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June 2009
We are All Givers
1. Class Action in Action!
2. E-News Undergoing Changes
3. Class and Giving
4. Articles
5. Links
6. Resources
7. Take our Survey
8. Action of the Month
1. CLASS ACTION IN ACTION!
Gifts honoring Class Action co-founder Felice Yeskel began arriving this week. In a letter to Class Action supporters and many individuals who’ve been touched by Felice’s work, co-founder Jennifer Ladd wrote, “In just five years, Class Action has had an incredible impact. Felice has led the charge, crisscrossing this country to share her passionate message of the importance of talking about class and doing something about classism.” As Felice steps down to dedicate more time to her healing from cancer, our goal is to raise $200,000 to help Class Action emerge from the transition as a stronger organization with greater capacity to deepen its impact. If you’ve been touched by Felice and/or Class Action’s work, please consider making a gift today to help further our impact. We deeply appreciate your generosity and well-wishes.
Class Action’s Race/Class Intersections program coordinator Rhonda Soto and Class Action Associate Tanya Williams presented “Race and Class Matters: The Ins and Outs,” a day and a half institute at NCORE (the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education). The institute focused on exploring the intersections and issues of race and class, and internalized and systemic racism and classism on campus. More than 40 participants from colleges across the country became better equipped to help their college communities move beyond recruitment and financial aid to identify and break down barriers around race and class that prevent students of color and students from poor and working-class backgrounds from thriving.
Class Action Executive Director Kristen Golden and Jason Franklin of the North Star Fund convened a panel The Hidden Barrier: Talking About Class and Extreme Inequality at the Council on Foundations national conference in Atlanta last month. Facilitated by Kristen, this lively session delved into the value of foundations identifying and addressing the root causes of economic inequality, class differences within the participants’ organizations, class biases in the practices and policies of foundations, and classism in nonprofit organizations. Panelist Delia Carmen of the Annie E. Casey Foundation addressed the intersections of race and class and the critical role of cross-race and cross-class coalitions in effectively addressing poverty. Jason Franklin shared his insights about the class dynamics within a family foundation, and offered tips on how to make the grant application process truly accessible to people from across the class spectrum. Yolanda Alindor of the San Francisco Foundation offered examples of the transformative value of talking about class in foundations, from the SFF’s experience of working with Class Action to train their entire staff. More than 60 people from foundations large and small joined in a discussion of how to safely and powerfully raise these issues in their own foundations.
2. E-NEWS UNDEGOING CHANGES
Class Action staff will be developing new programs and content over the summer. As part of our work, we will be making changes to our web site and e-news. We are interested in your feedback and will be sending out an online survey for your feedback. Please take a few minutes to let us know what you find most useful and/or what you’d like to see in the future. Class Action’s next e-news will be published in September.
3. CLASS AND GIVING
We are all givers. When financial gifts to help out family and friends are added to gifts to charitable causes, almost everyone in the U.S. gives. Yet the media profile of givers, or donors, is much more narrow – a small handful of wealthy individuals or prominent foundations making very large gifts. But a true picture of giving in the U.S. runs much deeper, and spans the class spectrum.
There is a long tradition throughout the world of people helping each other. For many, giving is a way of life. There are lots of ways to give, ranging from making a meal for a friend recovering from surgery, to helping a family member pay rent, to making donations to social change organizations, to supporting family in other countries.
But who gives and to what?
Migrant workers—the lifeline for millions of families in Latin American and the Caribbean—sent home a record $69.2 billion last year, reported the Inter-American Development Bank. This number tops the combined giving by foundations ($38.5 billion) and corporations (15.6%) in 2007, as tracked in Giving USA. Estimates of remittances range as high as 10 percent of immigrants’ household income.
Giving USA reports annually on giving to charitable institutions: Giving to religion, human services, health, public society benefit, arts and culture, international affairs, environment and animals. Data for 2007 (the most recent year reported) indicates that U.S. giving hit a record $306 billion. Of that, close to 75% was from individuals. Add in money people donated through their wills and their family foundations and individual giving rises to 88% of 2007 contributions.
