Social Responsibility vs. Charity

A continual struggle within our organization centers around the fact that while our mission can be viewed as rather vague ("...contribute to the development of our communities with an overriding commitment to international understanding and cooperation."), the means by which we reach that end must very clearly be international work exchanges.

Generally speaking, members of our organization are very passionate individuals. Most every member likely has dozens of local, national, and world issues that they'd like to tackle... sometimes all at once. When spending so much of one's time dedicated to an organization, then, it's easy to see why these starry-eyed individuals would try to use that organization as a vessel for tackling such issues. And while at the surface this may seem quite natural and perhaps even brilliant given the visionary nature of our organization's mission, the problems it can cause become apparent once one penetrates that flossy gleam.

As John D. Harper said, "Business[es] should not go galloping off in all directions performing all kinds of good works at the expense of its primary function... We are not in business to compete with the Salvation Army. Charity for its own sake is, I hope, a private concern of each of us; it is not the task we are paid to perform." While our organization is far from Alcoa in nearly every respect, I believe that this 1967 quote from Harper really holds some weight.

Charity is voluntarily helping someone in need. Ideally, each and every one of us ought to be as charitable of people as we can afford to be. Unfortunately, given the non-profit nature of our organization, it is especially important that we remember Bill Cosby when he said "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Spending our limited time and meager budget on ventures that stray from our direct mission is quite unhealthy, no matter how great the cause. In larger organizations and businesses, this may not be the case. People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett can donate millions without batting an eye. Face it, that's amazing! In order to achieve our mission, however, we cannot expend our limited resources on anything other than promoting and facilitating international work exchanges.

Responsibility is a word that gets thrown around often. Seriously, what would we do without it? Individuals have responsibilities to their family, friends, New Guinea singing dogs, etc. These are innate responsibilities. If a business wants to exist, they better function in a way that shows social responsibility. Our organization is very socially responsible. I would argue that we function in a way that not only causes no societal harm whatsoever, but I believe that we go even further and actually better those around us through our mission. Going 'above and beyond' is what the public expects of businesses today. Even established businesses are dropping the buzzwords. Wal-Mart is 'sustainable.' Lexus has 'gone green' with their hybrid models. Gone are the days of '61 Corvairs and companies sacrificing public welfare for greater profits (Lexus found a way around that one, though). Anyways, I've digressed.

Using international work exchanges to develop culturally aware and understanding young professionals is what our organization is responsible for. Our individual commitment to really go above and beyond - dedicating hours and days of our time, usually voluntarily - to make these exchanges happen is beneficial to each and every one of us, along with the world at large. However, the world does not hold our organization responsible for being charitable.

That's what all those culturally aware and understanding young professionals are for.