encourages people to give tzedakah for all the wrong reasons
Kiruv, I am not sure there is ever a wrong reason to give tzedaka. We give maaser because we are required to. This is personally a mitzvah that is very hard for me – I hate parting with my money. My husband set up a maaser account so that 10% of our salaries are deposited there. Now, when we give tzedaka, I write out a check from there and it feels less like its coming from “my money.”
We did give extra to Oorah recently to get a gift. We were going to donate close to that amount anyway, and we could use a GPS. The gifts are donated – Oorah doesnt pay for it.
Most of the things in the catalog were actually normal, helpful things – utilities for a few months, mortgage/rent for a few months, groceries, a car…things that people can use. Sure there were things like diamonds, computers etc…but if that entices extra people to donate, isnt that a good thing?