Give unconditionally

Helping out: The writer with Winnie Loo (right), who has been a patron of the event from the beginning.

Giving back to society takes a lot of sweat and persistence, but it is certainly worth the effort.

SOMEONE once said, “You have never really lived until you learn to give”.

By now, most companies are familiar with the term corporate social responsibility (CSR), and if a company has a CSR programme in place, it is easy for employees to join in with the giving and contributing.

But, in reality, who are the actual givers?

In one of the companies I worked with, I helped spearhead a CSR programme in partnership with a global NGO that helps feed hungry children in Third World countries. Everyone in the company was encouraged to donate the value of their lunch money for the cause. As the head of marketing and the one driving the CSR programme, I told my staff to go around the office at the end of every day with a donation box to collect the money.

In the collections, sometimes there would be red-coloured bills, sometimes blue ones and there were also a couple of times when we even had 1sen coins.

I asked my staff who gave the red or purple notes and who gave the coins. To my surprise, the larger amounts were given by less well-off colleagues and the coins actually came from one of the very rich directors who thought donating meant giving the spare change from his pocket.

A friend also related the story of an employee from a rich family who submitted a mileage claim just for driving his colleagues out to lunch!

Another one, also from a well-to-do family, was sacked after just several days of work but still had the nerve to submit a mileage claim for RM3.

Does this mean the more well-off are calculative and scrooge-like, while the poor are more willing to share and give without expecting anything in return?

Did Charles Dickens paint the most accurate picture of human nature in terms of giving when he wrote A Christmas Carol?

When I started my company, I also started a non-profit women-only social event as a form of giving back to working women. One woman entrepreneur I spoke to about the idea was very exhilarated and wanted to be part of it as co-founder of the set-up.

This lady is extremely well-to-do and her bank balance probably has several more zeroes at the end than mine. Although she loved the idea, she was unwilling to give her time or even money to help kick-start our first event.

She was even unwilling to sponsor half of the website domain fees of just RM60, asking instead what she would get out of it. I took that as the final straw and decided to move on without her.

Now, three years later, we have met many other women entrepreneurs and working women volunteers who genuinely give without expecting anything in return and understand what we are doing.

Among them is Winnie Loo from A Cut Above Group of Salons, who is also the patron of our events.

Occasionally, there are still some well-meaning people who ask me why am I spending my hard-earned money on people who do not deserve it and not on the poor or sick people. For one, I believe true giving is when we give whether or not the person deserves it.

Also, I have a heart for working women and want to champion their cause and give them an outlet for a good time, so I personally fund the social events we organise.

That is my way of giving back to the women-folk. Trust me, it does take a lot of sweat, persistence and heart to organise each event. But I also learned that we can teach people to give, we can tell people to give and, in the end, it is really up to them.

Can it really come from their heart?

And if you have been giving to people at your workplace and it has been a thankless job, do not be discouraged. Because that ultimately tests how big your heart is.

Jeanisha respects the Lenovo CEO who decides to share his US$3.25mil bonus with his employees, whatever his motives are, and thinks no one should criticise this act unless they are willing to do the same. The women-only event she was referring to is WEVents. More details at visit www.wevents.com.my. Talk to her at [e-mail]