From Ponzi Schemes to Heartfelt Charity: Creative Ways to Help the Poor

(Published in The Bohol Times, October 31, 2021 issue)

CHARITY is an important teaching of world religions.

The early Rabbinic law code reads: “Charity is equal in importance to all the other commandments in the Torah combined.”

In Christianity, the Bible instructs: “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

One of the five pillars of Islam is almsgiving or zakat. Some studies reveal Muslims are more charitable than those who hold other beliefs.

Buddhism encourages helping the poor to recognize that all things exist interdependently.

Sikhism views charity as essential to a person’s salvation.

Despite its emphasis on world religions, we still wonder why helping the needy is not anymore prevalent in our communities.

Pantry operators already stopped because of weariness.

But what about our religious institutions? What are they doing?

?

Do religious institutions prioritize charity?

Big churches could have institutionalized giving to the needy this time of crisis. This is their opportunity to prove they are not polluted organizations (I mean, those with money-making motives). Yet instead of organizing these works of charity, some of them focus on mere expansion. Their facilities can be used by an international charity organization; but helping the poor is not their priority.

They so assume that they are the only ones who hide the holy grail.

In fact, they are wrong because most times they seem to fish in somebody’s aquarium. They can reach “sinners”. The problem, however, is their apathy to the needy—speaking louder than their rehearsed presentation—that shoos people away.

With expansion in mind, they sacrifice important virtues and twist the atmosphere of serious spiritual teaching into a marketing hype—two elements that confuse the primary message.

The goal of such marketing propaganda is to allocate funds for certain projects other than helping the poor.

They could have missed the marketing updates in 2021. This update reveals that people don’t want to be sold upon, be it to donate more or sacrifice their time.

How much more during religious services. It is like praying hard and, after two minutes, butt in with a pitch to give more for expansion. Ill-advised.

For instance, some Christian organizations have a quota for converts from their central office. Because of this quota, they should speed up establishing branches in every municipality. They should reach a certain number of converts for 2021 or else their superiors regard them as laggards.

They pass the burden on their followers. (I observe in their meetings how they use the model of appliance companies to meet quotas.)

Is this a hidden trap? Where are the places for charity in these organizations??

Ponzi or charity?

Christian organizations which vigorously go for expansion, ignoring the poor, have adopted some elements to operate Ponzi organizations.

Ponzi’s do not have a heart for the needy. They only think about how much they make.

An example happened to the Greater Ministries International Church where five of its leaders were convicted in federal court on 72 counts of conspiracy, among others, in one of the largest church fraud schemes in American history.

Our local cases may not be like the Greater Ministries International Church. But if these organizations only think of speeding up activities that add converts to inflate their coffers—their unspoken but overarching goal—they possess some elements of what I am talking about.

What they do defines them. They become semi-religious and semi-marketing pyramid institutions. Their preaching is no longer as powerful as it seems.

A better way

Instead of using a misplaced marketing hype, religious organizations could have followed the advice of InChrist Communications based in the U.S.. In one of its webinar I attended, InChrist emphasized the importance of strumming people’s heartstrings. It means connecting to people by understanding their dominant concerns and implementing concrete actions to address them.

This is the opposite of the “push” approach which marketing managers of an appliance company apply to increase sales. To reiterate, Christian churches are not into commodity business unless they meant to pursue it using religion. Many people hate being sold upon (based on updated marketing data).

Creative ways to help the poor

So much about pyramid marketing schemes.

There are still those who want to walk in Solomon’s path.

Here are some unexplored ways to help the struggling community:

1)???Create a freelancer’s hub in the city or the municipalities (observing health protocols). There are many options for target beneficiaries based on the top demand, like video editing, content writing, Canva, graphics design, copywriting, transcribing and virtual assistantship.

Religious organizations can identify those who want to learn about online freelancing. After this, they can start a training program for top demand online skills using live training from local resource persons or a combination of live and online courses from Udemy or Quickpro (I am not promoting them but just share what I know), among other providers.

This training can last from six months to a year. If participants have already learned the basics, they can continue to use the hub to find clients and serve them.

If the internet signal is slow, the patrons can employ internet boosters.

2)???Investment training. There are better investment options compared to the illegal “repa”. These include investment in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or unit investment trust funds (UITF). Organizations can select their target participants who want to learn about investing in these legal options and commit to apply what they learn.

These days, we no longer depend on live training on how to invest, especially that resource persons are rare in the province. Still, there are ways to facilitate this training using online modes. There are some reputable resource persons in the country like Bo Sanchez and Chinkee Tan (I am just suggesting what I know without working for them), among others. Participants can avail their services through online registration (via recorded video or live streaming).

If there is a time to show charity and redeem the unwittingly challenged reputations of religious organizations, now is the best time.

When the apostle Paul met the other apostles in Jerusalem, they asked him to remember the poor, which he was eager to do (Galatians 2: 10). He showed us the way.

Those who are eager to build religious empires will get an extensive empire of commodities (figuratively). But those who remember the poor are more aligned with what they proclaim.

Let’s discern who are the authentic ones.

If you need copywriting services, email me through [email protected].