This Is How I Give

Like many people, I care a lot about a lot of shared social and environmental challenges. Given my chosen profession as “philanthropy wonk,” I spend my days thinking about giving, political systems, financial flows, and social change. I try to push others to think harder about these structures and their roles within them. In my version of a busman’s holiday, I then go home and talk to my kid about volunteering, listen to my friends talk about the causes they support, and factor philanthropy into my family budget.

Why do I do all this? As I said in Part One, it’s basically because I can. I have the means and I think it makes a difference.

I consider personal giving as one part of my overall choices about how I earn my living, spend and invest my money, and exercise my vote. It makes me feel like I’m doing what I can to make the world a better place. And over time, I’ve developed a framework that’s probably more thorough than most.

When it comes to giving, I first figure out which issues are best addressed with charitable dollars. If I can do something else besides give, I try to do that — whether it’s changing how I commute or travel, voting or taking direct political action, contributing my time, or using (or withholding) my meager shopping and investment funds.

Once I’ve determined that I can’t volunteer, shop, invest or divest my way toward a certain issue, I see if it fits into one of my three broad categories for giving. These are areas that I’ve determined it makes most sense to support through direct finance rather than anything else.

Before getting to the areas I support, let me say that I am not going to list the names of specific organizations. There are a number of reasons for this. First, it’s a weak attempt at protecting my privacy. Second, I support the principle of charitable anonymity. Third, I want to focus on my overall giving philosophy and not the individual pieces. And fourth, the last thing I need to do is feed more information into the great data collection machine in the sky (or cloud, or wherever it is).

#1. Free expression

I believe all human lives have the same value, and that value includes the right to be heard. I believe this at the core of my being. I also believe that oppression begins by taking away the right to free expression.

This is an area where I believe my charitable dollars can be powerful. I focus my giving here on a small network of nonprofits that protect free expression through policy and legal battles. I support artists whose work embodies this right and protestors who are putting this right into practice. I support organizations that help citizens understand where money is flowing in U.S. politics.

Since free expression is being challenged on many fronts, I keep my charity diversified. I deliberately do not put all my eggs into a single organization, because I don’t think any one organization could address on all the different levels of the issue. Nor do I think things would be better if we had a single super-effective organization in this space. (In general, that’s a monocultural approach to change that prioritizes efficiency over diversity, and I don’t find it convincing.)

This is particularly important right now, as the term “free speech” is being misapplied to undo sane campaign finance limitations and to cloak or justify hateful behavior of all kinds. Precisely because free expression is an abstract concept, a principle for which policies must adapt to the times, providing charitable dollars to nonprofit organizations seem to me the best strategy.

#2. “Doing a little for those getting the worst”

In any given year, month, or week, some people on this planet are getting royally screwed. For those who are poor or born in certain places, the effects of war or natural disaster make difficult situations unfathomably hard.

And so I dedicate some of my charitable budget every year to making financial contributions to those in the direst need. I’m talking about, for example, poor children in places where the political situation is stacked against humanity. Refugees and political, racial, or religious minorities in places where there tolerance is a dirty word. I struggle with the truth that they’re not the only ones in need, that some of those most in need will never get the media attention they deserve, and that my contributions are small.

To alleviate this struggle — not overcome it, but to address it — I have identified over the years a short list of organizations that I believe can be counted on to help people who are being royally screwed. I rely on these organizations for their long-term work, and usually turn to them as well in times of natural disasters. I analyze these organizations as best I can, given that many of them are in places I’ve never been, run by people I’ve never met. I read their materials and review their budgets. I rely on recommendations from people who have been there, who’ve worked with the organizations in difficult situations. The organizations I support provide long-term help to the communities they serve. They are of their communities.

This category also includes organizations working on issues of racial justice in the United States — places that help those who I believe have been “getting the worst” for a very long time.

#3. Opportunity Knocks

There’s not much to say here, other than to acknowledge and budget for this category. I try not to use it often. I’m really good at ignoring cold calls and email pitches. I’ve never responded to a Twitter request. I mostly view all of that as work-related — I monitor the trends, look for the ways people are using new tools to raise awareness or donations, but never give money to them.

Overall, I spend about 5% of my annual income on charitable giving. Of that, 4.5% is pretty well claimed across the first two categories. But I know there will be new opportunities that emerge each year. While I try to stay focused, I (often) give when asked by friends or colleagues whom I trust. I probably drive these folks a little crazy — in exchange for their one request they can count on getting an earful of questions from me. I want to know why they do what they do, why they care about it, why that specific organization or opportunity.

That said, I accompany any donation I make in this category with a note to the organization that it’s a one-off. I opt out of any and all follow up information, check privacy policies about selling my name, and respond immediately with a “remove me” demand if they don’t respect my requests.

Basically, with all of my giving I’m trying to be an active person in the world. And as long as I’m able to give charitably, I will.