Ambrose "Fierce" Bierce hit the nail on the head with his remark (quoted above). We can take for granted that our situation is unique and can find out the hard way that, as Holy Beggars, we're drowning a sea of good intention. What's not to understand about helping someone who says she's in need. But maybe we're missing a critical point, somewhere. Is it hereditary? Is there a "begging gene?" How many times have I written about stopping the cycle of intergenerational poverty". While it is the symptom of a social illness, is it a pandemic under scrutiny by public health officials? It does seem to be under discussion up the political ladder and sideways, too.
Maybe our salvation can be jump started from a long time ago. Let's try what we haven't. I know a woman who says she can travel to a timeless place and repair the imbalance in our motivating principles. I'm all for giving it a try. How about you? But I'm sure that in any case,
No matter what ...
Don't forget to ask for the money!
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Begging the Question: Which Came First: Beggar or Charity?
Which came first: the impulse of compassion or the need for basic life-giving "amenities" such as food and shelter, not to mention clothing which seems to separate us from animals?
Organizations are bestowed nonprofit status by the IRS if they serve a public benefit, yet they are the ones who seek charity in the form of donations.
In my book, this is a tautology, a redundant, self-fulfilling prophesy; the charitable are in need of charity. What about the needy, the ones who are at the bottom line?
Perhaps we have to organize, a "Beggars Union" and cut out the middle man. Do we need nonprofits to frame our issues or, perhaps, is their role to tidy us up so that we are presentable to those "others" who need to exercise that compassionate impulse? When a nonprofit makes more money "defining" the issue than it does remedying it ... don't get me started!!
Begging the Question, Again. Always!
Organizations are bestowed nonprofit status by the IRS if they serve a public benefit, yet they are the ones who seek charity in the form of donations.
In my book, this is a tautology, a redundant, self-fulfilling prophesy; the charitable are in need of charity. What about the needy, the ones who are at the bottom line?
Perhaps we have to organize, a "Beggars Union" and cut out the middle man. Do we need nonprofits to frame our issues or, perhaps, is their role to tidy us up so that we are presentable to those "others" who need to exercise that compassionate impulse? When a nonprofit makes more money "defining" the issue than it does remedying it ... don't get me started!!
Begging the Question, Again. Always!
And remember,
No Matter What
Don't Forget to Ask for the Money!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Don't Forget to Ask for the Money
From the writing of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz ...
May we all be so inspiring to all we meet.
The full quote may be found here:
http://arthurkurzweil.com/rabbi-adin-steinsaltz-if-one-is-truly-nothing-in-his-own-eyes/4043
"When the giver is
out of the picture, like dust and ashes,
there is no one above or below him,
there are no levels of value,
and the act of giving is spontaneous, natural,
and simple."
May we all be so inspiring to all we meet.
The full quote may be found here:
http://arthurkurzweil.com/rabbi-adin-steinsaltz-if-one-is-truly-nothing-in-his-own-eyes/4043
Friday, February 17, 2012
Being Charitable Without an Income
This just rattled my begging bowl! (I always put some change in there to encourage others to donate and to enable me to be charitable as well ... even in these very rough times.) What do you think?
http://philanthropy.com/article/White-House-Says-Charitable/130862/?sid=pt&utm_source=pt&utm_medium=en
Here's my reply:
NEED AN INCOME TAX DEDUCTION? HOW ABOUT $21/HR. FOR YOUR VOLUNTEER LABOR?
Looking for a bail-out-free economic stimulus? If you volunteered your time to a nonprofit organization, it was worth more than $21/hour (national average, per Independent Sector) in 2010. Would have been great to deduct it, but IRS says you only can deduct your direct expenses.
Please share this petition with your Facebook and Twitter fans, family, etc. Tell your elected official running for or against the incumbent to make this a campaign priority! Something on which they can all agree.
Let's not be romantic about volunteerism. We're really doing essential WORK that in a better economy a person would have been paid to do. Soon it'll be the top bosses with big salaries and volunteers.
