I come from a poorer section of Suffolk County Long Island. My community has faced gun violence and substance abuse. When I was in highschool an ex-teammate of mine was stabbed to death on a busy street corner less than a half mile from his home. Despite all of this, my community has a philanthropic side. We routinely set up donation drives and other charitable events. Our high school clubs are filled with young students bursting with creative ideas on how they can serve their local area. Never before had I even thought of describing my community as philanthropic, but over the course of these last few weeks this class has cemented that belief in me.
To be philanthropic, seemed to me, like a champion of the people. Someone who through their power could have significant influence on a population in need or a critical crisis. And, as the saying goes, 'money is power.' How can I make a substantial change on a particular issue without the power to back that cause financially? While I was motivated to devote my time and sweat into promoting local philanthropy I never considered myself or any of my colleagues a 'philanthropist' worthy to share the title with Warren and Doris Buffet, whom my mother idolized as I was growing up. It was my mother who instilled in me the importance of donating to nonprofit organizations. She has made small and consistent donations to organizations over many years and included me in the selection process from a young age. While this class has certainly improved my ability to analyze an organization and equipped me with better tools to do so, she first exposed me to concepts of evaluating how much impact a dollar could have depending where you place it. She also exposed me to a popular youtube video that began circulating as I completed middle school. This video attempts to give visual representation to wealth inequality in the United States. 5,000 Americans were asked to provide their belief as to how all of the wealth in America was divided. Their perception of reality was as far away from their idealized view, as reality was to their warped perception of wealth distribution.
Each year, I would play my role in helping my mother decide where to donate a few hundred dollars. But with the knowledge that the top 1% of Americans hold 40% of the total wealth is astonishingly frustrating and just slightly daunting to one's mission of promoting a high quality of life for all. With so much wealth being hoarded by such a small number of people, how can we as average citizens with limited financial resources make an impact in philanthropy? My answer, is to follow in the footsteps of my mother and my community. Make small contributions to the work you care about whenever you can. Even inconsistent assistance can make have a snowballing effect toward achieving a particular mission. We need not be in the top 20%, with disposable income we can donate in large sums to the Learning by Giving Foundation. What is needed is the right spirit of mind, the motivation to correct injustice and promote social and economic equality. We all can be philanthropic, and I believe we all ought to be, until the world is no longer in need of the work provided by philantropists.
-Ezekiel Torres
Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM
To be philanthropic, seemed to me, like a champion of the people. Someone who through their power could have significant influence on a population in need or a critical crisis. And, as the saying goes, 'money is power.' How can I make a substantial change on a particular issue without the power to back that cause financially? While I was motivated to devote my time and sweat into promoting local philanthropy I never considered myself or any of my colleagues a 'philanthropist' worthy to share the title with Warren and Doris Buffet, whom my mother idolized as I was growing up. It was my mother who instilled in me the importance of donating to nonprofit organizations. She has made small and consistent donations to organizations over many years and included me in the selection process from a young age. While this class has certainly improved my ability to analyze an organization and equipped me with better tools to do so, she first exposed me to concepts of evaluating how much impact a dollar could have depending where you place it. She also exposed me to a popular youtube video that began circulating as I completed middle school. This video attempts to give visual representation to wealth inequality in the United States. 5,000 Americans were asked to provide their belief as to how all of the wealth in America was divided. Their perception of reality was as far away from their idealized view, as reality was to their warped perception of wealth distribution.
Each year, I would play my role in helping my mother decide where to donate a few hundred dollars. But with the knowledge that the top 1% of Americans hold 40% of the total wealth is astonishingly frustrating and just slightly daunting to one's mission of promoting a high quality of life for all. With so much wealth being hoarded by such a small number of people, how can we as average citizens with limited financial resources make an impact in philanthropy? My answer, is to follow in the footsteps of my mother and my community. Make small contributions to the work you care about whenever you can. Even inconsistent assistance can make have a snowballing effect toward achieving a particular mission. We need not be in the top 20%, with disposable income we can donate in large sums to the Learning by Giving Foundation. What is needed is the right spirit of mind, the motivation to correct injustice and promote social and economic equality. We all can be philanthropic, and I believe we all ought to be, until the world is no longer in need of the work provided by philantropists.
