Annoying hospital charity project!

I'm on the board of the auxiliary at DH's hospital. I chair the committee that plans charity projects that our members are involved with. It's usually fun, but I'm really frustrated right now with the hospital. For our Christmas project, we had planned to "adopt" the needy family of one of the pediatric patients. The idea was to have our members either buy the kids gifts or to donate money that I would use to purchase gift cards so that the parents could do some shopping themselves. I had hoped to have a nice mix of gifts and money to give to the family, and our members seemed really on board and excited about the project. We were even going to have a nice little GTG to chill out over a cup of coffee and show off the stuff that we all bought.

Then the dang hospital stepped in and ruined my plans! First off, I have to use the central volunteer office as the middleman between the peds floor and me. For some stupid reason, they won't give me the info for the point of contact up on the floor, so things move really slowly. Then the volunteer office said, "Just make it easy on yourselves and donate money. Don't bother shopping." They also wanted to keep the parents in the dark about the project and "surprise" them on Christmas Eve. (Which seems nice in theory, but surprising them one day before Christmas wouldn't do anything to keep them from stressing over finances or trying to scrimp some money together for gifts!) I explained that we had our members on board with the project and that we wanted to buy some gifts. I asked the volunteer coordinator to alert the family that we were going to help them and to get me the kids' clothing sizes and ideas for gifts. The volunteer lady finally agreed to ask her contact up in the ward for the info, but then she got back to me and said that those folks refused to give her that info and instead want us to give money so that the parents can "buy things they really want!"

UGH! First off, I don't want to solicit cash-only donations from our auxiliary members. People get bombarded with enough solicitations for money at this time of year. Plus, I know some people would much rather shop for a gift than just fork over cash--and I can't say I blame them. And I think it's rude of the people up in the ward to tell us just to give these people some money so that they can get "what they really want." Yes, I do want the parents to be able to do some shopping on their own--which is why I wanted to give our members the choice to shop or to give money--but the way I see it, if these people are truly in need, they will want any of the gifts that our members thoughtfully purchase! Finally, I was looking forward to the GTG we were going to have to share some of what we all bought, but you can't exactly invite people out to talk about the size of their cash donation!

This just sucks. I was SO looking forward to this project, but now I barely even care about it. It won't be nearly as enjoyable for our members now, and I also think that we won't have as good a turn out if all we're asking for is cash. And I had been saving some money to buy gifts for these people, but now I'm tempted to take my money and "adopt" a family outside of the hospital system. WWYD in this situation? How hard would you push for donations from the auxiliary members, and would you give the bulk of your own money to this family or to another family?

[MrsK]

Re: Annoying hospital charity project!

Just before I read it I was going to suggest "adopting" elsewhere. . .

[Meenah]

Re: Annoying hospital charity project!

That is nuts. Our hospital clinic will give out family infor, no names, but male/female and age and any special needs or requests. All of the different areas of the hospital adopt families around Thanksgiving and this gives everyone time to shop. They actually requests gifts not cash.

Re: Annoying hospital charity project!

So my way of dealing with this turned out being not to deal with it! I passed this project off on my co-chair. I also decided to take part of the money I had saved and give a nice little donation to this family, which can be combined with any other donations, but I'm going to adopt another family on my own with the remaining money. Since we're affiliated with the hospital, all of our organization's projects have to be centered there, so we couldn't move the whole project elsewhere. Plus, we agreed a long time ago to do this project, and I wouldn't withdraw our support at this late point.

I agree that the most important thing is to help someone in need, but part of my concern is that if our members don't get too "into" the project, then we'll end up with fewer donations and will be of less help. Also, the cash-only request didn't come from the family. The hospital doesn't even want to tell the family that we're helping them out until the very last minute, like on Christmas Eve. Also--and I realize this is a really cynical way of thinking--I have heard from some people that they don't want to give cash because they have no idea where that money will end up. For example, will the parents buy gifts for the kids or "gifts" for themselves? I know that's a crappy way to think, but it is somewhat valid considering that we don't know these people or their situation. For that reason alone, other times I've participated in projects like this one, there was a strict "no cash" policy.

I think the hospital is just being a pain. We're not asking for any identifying info for this family, so I doubt it's a privacy issue. All that I asked for was the kids' ages and sex, clothing sizes, a list of items needed (warm winter coat? clothes for school?), and a few gift ideas. Anyway, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks they're being difficult! Thanks.

Re: Annoying hospital charity project!

That is nuts. Our hospital clinic will give out family infor, no names, but male/female and age and any special needs or requests. All of the different areas of the hospital adopt families around Thanksgiving and this gives everyone time to shop. They actually requests gifts not cash.

Oh yeah, and I wanted the info around Thanksgiving, but the volunteer office didn't return my multiple phone calls until like three days ago!

[poky]

Re: Annoying hospital charity project!

You could give them a Toys R Us gift card..that'd be tough to spend on themselves; it would almost have to be something the kids would get something out of...or any other kids stuff store, really.