A Look Inside: Article Series
Why can’t we give people living in poverty more money?
The most concise answer is simple—because poverty is about more than money. Poverty is multidimensional and complex. I describe it that way for a specific reason (Check out a breakdown of Oxford’s Multidimensional Poverty Index on the book’s website here). Alleviating poverty will require meaningful contributions and effort from all of us—not just governments giving foreign aid, corporations contributing via their CSR efforts, and non-profits working tirelessly on social justice projects. With that in mind, everyone should learn more about how to give.
In Uplift and Empower, I differentiate between two primary types of giving: sympathetic giving and expectant giving. The idea isn’t new. James L. Payne, the author of Overcoming Welfare, wrote about the terms in the '90s, and I cite him in my writing. Sympathetic giving is a hand-out. It is giving based on how much sympathy or pity we feel for the recipient. One example of sympathetic giving is volunteering at the soup kitchen once or twice a year around the holidays...and never going back. In more academic terms, it is a form of paternalism, which is a nice way of saying that the donor-recipient relationship is more of a parent-child relationship.
In contrast, expectant giving is a hand-up and a form of exchange. One example of expectant giving is working in exchange for aid. Keeping in line with my soup kitchen example, expectant giving in that context would be a soup kitchen that implements a small charge. Expectant giving is a form of partnership where both sides benefit and interact as equals. In Uplift and Empower, I share more details and examples of what partnerships in poverty alleviation look like and how they contrast to more paternalistic methods of giving.
While expectant giving is useful in theory, it is harder to implement in reality. Imagine if a person in need was searching for food available in their community when they hit a rough patch. One soup kitchen charged every adult a quarter meal fee and every child five cents. The other was free. Where would you go?
Beyond that scenario, who wants to be the person advocating for giving...less? And not just giving less but telling people to work to be helped too!
As I write in Uplift and Empower, “If you aren’t willing to give, no one considers the idea that you are thinking about the downsides to constant giving over time. Instead, you are labeled as selfish, racist, sexist, or heartless. Yet, advocating against sympathetic giving is not advocating for less help. It’s advocating for a higher quality of help."
If you've made it this far (thank you!), I challenge you to act on your new knowledge by:
Ordering a copy of Uplift and Empower so you can learn more about these terms and why they are so critically important to the future of poverty alleviation. (Tip: If you donate 17 USD or more to the Uplift and Empower scholarship fund, I will send you a SIGNED copy of the book!)
Checking out the “How Can You Help?” page on UpliftandEmpower.com to learn more about how you can help in substantive ways within the three broad dimensions of poverty.
Remembering that poverty alleviation is about more than money. Don’t just donate and consider social problems out of sight and out of mind. Take action and find ways to transfer your skills, knowledge, and connections to someone with a low-income where you live.
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Short Excerpt From Part Four of Uplift and Empower:
I’ll never forget the Thanksgiving holiday I spent volunteering at my town’s local soup kitchen, partially because the year prior my mother had somehow managed to convince me running a 5K on Thanksgiving Day was a good idea—anything sounded better than that—but primarily because of how fulfilled I felt having done a good deed.
I arrived in the morning excited to contribute. Having volunteered a few times in the past to fulfill school requirements, I was confident I knew the drill. I would be helping to prepare the food, clean up the serving hall, and serve the food as patrons arrived. Given my utter lack of cooking abilities, I didn’t do much on the preparation end aside from moving ingredients between the storage room and the kitchen. Cleaning went by quickly with the help of some fellow volunteers, but it was during food service that I was able to shine.
I played an active role and served portions of both the main course and dessert items salvaged from a local restaurant. I made an effort to serve each person with a smile, and I convinced myself it made a difference. Little did I know my quick jaunt into the world of volunteering was exactly how not to help.
I was engaging in what I learned through my research is called “sympathetic giving,” which has proven time and again to be an ineffective approach to helping low-income populations get back on their feet. Though the experience made me feel better and left a lasting impression on my well-intentioned heart, I can’t recall the last time I went to volunteer at the soup kitchen today. It is, as I will now explain, for the best…
