Jumping on the charity bandwagon

Charity, or personal gratification?

By Victoria Gray

It’s four in the morning on a cold February morning and five people are standing in front of the Edward Boyle library touching a car.

This car-touching was even prearranged, and someone had brought down hot drinks and blankets so that they could survive the whole 22 and a half hours that the Car Stand-Off went on for. In any ordinary context, this would seem like complete insanity to passers-by, but can be quickly explained by three words: it’s RAG week.

Charity has become synonymous with extreme events, and you can hardly get through a week without seeing posters all over the union along the lines of ‘Want to bathe in baked beans for charity?’ or Facebook groups proudly announcing ‘I’m throwing myself out of a plane… for charity’. It’s almost protocol that to raise any significant amount of money you need to do something ‘different’.

But why has this become the norm? The campaigns these people are raising money for deal with very serious issues and are greatly successful in their own contexts. Surely doing something that overrides their significance, by placing all the glory on our personal achievements as opposed to championing the fantastic work of the cause these achievements raise money for, doesn’t follow.

When watching TV events such as Comic Relief, aren’t the blurbs about the causes we are donating money to the point where most people go and make a cup of tea? Should we not be focusing our efforts to raising genuine awareness for the causes so that people give out of the kindness of their hearts rather than just seeing their friend do something dangerous and giving them some money for it?

Sadly, it seems to be human nature to be a bit tight with our money, and actually persuading people to part with their precious cash is notoriously difficult. Throughout the history of charitable organisations, a level of distraction has always been used to push people into the right direction, as ramming depressing statistics down people’s throats has never succeeded in any situation. Most successful organisations realise that our conscience is not always enough to push us in the right direction, and an attempt must be made to associate charity not solely with the harder side of life, but the entertaining and exciting, and focus on the sense of gratitude that comes from something you enjoy benefitting others. The real question is whether this has gone too far, and the fun has begun to override the reason for which it’s being had.

RAG organisations have existed in universities since the Victorian period. It is thought that the name RAG comes from the idea of students gathering rags to clothe the poor, although at the time the word rag more or less meant to bother – an early version of chugging, perhaps. The current ‘Raise and Give’ slogan is actually a backronym, an acronym formed from the letters of a title an organisation already has. During the 1920s and 30s University College London and King’s College London expressed their friendly rivalry (similar to that of Leeds University and Leeds Met) through competitive events called rags, which consisted of mock battles, kidnapping of the other university’s mascot and processions of students in costume, often dressed as the opposite sex.

With the birth of fundraising events such as Comic Relief, first held in 1986, the tradition of raising money for charity through large-scale events began. The Comic Relief shows were inspired by Amnesty International’s Secret Policeman’s Ball, a series of comedy benefit events that began in 1976. Other famous events such as Live Aid followed swiftly. Today, RAG emulates this with activities such as the RAG Fashion Show and Mr and Miss Leeds, as well as RAG raids and one-off schemes such as charity hitches Jailbreak, Abducted and the Uganda and Thailand projects.

The amazing scope of events RAG holds invariably means that there are more than a few students who participate because they want to visit the country the year’s hitch is to, or to say they’ve participated in Jailbreak.

RAG President Helen Johnson admits that “obviously we want to promote a fundraising ethic amongst students and increase their awareness, but sometimes you can get people who just aren’t that fussed.” Charity events afford a free pass to push the boundaries, try something you’ve never done before or go somewhere you’ve never been before, and often participants don’t take the time to find out about the cause they are actually raising for before they take part.

Yet RAG is still a fantastically successful society, donating £84,507 in total to various charities last year. This year’s RAG week raised £2,019. Often participation in events such as charity hitches means participants learn about the cause they are raising money for through telling people about it. Similarly, the wackier events are always more likely to draw attention and often word of mouth is the best way of spreading awareness. The success of fundraising depends on its appeal to the target audience, and students are known as a group who are ready to try new things and thus are more likely to donate to people who are doing things out of the ordinary. If people do use charity as an excuse to do something they’ve never had the courage to do before, the pledge of raising money almost guarantees their dedication due to the immense shame that letting the charity down would bring.

Similarly, this effect often works in the opposite direction and it is the dedication to the charities themselves that drives people to go so far. RAG’s Uganda and Thailand projects require passing an interview process, and often volunteers exceed their fundraising targets of £500. Many people join in schemes such as Jailbreak or Abducted because they find it a simple way to raise money for causes they believe in but are unsure of how to go about supporting them.

Speaking to Helen, she said that although “[these are] much more events that may appeal to people who want to do something wacky and only takes a short amount of time. Often we get people signing up with a charity in mind that is close to their heart.  So in that way, they are doing the event because it is a simple way to raise money for their chosen charity, something different so people tend to be more willing to donate money to the volunteers and RAG sorts out the sending of the money to the charities in a safe way.”

All in all, participation in RAG or any other charity event is the most important part of their success. Even if the partakers have personal motivations above fundraising ones, as long as they are all joining in and raising money, the event will be a triumph. Awareness of the work of charitable organisations is often increased by news about the events they arrange, and if this interest is raised within people, they will find out why people are going so far to raise money for these causes.