Can giving money count as a good deed?

One question I always wondered within myself is: can giving money to someone count as a good deed or not. I have spoken to numerous people about it and my internal battle to find any answer to this question has been as all over the place as the responses I have gotten from numerous friends, family relatives and strangers to whom I have posed this question .

I guess where I stand is, each of its own and its up to ones own belief system. I have often gone back and forth with regards to giving money as a good deed. But the point is, some of us have time and can devote time to an activity such as volunteering at an organization for homeless or to teach poor kids or to serve a region or community. I think those are all great charity activities but then some of us are so busy and wrapped up in work, family or other commitments that we just do not have time to devote to such a activity. We just feel comfortable in helping out by donating food or clothes or money. We have all been in stages of life where we absolutely had no time.

During my younger early days as a student when I had time, I had a rather extreme view where donating money just didn't qualify as a good deed to me. But as i grew and learned I realized that as non materialistic as we all want to be, the truth of the matter is "money" is the mode and form of currency on which our world runs and some basic amenities that poor and needy people need are directly dependent on how much money they have and how they spend it. So over time, as i grew, I realized that donating money can also be a good way of helping out. However personally I am very picky when it comes to donating money because I want to be sure that the money is used well by the receiver of the funds. Often i prefer spending that money to buy something that benefit the receiver and giving them that item rather than giving them money to buy what they need. So for example buy them food or clothes or shoes rather than give them money.

Often times I have been approached by groups late in the night with a booklet in the middle of downtown Boston or times square requesting a donation for an organization. I get very cautious and pessimistic when it comes to donating to these groups because I am never sure who ultimately gets this money and how it is used. Similarly, often times when I run into people of the street asking for money, I am really cautious to give them a donation because I am not sure whether they will use the money for the reason they need it or waste it on some addiction. For example: Is the $5 i am giving them going to be used by them to get food or are they going to use it to buy a cigarette or alcohol or some form of addiction? To me not donating would be better served then donating money that get used to buy alcohol or cigarette or some thing on those lines.

The point is as a donor one can never be 100% sure as to how the money we are donating is being actually used. Hence I always consider and feel more satisfied when I can help out by devoting time to a helping activity or by donating things that are not directly money. So for example I like giving / buying food for needy people on the street or donating used clothes, shoes or household items to needy people or to charity organizations such as salvation army or a local good will store.

Having said all this, I do sometimes land up giving money to people. One area where I just cannot stop myself from donating is to independent artists, music performers, live bands etc on the streets. I often run into them in almost any city and when I like what they are performing and I like the environment they are creating for the people around them, I just cannot stop myself from donating money to them. I always land up wondering what they will actually do with that money. Will they use it to pursue their artistic endeavours further or not? Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. I cannot be 100% sure here either but I feel much more comfortable donating to street performers and artists mainly because I see that they are putting in an effort to pursue what they dream of.

I have always thought that "One cannot help someone who just cannot help themselves". So for me it is important to see an effort from a needy person to feel conformtable to helping them out.

My donations are usually in the order of $1 to $5 to street performers but I want to get comfortable with the idea of donating something beyond my comfort zone. I realized that donating anything more that $3 to a street performer makes me uncomfortable especially when they are selling CDs for $5 to $10. So since I am on a mission to do things that make me uncomfortable i decided that I will continue to make donations to street performers on this road trip till I am comfortable donating up to $20 to them without receiving anything in return from them: No Cd, no dvd, nothing. Except for a smile or a thank you. So far I have made numerous donations which I plan to blog about separately. I have so far become comfortable donating up to $5 which is already much better than my previou comfort zone of $5. It's also interesting to me to remind myself that the comfort factor for this was $1 to me like 3 years ago. The point is one can make oneself comfortable with anything by just doing it right away for enough number of times.

So after blogging my thoughts all over the place for more than an hour, My question to you fellow readers is;

Can giving money count as a good deed? What thoughts run through your mind when you donate money? What are your beliefs in terms of donations? What kind of good deeds do you prefer?
how much time and money from your life do you dedicate to good deeds?