America is a great working society, but volunteer labor -- estimated by the Corporation for National Community Service (funny, profit-making sound) accounted for $173 billion in 2010 (up from $168 billion in contributed time in
2009) but not counted in the GDP.
2009) but not counted in the GDP.
And remember,
No Matter What
Don't Forget to Ask for the Money!
Uber - Super Rich ... Less Rich? Where are you?
The first is the language:
"lot less rich" ... Where are we on the economic continuum? Does it
run from super-uber rich to super-unter poor? The sky's the limit when we speak
about wealth but it's not called "rock" bottom for no reason. Two
times broke is still broke. This article is a mirror on the desperate
reality that there is a disconnect within the “haves” and “have-nots”. The
middle (class) is incapable maintaining balance because of that great sucking
sound from above. (Funny ... or not ... that the heavier kid always ends up at the bottom on a see-saw! Is Justice playing a game?)
The second is the lack of
concern that we folks who, in addition to cash and non-cash goods, donate our labor / work / expertise /
skills / time to “help” nonprofits deserve a tax deduction (currently valued at
$21+/hour on the average by Independent Sector), as well as for the material
donations (cash, stuff, etc.) Nonprofits are laying-off paid staff due to
budgetary issues, but the unspoken reality is that they know there is a pool of
free, skilled (or not) labor to fill in the gap. What do volunteers get ...
good feelings? Try to take that to the bank when it’s time to pay bills. I hope
my petition to the President at the White House website http://wh.gov/8rM will attract some strong attention. Please sign it if you haven't already.
And remember, no matter what
DON'T FORGET TO
ASK FOR THE MONEY!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
URBAN CHINA
URBAN CHINA
Shanghai Magazine / Planning Group
Has New Finger on the Pulse of China's Future
Special Report for Kyoto Journal
Has New Finger on the Pulse of China's Future
Special Report for Kyoto Journal
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| www.chinadaily.com.cn |
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| www.chinadaily.com.cn |
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| www.chinadaily.com.cn |
In addition to challenging the establishment at every level, the plight of these 21st Century folk "heroes" have also captured the imagination of the international media and academic community due in no small part to the striking photographs of remnant buildings crowning Brancusi-like pinnacles in the midst of deep construction canyons.
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| shanghai.globaltimes.cn |
According to Global Times, at the end of January 2011, due to pressure from lawyers, China’s Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued a joint statement about new legislation that attempts to mitigate disputes over house expropriation and demolition. It strives to give equal consideration to both public interests and property owners' individual rights, and to create a more transparent, level, non-lethal process. It defines the basis for claims of eminent domain; it also rules-out land developers' involvement in the demolition and relocation procedures, outlaws the use of violence means of coercion, and promotes more equitable financial compensation basis on par with the region.
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| Mirage Games |
When looking at these images from a Western perspective, it’s easy to jump to a conclusion that it's another case of the little guy against the bureaucracy and greedy developers. It is not only tempting to play that duality game, but according to The Wall Street Journal, it is also possible! “Fighting Eviction: the Videogame” is a digital time-killer that pits feisty homesteaders against demo goons hired by property developers, government guards and the ever-present gangsters. As noted in “China Realtime Report”, player avatars include “a woman in curlers who throws sandals at encroaching attackers, a pot-bellied man who drops dynamite from the roof, and an old man with a shotgun. When you win a level, the woman appears, pointing a finger at the Forbidden City, the symbolic center of the government’s power. When you lose, the house collapses in a cloud of dust.” A related blog post points out that film critic Li Chengpeng drew attention for his piece, “Avatar: An Epic Nail House Textbook,” in which he compares the plight of James Cameron’s Na’vi to the people who live in “nail houses”.
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| Urban China Covers from Facebook |
Business Not As Usual
The continuing saga of Mr. and Mrs. Nail and their Little Tack (remember China’s one-child per family!) is not just about rampant development for progress’ sake. Rather, under the bleary eyes of the Internet-glued world, China is taking pains to learn about itself, its huge and massively growing self ... on its own terms.
