"Incentives in Charitable Acts"

Question 3 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.) A weekly feature of The New York Times Magazine is a column by Randy Cohen called “The Ethicist,” in which people raise ethical questions to which Cohen provides answers. The question below is from the column that appeared on April 4, 2003.

"At my high school, various clubs and organizations sponsor charity drives, asking students to bring in money, food, and clothing. Some teachers offer bonus points on tests and final averages as incentives to participate. Some parents believe that this sends a morally wrong message, undermining the value of charity as a selfless act. Is the exchange of donations for grades O.K. ?"

The practice of offering incentives for charitable acts is widespread, from school projects to fund drives by organizations such as public television stations, to federal income tax deductions for contributions to charities. In a well-written essay, develop a position on the ethics of offering incentives for charitable acts. Support your position with evidence from your reading, observation, and/or experience.


A: The idea of being part of a charity or unprofitable organization is to be selfless and to be there wholly to help others out without receiving anything for the act. These range from high school food drives to world wide organizations ranging in what the incentive of the program will do. People from all sorts of background participate in order to gain the self-reassurance that someone less fortunate was just given something extremely helpful. The article "The Ethicist" by Randy Cohen argues and challenges against what the morals people think they are receiving and are actually, in exchange, receiving tax reductions or some other incentive to include themselves. He exemplifies the immorality and injustice of the extras added to these non profit organizations.

Today, high schools have all sorts of drives and programs that were created in order to help less fortunate people, to make the world a little brighter, and to gain the feeling of selflessness and good morality. Although, many teachers give extra credit to their students in order to up the numbers of how many students participate, or the winning class gets an ice cream party or a pizza. Should it really take something extra to be able to persuade more students to participate? Should they not just participate because it is the morally right thing to do? Organizations around the country, or even around the world, create all sorts of programs that are intended to do the same thing, just to help those who are in need. Although, many of the larger, more well known programs sometimes also have some extra initiative to gain more support and members included. They have used tax reductions and many others to gain contributions.

This can only exemplify the morals of today's population and today's youth. That not as many people are completely selfless and need an extra little cookie to get them to have the desire to be included. The whole initiative for these organizations is to help others, but most people participate only for the extra points or the money they will save for helping out. Some programs do not include these extras, but many do. For blood drives many of them now give out movie passes and coupons to get a free sandwich at the local deli shop. There usually is always something added to gain support. How terrible is it to hear that most of the American, and maybe even the world, population is greedy enough to need something to gain instead of just participating it only to increase the wealth or life of another unknown person.

We as a community should not have to need one of these prizes to want to be included in such organizations. Everyone should have the desire to walk up and help out, without receiving anything in exchange. It only goes to show the greediness of the common person. Even with the economy the way it is currently, that should have no reason to change the amount of selflessness that should be exchanged in today's society. In many views, this is morally wrong for our society to sulk to. Many will agree with this, although almost everyone has participated in the morally wrongness of this situation and many few can be excluded from this act of injustice.

Overall, the morals of the common person needs to change. It needs to change to be less selfish and be willing to give without getting. This change will not happen for many people. The amount of narcissism in our society has increased from generation to generation, lessening the amount of self willingness to only give for a non profitable reason. Hopefully, the morals of people will be subject to altering back to what was known many years ago as just helping a friend out.