How we get our money and how we feel about it impacts how much we give. A 1994 report cited in “Charitable Giving: How Much, by Whom, to What, and How?” (Havens, 2006) indicates higher levels of giving from earned wealth than inherited wealth – up to six times greater. While another study reported that people who were worried about their financial security gave much less than those who were not concerned – regardless of their resources, people who feel secure give larger percentages of their income and net worth.
“Except at the very highest levels, families at every income and wealth are about equally philanthropic in terms of percentage of income contributed… 98 percent of families with incomes under $300,000 tend to contribute about the same proportion of their income to charitable causes, roughly 2.3 percent.” (Havens, 2006) For those above $300,000, this jumps to 4.4 percent of income, which makes up 37 percent of all charitable giving.
While there are various perceptions about total giving by people from different ethnic groups, there is little total difference. “When informal and formal giving were combined… the effects of income, education, and immigration status are statistically taken into account, differences in behavior among whites, Latinos, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and African Americans virtually disappear.” (Havens, 2006)
Innovative programs that engage donors of color are bringing new voices and perspectives to community solutions. In 2003, Darryl Lester of HindSight Consulting, Inc. (http://www.hindsightconsulting.org) began intentional work with young adult African Americans in the American South to focus how they engage and give back to their communities. “For many of these young adult leaders,” notes Darryl, “their intellectual and financial capital was undervalued and not being tapped or acknowledged.” Along with the support of various sponsors, HindSight organized these individuals into collective groups known as “giving circles” to strategically invest their time, talent and treasures back into their communities in an effort to address issues of race and equity. Other giving circles supporting communities of color include the Young Professionals Giving Circle of the Latino Community Foundation in San Francisco and the Black Women for Black Girls Giving Circle at the 21st Century Fund in New York. Read how to start your own giving circle in the article “10 Ideas for Forming and Running a Cross-Class Giving Circle,” by Jenny Ladd.
While more than $300 billion in giving is impressive, several groups are attempting to up the ante. Bolder Giving, a national initiative based in Massachusetts asserts, “We live in a time of historic crisis and opportunity, when contributions of time and money could make a crucial difference. Yet most of us – even if well-off – give at a fraction of our capacity.” Bolder Giving offers inspiring stories of people giving well beyond the national average. Resource Generation, a NYC-based non-profit, seeks to increase giving by young people with wealth. And more than 85 funds and foundations specific to different racial, ethnic and tribal groups are increasing giving by and to their own communities.
Despite the current recession, the U.S. remains one of the most prosperous countries in the world. As John Hunting, one of the givers profiled on Bolder Giving's website, states, “I believe that it is immoral to hoard money when global warming is on the verge of destroying the eco-systems we depend on.” With our collective resources, we can solve the most pressing problems of our time. We encourage you to give, and to give generously as you can.
Note: “Charitable Giving: How Much, by Whom, to What, and How?” by John J. Havens, Mary A. O’Herlihy, and Paul Schervish was published in The Non-Profit Sector: A Research Handbook, edited by Walter W. Powell & Richard Steinberg, Yale Press, 2006. It is available online at http://www.bc.edu/research/cwp/publications/by-topic/motivation.html.
4. ARTICLES
10 Ideas in Forming and Running a Cross-Class Giving Circle
Class Action Co-Founder Jennifer Ladd offers tips to get you started making group decisions around how and where to make charitable gifts.
http://www.classism.org/article_old2.php?id=248
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Migrant Workers Sending Less Money to Latin America
Funds sent by overseas workers back to Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to drop steeply in 2009, shrinking a crucial source of cash for many families in the region.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123722318175744001.html
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Meeting of America’s Richest About ‘Need,’ Attendee Says.
Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett Discuss Coming Together ‘to Do More.’
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=7628545&page=1
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A New Take on Tithing
If the affluent contributed as much to nonprofits as the authors believe they can, charitable giving in the United States would increase by $100 billion a year – enough to solve many of the world’s most pressing problems.
http://www.ssireview.org/site/printer/a_new_take_on_tithing/
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5. LINKS
Bolder Giving offers resources to donor networks, organizations that encourage greater giving, organizations to give to (and through), research on giving levels. The site also includes inspirational stories of inspirational givers.
