Americans are very generous. We donate our time, skills, energy, our possessions, real estate, money – we even donate our transplantable organs. Whether through organizations or random acts of kindness, Americans everywhere are donating all the time.
The dictionary says a donor is “someone who gives.” The definition of the word “give” is “to turn over a possession to someone without cost or exchange, or to hand or pass into the trust or keeping of someone.” I’m sure that you may qualify to have your picture under the word “donor” in the dictionary but do you really give “without cost or exchange?” I know I don’t because it seems we always get something, albeit intangible, in return for our giving.
At a very minimum, there are some things every donor is entitled to in exchange for a gift: trust and rights. “Trust” is “a firm belief or confidence in the honesty, integrity, reliability and fairness of another person or persons.” When we give, it is often as a result of some positive prior experience with the recipient over a period of time. Additionally, from the first time a donation is made, we have a right to know all we might reasonably need to know to feel confident that our gift will not be in vain.
This means we can know how our money is spent; who manages/operates the organization; how much of our money goes directly to the cause we wish to support; and how much is spent to manage the organization. We have the right to ask these questions and others and the right to expect answers from any organization to which we want to give.
Americans are very familiar with rights. At the core of our national identity is the Bill of Rights – which includes, but is not limited, to the right to worship, the right to speak freely, the right to a free press, the right to peaceful assembly, the right to vote and others. The very foundation of this Bill of Rights is laid out in the Declaration of Independence: We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.
We at Deafness Research Foundation (DRF) have worked diligently to protect the rights of our donors. We are as committed to them as we are to our own rights as Americans and will remain so as long as we exist. We’ve been around for nearly 50 years and in this time we’ve seen incredible progress in the science of hearing and balance, directly due to your generosity. The future will bring even greater advances and, we hope, the ultimate solutions for many hearing disorders.
One further right you have as a donor is the right to be thanked, genuinely appreciated and commended for your continuous support of DRF. Over the best and worst of financial years, we have kept the research going. Without the great donors of yesterday, today and tomorrow, gains for people with hearing loss would be few. Your generosity has made a difference in the ability of millions of infants, children, teens and adults to speak, laugh, sing, hear and converse.
And for this, you have the right to be proud.
