Use Chairities; They are Free Marketing Tools

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Using Charities

Adapted from "Hey You" by fragallo

Something recently really made my blood boil. My colleague was sharing with me about how some business out there are misrepresenting charities by using their organizations' logos when doing their sales pitch.

In a recent case, it so happened that there was this company who was going around trying to get people to attend a talk by their company and their prospect were given a lucky draw ticket at the end which bore logos of charitable organization, one of the logos belonged to my organization and we are not aware of any partnership with this company.

Now, it is not just the fact that the organization I am working in is misrepresented that really made me mad but I was like thinking: "What audacity! Where's their conscience? Why use charitable organizations for your own business agenda?!" It is as if charities in Singapore haven't got enough on their hands to deal with, given all the recent developments and scandals in the social service scene, which had most likely reduced public's confidence of voluntary welfare organizations. Now these "unethical" companies have to come in to further complicate matters. It does help to know that some of these salesperson were very aggressive when doing their sales pitch...

And you know what? When we subsequently lodged a police report, we were told that very little could be done unless the member of the public who alerted us about the matter or our organization wants to sue the company for misrepresentation. I mean, don't VWOs have better ways to spend their money on beneficiaries rather than on unethical people and pursuing legal action against these people?

I really am wondering what the relevant governmental bodies are doing about this matter because up till now, it seems that the sector is taking a rather passive stance towards the whole matter and only reacting to it whenever there are cases of such misrepresentation. Already, I am starting to have doubts when I am constantly approached by people at MRT stations selling donation tickets from some supposedly unheard of organizations. Yet, they are able to produce a copy of the police license (which in my opinion seems like a simple piece of paper that can be easily reproduced). Do we have to wait till some big scandal happen again before we decide to act? What are all these people thinking of?!

I am a Volunteer Too!
I am also quite disappointed when it comes to newspaper reports on volunteerism. In my line of work, I track newspaper articles on volunteerism everyday and it is only rarely will you have articles on it. However, in recent weeks, with the unveiling of the political candidates for elections, you can always see how there is so much mention of this candidate doing volunteer work here, volunteer work there. I just hope people do not use volunteerism as a tool to build their profile...

In a Spiritual Desert
Of late, I have also been feeling "spiritually dry", feeling that I have not been growing mch spiritually. I must admit that I haven't been disciplined enough to have my quiet time with God, pray and read the bible, maybe that's the reason why I am in a "spiritual desert" now... It just feels different... I am also struggling with the decision whether to go for missions trip or not. It seems pretty much impossible for me to join my cell group for their missions trip to China in October as I foresee that that period will be a peak period at work but yet I am not comfortable enough to join another group for missions trip, given my social anxiety.