The Official Modest Needs Blog

Charity That Creates Jobs (Plus Seeking Your Advice)

Now this is an impressive an important sort of philanthropy that is worth talking about!:

On September 23 Robert McCartney, a columnist at the Washington Post, announced through his column that billionaire philanthropist Bill Conway will give away $1 billion before he dies to be spent on creating jobs for the long-term unemployed. Five days later, McCartney reported that Conway, a co-founder of the investment firm the Carlyle Group, has gotten 700 responses to his announcement. They range from the serious to the self-serving to the not completely intelligible and extend from one or two lines to many pages.

The idea to concentrate on developing self-sustaining jobs for people in poverty came from Conway’s wife Joanne and immediately sparked his imagination. “More effective than giving away half my fortune before I die is finding a way to help people have a good-paying job,” says Conway

This is a terrific project that will most certainly have long lasting positive effects for a tremendous number of individuals and their families. And I love that they are asking the advice of those to whom the charity is directed. That is not only an empowering idea, it's a smart idea.

Want to contribute an idea yourself? Visit The Nonprofit Quarterly for contact information about how to submit your idea.

[Photo by Alan Clark]

Snooze for a Better World

I don't know about you, but I'm a snoozeaholic. I *purposefully* set my alarm earlier than I need to be awake to accomodate the inevitable pushes of the snooze button. 9 minutes. I know exactly how many more minutes I have to sleep when I press snooze. 9 glorious minutes.

Sometimes I press snooze ten times or more, throwing that planned workout right out the proverbial window.

There's help for people like us, and it comes in the form of a new smartphone app called Snooze, that donates 25 cents to a charity of your choice each time you press snooze for 9 more minutes of shuteye. 

The charities are paid through LetGive, a site that just got a request from Modest Needs to be added to their roster.

The app is free. Your procrastination won't be. At least it will go to a good cause.

[Hat tip: vegansaurus]

Giving Back: Formerly Hungry Helps Those Without

Today I'd like to share with you a very moving little story told by a woman who volunteers at the Mid-South Food Bank in Memphis, Tennessee. Glendora Greenway, aged 59, went to bed many times in her young life hungry and cold. She gives back now to those without in hopes that another little girl won't go without dinner.

One interesting part of her story is that just like at Modest Needs, the donors/volunteers, are also the recipients. The same people who help to sort and hand out the food are also those in line to get the food.

Take four minutes out of your day to hear how past hunger drives one woman to do as much as she can to prevent that suffering for others.

[Photo by Walmart Stores]

It's Time to Change, It's Time to Talk about Mental Illness

The stigma surrounding mental illness in this country is tragic, unfortunate and sometimes even fatal. The sad fact of the matter is that people don't talk about mental illness. Often it is a glaring, debilitating elephant in the room. Mental illness is often dismissed, ridiculed or swept away from polite company. There is an enormous amount of shame that comes with being mentall ill. This shame prevents people from seeking relief through therapy or lifesaving medicine or both. Sometimes it even takes a life.

Perhaps you have heard this phrase before, "There is no more shame in having a broken mind than in having a broken leg." This is truth, yet due to the secrecy surrounding mental illness, millions of people suffer needlessly and all alone.

Which is why it is a delight to see this crucial Time to Change campaign being waged through social media outlets. The basic but important premise is simply to get people talking about mental illness:

It's time we were all able to talk openly about mental health. Whether you have a mental health problem or know someone who does, being able to talk about it is important - a Facebook message, phone call or chat can make a big difference.

You are encouraged to start a discussion on Facebook or Twitter (search #beFrank and #TimeToTalk) or with friends or in your office. Anything to get the dialogue moving.

And that is what people are doing. Thousands of people are opening up about their own mental illness or that of a spouse, parent or child. Regular, every day people with dogs and jobs and amazing talents are speaking out to say, "Hey, me too. I suffer from depression." Or OCD or anxiety or any other number of disorders that are invisible except in how they manifest themselves.

It's a profound movement that is powerful and compelling to watch. And since at Modest Needs we often receive help for financial assistance from individuals who are battling mental illness who have no where to turn (often as a direct result of the terrible stigma), this campaign really hits home for us.

So, today we recognize the good work going on in the Time to Change campaign and encourage you to start your own conversation about mental illness today. Stop the stigma. Stamp out the shame. It's time to #beFrank about mental illness.

