Giving Policy
by Kathy Brown on August 13th, 2009 | 0 comments
As mentioned in the last post, here is the Giving Policy of Rochester Network for Re-Entry:
Giving Policy
He has showed you, o man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
The following document has been adopted by Rochester Network for Re-Entry to guide us in the acting justly and showing mercy in giving the poor what they truly need and not what we or they think they need. We encourage our volunteers to make a significant investment in the lives of recipients through relationships based on truth and accountability while expecting the recipient to become a participant in being responsible for their own life while learning to help another.
The following are the seven marks of compassion from the Tragedy of American Compassion by Marvin Olasky:
Affiliation. Effective compassion should foster, not weaken, the natural ties of family obligation, neighborliness, and community assistance.
Bonding. The essential and salutary connection between committed volunteers and motivated recipients almost always requires sleeves rolled up, not charity with tongs.
Categorization. Useful giving must allow, even require, donors and volunteers to use their best judgment in treating people as individuals according to their particular strengths and needs.
Discernment. A hard head, reminding us that both the giving and the withholding of charity can be blessings, should accompany the soft heart.
Employment. Abraham Lincoln may have summarized this principle best in saying, “You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could, and should, do for themselves.”
Freedom. Everyone should enjoy the opportunity to work, grow, and worship without the restrictions that virtually always accompany government subsidy, and everyone should be encouraged to see that he holds the power of his own success.
God. The overwhelming majority of successful charitable efforts have been spiritually informed to the benefit of donors, volunteers and recipients alike.
Rules for Giving:
To give relief only after personal investigation of each case . . .
To give necessary articles and only what is immediately necessary . . .
To give what is least susceptible of abuse.
To give only in small quantities in proportion to immediate need; and less than might be procured by labor, except in cases of sickness.
To give assistance at the right moment; not to prolong it beyond duration of the necessity which calls for it . . .
To require of each beneficiary abstinence from intoxicating liquors and any mood altering drugs.
To discontinue relieving all who manifest a purpose to depend on charity rather than their own efforts for support.
Charity that gives away money too freely does not work. It causes the recipients to be takers and not givers. At Rochester Network for Re-Entry we believe that in life we are not recipients but participants.
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