Microphilanthropy

MSN had an interesting article talking about “microphilanthropists” – people that make small donations to charitable causes on a regular basis.

Acknowledging that most causes still rely primarily on the Bill Gateses of the world, we are seeing more people giving a bit of support here and there. Social media is responsible for a lot of it, most notably after the earthquake in Haiti where a huge amount of money was raised through text message giving.

And interesting observation was:

“Since most of the money charities receive is from an older population, and the strongest demographic of Web users is a significantly younger one, asking for micro-donations online has bridged the gap.”

Yeah. Historically, my contributions have been:

1. At the holidays.
2. In the aftermath of a natural disaster.
3. When a friend (or a friend’s kid) is doing something to actively support a cause.

I guess that third one is where the social media comes in. Although I want to say that the word “actively” is operative in my sentence. I don’t support causes because my friends “Like” them. I will support a friend participating in a walk/run, or shaving his head. And a colleague’s kid was in a jump rope marathon. I am totally behind a kid in a jump rope marathon. The point is it is the doing that impresses me.

Where I could do better is incorporating it into my everyday life, as opposed to “event” giving. But something really rubs me the wrong way about direct depositing (or whatever) gifts to causes. And I rather figured that concentrating my efforts would do the most good.

I don’t have the answer here, but I am glad to know that organizations are finding more ways to reach out to people, and that people are responding to those efforts.