Recently, Northwestern alumni Will Butler of The Arcade Fire spoke at Northwestern as part of the Center for Civic Engagement’s Civically Engaged Young Alumni Conference. He discussed the band’s work with Partners in Health, the non-profit healthcare organization co-founded by influential global health leader Paul Farmer. For every ticket that the Arcade Fire sells, $1.00, £1.00, or €1.00 is added as a surcharge that gets donated to PIH. “The consumer doesn’t really notice it with Ticketmaster,” Butler jokingly explained, during his speech. The Arcade Fire, according to Butler, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for PIH and with so many fans, the band’s persuasive power is an invaluable tool. But how much does this encourage fans who probably won’t rise to the same level of stardom to donate money instead of time?

The line between philanthropy, service and service learning can be tricky to navigate. Obviously, Butler doesn’t exactly have time to head down to Haiti and help rebuild (although the earthquake hit only a week and a half before the band’s original trip was supposed to happen) and he stresses that the band likes to separate their philanthropic initiatives from the arts (so not much is talked about Haiti onstage).

Furthermore, within a field like music, it can be hard to use those skills in a capacity building setting. Is teaching someone how to play the guitar a priority when they have untreated TB for example? Is it better to solicit money from people unknowingly for a charity that many or most of them might donate to anyway? And how much do we as individuals sacrifice between fulfillment of personal passions if they don’t seem as applicable in helping others? These are tough question to answer. What do you think?