In the past Chinese people had little agency to petition for a better life than to offer a bundle of smoking sticks of incense and few burning wads of Bank of Hell paper money to offer to a deceased ancestor. Maybe one of them might bribe an official in a dream and affect a more desirable outcome of some terrestrial problem. Even courtiers and bureaucrats sought out auspicious signs and assessed news from “above”.
China's renowned city planning formalities have been emulated by other East Asian population centers. From capital cities to villages geomancy has been highly regarded in societies ruled by emperors, kings, warlords and more "modern" revolutionary dictators. But will principles from Tao to Mao hold up today in support of the world's fastest process of urbanization in recorded history?
China's renowned city planning formalities have been emulated by other East Asian population centers. From capital cities to villages geomancy has been highly regarded in societies ruled by emperors, kings, warlords and more "modern" revolutionary dictators. But will principles from Tao to Mao hold up today in support of the world's fastest process of urbanization in recorded history?
Unlike their predecessors, today’s elected officials, are slowly learning to listen to news from “below”, to observe and understand the ways of the people, not just respond to the needs of the Party. In his introduction to "The Mystified Boat: Postmodern Stories from China, [1] Manoa Co-Editor Frank Stewart has noted that China’s street-level reality today is fraught with "shifting points of view, characters who misunderstand each other in ways that have direct consequences, unreliable narrators who address readers in order to tell them what to think, events that are improbable or impossible in life outside the story -- these are some of the startling elements possible in life outside the story.”
We can continue to expect great things from the people who brought us fen shui and Traditional Oriental Medicine; there is a precedent for diagnosing the character of a disharmony -- whether economic or corporeal, and to reinstate its systemic balance by economic readjustment. It's just a matter of scale.
With China's current population around 1.35 billion, capturing the diversity of opinions and experiences, providing appropriate ways to analyze the information, recognizing trends and taking action is understandably a daunting task, but one that is essential to that big dream of progress.
A New Finger on the Pulse of China's Urban Future
"It is very difficult to find another civilization in history like China’s, which has been extremely meticulous about control for thousands of years," observed Jiang Jun, Editor-in-Chief of Urban China, in an essay, "Informal China". "This control is not only on political and ideological levels, but is also present in material and spatial realms: from macro-scale urban planning, meso-scale traditional construction rules, to countless micro-scale details of daily life."
Since 2005 Urban China, 城市中国, has been the only magazine published both in, about and for China devoted to issues of urbanism [2][3]. Jun describes the UC mission as a means to “challenge the way we see this world and, in so doing, re-imagine what the world can be.”
Urban China’s slogan is “Urban Wisdom Advancing with China”, and its content is at once technical and theoretical, presenting statistical data and analytical considerations. It functions as a research network, think tank, documentary archive, and a tool for artistic production and urban activism.
A product of its socialist society, Urban China's contents are deeply scrutinized by the Party’s regulatory machinery to assess compliance with the status quo. Nonetheless, its mission is to demystify that same governmental machine; the publication also informs upper echelons of power about the impact of public policy in real time. Unlike American and European sleek architecture and planning publications, it is less a fanzine for the elite aesthete; its contents are directed to both official and informal operatives who are looking for trends and opportunities.
A product of its socialist society, Urban China's contents are deeply scrutinized by the Party’s regulatory machinery to assess compliance with the status quo. Nonetheless, its mission is to demystify that same governmental machine; the publication also informs upper echelons of power about the impact of public policy in real time. Unlike American and European sleek architecture and planning publications, it is less a fanzine for the elite aesthete; its contents are directed to both official and informal operatives who are looking for trends and opportunities.
Urban China incorporates frameworks ranging from ecology, anthropology, media, technology and architecture to demography, political science, geography and sociology to clash and merge in nonlinear ways. The editorial team has at
its disposal a vast archive of documentary images, statistics and
anecdotal commentary to create what is at once a vehicle of artistic expression
and tool for urban activism. UC’s
graphic design presents almost a tongue-in-cheek impression that accentuates
the incidental, every-day elemental material icons of one’s existence.
