Conclusion on part one
To sum up the theoretical part of our research, we can outline the main classifications concerning cultural patterns: Geert Hofstede’s Dimensions and Leo Apostel’s division of what is called a “worldview”. Further on we are going to analyze the United States and Russian Federation according to these patterns.
The various definitions of charity have been stated. In our opinion, the one which describes this phenomenon has been accurately stated in Macmillan dictionary as it describes the act of almsgiving from different sides.
Charity:
money or food that is given to people who are poor or ill so that they can live;
kindness that you show towards other people by not judging them or criticizng them too severely.
Out of this definition we can make a conclusion that charity is not only the material help, but also the certain traits of character the person possesses to be involved in philanthropy.
Then, two main types of charity have been figured out:
individual charity – money or goods donated by a certain person within the society;
governmental and non-profit charity-giving organizations – one of the branches of governmental development which includes helping people in need.
As our research concerns individually regarded respondents from the two cultures, we will focus on the first type of philanthropy which, in its turn, can be further subdivided into several subclasses:
animal charities – helping zoos, building shelters for homeless pets;
environmental charities – organizing voluntary groups to take care of nature;
international non-governmental charities;
health charity – collecting money for buying medical supplies;
education charity – allowing people who can not pay for the education themselves to learn;
arts and culture charity – rebuilding historical sights and collecting money from exhibitions.
In the second part of our research we are going to find out which types of charities are more preferable to people and if they participate in them or not.
Part two. Charity in cultural contexts
2.1. Charity in usa
The United States can clearly been seen as an individualistic country. The “American dream” is clearly a representation of this. This is the Americans’ hope for a better quality of life and a higher standard of living than their parents. This belief is that anyone, regardless of their status can ‘pull up their boot straps’ and raise themselves from poverty [3; p. 51-52].
American culture values focus on the future. This is the result of many things including the short time the country has been in existence and the short time most have been members of the country. Most Americans have been in the US for a short time. Americans believe that time is money and that it’s perishable - it must be used or it will be wasted [20].
In the United States, a charitable organization is an organization that is organized and operated for purposes that are beneficial to the public interest; however a distinction is made between types of charitable organizations.
A private foundation usually derives its principal fund from an individual, family, corporation, or some other single source and is more often than not a grant maker and does not solicit funds from the public. In contrast, a foundation or public charity generally receives grants from individuals, government, and private foundations and although some public charities engage grantmaking activities, most conduct direct service or other tax-exempt activities.
This leads to another distinction: Foundations that are generally grant makers (i.e. they use their endowment to make grants to other organizations, which in turn carry out the goals of the foundation indirectly) are usually referred to as "grant maker" or "non-operating" foundations. These of course tend to be private foundations. Some private foundations however, (and most public charities) use their received funds to directly engage in service activities themselves and achieve their goals "personally”.
Examples of a non-operating private foundation would be the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Examples of operating foundations or public charities include the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, American Cancer Society, Inc., and the World Wildlife Fund.
What is the attitude of the Americans towards charity?
The first question we have asked the society is about their attitude towards philanthropy. Out of 50 respondents, all the answers have been positive which makes us prove our point of view on USA as a generous and ready to help country. Though USA is considered to be an individualistic country, its goal – “to live in peaceful and well-off society” stands higher than each person’s individual needs.
As a consequence, we expected to see the same statistics concerning the next question, asking about the participation in charity. However, here the answers have split into two unequal parts: 83% of the respondents have already taken part in philanthropic events while 17% did not. It might be the result of a young age, from 18 to 21, which did not let people to get involved in charity due to the lack of time or inability to let their own money into charity.
The statistics has shown that all 100% of questioned people think that such events need to be held. The opinions have spread equally between giving help to:
children;
elderly people;
the ill and handicapped people.
13% of those who answered think that help needs to be delivered to everybody equally. None of the respondents has personal experience or people around them who need direct help immediately which is a positive statistics. Such opinions are based on the opinion formed by mass media as the most widespread charity giving funds in USA are United Way, Salvation Army and Feeding America who take care of so-called “domestic needs” – helping kids who are left without parents, deliver food to elderly people who are unable to cater for themselves and collect the money to buy medicine for ill people. The amounts of money they manage to gather is counted by billions of dollars.
There are different forms in which philanthropy can be delivered. Firstly, it is money. It has never been fashionable to give money to charity, but since pop stars and other famous people have started to take an active part in work for charity, everyone wants to do it. Last year in USA individual people gave 2,700 million dollars away to charity. Companies (factories, other firms, etc.) gave over 1,000 million dollars and the Government gave 4 billion dollars. Pop stars, film stars and other famous people helped to publicize the problems of the poor and hungry people in Africa, children in need everywhere, poverty in the country and killer diseases. In the face of a disaster or the effects of endemic poverty, sometimes it is the most basic of material offerings that can mean the most. Listening to the needs of community in question is paramount. From antibiotics to vitamin A, water purifications tablets to surgical packs—volunteers have been delivering material aid in the form of medical supplies and equipment, medicines and vitamins, education and shelter materials to people in need from its earliest days forward [11; p. 245].
Moral support is a way of giving support to a person or cause, or to one side in a conflict, without making any contribution beyond the emotional or psychological value of the encouragement [2; p. 107].
For example, in a war between two countries or alliances, a third nation may give moral support to one side, without actually participating in the conflict.
By food supplies we understand the products or ready-made food delivered to those in need, e.g. to aged people living alone or organizing the charity point for feeding the homeless.
