While it’s comforting to think my gift has an Impact, this quickly becomes Hugely Problematic for two reasons: First, it’s a Big Fib. It’s like saying My Single Vote Counts in an election. I wish we could all be convinced by this argument. But voter turnouts in mid-term elections indicate that more than half of [...]
The central question of discussion in philanthropy is impact. Expert opinions and scalability and financial analysis all are tools smart philanthropists use to help find a charity that has large and proven impact. And the assumption is that when the charity has an impact, my gift there will have an impact too. My dollars will [...]
Today’s discussion of morality and ethics, of our attempts to be good people in a world of challenges, of our philosophy of philanthropic action comes from a very respected source that has been providing wise counsel to millions for many, many years: the Sunday comics. Stephan Pastis’ Pearls Before Swine In regards to how this [...]
A month ago, I said I would come back to the topic of giving to Haiti. At the time, I thought I’d write about how I anticipated the issue to have largely dropped out of our national awareness (except for, of course, any hints of fundraising fraud), how the number of front page news articles [...]
Yesterday was something called Twestival. Lotsa lotsa folks were all a-twitter about it. It was a little tricky for me to figure out exactly what it was. The first thing I learned was that properly pronouncing “Twestival” does not, in fact, require a lisp. Even though it reeeeally feels like it. Is it likewise not [...]
Tags:Giving·social media
So. I am loathe to receive. And I am a patronizing giver. What do I do about it? Yesterday (and today) I made my patronizing gift to VillageReach. I’m not going to fly to Africa, schlep out to the recipients of the funds, and demand that they Gimme Somethin’ Now. This would not be sensible.
Tags:Giving·patronizing
Of the three obligations in giving societies (giving, receiving, and reciprocating), Americans do not participate in receiving. In fact, we take pride in our refusal for help. And because of it, our giving is patronizing. Our giving establishes our superiority over our inferiors. Alphas give. The rest of us should be grateful for their beneficence. [...]
Tags:Giving·patronizing
Whenever I’m leaving the grocery store nowadays, the cashier always asks if I’d like help out. It may have something to do with the fact that I’m accompanied by the Toddler with the energy of a small gaseous planet and a belly of roughly the same size. I always decline. Refusing help is not only [...]
Tags:Giving·patronizing
