I'm another one who really doesn't do Christmas, so if you really want to send me a card, my birthday's a fortnight before it!
D brought home the Oxfam brochure for charitable donations, and I do indeed find it rather odd. Apart from the general oddness of the system, of course the charity is not actually going to use its money according to what the small donors want, otherwise there'd be far too many goats and nowhere near enough sanitation. However, I imagine that the amount of money which comes from such donations is small enough that there will never be a problem with, say, more people donating money to buy goats than actual goats bought, if that makes sense. So it's a sort of polite fiction. I reckon it's a clever idea because it makes people feel more involved with the charity and where the money's going. It's perfect for people in a situation such as a wedding where they genuinely do not want gifts and would rather than gift-givers with money to spare give it to charity, but the gift-givers want to give something present-like.
no subject
D brought home the Oxfam brochure for charitable donations, and I do indeed find it rather odd. Apart from the general oddness of the system, of course the charity is not actually going to use its money according to what the small donors want, otherwise there'd be far too many goats and nowhere near enough sanitation. However, I imagine that the amount of money which comes from such donations is small enough that there will never be a problem with, say, more people donating money to buy goats than actual goats bought, if that makes sense. So it's a sort of polite fiction. I reckon it's a clever idea because it makes people feel more involved with the charity and where the money's going. It's perfect for people in a situation such as a wedding where they genuinely do not want gifts and would rather than gift-givers with money to spare give it to charity, but the gift-givers want to give something present-like.