-Ezekiel Torres
Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM
Thank you for sharing your story Ezekiel and sharing your valid concerns about wealth distribution in America. It definitely is upsetting knowing that the top 1% hold so much of the wealth among the millions of people that live in our country, and they don't always donate it to help those that need it. I agree that this class has definitely helped us understand how we can impact our communities with the limited resources that we have as college students, and that philanthropy is more than donating money, but also donating time. I remember one video in particular that we watched for a homework assignment this semester, it was a cartoon about a teacher that wanted to donate to this one organization that he believed in. He donated his own money, but he also spoke out about the organization and made his students, teachers, and other faculty members in the school aware of organization and their mission. By bringing the school community together he was able to raise much more money than he was able to give as an individual. This shows that even if you don't have a large sum of wealth to give away, you can still make an impact in other ways. This is important to consider as we move forward and decide how it is best to impact our communities.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching that video, I am subject to a couple thoughts: "how much good can philanthropy do if it is inherently reactionary?" and "can we really do enough?". It certainly puts into perspective the arguments of the 2012 election. Political pundits often frame their campaigns or perspectives as problem, need, and solution; it's simple and agreeable. However, that presentation is inherently reactive and therefore can’t sculpt the social landscape into one of revision, rather bandaging. If the problem is truly that daunting and disheartening, what, as low-level philanthropists who are encouraged through high school bake sales, meant to do about it?
ReplyDeleteThat video didn't have any sort of happy ending, so the question stands, "how can we prevent anyone from becoming so rich in the first place?" One idea is to place holds on levels of monetary gain whether by taxation or prosecuting “unethical” business. Those, unfortunately, are limits on freedom from both a producer and consumer standpoint— you can't really stop consumers from consuming or producers from producing in the Land of the Free. Another is to really foster a giving spirit in adolescence and stop encouraging a cut-throat culture so that children don't grow up to pursue excess. Sadly, that is a mindset that is more easily obtainable when the family is already wealthy. Poor families are more legitimately inclined to teach their child that this world is unfair and you have to take in order to survive. Generosity is commonly a wealthy man’s pursuit. There are hundreds of economic, political, and social “solutions” to income inequality, but the one that I find to be the most unproblematic, if sometimes ineffective, would be to invest in human capital: education, charisma, and connections. We, as young philanthropists, don’t have the capabilities to solve this problem, but we can make ourselves the best people we can both professionally and personally in order to increase the standard for monetary and moral success. If we can maintain some form of altruism and prove to the rest that ethical pursuits are viable, then we can simultaneously give to those less fortunate and raise up generations of those who are willing to do the same.
If the 1% is really that powerful, we should increase the power of the rest of the 99% by giving ourselves legitimacy. However, that’s all assuming that citizens and government aren’t fans of money and maintaining power, but I refuse to advocate for socialism to address that.
Hi Ezekiel,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your story with us. I agree with you that the fact that 40% of wealth in America is held by only 1% of Americans is deeply frustrating when considering the impact an average citizen can make on philanthropy. I agree that financially, making small contributions makes a significant impact on a particular mission, but I believe we can branch out to make an impact with resources that are more plentiful. These resources are time and knowledge. You can devote yourself towards a mission you are passionate about by volunteering. You would be devoting your time and effort towards a greater cause, and will be able to make a larger impact and following the principles of effective altruism. Another option worth noting is becoming heavily involved with a nonprofit organization, so much so that the wealthy donate their funds to you. When in charge of a nonprofit organization, you do not need to be wealthy, but rather you need to know the best measures to take in order to ensure that your mission and purpose is met. What I am trying to demonstrate is that there are many methods to give back to the community, and while the wealth distribution in America can lead to discouragement, we must find more effective means of utilizing the resources we are provided.