do not donate. There are in fact many reasons why people do not give to a particular charity or why they may give to one cause and not another.
It is a well documented fact that the farther from home or the less personal the need, no matter how worthy, the less likely people will be to give money to the cause. The 2004 tsunami that hit Asia killed more than 200,000 people and left millions homeless. Americans responded mightily to the Asian catastrophe giving 1.5 billion dollars to various disaster relief efforts. In contrast when 1600 people died during Katrina Americans donated 6.5 billion dollars. New Orleans is much closer to home and more personal than a Southeast Asia beach and Americans responded accordingly.
People feel the need to take care of their own but it also illustrates a challenge for Quechua Benefit who is raising money to help a largely anonymous people in a remote area of the world. Grants for causes in Peru are also very hard to come by. Many large charitable trusts do not allocate money to Peru. Thank goodness for alpaca breeders who feel a more intimate connection to the Quechua by way of their alpacas.
People are also less likely to give to a hopeless situation where only a small percentage of the affected population will be helped. Studies have shown that appeals that offer to save 75% of 100 people are more likely to gather donations than appeals that suggest the same amount of money will save 25% of 1,000 people even though a much larger absolute number of people would be saved. After 13 years Quechua Benefit knows the feeling of helplessness or futility that arises from only being able to serve only a fraction of the need. We have had to leave long lines of people waiting for rotten teeth to be removed. But that is no reason not to go, not to return; not to try or not to contribute.
When money becomes the sole means by which people can help they are proven to be less likely to donate. This is a particular problem for Quechua Benefit. Peru is remote and hard for volunteers to access. It often costs more to ship donated clothes and supplies than it costs to buy them in country. And then there is the problem of the “aduana” or customs. We learned the hard way by having donations of clothing and dental equipment seized even though we had approval letters signed by the Peruvian Consulate in the United States. Every time a team goes through customs in Lima I hold my breath.
The reasons that people do not donate to Quechua Benefit are common to any charity. Sadly there are many more often complex reasons why people decide not to donate to a particular cause. Quechua Benefits goal is to find ways to persuade people like you to make us your charity of choice. Some of things we are doing in this regard follow.
The Quechua Benefit website and newsletter work hard to bring the charities efforts closer to each of you. We want you to see the nexus between your donations and the results on the ground in Peru. We want to introduce you to the people who you are helping by picture and word. In the future we will follow Mothers Teresa’s admonition to relate our efforts to the individuals in need, not the masses. You will be introduced to each of the boys and girls who make Casa Chapi home. You will learn the life stories of people who make the way to our clinics, food kitchens and disaster relief lines.
The Judeo Christian ethic is founded on the belief that helping those less fortunate than ourselves is a condition of our salvation. To make sure we understand the importance of giving the Bible adds a lot of stick with the carrot of an eternal life lived in heaven. Jesus said it is how we act toward “the least of these brothers of mine” that will decide whether we burn in hell or inherit the Kingdom of God. The New Testament places a high priority on charity.
Judaism is the source of thousands of references to helping the needy. The Talmud says caring for the poor is more important than all of the other commandments combined. To the Jews charity is synonymous with justice.
Alpaca breeders outside of South America have the means to give. We live in some of the most privileged societies on earth. If the approximately 10,000 breeders living in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand simply contributed the cost of a few bottled waters a week, or a Starbucks or two, or maybe a bottle of wine weekly each breeder could contribute one dollar per day and Quechua Benefit would raise over $350,000 per year or almost double what we are currently receiving annually. The additional funds would do wonders.
I don’t mean to trivialize the act of giving or suggest it does not include sacrifice especially in these challenging economic times. My point is that we could do a tremendous amount of good without material affecting our quality of life.
I also don’t mean to suggest that people from rich nations are not very very generous. Most developed countries give at least 1 ½% of their gross national product. In the United States it is generally accepted that 7 out of 10 families give to charities. Wealthy men like Warren Buffett recognize the social advantage of living in a prosperous country when he says “If you stick me down in the middle of Bangladesh or Peru you’ll find out how much talent is going to produce in the wrong kind of soil.” He acknowledged the moral obligation imposed by his good fortune of being born in the United States when he pledged to donate his 37 billion dollar fortune to charity.
Bill Gates read that 500,000 children die every year from diarrhea caused by rotavirus, which was something about which he knew nothing. This led him to create a 30 billion dollar charitable foundation. If you go to their website you will find the following goal prominently displayed, “All lives, no matter where they are being lived, have equal value.” His goal is to literally save the world. But I was struck by the need to make sure that the Quechua people’s lives are made important to the people who we ask to contribute funds to Quechua Benefit.
Maybe Gates and Buffett have pondered the biblical admonishment that it easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get through the gates of heaven. Maybe but I don’t think so, I believe humans know that they must care for others if we are to survive and prosper. This belief is at the heart of family and is the basis for every long lived society.
Money is the most likely way that you will be able to help the Quechua. A very high percentage of your donation dollar, at least 90 cents is delivered directly to the Quechua. The portion of the 10 cents that we spend on fund raising activities like our annual Futurity Banquet or our website will continue to be tightly controlled and monitored for effectiveness. None of our donations are spent on salaries for board members or administrative staff. The charities tax returns and financial statements are posted on Quechuabenefit.org for all to see. We will work hard to make our finances transparent.
In the future there will be a home for volunteers from around the world to live in at Casa Chapi while they volunteer and where they will be able to observe the orphanage. Quechua Benefit will continue to arrange medical missions, eye clinics and dental trips staffed by volunteers. To date more than 150 alpaca breeders and care givers have trekked to Peru to pull teeth, adopt a child, administer to the sick, prescribe eye glasses and work on the construction of Casa Chapi. There will be many more missions.
The Quechua Benefit board of directors would like you to hear from you. Why do you donate to the charity or more importantly why do you not donate to the charity. What changes could we make to earn your future donations? We know you are generous and we want to be worthy of your support.
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