Charity

Charity is the act of benevolent giving to those in need, traditionally those not related to the giver. What is meant by ‘giving’ can refer to money, items such as clothes and food, or time, either directly or through a charitable organisation.

Charity, such as the giving of alms, is an established tradition in most major world religions, and the roots of modern charities can be found in originally religious organisations such as food banks, hospitals, orphanages, and homeless shelters. While the principles of charity espoused in most religious writings intend originally for the giver to deal directly with the unfortunate soul in need of charity, it is now more common practice to donate to or through an organisation, and more recently online.

A charity is an organisation set up to provide a free service, typically for a specific concern group, based on donations and running on a not-for-profit basis. Typical examples of charities aimed at specific groups are those set up to generate money for vulnerable children or the elderly, to provide food and shelter for the poor and homeless, or to relieve the suffering of patients with serious illnesses, such as cancer. There are also charities that are designed to generate money to fund medical research into serious illnesses as well as aiming to help relieve the patients’ suffering itself.

Another example of charity is volunteer work, as there is no more than a token material return involved for the giver’s time, if anything at all. One example of volunteer work is manning a shop or performing a service for no monetary recompense, the proceeds of the endeavour going to charity. Another example is biological donations such as the giving of blood.