Crawford 1 Michael Crawford COM 105 Kimberly Berry 12 July 2012 Persuasive Speech Outline Topic: Charities that do more harm than good General purpose: To persuade Specific purpose: To persuade my audience to research charities thoroughly so they know the full consequences of their donation Central Idea: By identifying your goals as a giver and researching the charity to see if they align with your goals, you can make good decisions in choosing a charity and choose a charity that will help people. Organizational pattern: Monroe’s motivated Sequence Step one: Attention getter I. Pretend for a moment I am representing a nonprofit charitable organization that you have heard nothing about before. a. I come to you and explain that I have a plan to save starving families in a foreign country by giving them food and water. b. I explain that the only way for me to help them is through donations from people like you – people who have a monetary advantage in the world. II. What would you say? a. My initial response would be interest. I would want to know specifics about what this person was dealing with. b. My emotional response would be to help and that I would be an awful person since I have the means to help them. c. After some thought, let’s say I give something to this person to help out their cause. Crawford 2 III. What is wrong with that? a. Nothing. Inherently there is nothing wrong with that scenario, but where is the responsibility? b. As a giver and donator, I have the responsibility to know the full implications of the donation I am giving and accept the consequences of them. (Transition: Now, I have accepted the responsibilities of giving. What does that mean exactly?) Step two: Need I. Being a charitable giver, I have taken an action. Every action has its consequences and I am responsible for what comes out of my gift. a. Perhaps the most important thing I can say during this speech is that not everyone is a good person. b. Even some people think they are doing good, but are really doing harm. II. Companies pose as charitable givers and give themselves the protection of a philanthropic image to raise profits. a. According to a Forbes Magazine journalist of politics and business, Tom’s Shoes is an example of this using their motto of “buy-one pair of shoes give-one pair of shoes” as a bubble of protection. b. People feel as if they are helping, but when actuality the shoes they are giving to these children are of low quality and fall apart easy, the Forbes Magazine journalist points out. III. Some people believe they are doing good while they are really doing damage to the benefactors of their gift. a. According to Dambisa Moyo a native of Zambia and a doctor in economics, Africa has receive $1 trillion dollars in aid over the past 50 years and is now worse off than before with per-capita lower than in the 1970s. b. She goes on to say how life expectancy has stagnated and the literacy rates have dropped below pre-1980 levels. IV. Still, the kindhearted believe that if they can give charitable goods to all the poor they will be better off. Crawford 3 a. In Toxic Charity written by the minister and active philanthropist Rupert Lupton, it is stated how the ideals of dependency are increasing. b. If the charity is always there giving, why should the poor go out and get for themselves? c. On the blog Good Intentions written by Saundra Schimmelpfennig a champion in the nonprofit world of 20 years, an article addressing these handout charities destroy the economies in third-world country flooding the market with free goods that local businesses can’t compete with. (Transition: I’m going to pause and say that I am all in favor of charities. I believe they help people and will always help people, but we as givers and champions of charity need to take responsibility for our donations.) Step three: Satisfaction I. Now, we want to give, but to be responsible with it. What are the steps we need to follow? a. They are simple steps: i. Realize your goals ii. Research the charities iii. Evaluate if they meet those goals b. Following these easy steps will allow a person to give responsibly. II. Realizing your goals is incredibly important. a. This will tell you what your endgame is and this will give an accurate picture where your donation best suits you. b. Linda Stern, a writer for the magazine Newsweek, states that you should choose what you most care about and suggests guidestar.org as a starting place to look around. III. Research Charities is another critical phase in the process. a. Discover the facts about the organizations and ask questions about the specifics. Don’t be afraid to be asking where your money is going and ask for statistics about the charity. Crawford 4 b. The Journal of Consumer Research conducted a research project to find the reasons people gave to certain charities and found that it was based off two factors: warmth and competence. Understand these are two things to look for in a charity. c. Don’t allow emotional attachments to affect your judgment too strongly. Facts and logic should be present to support you emotional attachment if it is a good charity. IV. Evaluate the Charity to your goals is the final step in the process and often the most overlooked. a. Your goals are the reason this process was started and realize that they need to be the defining character in your strategy. b. If your goals are to donate to environmental charity, don’t donate to a local food pantry instead. Your donation is personal and should stay in align with your goals. (Transition: Following these steps seems easy, but it is hard to remember to do this in practice. Stick to it and your goals will be realized.) Step four: Visualization I. Now, you have your charity picked out and you know the impact it will have. a. Picture yourself as a confident donator knowing that your donation is going to a cause that is in align with your goals/ b. Because of the research, it is easy to know the extent of your reach and know exactly how you will help people. II. Don’t let me scare you. a. Charities are not a falling point in the American culture and they are actually growing in number. b. According to the National Center of Charitable Statistics, the number of charities in America have grown 31.5% in the past 10 years. c. This can be a lot of charities to wade through, but if you stick to the plan – set goals, research charities, evaluate options – you will easily be able to find your charity. Crawford 5 (Transition: Look to the goal and realize that it is worth it. Find your charity by following the advice in this speech.) Step five: Action I. As one last mantra to conclude this speech, I will give a last piece of advice. a. When you are picking charities, look to the future. b. The long term is what will make the difference in the end. c. As the Chinese proverb says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” II. As a final wrap up, I want to urge you to give. a. Charities are a wonderful part of our society and they serve the needy. b. From my own experience, I know that giving has a positive emotional reaction that will outweigh cost. c. Remember, monetary values are not the only thing you can give: time, possessions, etc. Everything helps. d. To quote Peter Frumkin author of the Art and Science of Philanthropy, “philanthropy allows individuals to express their values to single out particular issues or causes as being worthy of attention, and, through gifts of money, to support activities that benefit the public.”
