Should I Donate?

What do I want to find out:

Explore what pupils think about charity locally and globally, and their attitudes towards different approaches to poverty alleviation. Find out whether pupils feel they have a responsibility to participate and to what extent they are able to critically evaluate options for charitable giving. 

What do I need?

• Four opaque ‘ballot’ boxes labelled local, national, international, not sure.
• One piece of paper per pupil.

 What do I do?

• Ask the pupils the following questions: “Which are you more likely to donate to – a local charity, a national charity or international charity, or are you not sure?”
• Ask the pupils to write their answer on a piece of paper with the reason for their choice and why they did not choose the other options. They should drop it into the appropriate box.

How do I analyse the results?

• Count the number of votes for each selection.
• Notice what the balance is between local, national and international. Are pupils more likely to favour local charities?
• Examine their reasons for their choices, are there stereotyped ideas expressed? Do they have negative or positive feelings about charity?
• To what extent do pupils feel a responsibility to act to prevent deeper problems or conflict, or to prevent abuses of human rights?
• In the ‘not sure’ category, look for examples of critical thinking. Are there any comments that ask for more information before making a choice?
• Note what examples of critical thinking pupils express through their reasons.

How do I measure the change?

Depending on the time between each audit, you can repeat the activity exactly, or use the following alternative activity which explores the same issues.

• Show pupils contrasting images of charity appeals. Choose your contrast from:

Local (specific to your community) vs global (universal issue),

Minority World vs Majority World,

Social issue (hunger) vs environmental issue (species extinction),

Natural disaster (hurricane) vs human impact disaster (homelessness).

• Ask pupils to write down five words that the appeals make them think of.
• Ask pupils which of the pair of contrasting appeals they would choose to donate to and to give reasons to justify their choice.
• Record their responses and reasons given.

• Note which arguments the pupils give to support their answers. Both positive and negative attitudes towards collections should be recorded. Are pupils able to justify the extent to which they are willing to donate? Are pupils identifying real barriers to donating, or are they expressing apathy or disengagement?

For example “I would not donate because there is nothing in it for me. I have my own problems.” is not the same as “No, I would not donate because I have no money of my own.” or “No, I would not donate because I don´t want to just be a passive donor. I want to help actively.”

• Note whether they explain their attitude from a personal perspective (why I can or cannot do certain things), or whether they take a wider perspective (it is necessary to contribute to the solution of other people’s problems by other means than collections)
• Observe whether pupils show an increased understanding in the relationship between human behaviour and natural disasters, and the interconnectivity between local and global.
• Look for a shift of pupils´ opinions from giving money as a solution to all problems, towards an awareness of campaigns for social justice and the root causes of poverty.

How do I analyse the results?

Analyse if the pupils think about the collections in a positive way, if they trust them (or consider them to be fraudulent), which beneficiary they relate to the collections most often (sick and disabled people, homeless people, help to disaster areas, victims of war).

Where pupils discuss the arguments in favour or against these charity collections, it is important to analyse the justifications from these perspectives:

• Activity of the pupil (degree of proactivity in dealing with their own problems and the problems at local and global levels)
• they explain their attitude from a personal perspective (why I can or cannot do certain things, why I can or cannot contribute to the solution)

They take a wider perspective (it is necessary to contribute to the solution of other people problems by other means than collections, for example these pupils will realise that there is a relationship between their behaviour and the climate change that results in devastating floods or what should the state provide out of taxation and what should be the voluntary contribution of concerned individuals?).