Long Term Investing
In tough economic times a lot of people question the importance of giving to art, education and environmental programs. Many have spoken to me about shifting their focus this year and donating their annual gift to an agency that serves the basic needs in our community. I cannot adequately stress the importance of donating to those who do not have food, clothing or shelter, especially when we are experiencing record unemployment rates and rising food and energy costs, and I encourage everyone to consider contributing to agencies that meet these needs. However, I also advise individuals to stay the course with their giving. If you regularly give to senior painting classes, or literacy tutoring programs or agencies that work to restore wetlands, you should continue to do so.
Philanthropy should be aspirational as well as practical, meeting a spectrum of needs for a spectrum of people. The Community Foundation operates from the philosophy that a healthy, vibrant community is made up of an intricate fabric of needs and services. In order to manifest a vibrant community, we should remain focused on developing the opportunities that allow people to reach their full potential and encourage economic and environmental prosperity. The arts, education and environmental programs are suffering too, and some feel they will have a harder time raising money right now.
That being said, agencies serving our community’s basic needs will continue to need additional support as the need for their services increases disproportionately to their staff and financial resources. I would encourage any of you that have the capacity to give, to give a little bit more. And if you can’t give more financially, consider matching your charitable donation with volunteer time.
Philanthropy is a long term investment in the community. Stay the course, be bold, act with abundance. Your giving does not have to be either/or, you can give to both immediate and future needs. Your philanthropy should be a diverse portfolio, touching on and supporting many aspects of your passion; in fact, this is the strategy that will bring the greatest return.
This is a plea, to all of those asking how to respond to this heightened need, to operate from a place of abundance. Be confident in your long term giving strategy to organizations that meet the widest range of community needs, and if you are able, diversify to include agencies that serve immediate needs as well.
Filed under: KCB, General
12 comments
S Squid November 17, 2008
There needs to be systemic incentive to give in the way Kristen recommends. I am an advocate of the creation a special classification of non-profits that provide direct “basic needs” services to the most needy among us. The first say $500-1000 in an individual’s giving to these organizations would result in a tax credit. Other organizations would be “tax deductible” as they are now.
The impact would be that we would all be sure to max out our tax credit giving first. There needs to be an extra incentive to promote individual giving to those organizations serving the most needy. This is an idea that has been promoted at the congressional level, getting the community foundations behind it would be most helpful.
C cy November 17, 2008
What would define “basic needs”? I mean beyond theory, if you were going to make the idea practical.
S Squid November 17, 2008
Obviously that is the devil in the details. You’d have to set out some very restrictive criteria and then organizations would have to apply to get status, just like you apply now for 501 c 3 status to the Dept. of Treasury. I would think that the process would be necessarily rigorous. There would have to be lots of national debate/discussion about what the specific criteria would be. I’m sure these details would generate no small amount of controversy, but I see nothing else in terms of systemic change that could benefit the philanthropic sector so much as this proposal.
I am more interested in seeing the development of a consensus around the concept than projecting my own particular ideas on this.
C cy November 18, 2008
See, the devils are in the details. You need to get to the point it is being debated, then you need to go through the debate, then you need the real tools that could implement it. That’s why I don’t think it’s a good star to hang a hat on to divvy up 501© 3-types. Could I argue that art in a high school is essential? Yep…and I could do it long enough it would frustrate the system. People just need to give what they can to what they want to give to and screw the tax benefits.
S Squid November 18, 2008
OK. Food banks and homeless shelters. Over and out.
Everybody else gets to keep status quo, no complaints.
M Melanie November 18, 2008
Consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. One must first have physiological needs: Air, Water, Food, Sleep, and Stimulation; then safety: To be secure and away from harm; next, must have love: A desire to belong to a group; to have camaraderie; to be accepted; which will eventually lead to esteem: To achieve mastery of a task; to be praised; to have power; Finally, the last stage is self-actualization: To become more of what one is; to be your best.
In short, someone cannot be successful in school or a job if he or she has no place to sleep or no food to eat. If he or she has food to eat and a place to sleep, but is in a domestic violence situation, this person will not have the self-esteem needed to be successful in life.
While art programs and ‘life enhancement’ activities and organizations are certainly beneficial to the community, unless someone has a place to sleep, they’re never going to be able to be the example his or her family needs them to be.
J jamie from thriceallamerican November 18, 2008
Ok, so just to keep the conversation moving…say we do narrow Squid’s “tax-credit” category down to food banks and homeless shelters. Now we have to crack the nut of whether the credit can apply to faith-based vs. secular charities. (Anyone know of any good non-faith-based food banks or shelters in Tacoma, by the way?)
S Squid November 18, 2008
Jamie@7: Ouch. You got me in my sensitive spot, me being a Lapsed Lutheran. I am generally suspicious of faith-based operations (OK, I am generally suspicious full stop) but you have to admit that it is the faith-based who are often willing to go where others aren’t. My initial reaction is that as long as the main purpose of the organization is in providing the social service, it would be OK. So, Yes to Tacoma Rescue Mission, No to the church who operates a Sunday dinner. I’m sure there are a pallet full of other issues, like whether or not they require a statement of faith to render a service. Obviously, I’d oppose inclusion of that kind of organization. I’d be uncomfortable with an undo amount of proselitizing, but would be fine with a prayer prior to a meal.
This is the kind of thing that could obviously start off being very restrictive and as a pilot program with a sunset date. If it works, renew legislation and gradually allow expansion. Is it messy? A bit, but no more so that current Treasury regulations.
J jamie from thriceallamerican November 18, 2008
Lapsed Lutherans unite! Perhaps we can start the “Lapsed Lutherans Association for Meal Aid”?
S Squid November 18, 2008
LLAMA. I love it. Too funny.
W WesS November 19, 2008
Jamie@7 & non-faith-based food banks and shelters:
this may be a little bit off track, but I think it’s useful to distinguish between organizations who do their work of meeting basic need for food or shelter because of a faith basis, and those who serve up a mixed agenda of food, shelter, and overt evangelism (go to chapel, get a meal and a cot). I suppose it’s a continuum. But check out most of the food banks, and you’re not going to find all that many who do so much as slip an invitation to church into a grocery bag. I think it varies more with respect to shelter.
I know church folks who don’t want to feed the hungry unless there is an evangelistic agenda along with the meal. I think that’s a shame, if it keeps one person from being fed. There’s certainly room for non-faith-based food & shelter providers in Tacoma/Pierce County, but in the meantime, I hope nobody withholds support for the providers that are here.
J jamie from thriceallamerican November 19, 2008
WesS, absolutely, I know that there’s a whole spectrum of levels of evangelism for church-related charities. I live within a block of your church and am totally aware of and thankful for all of the great stuff you and your congregation do in our neighborhood. My LL background and general believe in the goodness of humanity definitely feel that we need to take care of our fellow humans, and I see many churches in our community doing good things towards this end without demanding any sort of “spiritual remuneration” from the recipients. (I know there are various web sites out there where that rate charities based on their financial dealings, it would be sort of neat to have an equivalent rating system for faith-based charities that gauges the level of overt evangelism involved in their services.)