Through rigorous research and creative considerations of outcomes, UC has documented how Chinese urban dwellers – like nail families -- create innovative solutions to the problems of daily existence in the 21st Century. They account for the material and ephemeral, the practical and the practically impossible. For example, one issue showed how a basketball produced for export was repurposed as a water bucket by the same factory workers who made it. Some how it is all going to make sense, on a huge scale.
While China is its focus, the UC process indirectly encourages all earthlings to try to come up with new ways to address change and its partner “uncertainty”, to document existence, and to create strategic systems by which to make sense of everyday life. This is possible, it offers, through “dialogues, collections, classifications, explorations and networks”. Even for those who cannot read Chinese, the images themselves provoke consideration about one’s own quality and quantitative measures of life.
There is not doubt that the best laid plans for China's
cities of the future -- even those with the "benefit" of input of
internationally recognized "green" urban planners and architects --
have to be sensitive to the realities of how local people do live. For example a widely publicized
green city project destined to be a show-piece during the 2010 Shanghai World
Expo was never accomplished. In fact, according to Yale
University's environment 360 online journal, "Although the project was widely publicized internationally, most
locals knew little about it. The political leaders who championed the project
were ousted in a corruption scandal, and their successors have allowed
construction permits to lapse."
Each issue of Urban China has a theme, such as “Migrating China”, “Chinatown”, “Urban Graffiti” or “Informal China” and blends the past with the present through graphic details such as archives of historic maps juxtaposed with those of new planning charts. For example, traditional Chinese paradigms, such as feng shui, are mixed together with diagrams and photographs of current development projects.
In another issue there is an image entitled “Labor–Insurance -- Gloves Coat”, depicting a pair of thick wool work gloves positioned next to a child’s coat knit from the same material”. The caption notes that housewives unravel the yarn from unused extra gloves and repurpose the raw material for more useful commodities. Images of street markets are next to new high-rise towers; personal laundry hangs on public telephone wires. We may take them for granted, but in officially formal China, any informality or unofficial enterprise that permeates these membranes, emerges at an unprecedented scale. The implications are becoming more universal for populations outside China, particularly those with large populations and cities utilizing upon traditional Chinese principles, such as those in Japan and Korea.
In 2010 a consortium of three American museums collaborated to present a major exhibition devoted to the UC oeuvre, “Urban China: Informal Cities”: New York’s New Museum, UCLA’s Hammer Museum and the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. According to New York City’s New Museum Curatorial Associate and UC exhibition Curator Benjamin Godsill, issues are “brilliant and strange, intellectual and graphic cornucopias that track the rapid development and flux that are the hallmarks of China today.”
During one of the "Conversations" at the Hammer Museum (see below for links), Jiang explained a common urban planning process based on industrial development needs. For example in a region where shoes are manufactured, the government planning department may situate a new town and factory to make shoelaces adjacent to one that makes innersoles.
The only Urban China online English language presence is a Facebook page. As mentioned, the magazine is published in Chinese, but Brendan McGetrick has compiled a few issue samples with English translation as a beautifully produced print volume, Urban China: Work in Progress.
Urban China reminds me of the early publishing efforts of Richard Saul Wurman, an American architect by training, whose Man-made Philadelphia and Access© guides deconstructed elements of urban life in a number of major cities world wide. Through the use of analytical tools and orderly graphic design, he made the city observable and arguable more accessible. His latest project is 19.20.21, the title being a reference to 19 cities (includes Beijing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai, Tokyo and Osaka-Kobe, Jakarta, Singapore, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi, Karachi in Asia alone), each with populations of 20 million people in the 21st Century. Over half the population of the world now lives in cities; the globe is web of cities rather than nation-states. He postulates that denser populations will not only improve the quality of life but may actively result in better environmental solutions.
What next for China? What's next for the new democracies of the Middle East and of the seemingly worn-out socio-economic realities known as Europe and the USA? Stay tuned!
(Note: None of these graphic images are the property of the blogger, nor is this blog intended for commercial purposes. it is purely for public information. The images will be removed when requested by the copyright owners. Thank you in advance.)
