Incentives for Participation Should be Ruled Out

The purpose of donating to charities is to give those in need the opportunity to experience a better life. Seeing the smile after feeding a hungry patient or knowing that one action just saved another’s life is what motivates an individual to give rather than take. Schools encourage these actions, but make the mistake of rewarding students with incentives such as extra credit or a pass on an assignment. Volunteering shouldn’t be giving to get something in return.

It isn’t right for students to donate to fundraisers only to be rewarded for their participation. It defeats the purpose of giving for others. The feeling of satisfaction of helping others in need should be enough.

Key Club is a volunteer organization with the focus on making the community better by volunteering at local events and donating money to charities. There are some members of the club who volunteer for the altruistic reasons, while some do it to receive letters and cords, in which one must have a certain number of volunteer hours.

Another reason why people work hard to earn these hours is because colleges look for people who like to give back to the community. There is no way for colleges to know who is genuinely giving from the heart and those who do it for the benefits. Cords and letters are the best way to identify these people.

On the other hand, incentives do increase the amount of people who participate, which, in the big picture, is an effective method of drawing people’s attention. More people get involved and more people’s lives better from it. Schools participate in the Canned Food Drive every year. It’s the spirit of competition that makes students go out to the grocery store and raid their kitchens to get every canned food and donate it to Elks Lodge. This proves to be a better alternate method of getting people to donate, rather than being handed out incentives; this doesn’t include a pizza party given to the class after the Food Drive is over.

The more people who donate to charities, the faster the community can become a better place. This generation has developed a lot of assumptions around people being selfish, and it would be better for the world if warm-hearted people proved these accusations to be invalid.