Nankivell is a first-year magazines major and can be contacted at [email protected]

Henry David Thoreau once said, “Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind.”

In a world where famine, wars and natural disasters occur every day, there are thousands of organizations and people yearning to make a difference.

Personally, I get a little upset when people say charities do what they do for political reasons. After working with so many charities over the past five years, I have seen firsthand the good that organizations do.

I feel one of the biggest misconceptions is that once someone donates to a charity, that charity has to follow requests from that person.

However, charities as a whole work for a greater good with the money that is donated. It does not matter who donates to charities. If a person believes in the organization, he or she will help out.

Planned Parenthood has been in the spotlight over the last few years. The debate surrounding this organization is whether or not Planned Parenthood should receive funding, mainly because it provides services for abortions.

Although it is true that Planned Parenthood provides methods of abortions, they are only a small percentage of the services offered.

In this sense, the organization has political ties.

However, if someone were to donate to Planned Parenthood, the organization wouldn’t have to follow that person’s political ideologies.

Like I said before, I’ve worked with many charities over the last few years. A few of them have had both local and federal politicians donate to them.

I know this because I have directly asked the directors, managers or whoever is in charge of the charity. Although they do not like to give out that information at times, they make sure to stay indifferent and unbiased toward one party or another.

Even if an organization is politically motivated, I do not really think about it. I am too busy trying to make a difference in someone’s life, no matter how big or small.

On top of that, I would not know in the first place if an organization I’m working with is somehow politically motivated unless I were to ask someone. I choose to work with a charity based on its mission statements, not its political ideologies.

Honestly, it should not even matter to anyone if a charity is politically motivated. As long as the volunteers and donors believe in the cause, the organization will be able to better our community, whether it is on a local, state, federal or international level.