ESSENTIALS for DIVERSITY in GIVING (EDG) is a complete curriculum aiming to integrate the leadership and experience of diverse communities into the broader field of philanthropy. The curriculum and toolkit may be downloaded for free.
Flow Funding is a way to increase the number of philanthropists in the world by empowering social innovators, healers and visionaries to give away money.
Giving Circles -- a form of shared giving and social investment networking -- represent a growing trend in philanthropy as community organizations established by individuals are seeking to have greater involvement in their giving. This site helps people locate giving circles and resources.
The Joint Affinity Groups (JAG) is a nationwide coalition of grantmaker associations that engages the field of philanthropy to reach its full potential through practices that support diversity, inclusiveness, and accountability to communities and the principles of social justice. Partners focus on different constituencies, including Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders and Lesbians and Gays.
The Life You Can Save suggests a new public standard for a minimum for people to give.
The Racial, Ethnic and Tribal Philanthropy Knowledge Center shares information, stories, profiles and how-to resources to support racial, ethnic, and tribal philanthropy.
6. RESOURCES
Cultures of Caring: Philanthropy in Diverse American Communities examines potential ways to expand the use of institutional philanthropy in four population groups. Individual chapters may be downloaded for free, or the entire print collection purchased for $50.
http://classic.cof.org/Learn/content.cfm?ItemNumber=842
Exemplary Grantmaking Practices Manual, By the National Network of Grantmakers, 1997.
A clear, practical and detailed guide to good grantmaking, with worksheets and sample templates. Written for foundations, but valuable for anyone seeking to be respectful, accountable and accessible as a grantmaker. $25. Contact Bolder Giving to purchase a copy.
Inspired Philanthropy; Your Step by Step Guide to Creating a Giving Plan, by Tracy Gary with Nancy Adess (third Edition). Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2007. http://www.jossey-bass.com
Robin Hood was Right: A Guide to Giving Your Money for Social Change by Chuck Collins and Pam Rogers with Joan Garner. W.W. Norton & Co., 2001.
Welcome to Philanthropy: Resources for Individuals and Families Exploring Social Change Giving. Booklet by Anne and Christopher Ellinger, for the National Network of Grantmakers. Includes pithy guidance and links to extensive resources for engaging with others in philanthropy. $10 http://www.boldergiving.org/purchase/
7. SURVEY OF THE MONTH
What is the most meaningful gift you’ve ever made?
Submit a response here. Read other survey responses here.
8. ACTION OF THE MONTH
Be a Bolder Giver
The organization Bolder Giving inspires and supports people to give at their full potential. They believe that in these extraordinary times of crisis and opportunity, many givers want to step forward more boldly. Bolder Giving helps them to do so, through role models and practical support.
Join others who agree that these extraordinary times call for bold giving. Take the Bolder Giving Challenge:
* Commit to explore this year how to become bolder in your giving.
* If you are already a bold giver, sign on to the Bolder Giving Challenge to be counted and to inspire others’ giving.
Next Steps declared by other Bolder Giving Challenge-Signers include:
Give more
* Set up monthly online giving to organizations I am passionate about
* Increase my charitable bequests
* Find out my net worth and set a percentage of my earnings to give
Encourage others to give
* Talk about giving on Facebook and Twitter; get more people under 30 giving boldly
* Engage people in conversations about how they decide how much to give
* Meet with friends who have money and encourage them to give strategically
Give more effectively
* Develop a strategic giving plan
* Develop a long-term financial plan
* Double my community investment in microfinance
Contact Bolder Giving and let them know you are committed to giving boldly.
The Bolder Giving Challenge will be available online in mid-June.
Please note: Class action e-news are sent by Dana Gillette, Associate Director of Development and Communications.
Please add dgillette@classism.org to your contacts list to prevent your e-news from getting lost in your spam filter.
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