I find this totally unacceptable. Go Fund Me sites are intended to support people who are experiencing unforeseen situations and tragedies in their lives; NOT to finance activities.
Well sadly in America, teachers are expected to fund classroom projects from their own pocketbooks. I have a friend who teaches Special Education and she and another teacher used GoFundMe to raise monies for a much needed piece of playground equipment that benefited their class and everyone that has come after. At that time, I could not afford to give. While it is more blessed to give than to recieve, to have the means to give is indeed a blessing and being so blessed comes with duty and responsibility. So I think it is good that we can have a forum to exchange ideas about when, why and how without controversy. Since writing is the only way we can share our experiences we do run into the "boasting" area the OP didn't care for.
Kickstarter is another on-line site that is used more for launching businesses, finishing projects, etc. Successful Kickstarters DO offer something in return and usually different things at different levels of giving. In either site, no matter what size contribution you ask for, you are required to meet the goal in a certain length of time or you get nothing. The teachers got the playground equipment but as another member pointed out she wasn't able to help sway the cost of cremation for her mother. Was it a failure to give? Or a failure to care?
I donated recently to Peacable Projects, directly as a result of this thread. I'm sharing, not boasting of this, because after years of reading hundreds of threads of which Rebekkah Scott has been involved with, I know she is ethical. I know she has organized people and gone out and picked up toilet paper and trash along the Camino and I TRUST what was given will allow her donativo to continue doing good work for pilgrims and keeping the Camino clean and green. I wish it could have been more.
We are given the seeds to sow. That's the easy part. The hard part comes when the garden needs weeding. We all love a harvest. Celebrating the harvest is a universal theme throughout cultures and aeons. People still need a reason to celebrate. It's why we have birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and even pilgrimages. But my dad gardened and he loved tending it. Pulling the weeds out, taking off the bad fruit, every aspect. I found much of what I learned boring at the time but still he showed me. My favorite job was picking the veggies and the fruit because I knew eating them was right behind that. Daddy knew I was impatient, knew I didn't like the growing/maturing process but he sowed anyway. Why? Because he knew I would be an amazed wondrous girl at the harvest. It is the same with our heavenly Father/Mother/Creator. One day the seeds become ours. How we spread them is up to us. Spread them too thinly, you risk nothing germinating. Lay them too thick and nothing can grow.
Personally I think we need to realize that it's not about the Haves/Have Nots. In giving, there is only the Cads/Cads Nots. And even if the person asking you to give is a Cad, imagine how impoverished you have to be ask someone else for money, even if you don't need it, ESPECIALLY if you don't need it. So sew a seed or two or three. It won't break your bank and if you have any conception of heaven, you will never know what your giving gave birth to until the after-life. We will see then how the Divine Intelligence, the entity I choose to call God, used my mistakes and right choices for good.
My long-winded point is this. We are all stewards. We can give/not give. We can cause the rain to fall or not. I will give. I believe in the goodness of people despite evidence to the contrary. That's not wisdom. That's hope.
And I still wouldn't contibute to the Camino of someone who has seen it and walked it. I would rather figure out how much wine I might drink on my Camino and give that instead to the donatavios.
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