Charity vs. Policy: Working Smarter to Ensure a Legacy of Change

Humanitarian trips, food drives, service projects, and fundraisers. You fill your life with a lot of good amidst a seemingly endless number of projects vying for your time, money, and support. But is all “good” created equal? Is there an alternative that would allow you to better maximize your efforts? 

Consider the differences between charity work and policy work. 

Traditional charities focus on treating the immediate need and easing the problems facing society. They usually require ongoing funding dedicated to the same issue, day after day, year after year. These services are needed and valuable, however, they are typically not built to solve the underlying problem. 

Alternatively, policy work targets the root cause of an issue, uses resources to move communities and individuals forward, and can solve the problem permanently. Policy allows volunteers to work smarter rather than harder and strategically make a difference for generations to come. At its fundamental root, policy work is legacy work; if we change a law, we change the future. 

An example of successful policy work can be seen in House Bill 162, passed unanimously in March of 2022 by the Utah legislature. The bill requires all public and charter schools in the state to provide period products in girls and unisex restrooms within all school facilities. It would take decades of period product drives and donations to simulate an analogous impact through charity-based efforts. 

Don’t toss your gardening gloves, canned foods, or donation boxes just yet– the comparison of charity work vs. policy work is not a mutually exclusive battle, but simply an opportunity to explore the benefits of healthy policy and the value of adding policy work to your already noble efforts. 

Add a couple hours of policy work each month to the good you are already doing, such as volunteering with The Policy Project as a community champion or student ambassador. You don’t need to be a policy expert to get involved, you just have to care. Ongoing initiatives such as the Utah Period Project, the Teen Center Project, and the Period Positive Workplace movement are a great place to start.