Tag: donations

#oneaday, Day 345: Leader of Men

I’ve never seen myself as the “leader” type. I follow orders well, but when I’m asked to take charge of something, I find myself thinking whether or not I’m “qualified” to make those decisions, particularly if they’re on behalf of other people. Now, I’m a qualified teacher, so in the most literal sense of the term I am qualified to make decisions on behalf of other people. But if you’re the sort of person who suffers a bit from self-doubt or a lack of self-confidence, then it’s difficult to make yourself get into a position to “lead” others.

Which is why I’ve kind of surprised myself with stepping up to the plate for next year’s One A Day Project. And also why I’m even more surprised that people—some of whom I don’t even know directly (yet)—appear to be flocking to the cause. Apparently either my word carries some degree of influence, or people think it’s actually a good idea.

I think it’s a good idea. Yes, some may argue that the more relaxed rules of next year aren’t strictly “one a day” in the most literal sense. And to that I say, “I agree”. But it’s a compromise. Those who do want to go the whole hog and commit to a post every day, I applaud you. (And yes, I am applauding myself right now.) Those who don’t feel they can commit to a post every single day, that’s absolutely fine too. Personally, while I am a fan of writing something every day and believe that both I and this blog have got something out of it, it’s not for everyone, depending on work, family commitments and all manner of other things. So it makes sense to relax the rules a bit in order to allow as many people as possible to participate.

And that, I guess, is what heading up some sort of project is all about—listening to a variety of viewpoints, weighing up the pros and cons and coming to some sort of compromise that makes as many people as possible happy.

I’m really pleased with the amount of interest people have shown in the new project so far, and I promise I won’t keep banging on about it over here too much. But I thought I’d just share the fact that we’re up to 24 participants (with a few more sign-ups in my inbox that I’ll be putting on the site once I’ve flown back from the US to the UK… boo) and we have had our first monetary donation to Cancer Research. We’ve also earned 153 minutes of crisis and suicide prevention services on behalf of To Write Love On Her Arms via ad clickthroughs.

It may not sound like a lot until you consider the fact that we haven’t started yet. (Those of us who are starting on January 1st, that is.) Hopefully once everyone starts contributing, there’ll be a wealth of content for people to enjoy, and said people will be happy to contribute their time or their money to the charities we’re supporting to show their appreciation.

So yes; I know that “#oneaday” doesn’t mean one a day next year. But that’s fine; it’s going to bring a bunch of people together to do something awesome. And it feels pretty good to be an important part of that.

#oneaday, Day 321: Charities Have No Use For Your Avatar

Are you morally-conscious? Feel like you should be doing more to help your fellow man, but feeling a bit strapped for cash at the moment? Don’t feel like putting together some sort of fund-raising event because, after all, it is a bit cold outside and it might snow.

Never fear! Web 2.0 is here to allow you to assuage your guilt without any need for financial or time outlay! All you need to do is change your profile picture and/or status to something vaguely related to the charity that you would like to support and that counts as you having Done Your Bit when it comes to Judgement Day. Me? I like the Cats Protection League, so I shall be donning a LOLcats avatar for the day.

Grumble, moan etc. I know. And I have a sneaking suspicion I may have mentioned this before.

The above piece of sarcasm is proudly sponsored by today’s Facebook and Twitter campaign to get as many people as possible to change their avatars to their favourite cartoon characters of the 80s or 90s. This, apparently, counts as you “joining the fight against child abuse”, and has been attributed to the NSPCC by several people. Go look at the NSPCC front page right now. Do you see any mention of any campaign “not to see a human face on Facebook until Monday, December 6th”?

No. I certainly don’t. Probably because it actually has nothing to do with the NSPCC whatsoever, and probably because the NSPCC would rather you got off your arse and either did something to raise money for them or just reached into your pocket and sent them a tenner.

“Donating” your Facebook status or a tweet means nothing. And the “it’s just a bit of fun” defence is bollocks, too; there are plenty of people out there who feel like changing their avatar (a task which takes, ooh, a minute at most?) and/or copy-pasting a status is absolutely “doing their bit” and absolves them of any sense of responsibility, putting them on the same level as someone who has diligently, say, organised a sponsored run, bake sale, 48 hour Desert Bus marathon, three-week charity wankathon, whatever. It doesn’t.

This isn’t a rant saying that everyone should donate to charity. I don’t—at the moment I can’t afford to. It’s up to everyone whether they would like to support a charity that deals with an issue they feel strongly about. But “supporting” that charity means just that—supporting them and the work that they do. That means giving them some money, or some of your time, or just walking into one of their shops and buying a dodgy velvet jacket for a 70s night or something.

It doesn’t mean changing your fucking avatar. How many people out there copy-pasted that status and changed their avatar and then felt all smug and self-righteous before going on to do other things, forgetting all about the fact that they hadn’t actually donated any money to the charity in question, who probably had nothing to do with the campaign in the first place?

So don’t let me stop you changing your avatars to your favourite cartoon characters. If you do, though, at least be honest about why you’re doing so—perhaps you think Superted is awesome, in which case, say so and don’t hide behind some kind of false altruism—or actually follow up what you’re doing with a donation.

Rant over.

Actually, no it’s not.

Girls, next time you feel tempted to post something that the “men won’t get” in an attempt to “promote breast cancer awareness”, realise that we all know what you’re doing and would again much rather you just donate to a worthy cause like MacMillan, rather than supposedly “raising awareness” by being deliberately obtuse. How the fuck does that even work?

Rant over. For reals, yo. Take care of yourself. And each other.