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Links to Archives of Urban China
"CONVERSATIONS"
@ UCLA’s Hammer Museum 2009
"CONVERSATIONS"
@ UCLA’s Hammer Museum 2009
7/1/09 -- Jiang Jun, editor of Urban China magazine, and curator Benjamin Godsill of the New Museum introduce a dynamic multimedia presentation on the history of Urban China as well as the exhibition Urban China: Informal Cities. Godsill and Jiang will discuss the rapidly changing nature of Chinese cities and what these alterations of space mean for forms of social control and organization in contemporary China. Never before seen photographs, maps, and diagrams from Urban China's extensive collection will accompany the talk. Co-presented with the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House Urban Future Initiative. (Run Time: 1 hour, 41 min.)
5/19/09 -- An art critic and international curator, Hou Hanru is also the director of exhibitions and public programs at the San Francisco Art Institute. Recent curatorial projects include the 10th Istanbul Biennial and Trans(ient) City, 2007. Qingyun Ma is principal of the Shanghai-based design firm s.p.a.m., established in 1996. Since 2007 Ma has also served as dean of the USC School of Architecture, where he has enhanced the program by developing a number of global initiatives. Conversations on Urban China was co-organized and moderated by Sylvia Lavin, Director of Critical Studies and MA/PhD programs in UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design. Professor Lavin is a leading figure in current debates, known for her scholarship in contemporary architecture and design. She has published in leading journals of the field, and her book Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture was published in 2005. (Run Time: 1 hour, 29 min., 39 sec.)
4/29/09 -- Widely known for innovative installations such as Sleepwalkers, presented at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2007, Doug Aitken utilizes a wide array of media and artistic approaches, leading us into a world where time, space, and memory are fluid concepts. Catherine Opie is engaged in issues of documentary photography and in how aspects of identity and collective behaviors are shaped by architecture. A Professor of Photography at UCLA, Opie was featured in a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2008. Conversations on Urban China was co-organized and moderated by Sylvia Lavin, Director of Critical Studies and MA/PhD programs in UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design. Professor Lavin is a leading figure in current debates, known for her scholarship in contemporary architecture and design. She has published in leading journals of the field, and her book Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture was published in 2005. (Run Time: 1 hour, 20 min.) http://hammer.ucla.edu/watchlisten/watchlisten/show_id/121609
[1] Stewart, Frank and Batt, Herbert J., eds., Winter 2003, Volume 15, Number 2, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu
[2] The magazine's website (Chinese only) is http://www.urbanchina.com.cn/ Not supported by all browsers.
[3] There is a "fan" page on Facebook, the source of the covers in this report.
[3] There is a "fan" page on Facebook, the source of the covers in this report.
Monday, September 5, 2011
A More Perfect Union ... Where are We? Who are They?
It's Labor Day ... a good day for holy beggars, as we are the quintessential laborers, working for our selves and helping society redistribute the currency, to keep the micro-socioeconomic juices flowing.
But today, I want to talk more to the macro, about Unions.
"... to form a more perfect union ..." is the first reason that the US Constitution was established. It's right there, up front in the Preamble ... We the People, in order to form a more perfect union ... do establish this constitution for the United States."
I find the efforts on the part of the hysterically blinded TeaPublicans to get rid of too much government treasonous! Just what is "government", except "we the people" who have formed "a more perfect union" of workers. Swashbuckling their way through a useless "balance sheet", they seek to dis-employ all that is "government" and swell the ranks of the unemployed. It's really disgusting.
On another note, why have the unions been all but nonexistent during this war against the profiteers?
After being laid off from my nonprofit employer of over 5 years due to the "corporatization" of what is otherwise a bunch of well meaning people doing good work for a good reason I tried to rejoin AFSME. I had been a member of another nonprofit staff that was unionized and for good reasons. (The more recent NPO forbid unionization ... pity as the workers really needed it.)
If all former union members were to be welcomed back into the ranks of our working brothers and sisters, we would constitute a true force. The unions, like the corporations, became top heavy, staying alive to serve those who are priviledged, not advancing the rights of able-bodied (and disable-bodied) humans to have right livelihood.
