About this post. My understanding is like this:
It is very difficult to get people to give לשמה - just because it is a mitzvah. Just because Hashem said. Jut because it is the right thing to do. Just because Hashem gave us EXTRA in order to pass it on to those in need.
As the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh writes:
אם כסף תלוה את עמי – במכילתא רבי ישמעאל אומר כל אם שבמקרא רשות חוץ מזו וכו׳. וצריך לדעת למה ידבר ה׳ בדרך ספק במקום ודאי. ואולי כי בא הכתוב להודיע ולהשיב גם כן לאשר ישאל השואל בראותו כי ירבה כבוד אדם בזהב לרוב ואוצרותיו מלאים הון עתק ללא צורך בו ויאמר אדם מה הנה אוצרות זהב לאדם ללא דבר? למה לא הספיק ה׳ לתת לו מזונותיו הצריכין? ולא יהיה זה גדול מיעקב אבינו אשר שאל (ברשית כח כ) לחם לאכול ובגד ללבוש, הן אמת כי מה שיחסר לאדם מכדי צורכו יש טעם בדבר ליסרו על עונו מה שאין כן אוצרות הון למה לאיש אין לו צורך בהם, לזה הודיע הכתוב כי הסובב דבר הוא אותם שאינם ראוים לקבל חקם לצד מעשיהם כי ה׳ בחסדו נותן שפע הצריך בריוח לכל איש ואיש די מחסורו והיה כי יחטא אדם ואינו ראוי לקבל פרנסתו בכבוד מאל הכבוד החלק המגיעו לא יטלנו עליון אלא הרי הוא מתקבץ אל מקום אחר ותהיה פרנסת הלז עם אדם אחר הבא לו דרך שם פרנסתו ויתפרנם בפחיתות ובביזוי כאשר גזר הגוזר בצדק. ויעשה ה׳ בדרך זה לב׳ מדות טובות הא׳ להשתלם אדם בעולם הזה פעלו הרע, והב׳ כדי שיזכה הנותן באמצעות נתינת צדקה וחסד לרעהו. וזה הוא אומרו אם כסף תלוה את עמי פירוש אם ראית שהיה לך כסף יתר על מה שאתה צריך לעצמך שאתה מלוה לעמי תדע לך שאין זה חלק המגיעך אלא חלק אחרים שהוא העני עמך, ובזה רמז כי צריך לפתוח לו משלו. [עי' עוד חובת הלבבות שער הבטחון פרק ד', אוהב ישראל פרשת ראה, ובאלשיך שיאנני זוכר איה מקום כבודו].
There is a very sophisticated system in place today that involves countless manipulations of people's minds and emotions in order to get them to give. Take "Sweepstakes" for example. What are the odds of any given person winning? MUCH LESS THAN THE ODDS OF HIM GETTING INTO A CAR ACCIDENT. Yet, he freely drives his car, secure in the knowledge that he will be alright. He can just as well enter the sweepstakes secure in the knowledge that he won't win. He can ALSO be secure in the knowledge that he lost out on so much schar, soul purification and connection to Hashem. Since his motivation is the sweepstakes - he loses out on the pure motivation of giving because it is the will of Hashem etc. So he is exchanging a CERTAIN, ETERNAL reward [and quite possibly in this world as well] for an extremely extremely extremely remote chance of winning a car he doesn't need or a trip to Israel he can afford to go on without the free ticket.
I have fund raised for various mitzvos and tzdakos over the years but without shtick and IT DOESN'T WORK. Over 99 percent give absolutely nothing. Those who give, while tremendously appreciated, sometimes [not always] give far less that they can afford. [I must note that in my neighborhood people give faaar beyond their means]. What I need is a PR organization, consultants etc. etc. to teach me the art of manipulation and I am well on my way to fund raising success. But I won't because it is less than 100 percent pure. To be clear, what they do is NOT assur and I completely understand the tzdaka organizations. Like the articles said - there is no other way to keep their mosdos afloat. They HAVE to have fancy dinners [that can cost tens of thousands of dollars] or utilize a host of gimmicks in order to sustain themselves. That is the reality of the "market". We hope that מתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה. [And see Pesachim 8b]. But the ideal is that people should give without having their minds and emotions toyed with.
I recently saw a sing up that a certain tzdaka organization convened a "Beis Din" that decreed that anybody who give money to this and this cause by this and this date with have - no trouble marrying off their children, parnassa and long life. I sent them an email - Where does it say that a Beis Din can decree that if one does a mitzvah, he will get a certain reward?? [I also asked if they have a money back guarantee...] I have another question - If a Beis Din has power to decree, why don't they decree that EVERY CHOLEH in Klal Yisrael - heck, swing for the fences - every choleh in the WORLD, get up from their sick beds and be completely healthy? You are looking for a mitzvah to hinge this upon? Say, in the zchus of all of the lomdei Torah. PRESTO!!! No more cancer!!!:-):-) Then they can decree that all childless women give brith, all single people get married, all fractured families come together, everybody not frum does teshuva etc. etc.
The answer is THAT WE DON'T HAVE SUCH POWERS!!!! Only Hashem Yisborach does, and in His beyond infinite wisdom HE decreed that their should be cholim in the world and allowed for many other tzaros. [They answered that the source is " כשם שפוסקים למטה כך פוסקים למעלה" which it says ..... NOWHERE. It says about hataras nedarim כשם שמתירין בית דין של מטה כך מתירין ב"ד של מעלה but not about decreeing Divine favor. They also said that there is no money back if you don't get what you wanted. So I guess that they themselves don't really believe in the power of the decree]. Of course, brachos from Tzadikim help and we seek them out, but when one gives tzdaka, he has the bracha of the greatest Tzadik ever - HASHEM. As the pasuk says "כי בגלל הדבר הזה יברכך השם אלקיך"!! But that is not enough for people. That is why wherever we turn there are always "goodies" associated with giving tzdaka.
Bottom line - Give tzdaka because it is the right thing to do, because you want to show appreciation to Hashem for all of the bounty he has bestowed upon you in body and spirit, because it is a mitzvah, because you care, etc. etc. always for altruistic motives and not for some imagined reward that you will almost never actually receive [e.g. from the raffles and the like, but OF COURSE Hashem will reward you in HIS way] and that blemishes the purity of the mitzvah.
