Artists of Change

In this USA Today article, Millionaire Harris Rosen, a white guy from Hell's Kitchen, NY, has quietly transformed Tangelo Park in Orlando, Forida, a once drug-infested, trouble-plagued unincorporated community.

The twin cornerstones of this effort is Rosen's pledge to provide free preschool education for all 2-, 3- and 4-year-old children, and a college education for all high school graduates in Tangelo Park.

Rosen's largess has helped turn things around in this community, which has a little more than 2,400 people and is nearly 90% black.

"Government is just too dense, too stupid, too inept to do this," he says. "If Oprah came down here and saw what we're doing, she would do it somewhere. If I could get (NBA Commissioner David) Stern to come here, I think he would get every NBA team involved in a project like ours" in their cities.

Proper education for at-risk youths is a tremendous positive effect. Involvement in local communities by the wealthy and upper middle class is a huge opportunity to turn things around for decades to come.

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AmericaBlog has an interesting post on the radically different styles of philanthropy undertaken by Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates. Certainly, advancing the very notion of philanthropy is important, and something that both of these individuals have and continue to accomplish.

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From Slate Magazine, the tongue-in-cheek "Philanthropy Smackdown: Google vs. Gates for the World Charity Championship":

Google.org has accomplished in one week what it took its parent company years to accomplish: It has already stolen market share from Bill Gates. As the New York Times reported last week, Google will commit $1 billion to a for-profit philanthropic operation that will do everything from back startup companies to lobby legislatures. Among its first projects: helping to build a superefficient ethanol-gasoline-electric car engine.

Trendy and utopian? Absolutely... Google, which has managed to make Microsoft look old and stodgy as a business, is now trying to make the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation look stodgy as a philanthropy.

Philanthropy has been thrust into the business consciousness, creating competition among companies and individuals to see who can be the most generous, the most innovative, the most "giving". This is a good trend that will grow the sector and increase the size of the philanthropic ecosystem. But philanthropy can't be a flavor of the month - it needs to become deeply instilled with young children, who can be taught that they have the ability to make a difference and create positive change in the world. Hey Sergey and Larry: use your new initiative to not only fund immediately beneficial opportunities now, but also sow the seeds of philanthropy for generations to come.

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An interesting article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle from a local Rochester, NY foundation, and the impact they are having with the assistance of local philanthropists:

Fortunately, you don't have to be a Buffett, Gates or Carlson to become a philanthropist — nor do you need the Gates Foundation to get good results. Community foundations like ours were invented in response to the first golden age of U.S. philanthropy, when industrialists Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller formed foundations to address the challenges of a changing society. Community foundations allow people of every means to create and name a lasting legacy for their communities, causes or favorite charities.

The author does lower the bar for entrance, but still makes the case that philanthropy is primarily for the affluent. I would argue that harnessing "people-powered philanthropy," seen for decades in such local scenarios as bake sales and 10k sponsor runs, can have tremendous global impact if done in a scale that creates a community of critical mass.

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From Brand Republic, August 25, 2006, in an article entitled User-generated content uncovered: Power to the people:

By getting involved in user-generated content, you can get people more involved in your brand than they ever have been before, increase their loyalty, even make them your brand advocates. And you can find out exactly what they think about your product. For brands, this means a change from traditional marketing methods such as advertising to getting involved in dialogues with consumers.

The same applies to non-profit organizations, who need to better utilize the internet and maturing "Web 2.0" tools that facilitate social networking and media distribution, such that they elevate their ability to connect with a global community that can provide for them financial sustainability for operations and growth.

It is imperative that solutions are found addressing the problem of non-profits being in constant financial survival mode, where an Executive Director might find herself fundraising 80% of the time, rather than focusing on her core competency of effective positive change in the world.

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From Socialist Worker Online, a rant against philanthropy by Richard Seymour:

Philanthropy has been most widespread when capitalism has been at its most vicious. In the US, since 2000, wages have consistently failed to keep up with inflation, while the wealth of the richest 1 percent has grown staggeringly.

In 1999, Bill Gates had more wealth than the bottom 45 percent of US society combined, and more than the GDP of the world’s 70 smallest countries. This creates an interesting situation. On the one hand, child mortality in the US is higher than in Cuba. On the other hand, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gets $26 billion to invest in market oriented initiatives in health and education.

Philanthropy is not exclusively the domain of the Gates, Buffetts, Turners and Bloombergs of the world. People-powered giving is a grassroots paradigm shift, where conscious communities harness experiential and financial assistance to create great positive change in the world. The more power and momentum that is manifested in the grassroots, the more potential to effect societal change that can address the disparities of which Seymour writes.

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Interesting article from Tidings Online on a study (from my alma mater) exploring spirituality in college students.

Initial findings - In the Spring of 2004, HERI released a report based on the freshmen survey findings entitled, "The Spiritual Life of College Students," which indicated that students "are searching for deeper meaning in their lives, looking for ways to cultivate their inner selves, seeking to be compassionate and charitable, and determining what they think and feel about the many issues confronting their society and the global community."

There is much of present-day western culture that is shallow and unfulfilling to many participants. Conspicuous consumption and suburban isolation is causing a void in many people's lives. It is heartening to see that college students want to break out of the mold that has been cast for them, and consider themselves in the context of being a citizen of the planet.

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Sarah McLachlan - "World on Fire"

The video beautifully articulates the disparity between the first world and the third world, and how modest amounts of well-intentioned money create great positive change, buoyed by optimism and hope. I have tremendous admiration for Sarah, her management and her label, to make this statement. It was elegant and effective.

cross posted at ojaipost.com

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