"Cel tej fundacji to pomaganie zwierzętom."
Translation:The purpose of this foundation is helping animals.
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Is this type of formulation very common in polish ? Because it sure feels weird in english, for instance with this specific sentence, it would be more natural to say "...is to help animals".
IMHO:
Whilst using "pomaganie" ("helping") the activity volunteers do is being focused and whilst using "pomoc" ("help") the goal (pomoc -> help) is being focused.
Having said that, to me following sentences have slightly, but still, different meaning: - "Cel tej fundacji to pomaganie zwierzętom" ("The purpose of this foundation is helping animals") -> the goal is to perform the activity of helping - "Cel tej fundacji to pomoc zwierzętom" ("The purpose of this foundation is to help animals") -> the goal is to cure animals' diseases, no matter how
Feel free to correct me
It is like that in most sentences because most verbs take a direct object (either in Accusative or Genitive), and then the gerund based on that verb takes Genitive (pisać książki -> pisanie książek; szukać książek -> szukanie książek).
But for other cases, the case needed by the gerund does not change. It also doesn't change if a preposition is involved.
So here, "pomagać" takes Dative, and "pomaganie" still needs Dative.