Support your favorite Camino business on by giving money directly to whomever you have in mind.
“Go with your gut,” the wise guys say. “Do the right thing,” the other wise guys say.
“Take my money and give it to people who really need it,” the donors say. “The Spanish economy is in freefall. The Camino people I liked so much during my trip are suffering now! They might not survive! Let me help save them!”
“But YOU can, if you wish, support your favorite Camino business by giving money directly to whomever you have in mind. Direct giving “cuts out the middle-man,” it’s cheaper, more efficient, and gives the recipient an opportunity to thank you himself, person to person.
Go to your guidebook or diary, or to Gronze.com or Eroski online, and find your chosen target. Send them an email or phone them up, tell them what you have in mind. With their bank routing info, you can send your donation via currency transfer services (cheap and fast) or your bank (expensive and slow). With their email address, you can use Xoom or Paypal, which is instantaneous and reasonably priced. ”
I have learned about a lot of great people and places in the last few days: The coffee shop in Logrono, the bakery in Sahagun, little family-run albergues in Ventosa, Tosantos, Zumaia, Villalba, Zafra. The baggage carrier in Barcelos. Guide-writers, yoga teachers, innkeepers, traveling paella-making teams… people I never heard of. Hard-working, decent, upstanding citizens who eke out a living serving pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. People who thought their small business season would hit its stride about now, but instead find themselves on indefinite lockdown.
Generous people far away want to help them meet their bills. They want someone to set up a fund for struggling camino businesses. They asked me to do it, seeing as Peaceable Projects already moves money around the camino. I said No.
Why did I do that? Because those good, struggling people are running for-profit businesses.
Peaceable Projects Inc. is a U.S. charity that’s set up to benefit non-profit and charitable enterprises on the Caminos de Santiago network. If I give donated money to private, for-profit businesses, I violate Peaceable Projects bylaws, as well as the U.S. tax code.
I am glad my gut told me No when the money started coming in. My American lawyer’s hair stood on end when I told him about the idea. No can do.
But YOU can, if you wish, support your favorite Camino business on by giving money directly to whomever you have in mind. Direct giving “cuts out the middle-man,” it’s cheaper, more efficient, and gives the recipient an opportunity to thank you himself, person to person.
Go to your guidebook or diary, or to Gronze.com or Eroski online, and find your chosen target. Send them an email or phone them up, tell them what you have in mind. With their bank routing info, you can send your donation via currency transfer services (cheap and fast) or your bank (expensive and slow). With their email address, you can use Xoom or Paypal, which is instantaneous and reasonably priced.
The only thing you lose out on this way is a charitable donation tax write-off. If that is important, you still can give to Peaceable Projects Inc., and I will pass it on to a needy non-profit on The Way, and send you a tax receipt for your records. Easy peasy!
I am amazed at the kindness of Peaceable Projects donors, and the great trust you guys have in what we do. I am sorry I cannot help more with this particular mission, but we gotta stay legal.
Thanks, guys.