Your holy beggar is not promoting anarchy for the sake of her own needs, but for the sanity. Don't even get me started about the need for a tax deduction for volunteer work.
Solidarity Forever!
But today, I want to talk more to the macro, about Unions.
"... to form a more perfect union ..." is the first reason that the US Constitution was established. It's right there, up front in the Preamble ... We the People, in order to form a more perfect union ... do establish this constitution for the United States."
I find the efforts on the part of the hysterically blinded TeaPublicans to get rid of too much government treasonous! Just what is "government", except "we the people" who have formed "a more perfect union" of workers. Swashbuckling their way through a useless "balance sheet", they seek to dis-employ all that is "government" and swell the ranks of the unemployed. It's really disgusting.
On another note, why have the unions been all but nonexistent during this war against the profiteers?
After being laid off from my nonprofit employer of over 5 years due to the "corporatization" of what is otherwise a bunch of well meaning people doing good work for a good reason I tried to rejoin AFSME. I had been a member of another nonprofit staff that was unionized and for good reasons. (The more recent NPO forbid unionization ... pity as the workers really needed it.)
If all former union members were to be welcomed back into the ranks of our working brothers and sisters, we would constitute a true force. The unions, like the corporations, became top heavy, staying alive to serve those who are priviledged, not advancing the rights of able-bodied (and disable-bodied) humans to have right livelihood.
Your holy beggar is not promoting anarchy for the sake of her own needs, but for the sanity. Don't even get me started about the need for a tax deduction for volunteer work.
Solidarity Forever!
And remember,
No Matter What
Don't Forget to Ask for the Money!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Sacred Giving, Sacred Receiving: The American Indian Giveaway
The latest (Summer 2011) issue of Parabola is dear to your Holy Beggar's heart because it addresses the essential activity (not just human!) of giving and receiving. Joseph Bruchac's article, titled above, is all about the natural proclivity to maintain relationship through exchange. Exchange is one of the key Kabbalistic modes of interaction. More about this later.
And remember,
No Matter What
Don't Forget to Ask for the Money!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Clean Up Toxic Assets: Everyone Starts With 1
Your Holy Beggar is on a campaign to clean up toxic assets ... take the money from the "bad" guys and put it to some good use. I'm not talking about bio/chem/nuke weapons waste per se (although that is what Global Green USA is all about), but I'm becoming an advocate of accepting a hand-out from anyone who can help.
As I've said before, being generous is critical. Generous with a request and generous with a thank you. By doing so, we gain a modicum of trust. What I'm about to propose is not in full alignment with another strong feeling I have, but I have a sense of another, compelling possibility.
On one hand, it is useless to turn someone into an 100% villain, as horrible as they (using the corporeal "we") may be. Gas companies are adopting "green" energy subdivisions because they think it's a desired marketing approach. Yes, of course. But it is not a here-today-gone-tomorrow fad. I want to take the money and clean up those toxic assets.
I came to this conclusion in the course of ranking donors based upon their capacities to give to a new fundraising campaign. I decided to give everyone at least a 1, rather than start with a 0. Why? Because there is some good everywhere and the more we recognize and amplify it, the stronger we will be as a society. By giving everyone at least 1 point, there is now the possibility of participation. The rank can go up or down from there.
The notion of "selling out" is an ego - based fallacy that ultimately leads to isolation. Check-Mate.
What do you think?
And remember,
No matter what,
Don't Forget to Ask for the Money
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Truth Be Told- The Future of Begging
Your humble Holy Beggar would like to share the good news with her community: I am once again gainfully employed, of course, as a Holy Beggar. Please follow my exploits as I direct the efforts of foundation and individual giving for Global Green USA (www.globalgreen.org) at the national headquarters in Santa Monica CA. GGUSA is the USA affiliate of Green Cross International, founded by Mikhail Gorbachev. We are at the vanguard of developing and implementing new models of sustainable living, whether it is building new "green" (i.e. LEED certified) residences for low income families in flood-ravaged New Orleans or getting schools across the country to help students to adopt "green" lifestyles and "green" their families, too. We're helping formulate and implement important legislation to reduce carbon footprint of our society and stop the proliferation of nuclear arms.
