An uprising of causes has taken our nation by storm. In the consumer world, everywhere we turn there are new social issues that products are dedicated to helping.
The trend is especially prevalent on college campuses where every other student is sporting some form or another of non-profit merchandise.
Despite growing popularity of cause-based items, consumers are getting a lot of heat for their ’empty giving,’ and maybe rightly so.
I believe people have an innate desire to give and to contribute to good works in society. There are noted benefits to a lifestyle that involves giving. People that give are happier, more successful and feel more fulfilled.
It perhaps is true that giving by purchasing products is one of the easiest ways to feel as if one has contributed to the greater good. And the system of purchasing an assortment of different causes’ products does contain a problem: consistency.
Non-profits can get into trouble when they explode in popularity. They are able to sell huge quantities of their goods for an intense but short-lived time before they begin to wane in popularity.
While they do take in a lot of money initially, they have to turn around and invest a lot back in the business to build it up so they can accommodate for the huge growth. After the trend dies out and everyone has contributed their own small amount, they are left with a declining source of support.
It ends up being more harmful to those initially small companies who experience big growth and are then forgotten.
Some, who did not structure themselves to brace for the fall, close up shop in the years after they make it big. And the fortunate ones, who were able to plan ahead and survive the attention crash, must come up with new ways to support themselves.
I once received some advice about giving from a self-made billionaire. He said that it was more meaningful to give a little bit than it was to give a lot. The catch, however, is that you are to give a little bit consistently.
Living a life of giving back is most effective when someone makes a lasting commitment to what they are investing in. People could chose to give a little to every cause they encounter in this world, or they could use their resources to enable an organization to stay alive little by little (or a lot by a lot).
There is so much value in committing long-term and developing a relationship with the receiving ends of people’s contributions.
There is not only the value they will feel in developing a close relationship and staying connected with something they feel strongly about, but there is a reciprocal value for whatever it is they are standing behind. If the outreach recieves a consistent outpour from individuals that truly believe in it, who actively look for ways to help in the long run, who know its needs, and who are invested, it will be so much better off than an organization that survives from one wave of fads to another.
Another bit of advice the billionaire left me with was to always trust that when you give, God will give back more. You will never run out of resources if you give faithfully. Also, you won’t be remembered in life for how much you made for yourself or your company, but for how much you gave.
Though this concept may seem premature for students, who are infamously known for being broke, it is a powerful one to bring to college campuses.
The same students who are loading up on cheap cause merchandise now will someday be running their own businesses or will be in influential positions in their jobs. The habits they incorporate in their life now, however small, will only be amplified as they move forward in life. A flame sparked among students is no small fire.
My challenge for the socially aware is to give for life, to learn about their causes on a deeper and more personal level, to give out of faith and to keep doing what they are doing because, when done right, it really can change the world.
