A Thought for Your Pennies

"Take your mind off such things," Major Barbara exclaims in Shaw's play. "We never think of money or success. When all money is spent on the Army we pray for more; and it comes: it always comes." Unlike the Salvation Army in Major Barbara, Combined Charities at the College thinks continually about money and success, but neither seems to come.

Preliminary results from this year's drive already indicate that although certain College groups have received larger portions, the over-all total will barely exceed last year's meagre $10,400. Now before work begins on next year's drive, student representatives--particularly the Student Council--should put their minds on precisely "such things," and begin a thorough study of the Combined Charities puzzle.

The Puzzle is confused by far more than total collections--although the average donation of the 61 percent who contributed last year was only $4.44. The problem goes deeper too than mere technical details, such as the date or duration of the drive. Fall drives, predated checks, and IBM machines may help, but efficiency--laudable as it is--is no answer to student disinterest. Instead of searching for a few missing pieces, the Council will have to examine the whole pattern of the College's single charity drive.

The real problem in the current program is that the specially selected student charities have no assurance of adequate funds, and often don't get them. While the comprehensive drive has stopped many national groups from bothering students with private door-to-door campaigns, a single drive defeats one of its own prime purposes when student philanthropies do not receive enough money. Philips Brooks House and World University Service, among others, faced this predicament last year. In the absence of one easy solution, the Student Council could investigate whether to limit donations, to the selected six, or to allow only student and community groups, or to continue the present system of free designation.

The real way to assure student's charities adequate funds is not to limit a student's choice, but to dramatize more clearly the tasks of each group. Few students want to give to a philanthropy described only by a publicity blurb in a solicitor's hand. To discover ways of making both solicitors and donors more aware of where their money goes will be one of the main jobs for a committee studying the problem.

While examining the pattern of Combined Charities, the committee should not throw out the framework of a single drive. The advantage the students get out of one drive is so great that abandoning it would change an unfortunate situation into an impossible one. Still, the committee should realize that any charity drive that fails to collect enough funds and to acquaint students with the charities' work is worth little more than a unsigned check.