No in my case I've had these conversations and they've always dismissed them. Even my girlfriend who liked the idea hasn't bothered with something like Kiva while she's asked for an invite and I've sent her a few and told her several times, and she's done years of community service and studied international development. Somehow a lot of people dismiss participating outright despite saying it's awesome and saying it's cool I'm doing it and appreciate why Kiva's model, and some willing people seem not to be able to be bothered.
I'm not much different by the way. I've been participating in Kiva for quite a while and donate monthly to doctors without borders since I was a teenager, but despite being interested in the topic of development, I am barely motivated to learn the nitty gritty and get more deeply involved. I'm only barely beyond the point of superficiality to be honest.
Hope you'll talk to your friends about it, too!
As for not giving to random things at events, I don't either. Effective giving is extremely important. Here's some great talks to start with if anyone's interested:
http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/research/theory-behind-effect...
For a quick bit of context, here's a very rough example. A guide dog for a blind person typically costs upwards of $20k for raising, training (both the dog and the blind person) etc. This improves the quality of life of a blind person considerably. Alternatively, we can spend about $30 per person to operate on people's eyes who are effectively blind due to a vitamin deficit and allow them to see again. This literally restores their vision. The latter is almost two orders of magnitude cheaper meaning you can help that many more people with every dollar spent.
That's one of the most extreme examples of why effective giving matters.
I'm not much different by the way. I've been participating in Kiva for quite a while and donate monthly to doctors without borders since I was a teenager, but despite being interested in the topic of development, I am barely motivated to learn the nitty gritty and get more deeply involved. I'm only barely beyond the point of superficiality to be honest.
Hope you'll talk to your friends about it, too!
As for not giving to random things at events, I don't either. Effective giving is extremely important. Here's some great talks to start with if anyone's interested:
http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/research/theory-behind-effect...
For a quick bit of context, here's a very rough example. A guide dog for a blind person typically costs upwards of $20k for raising, training (both the dog and the blind person) etc. This improves the quality of life of a blind person considerably. Alternatively, we can spend about $30 per person to operate on people's eyes who are effectively blind due to a vitamin deficit and allow them to see again. This literally restores their vision. The latter is almost two orders of magnitude cheaper meaning you can help that many more people with every dollar spent.
That's one of the most extreme examples of why effective giving matters.