"buying your friends"
 

(Pretty good answer to a common question, from Pi Kappa Phi web page)

Often people equate paying fraternal dues to "buying your friends." This, however, is an uneducated fallacy. When thinking of the money involved in a fraternity, relate it to the money involved in joining many similar organizations: recreational clubs, YMCA's, youth groups. All of these groups have different missions, yet all require money to allow for this mission to be carried out. While a recreational club might require dues to cover camping, rafting and other sporting events, we require dues to cover formal weekends at the beach, buses to and from football games and road trips to visit other Pi Kappa Phi chapters around the nation. While the YMCA must collect funds to cover their gymnasiums, swimming pools and youth involvement programs, we must also collect funds to cover the costs of living in our own house, having a full time cook and embarking on philanthropic trips to, say, Maryland or Florida. You might think of dues as merely a means to pool resources for more efficient expenditure. For example, which is cheaper, joining the YMCA or building your own pool, basketball court and weight room? Which is more economical, every person buying a meal and cooking in a separate kitchen, or buying enough food to feed a group of people out of one kitchen? If you have any further questions or concerns about the money involved in joining a fraternity, please contact our treasurer.

Good answer!

My local Meeting (church) asks members to donate to help with the upkeep of the Meetinghouse, the heat, the light, insurance, upkeep of the burial grounds, support for sick or indigent Friends, donations to Quaker charities overseas, etc., And so does the group which oversees all the Meetings in the Philadelphia metro area.

Does this mean that I am paying for spiritual fellowship?

Does that mean that anyone who tithes or makes offerings or puts their envelope in the basket at church every week is "paying" for spiritual fellowship?