I am so very exited to be part of the future rather than dragging the past along. Thank you to my colleagues at Global Green and for you, my dear community, for your encouragement to amp up the Holy Begging once again. I have learned first hand what it means to take charity, to be helped by you all very personally, even (and perhaps especially) if you have given me nothing but encouragement and a sense of being included.
Please include all Holy Beggars in your everyday life. I will continue to honor this tradition and write more.
(Whew!)
And remember,
No matter what,
Don't forget to ask for the money.
Essence of Chutzpah
This is not original to me, but as it captures the subtleties of the "holy beggar" essential value to society, I felt it is important:
A little old lady sold pretzels on a street corner for 25 cents each. Every day a young man would leave his office building at lunch time, and as he passed the pretzel stand, he would leave her a quarter, but never take a pretzel.
This went on for more than 3 years. The two of them never spoke. One day, as the young man passed the old lady's stand and left his quarter as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him. Without blinking an eye she said:
"They're 35 cents now."
And remember,
No matter what,
Don't forget to ask for the money
Thursday, July 15, 2010
With Layoffs, Nonprofits Relying More on Volunteers
Check out the July 14, 2010, article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy
http://philanthropy.com/article/Charities-Say-Staff-Shortages/66280/
on the Johns Hopkins University study \(http://www.ccss.jhu.edu/pdfs/LP_Communiques/LP_Communique19_jobs.pdf)
Your Holy Beggar is working hard to get Congress to change the tax laws to provide an income tax deduction tied to volunteer service.
It's time that volunteers get more than a handshake and a certificate. Romanticizing the value of free labor is not appropriate in today's economy ... actually it never has been.
Is this like a beggar selling advertising on her begging sign? I'd love to see a sign that asks for help on a board that reads, "The pause that refreshes! Coke!"
Please, sign the petition ... or do what you can to get Congress to change the tax laws!
http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org/petitions/view/income_tax_deduction_for_volunteering_a_bail-out_free_stimulus
And no matter what,
Don't forget to ask for the money!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Walking the Talk: Petition Congress @ Change.org
Your Holy Beggar has taken action! Aux armes, mes citoyens!
I've created a petition am working it as best I know how at the moment to secure signatures to elected Congressional officials and the President to get that tax deduction for nonprofit volunteering.
Please sign it and tell your friends, family, colleagues to do so as well.
You'll thank me for this, I know.
http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org/petitions/view/income_tax_deduction_for_volunteering_a_bail-out_free_stimulus
No matter what,
Don't forget to ask for the money!
Monday, May 17, 2010
“Tit-for-Tax-Break” - A Real Economic Stimulus Would Be to Give Tax Deduction for Volunteer Service to Nonprofits!
Why does pro bono work have more socio-economic value to the beneficiary nonprofit organization than to the person who donated her expertise?
Giving “charity”, with no expectation of benefit in return, is instilled within the foundations of many civil societies across time, space and cultures, and it comes in many forms. People in all walks of life donate their money, stuff and expertise to aid other folks, around the corner and around the world.
To his credit, President Barack Obama has made community service a key theme of his administration’s strategy for socio-economic change. There’s a lot to say for earning “social capital” or “street cred” through volunteerism, but the popular valuation of such civil service in support of the public “weal” needs real reform for real change.
One such area needed for immediate reform is the distorted understanding and valuation of pro bono work. USA's GDP still does not include “nonmonetized” productive volunteer activity for NPOs, not to mention unpaid housework and child-rearing. It is only being accounted for by a few countries, notes the United Nations (see footnote 1)
This can be seen most easily in the consideration of income tax itemized deductions.
“Out-of-pocket expenses giving services” (i.e. telephone calls, transportation, supplies, etc.) connected with volunteering for an NPO (i.e. board service, providing legal counsel, administrative support, clinical services etc.), are generally considered allowable by the IRS 1040 Schedule A (see footnote 2)
The value of volunteered “productive activity” by the donor categorically, is not. In effect, it has no “tax cred.”
