Donation and Charity

Charity is a selfless, voluntary act. Most of the time, people donate to charity because they want to help those in need. They do it without expectations and they do it because it is ethical. Ethics are the moral principles that affect a person’s decisions. If a person donates only for the incentives that come from it, it is unethical because charity is not an exchange of goods of services, it is a voluntary contribution. Although offering incentives can make charities more productive, it is completely unethical because it undermines the importance of doing the right things for the right reasons. The ultimate purpose of charity is to unselfishly give without receiving. It is unethical to reward individuals for donating to charity because their motives are skewed and the only reason they donated was to gain something in return. Offering incentives makes it a profitable act, not a charitable act. For instance, some teachers offer additional points if students bring in donations to help the less fortunate. The only reason many students would bring in any contributions is because it would be beneficial to them. And if the students who bring in a can of soup only pass because of those extra five points, how will that help them in the future? Some may say that by encouraging people to donate items, it creates the habit of charity and is a step in the process. But if an increase in your class ranking is based solely on a can of soup, then that is unjust because the student who had enough money to buy that can of soup has an upper hand over the student who couldn’t afford to donate any food. In addition, some jails also offer incentives to contribute to the good of a community. Various jails shorten convicts’ jail sentence if they agree to perform community service and do volunteer work. That completely defies the purpose of charity because the main reason any convict would perform community service is to be released early, not to help their community. While it’s