It’s Friday night. You’ve made plans to go out with friends, but haven’t yet decided on what to do. Checking the community boards, you find yourself sifting through the usual suspects. Clubs, bars, lounges, taverns, some you’ve visited, some still on your list, nothing quite catching your eye.

And then you come across one that stands out. A hopeful promise packaged as a collaboration celebration with the intent of giving back in some form. Perhaps you’re intrigued by the premise, or maybe you know someone involved. You might just want to go support the event because you believe in the cause. Whatever the reason, you make the decision to go and head over.

This is the position I’ve found myself in several times over the past two months.

Charity events are on the rise in Eorzea. Amidst the exceedingly extended market saturation of venues, there’s rarely a time without a place to visit, leading many who partake in operating such establishments to branch out in their activities. Over the spring and summer, venue junkies like myself have witnessed trends shift over time. Undeniably, the most crowded spots have leaned into DJs for entertainers, as well as exorbitant giveaways. It’s now commonplace to see several competing clubs advertise both of these as the main draws.

As I write this, one prominent venue is promising 100,000,000 gil raffles, while several others are attempting to build hype by namedropping the DJs they intend to feature. They’ll be open hours from now. Even these places are forced to go to extreme ends to sell themselves to the thinly spread crowds living in a true buyer’s market.

There is a desperate need for venues to begin to differentiate themselves better. The volume of businesses is higher than ever and grows every day as the housing market grows. With officials announcing plans to expand the availability of land plots further, it’s increasingly apparent that this deluge of venues will only continue.

As many venues attempt to adapt, we’re seeing some interesting ideas pop up. Art halls, pet shops, and even several malls have made their debut since Empyreum swept up this new fervor. Even small venues are scraping together what little resources they have in an effort to provide some sort of potential prize to those who would grace them with a visit. As DJ demand grows, and with it, pricing, there are many places resigned to offering open stages, portraying them as a feature rather than a crutch. Every day, there are new employment postings being made.

One larger venue, which has strategically partnered itself with a group of fellow elites, offers 1,000,000 gil as a hiring bonus, on top of hourly wages that would be considered insane just two months ago. To say things are dire is an understatement.

With everyone trying every idea they can only to find others are already floundering with the same unique thoughts, what can set a venue apart? Either out of a sense of doing something for the greater good or as a means to inflate their community standing in the eyes of their contemporaries, some venues are turning to charity benefits as the answer.

I set out writing this article today not to chastise or offend. It is not my intent to downplay the good being done here. I will analyze the pros and cons of charity events in as much detail as I can provide without calling anyone or any organization out. I will be upfront that my findings have left me with a less than positive opinion, but I encourage anyone who reads this to not cling to or clash with my thoughts, but rather form some of your own.

The world needs more good in it, and how to best bring this about is subjective. You, the reader, must determine on your own the best way for you to be a part of bringing about this good if that is something you want to do.

First, the good. It’s generally agreed that helping those in need should be something that those with means should strive to do. The world is full of terrible things, and sometimes the aid of a stranger can make an unknowable difference.

In tandem with this, often an issue is the lack of visibility. The world is a big place, and it’s impossible for any one person to know everything. Sometimes it’s necessary to provide a voice to a cause to generate support. To that end, a venue or collective using its reach in communities to shine a light on tragedy and to encourage people to be generous is admirable.

Additionally, these events can offer a platform or voice to those affected. Sometimes sharing a story can go a long way in one’s healing process, and having a group around who is supportive can really help to allow a person to feel good about being open and honest. And this means there’s also a better chance of finding a support network through attendees.

Finally, these events, through all the attention drawn, have a strong chance to provide for their chosen cause by encouraging donations. Often, those wanting to help may feel they have no avenue to do so in terms of direct involvement. Funding gives those who are on the front lines the means to be able to keep up their work helping others. It is a vital component of any charitable organization.

However one might feel about these venue-sponsored charity events as a whole, there is no denying that they do provide some form of good. As we’ll later explore, there are strong cases to support the overall concept, but there is another side of this that we must also examine. Context is always important as different perspectives can make something that one would normally find repulsive appealing.

Charities: A Complicated Issue

There is a fine line separating calling attention to a cause and using a cause to call attention to yourself. Intent does help distinguish between the two actions, but it can be muddied against the backdrop of flashing lights, electronic music, and jubilation in the name of combating tragedy. This might not seem vitally important, but it’s this writer’s opinion that if the issue is not treated with respect, that if it is thrown around as a theme, then it is being used as a prop.

Perhaps the desire to provide aid is genuine, but it seems that, based on my observations, the charity portion of these charity events often takes a backseat in favor of promoting the people throwing the event. When, then, does the event turn from becoming about helping to using the idea of helping to bolster a community’s perception of the people running the show?

Recently, in my travels, I was struck with an advertisement for an event that I had trouble grasping the idea of. Billed as a night of partying and celebrations with an array of DJs, it promised to be part of a solution to a horrible manifestation of a particular kind of emotional and physical abuse. The juxtaposition of the severity of the issue with the jovial nature of the festivities was disheartening.

This had not been the first that I had seen promoted, nor would it be the first I had gone to. Despite not leaving with the best impression of the previous one, though, I did not want to simply lump them in together. And having seen a third and possibly fourth iteration of this newly burgeoning trend, I decided it might be good to really see what these have to offer. So I joined the discord for the event and attended from beginning to end.

In the interest of being upfront, I did not participate in the event at all. Rather, I found a corner and observed the night in its entirety. I did not want to come across as an evaluator, nor did I want to bother anyone there. My intent was to see things as they were, good and bad, and form an opinion after. I ask that those who read this lend me the same courtesy.