But why?
If a person can be employed or hired as a contractor at a known rate (salary or fee) to accomplish the same task and pay tax on the income, why can’t the value of a volunteer’s contribution of her expertise and effort over time to an NPO be accounted and credited?
While the debate goes on about the need to evaluate housework (predominantly by women and especially for Social Security), clearly the value of the “productive activity” donated to an officially designated 501(c)3 can be “monetized”. NPOs are fast to parade budget lines bulging with the value of in-kind or pro bono services before potential donors and audit committees to demonstrate their lean costs of operations. Indices used to evaluate the work include Independent Sector's annually updated estimated quantifier of volunteer time (see footnote 3) and Points of LIght Institute's nifty calculator (see footnote 4) where, by job title, the value of professional work at all levels of engagement in the economy can be figured. “Professional” should be extended to include all colors of men’s shirt collars; if one can be paid for a task, it should be included in the list and GDP.
There’s nothing in the literal meaning of the term pro bono that states the work must be done for free!
Pro bono Is a Latin term that literally means for (the) good, rightly, morally. It has nothing to do with undertaking work without any compensation. It is good in its simple understanding. We may even need to redefine, if not altogether abandon, the notion of giving “charity”; no longer must we sacrifice something of our own to relieve the suffering of “others”. We may not have to suffer, but, rather willingly, gracefully give a bit of ourselves (expertise, time) for the common “weal”. There are no “others” left in the world. Income tax credit for volunteer work would smooth that out.
When so many NPOs are short staffed (due to lay-offs), over extended (due to greater demands for services due to government agency cut-backs) and financially strapped ... when so many qualified and talented people are out of work and want to continue to contribute to society, it would be “good, right and moral” to recognize our contributions of volunteer time in some way more significant than a plaque or pin.
In fact, it may be a profound and timely response to our dire our socio-economic predicament.
When Michelle Obama challenged the George Washington University Class of 2010 (see footnote 5) to engage in volunteer public service in exchange for her appearing at their commencement, they responded with overwhelming success. Holding up her end of the bargain, she then challenged them to make it a lifelong commitment.
It was a nice gesture, but she missed opportunity to do more. There are many graduates who will not find work in the nonprofit sector of the current economy, much less work at all. Some even think that they will never be paid a reasonable wage working for an organization or agency. “Why do you think it’s called ‘nonprofit’,” I’ve heard tell. It would have been more gracious, not to mention powerful, for the First Lady to announce that, whatever their first jobs would be, they would earn income tax credit for contributing their newly-acquired zeal for volunteer work. Even a waiter or file clerk who volunteers at a free clinic will appreciate the “tit for tax break”.
Then there are the rest of us whose successful careers in nonprofit service have been cut to shreds due to the recession. We are struggling not to fall through the bottom of Abraham Maslow's (see footnote 6) classic “Hierarchy of Needs” chart (see footnote 7). While we look for gainful (i.e. paying) employment, many of us continue to respond to the needs of others through professional, unpaid pro bono effort. Tax credits would be welcome for “good, real and moral” unpaid work. (Funny, or not, that the Father of Modern Management & Leadership by Employee Motivation never included volunteer or pro bono work on the great pyramid.)
As USA First Lady, Mrs. Barack Obama receives no salary, but serves as an “extension” of her husband’s executive responsibilities. Glad she can afford to. As for me, to paraphrase a pop tune, written by Ronnie Self and sung by Brenda Lee, “I need to be valued.” There’s nothing wrong with practicing random acts of kindness, but let us be thanked in ways more than in-kind, too.
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Footnotes / Hyperlinks
1 http://www.unv.org/en/news-resources/news/doc/volunteering-accounts-for-5.html
2
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p526/ar02.html#en_US_publink1000229674
3
http://www.independentsector.org/volunteer_time
4 http://64.236.54.83/resources/research/calculator.cfm
5 http://www.gwu.edu/explore/aboutgw/eventscalendars/gwcommencement/firstladymichelleobamacommencementremarks
6
http://www.abraham-maslow.com
7 http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp
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