New Faces of Need

As a result of the downturn (and that's putting it mildly) in the economy, non-profits across the country are discovering the same thing: that those who have never asked for assistance before in their lives are now forced to seek help. And article that I ran across online spells out this very phenomenon in the suburban Philadelphia area:

"We see a lot of people who have never asked for assistance before and never thought they would need to ask for assistance now coming to the food cupboard for food and emergency service," she said. "People who have regularly donated to us are now coming in for assistance."

Demand for food at the cupboard has increased dramatically over the past several years. In 2008, the food bank served 1,280 people. Last year, it served 3,021. That's an increase of 136 percent.

"This is the worst I have ever seen," said Kucera. "I think it's the economy and people are losing their jobs. We have everything from homeless people to those with a Ph.D. coming to us. This is the situation now."

[...]

"People are living in quiet desperation," said Jay Malthaner, executive director of Good Neighbors. "They know they don't have the money to fix anything. They don't think it will ever get better. We're seeing an increase in home ownership in the Hispanic community. And we're seeing an increase in separation and breakdown of families and a lot of younger mothers and small children trying to eke it out in trailers and small homes. It's one thing to get food on the table, but to try to come up with $5,000 or $6,000 to fix a room is almost impossible for these people."

We at Modest Needs have experienced the very same thing. People who were once regular donors to our foundation were suddenly asking how to apply for help. They still are. And often they tell us that they waited until things became so dire that they didn't know what else to do.

Sad, but true.

And while the newspapers and politicians and economists might be saying that the U.S. economy is on the rebound, we at Modest Needs are still seeing requests for help from people who have never had to do so before. Every day.

For those of us who are employed, we have luck on our side. Qualified, tenured, experienced, dedicated people were laid off or downsized or bankrupted out of jobs, and despite all their hard work, they are now faced with losing their home, their health, their car, their livelihood.

Don't mean to be a downer, but it's a good reminder for those of us employed with our heads above water that even a small donation of $2, $5 or $10 can change the life of someone who very easily could have been us.

[Photo by GrowWear]

No Cash Needed to Change a Life

In a positively endearing article about a child's birthday party wherein guests were asked to give donations to a local charity in lieu of gifts, we learn the importance of teaching generosity at a young age. Also, we learn that one doesn't need to have cash in hand to make a huge difference in the lives of those less fortunate.

This 8-year-old didn't have money in the bank. She just decided to turn ungiven gifts into generous aid for strangers in need.

In the article, the author lists other ways one can give back to his or her community without spending a single cent. And they are all smashing ideas:

* Neighborhood dog wash
* Charity car wash
* Used book sale
* Making and selling homemade jewelry
* Birthday party donation in lieu of gifts
* Backyard movie night on large screen under the stars

So, the next time you find yourself wishing to help someone at Modest Needs, but can't quite afford to do so, keep in mind that a used book sale or a neighborhood dog wash might yield enough funds to change someone's life for the better.

[Photo by mae noelle]

The Poor Give More

People are often suprised to hear how many people who once received assistance from Modest Needs turned right around to become donors to Modest Needs. It's a wonderful fact about this organization, but studies and experience have shown that those with less money are often more charitable than those with more money.

Take a look at this chart from McClatchy that shows just how much more the poor give than the wealthy:

While Bill Gates' Billionaire Challenge gets much of the ink in the press, the fact is that those with less give proportionally more, even when the going gets tough:

The generosity of poor people isn't so much rare as rarely noticed, however. In fact, America's poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys of charitable giving show. What's more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the generosity of richer givers does.

Is this because those with less money know more people in need? Are the poor more empathetic to being without? One article suggests it is because those who are poor are not scared of poverty, unlike the wealthy:

"We're not scared of poverty the way rich people are," he said. "We know how to get the lights back on when we can't pay the electric bill."

In terms of income, the poorest fifth seem like unlikely benefactors. Their pretax household incomes averaged $10,531 in 2007, according to the BLS survey, compared with $158,388 for the top fifth.

In addition, its members are the least educated fifth of the U.S. population, the oldest, the most religious and the likeliest to rent their homes, according to demographers. They're also the most likely fifth to be on welfare, to drive used cars or rely on public transportation, to be students, minorities, women and recent immigrants.

Why do you think that those with less give more, percentage-wise, than those with plenty? Let's hear from you in the comments.