Before the day of the party, promotional materials were spread around. A poster, links to the DJs, and a link to the venue’s main discord. There was a message history going back sometime. This had been in the works for a while.

The event discord was relatively quiet. On the day of the event, a new message came out. All the same links were shared, now accompanied by one to a donation site. The site is a crowd-funding specialty site that funnels donations through a singular point of contact to the charity, rather than a direct link. While they claim to have no cost of use on either end, I could not verify this one way or the other.

The site did mention that there are credit processing fees that would be deducted from the total amount donated, but said they are funded by tips that donors leave. The site showed that the goal of this charity event was quite lofty. I would say the amount, but doing so may be telling in what event this was, so I will simply say that, at this time, it was rather high.

As the event began the ads increased, with shouts and at least five postings on the party finder board. I made my way in at around the time of opening and found a spot where I would not be in the way. The first DJ was announced shortly after their set began. People danced and danced. Every five minutes, someone from the staff announced the DJ and encouraged people to join the venue’s proper discord. With this, the event’s discord was also being pushed, asking people to share their stories or read the ones shared by others. Around 15 minutes into the first DJ’s set, an automated alert called attention to the donations page.

Rather than go over every instance of this, I will instead say that this alert was fairly consistent with the DJ sets throughout the night.

Muddied Messages

Over the course of the event, only the DJ alerts were giving any real indication that this was, indeed, a charity event. The venue runners said little, save a brief mention towards the middle of the night, and the DJs themselves were very much silent with the exception of two, one being the event organizer. Donations came in roughly once per hour, except the hour that the organizer was acting DJ. With the exception of four, all donations were anonymous. The large donations all came in toward the end of each DJ’s set, when donations came in at all.

During the event, DJs were gifted tips by the attendees and, at one point, even the organizer. When this particular gift was sent, the DJ urged the organizer to contribute to the charity. However, of the calls to action, most were for purchasing VIP packages or other things that promoted the venue and DJs. It felt as though the charity was more of an afterthought to a party. And therein lies the problem.

The intentions of the organizers may have started out with wanting to do something good for charity. I could make a stretch and say that perhaps instead, their intent was to find any issue and use that as a way to promote their club, but there is no way to prove that and I would prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt.

So, assuming they really did want to put on something to help people in need, the heavy focus on frivolous promotions, the calls for donations to the venue, and the lack of DJs requesting that others - not just the hosts - put their money towards the cause, all gave off the image that those affected by the target of the fundraiser were mere props to show off how great those who held them were.

About a month ago, I attended a similar function with some friends. We had seen it advertised in a few places and knew someone there, so we wanted to see how things were going. We spoke with this person briefly before they left, but we hung around for around an hour before heading off. During this time, there were no calls to action at all. No mention of any site or donations, nothing. The advertising had made it seem like it was focused on giving back, but when we got there it was a hollow party with no real point.

To better realize this article, I went back to find more information. I scoured the few discords I could find that retained advertisements for it, but there was little substance there as well. The site they had been using to host positive stories was also removed. It was like nothing had happened, and yet occasionally I see people speak of it in a positive light. Was anything really done, though? Admittedly, I was only present for a fraction of the time it ran, but at no point did I see anything besides the standard wave of bee’s knees.

A Change Of Plans

Despite these negative perceptions, I must applaud the organizers of this more recent, more thoroughly documented gala. They did, indeed, make a sizable amount in donations.

Something odd, though, was that towards the end of the night, after reaching a very respectable number but still falling short of the halfway point of their initially set goal, the organizer changed the goal to be under what it had been set as. They then announced that the goal had been met and encouraged everyone to congratulate their efforts.

Of the roughly 100 unique attendees, 11 had made donations. This is not a knock at anyone there; those 11 should indeed feel proud and, hopefully, the rest left with increased awareness and maybe even the seeds of doing more themselves in the future. The reason I bring this up is instead to question those running the show, because, despite a night of barely talking about it, they were suddenly very happy for everyone there, at least on the surface.

Earlier in the night, during the organizer’s stint as DJ, they had mentioned that donations were $200 higher than they actually were. She maintained this until donations surpassed what she was saying. Was she mistaken? Later, she got the final numbers correct. What was the cause of the disconnect? I do not mean to be accusatory, but it was, at least to me, suspicious.

While there were some peculiar actions, a lot of good was done, at least in a monetary sense. I do not mean to criticize the outcome. That is undeniably a success. Rather, I must question the methods and ethics of this new style of promotion as a whole.

While drawing attention to these causes could be a good thing, the way they are used as decorations, as a backdrop for parties, cheapens them. It makes a statement not of “let us help those in need,” but rather it screams “look at me helping those in need.” If the focus is on those helping, then it is no longer fully charitable, but instead a means of gaining popularity through the suffering of the victims.

We are providing a list of charities below that, if you have the means and are inclined to support, we hope you’ll consider as candidates for donations. We will also provide a link to a group that rates charities, so if there is a specific cause you are looking to back, you can find a group that really does its best.

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence - Providing support to survivors and holding the perpetrators accountable.

Cancer Care - Counseling cancer patients and their loved ones, educating through workshops, and aiding with treatment costs.

Unbound - Helping the poor globally, particularly children and families.

World Central Kitchen - Emergency food services that mobilize to places struck by disaster.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention - Support for those contemplating suicide, as well as those who have been affected by it.

Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund - Dedicated to helping military members with Post-Traumatic Stress and/or Brain Injury.

Charity Watch - An independent charity watchdog group seeking to give a clear picture of the impact your donation makes.