Mark Hanrahan and Non-Financial Charity Involvement

Helping others often revolves around sharing financial resources with people in need. Meaning, providing loans, scholarships, and any other type of monetary help to them. The problem, however, is the fact that not everyone has enough resources to contribute financially. In fact, over focusing on monetary assets as the primary means for helping others reduces the scalability of charitable ideas. Consider the following example. A group of individuals are conducting an outreach campaign in Jamaica. Their goal is to obtain funding for a new project that aims to build a school for the city’s underserved populations.

Although over 200,000 people reside in this area in Queens, the number of those who can financially help is nowhere near that amount. Thus, creating a project where dollar-based contributions are required is not going to facilitate high-level involvement. Instead, a better way to organize a charitable event is to accept various types of contributions. For instance, someone may be able to help by donating actual assets like furniture. Others could just be looking to provide services for free. Ultimately, making sure that everyone's involvement is encouraged and recognized is what maximizes success.

The Importance of Charity Work

Undoubtedly, Jamaica is a very small portion of the overall state of New York. Nevertheless, it is a testament to the importance of charitable work. Regardless of its limited resources, this neighborhood is a home to countless nonprofit organizations. Some of them include ICNA Relief USA, Where There's a Need, Inc., Act of Goodwill, Inc., and many more.

The shared goal of all of the aforementioned entities is community development. Although they operate individually, they all aim to improve the quality of life for specific target groups. Thus, the most important lesson about charity work is to never undermine it due to some entity's size. Even the smallest organizations can be leaders in their markets and bring upon unfathomable change. So, overlooking areas like Jamaica just because of their size or lack thereof would be a mistake. In fact, it would perpetuate a mentality that one person cannot make a difference and small areas are not worthy of attention.

Money is Not Be-All and End-All

Contrary to the popular belief, giving away money is not the only way for one to be charitable. According to Mark Hanrahan, founder and owner of Markmel Co. and a CPA with two decades of real estate experience, free services are sometimes just as important. So, those that may not be able to contribute to a certain cause can offer to volunteer. That way, they will be sacrificing chargeable hours to help strangers. Meaning, they are practically donating funds by not billing those for whom they provide their services, at least according to Mark Hanrahan.

For instance, think about some popular schools in Jamaica including Arthur Ashe and William Sidney Mount school. Although they could enormously benefit from large monetary donations, that is not what everyone can give. Instead, those interested in helping can also sign up to volunteer at the school's cafeteria, cater events, and so on. That way, even though there was no financial contribution, the schools are still benefiting.

Outreach

Sometimes, one may not be able to contribute financially nor via services. This is usually when the person in question does not have time to volunteer or mentor for free. In those scenarios, they can still be involved by conducting outreach campaigns. As Mark Hanrahan emphasizes, sometimes the biggest help is to connect potential donors to a cause. Meaning, help raise awareness about something that people may not know about.

To better demonstrate the concept, let us go back to the example of Jamaica's high schools. Although some of them may be in grave need of financial assistance, people could simply not be aware of it. This is where a bystander can get involved and create campaigns to promote the school. Luckily, the age of social media makes this process fairly straight forward. Regardless, whether it is done online, in person, or via mail does not matter. As long as one manages to raise awareness about the cause, they achieved an important goal.