Cultural events like concerts, excursions, exhibitions not only help to gather the money for the needy but also allow lonely people to feel in demand.
Of course, money is the most universal means of helping people as it allows buying practically everything stated above. Here is how the opinions have spread concerning the form of help:
It is interesting to notice that in USA philanthropic events are held in every place important for people (here we mean school/university/college/workplace). The total of 100% has stated that philanthropic events have been held in there.
Asking about the forms of charity our respondents participated themselves, we proposed the following options:
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The analysis of the statistics has permitted us to find out the two most popular and wide-spread types of charity in USA.
The questionnaire has allowed us to find out that a significant percent of people are the active members of society who regularly take part in volunteer philanthropic events. This lets us suppose that Americans are supporting the equality and aiming at sound society with no strict diversity in social layers. Although nowadays big cities are full of poor and homeless people, the government aims at improving the situation by involving people into helping the others.
Among the most popular charity organizations people distinguished the following ones:
Breast cancer association (http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/) - was founded in 1991 by breast cancer survivor, Janelle Hail. NBCF continues to grow every year to help more and more women around the world by educating them about breast cancer and providing free mammograms to women in need. The National Breast Cancer Foundation's mission is to save lives through early detection and to provide mammograms for those in need. Breast cancer is one of the leading health crises for women in the United States. 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. There is currently no known cure for breast cancer, and its early diagnosis is critical to survival [23].
American Red Cross - prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. It makes no discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions. It endeavors to relieve the suffering of individuals, being guided solely by their needs, and to give priority to the most urgent cases of distress.
United Way (www.liveunited.org/) - a non-profit organization that works with more than 1,200 local United Way offices throughout the country in a coalition of charitable organizations to pool efforts in fundraising and support. The focus of United Way is identifying and resolving pressing community issues, as well as making measurable changes in the communities through partnerships with schools, government agencies, businesses, organized labor, financial institutions, community development corporations, voluntary and neighborhood associations, the faith community, and others. “United Way Worldwide is the leadership and support organization for the network of nearly 1,800 community-based United Ways in 45 countries and territories. We envision a world where all individuals and families achieve their human potential through education, income stability and healthy lives.” [21]
Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation (http://www.dcwaf.org/) - “Spread the word...drink great wine...give back to kids. It is that easy!” By selling the wine to anybody who wants to buy it, the members of DCWAF help a chain of charities: Children in Crisis (“Providing Homes and Establishing Hope” for the abused, neglected and abandoned children of Northwest Florida), Children's Volunteer Health Network (Volunteer doctors and dentists could donate their time, and volunteers would make sure the kids got to their appointments), Children's Advocacy Center (saves and heals child abuse victims), Emerald Coast Autism Center (ECAC’s mission is to improve the lives of young children with autism and their families by providing effective treatment and education options during the critical early education years and beyond), Fisher House of the Emerald Coast (provides a home for military families when someone in their family is undergoing medical treatment at a local facility) [24].
American Cancer Society (http://www.cancer.org/) - for nearly 100 years, the American Cancer Society (ACS) has worked relentlessly to save lives and create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. Together with millions of their supporters worldwide, they’re helping people stay well, helping people get well, finding cures, and fighting back against cancer [22].
Speaking about salary level in USA and whether is high enough or not to donate, we can outline the certain bright quotes of our respondents:
“Salary level is a huge cop-out and the hideout of a scoundrel”
“Regardless of how much or how little money someone has, they can typically part with a small amount for a good cause.”
“In countries where people use this as an excuse, it is typically just a cover for the fact that stinginess may be a national trait.”
From these quotes adding we can outline that people are not happy with their salaries; however, they kind-heartedly donate to it.
It is interesting to find out that despite the negative attitude of Americans to the amount they are paid, they are ready to spend from 10 to 25% of monthly salary on almsgiving. If we take into account the average payment level from 3000 to 5000 dollars, we see that approximately 750-1250 from each person ready to participate for charity needs.
What concerns the corruption in the society, here we can outline the following quotations:
“That is why I make it a check to an organization” (approximately 50% of people are up to checks in order to avoid money going to someone else’s pocket):
A certain percent needs to go towards administrative costs, but this should not exceed 25%.
In Russia this is a bit trickier. Here even Putin will sing "Blueberry Hill" in English during a charity event run by one of his cronies in which not one ruble actually went toward actual charity. So in Russia, I would give to local known charities or only to national charities not affiliated to the authorities in any way.
Yes. Corruption happens in Russia, I guess.
From the aforesaid we can trace the negative attitude towards Russia, the image, created by mass media and transferred abroad is not that positive.
A significant percent of people from USA are ready to devote a huge amount of time to the charity. For some of them, it is the main occupation.
As much time as I have free to do so;
It all depends on the charity and the involvement;
In my situation I might find it easier to donate money, rather than time;
40+ hours weekly;
I work for a charity.
The opinions on who should donate money have split. 50% of the respondents think that charity is mainly a governmental occupation which should be supported by individuals (“Everyone who can donate should do that; however, it will cost 2$ to get 1$ to the needy in USA”). Others are totally against government’s involvement in philanthropy, calling them “the government; full of thieving, bumbling idiots”. Most of the people support church as the source of money for those in need.
Finally, practically all the Americans are assured that in USA charity is the most developed in the world, they call themselves “a culture of generosity”. Europe has also been mentioned as the philanthropic one. Unfortunately, Russia is not on the list.