ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 presents analysis of what it means to help people who are poor through charity from the position of the charitable. Drawing on ethnographic research at charitable support centres where charity is provided and received, the chapter illustrates that volunteers are motivated primarily to make a difference in the lives of people experiencing poverty, and also recognise that they have limited capacity to achieve this. The chapter also describes the different ways in which volunteers make sense of, and respond to, their limited ability to make a difference. Some volunteers recognise the structural drivers of poverty – drivers that are largely beyond the control of charitable citizens – and respond by focusing on making whatever small difference that they can. Others, however, project their failures onto the poor themselves, and respond to this by focusing on assessing the validity or the true nature of recipients’ needs.
