I came across the concept of ‘toxic generosity’ recently. "Give once: you elicit appreciation; Give twice: you create anticipation; Give 3 times: you create expectation; Give 4 times: it becomes entitlement; Give 5 times: you establish dependency." And if you stop giving, then you may create resentment and anger - in some cases despair. Does this ring a bell? Whether in personal relationships, family contexts, handout by Governments, foreign aid, CSI/CSR? We do know that such support reduces child hunger, improve school grades, community health and help reduce poverty. BUT, are we not creating a problem here, a dependency through our well-intentioned efforts, based on our needs analyses, public participation (in some cases…), our innovative and smart solutions to meet those needs, to satisfy their expectations, whether regulatory or by the impacted, poor and marginalized? Do we “inadvertently present a one-sided negative view, which often compromise, rather than contribute to community capacity building. People in the communities start to see themselves as deficient and incapable of taking charge of their lives and of the community.” (Kretzmann and McKnight). So, we end up following this 'generosity' cycle...and to break THAT is not 'child’s play'! Perhaps we should, according to Kretzmann and McKnight's Asset‐Based Community Development (ABCD) approach of 1993, "construct a new lens through which communities can begin to assemble their strengths into new combinations, new structures of opportunity, new sources of income and control, and new possibilities for production." Let's take a holistic approach to break the cycle of dependency and build pathways out of poverty, with dignity. #dependency #csi
Liezel Gordon
9mo
Agree Deon, we can hand out fish and ease things in the short term for a few or we can encourage, teach and incentivise people to fish and create a positive movement of change that impacts many more. We have such awesome creativity in our country and we need to find ways to stimulate and encourage it. We have the most diverse and beautiful country in the world, there is so much opportunity to grow tourism and create sustainable work in this industry.
Lani Botha
9mo
"We" here could apply to anyone attracted to any security comfort zone (job, financial, home, relationship, etc.) Dependency, complacency, sloth and entitlement certainly draw no societal boundaries! In fact, I'd hazard an experiential guess that this "moral deficiency" is more endemic in middle to upper class communities of practice than among indigent recipients. At least they say thank you at least once...
Charlotte M.
9mo
Unintended consequences of doing ‘to’ communities, rather than ‘with’ them.
Adel Malebana
9mo
Spot on Deon and extremely thought provoking 👌
Gavin Hall
8mo
Interesting concept Deon.
André Kitshoff
9mo
Love this perspective Deon Wessels. Really made me think.
Khumo Magano
9mo
Deon Wessels well articulated. 100% spot on.
Jeff Leader
9mo
Afrikaans weergawe. Voorreg, reg en onreg
Senior Corporate Affairs Manager
8moThere is a profound book I read some years ago by Robert Lupton called Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help , and How to Reserve It. It changed my view on donation as an approach to CSI. What we also do not realise in charitable donations is that we undermine the structure of the home and society. So if a father's role is to be a provider, then you give his children toys on Christmas that he cannot afford, you emasculate him, diminish his sense of responsibility and he looses the respect of his family bcos he cannot meet your high standard, however if you structure charity in a way that makes things accessible to the father at a price that he can afford, then he is able to buy it and provide it to his family and feel like he is still the man, he maintains his sense of responsibility to work and provide for his family. International Donor Funding has had the very same effect on African governments. African govs simply adopt neo-liberal capitalist policies without consideration of their context, they do not formulate their own policies and are unable to create and manage tax revenue streams to govern sustainable communities. Their already diminished responsibility is further diminished by corps giants.