[Image by Steven Depolo]

How Has U.S. Philanthropy Changed in 100 Years?

How much has American philanthropy changed in the last hundred years? You might be surprised to learn: not a whole lot.

Forbes has an interesting article uses a "reprint of a New York Times article from Jan. 1, 1911--one century ago--on the then-current state of American philanthropy." And what is discovered is that philanthropy, even with the advent of world-changing technology--is much the same.

The most apparent difference between philanthropy in 1910 and 2010 is that a century ago, there was no charitable tax deduction. In fact, the Times reporter commends the most generous philanthropists of the day for being motivated not by "taxation or governmental regulation" but rather by "a desire to relieve and uplift the condition of those less fortunate than themselves." In today's heated debate over the future of the charitable tax deduction, we often forget that the great tradition of American philanthropy began long before the Revenue Act of 1917 made it possible for taxpayers to deduct charitable contributions from their federal income taxes.

Another difference between then and now is that whereas the Times reporter heaps effusive praise on America's wealthy, the media today are apt to portray a more discerning view of high-net-worth philanthropy. Rather than question the motivations behind philanthropists' gifts, the Times reporter takes for granted the altruistic spirit in which these gifts were made. And not once does he question what kind of impact these gifts might have on society.

However, one need only look at the controversy that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have stirred with their Giving Pledge or the skepticism displayed in response to Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million gift to Newark public schools to see the critical eye with which we view present-day philanthropy.

You can read more of this fascinating comparison at Forbes.

[Image by Christopher Ness]

Fight Poverty at the Policy Level

"What can I do to help lesson poverty in my community?"

This is a question, an important one, that has been asked a time or two by member of the Modest Needs community. These individuals are donors to those seeking help through Modest Needs, but they wonder how to help on a larger scale, at the policy level.

Enter: Half in Ten. Half in Ten strives for "a 50 percent reduction goal is our first step toward eliminating poverty. A goal promotes accountability, encourages collaboration between various agencies tackling different aspects of the problem, and inspires the private sector and everyday citizens to get involved to meet the target."

One of the most useful parts of this project's website is the interactive poverty map which shows the increase or decrease (mostly increase) in poverty by congressional district. The information is based on the latest census data, and the map breaks down the numbers of those living in poverty.

Smartly, the creators of this map added links to the websites of the congressmen responsible for each district  --a quick and easy way to tell your legistlators that poverty in your community is of paramount concern.

Check it out. And if you feel so motivated, tell your elected officials what you think.

Young People, Big Time Generosity

How are philanthropists created? Why do people decide to give of themselves? What motivates people to help those less fortunate?

The New York Times recently profiled five young people who saw a need, then went to work filling it. This simple momentum has yielded some amazing results, like the 19-year-old who is sharing the joy of being read to with the children of the incarcerated:

WHEN Elizabeth Jane Handel was a young girl, her mother would read books to her each night. A middle-school project — sorting old books to donate to other schools — made Ms. Handel realize just how lucky she was. She wanted to share the gift of reading, and a family friend mentioned that women at the prison where she worked had extremely limited resources.

Ms. Handel started A Book From Mom, a program to donate children’s books to the women’s prison in Framingham, Mass. “I thought if I put books in the prison, mothers could select a book when their child came to visit and it would help ease the tension of the visits,” says Ms. Handel, now 21 and a junior at Barnard College.

Or like the young man who believed that income should not prevent students from doing poorly on college entrance tests:

A FEW weeks after he took the SAT, Jason Shah realized something more vexing to him than algebraic formulas or word usage problems: that many students can’t afford or access programs to prepare them for the test, and college.

The epiphany came in a West Philadelphia middle-school classroom that his sister ran as part of her Teach for America commitment. Many students had trouble with reading and spelling, and Mr. Shah, then 16, wondered how they would be able to study for the SAT in a few years.

He returned home to New Smyrna Beach, Fla., raised $10,000 from family and friends, found Web developers and began INeedaPencil.com, a Web site that offers free SAT prep, including lessons that use conversational language and sports analogies and full practice exams.

“Certain students either don’t do well on the SAT because they don’t have the resources or don’t take the SAT because they think only rich kids take the test,” Mr. Shah says. “It just bothers me deeply that it’s such a simple problem that doesn’t have to exist.”

See a need. Fill a need. The rest is all logistics.

Read more about these young philanthropists and let them inspire you today.