The Give Blog

$92,000 in Donations Through the Matching Challenge

As many of you may know, on November 23rd, we celebrated the launch of this blog with the $50,000 Challenge, by which we agreed to match up to $100 from new donors to five organizations (Catholic Charities USA, Eastern Illinois Foodbank, Grameen Foundation, The Hunger Project and Safe Passage), up to $50,000.  In the Challenge, which ended on December 24th, we received just over $27,000 for the five organizations.  Our thanks to our good friend Paul Caron, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, many other bloggers, the Chicago Tribune, the LA Times, the News-Gazette, and other media for spreading the word about the Challenge.  While we didn’t reach our goal of $50,000 in new donations (one organization, however, reached $10,000 in new donations), we had an anonymous donor email us after the challenge (via the story in the Chicago Tribune). That donor is contributing $15,000 more to the other four organizations, which did not reach their $10,000 goal. Although it violates our own rules – the anonymous donor gave more than the $100 limit per charity—we’re including that donation to get us to a total of $42,000.  Also, each organization will receive $10,000 from us although we didn’t reach the $50,000 goal. Our rules were made to be broken.  All in all, the five organizations are receiving $92,000 through the Challenge.  Thanks to all of you who participated or even thought about participating.  We had a lot of fun, and hopefully, all of us started down a path together of eliminating hunger and poverty.

On the Ground: A Better Tomorrow Education Fund

Today, it’s our pleasure to feature A Better Tomorrow Education Fund.  Nicole Berg, one of the founders, is a law student at the University of Illinois College of Law.  The idea for the Fund came one Christmas morning when Dennis Kass and Nicole decided that they wanted to create an alternative to Christmas gift giving.  Instead of exchanging Christmas gifts, they wanted to help Chicago kids trying to get a college education.  They created the Fund to do this.  In the words of Nicole and Dennis:

Our organization started as a group of Chicago residents who wanted to help students with higher education costs. With 85% of Chicago public school students living in poverty, most are left struggling to pay for the education they need to escape neighborhoods plagued by drugs, gangs, violence, and poverty. Related to this, an alarmingly low number of students get through college and graduate.  "Balancing work, college, and extracurriculars has been difficult but I have gotten better at it with time," said Marisol, who received a scholarship from the Fund last fall.  The scholarship definitely helps: "This scholarship will help me tremendously. Thank you so much for granting an extra step to achieving my dreams." A graduate of the Chicago Public Schools and a student at Dominican University, Marisol hopes to practice medicine in her Chicago neighborhood.  Students like Marisol receive not only monetary scholarships, but they also participate in a mentoring program, an aspect of the program that is crucial to students who may not have college-experienced parents or family members.  Although many of the city's top high school students receive substantial scholarships, there are many more students who might not have perfect grades, but have overcome significant barriers and are deserving of the opportunities that come with higher education.  A Better Tomorrow Education Fund strives to help fill that gap.  

With no overhead or administrative costs, this is a particularly great organization to which to contribute.  We are thrilled to be making our first contribution to this organization this week.

 

Our Conscious Living: My Christmas Present

Despite our previous posts that there would be no Christmas presents exchanged between the two of us, Suja wanted to surprise me with a Christmas present on Christmas eve eve (no, this is not a typo). What she wanted to give me wasn’t a traditional present, however.  She wanted to take me over to the Eastern Illinois Foodbank, one of the organizations in the $50,000 Challenge.  We had never been there, and Suja thought a visit to the Foodbank would nicely cap off the last several weeks working with the Foodbank and their wonderful staff (Cheryl Middaugh and others).  Suja can never keep a secret though – not even her own – so, as soon as she arranged for the visit, she told me that we were going over there.  Late in the afternoon last Wednesday, we met Cheryl, the Director of Marketing and Development, and she graciously gave us a tour of the Foodbank. Cheryl told us that 44,000 people are fed each month through food that derives from the Foodbank, and 40% of them are kids.  Cheryl also described the struggle that Foodbanks are facing.  Foodbanks receive most of their product from surplus from manufacturing, but this is declining.  In 2008, over 72% of food acquired by the Eastern Illinois Foodbank was donated, compared with only 55% this year.  A change in manufacturing practices is the basic difference this year.  In the past, companies would manufacture food and try to sell it with surplus going to Foodbanks.  Now, companies are moving to making food based on orders, which decreases the surplus available to Foodbanks.  Thus, there is more need for resources to support the Foodbank as manufacturing changes, and as more people struggle in this economy.  Some new goals for the coming year came out of our visit with Cheryl including helping to spread the word that Foodbanks, including the Eastern Illinois Foodbank, need our help.  It was a phenomenal Christmas present to meet Cheryl and learn more about the Foodbank. (No—we don’t make this stuff up.) 

 

Los Angeles Times on Poverty and Health

New research published in the American Journal of Public Health finds poverty is significantly related to health problems.  Part of this stems from the cost of quality food.  We will talk more about poverty and access to food in our post tomorrow.

Los Angeles Times—Poverty shortens healthy years   By JEANNINE STEIN

Poverty appears to trump smoking, obesity and education as a health burden, potentially causing a loss of 8.2 years of perfect health. . . . The average person whose income level is below 200% of the federal poverty line (the bottom third of the country's population) would lose an estimated 8.2 years of perfect health, smokers 6.6 years, high school dropouts 5.1 years and the obese 4.2 years.  Read entire story.

 

Happy Holidays from The Give Blog

With Hanukkah, Christmas and other holidays, it's a festive time of the year.  We’re travelling to visit family to celebrate Christmas.  As we’ve blogged about previously, we’re not exchanging gifts with family or friends over the holidays but instead giving away money to others in need.  It can be awkward – we must admit – to show up empty-handed, but it gets easier every year.  With respect to our giving to each other, our first Christmas together, two years ago, we exchanged gifts that were less than $10 that could fit in a stocking.  It was a lot of fun.  We still have fond memories of that Christmas when we wear the Cincinnati t-shirt and the winter hat that we bought for each other.  Last year, we didn’t exchange gifts, and we must say it seemed anti-climatic at the time.  However, this year with no expectations and being used to the situation, we’re loving the no-stress of not giving to each other and having lots of fun with the Blog and concluding the matching challenge.  It's been a great way to spend the holidays.  Happy Holidays.

Last Chance to Donate and Be Matched in $50,000 Challenge

Today is your last chance to have us match your donation to The Hunger Project, Grameen Foundation, Safe Passage, Catholic Charities USA and the Eastern Illinois Foodbank in the $50,000 Challenge. We would love to match your donation.  Read about the challenge here.

Skip1.org: "Skip something. Feed a child."

As we are about to enter another eating frenzy in the next couple of days, we particularly appreciate the mission of Skip1.org.  There, people can skip something – whether it be a meal, a car, anything – in order to donate money to feed the hungry.  Check out their cool video below.  In the words of Skip1.org.

We skip because we can.


We skip because 1/6th of the Earth's population is undernourished - more than ever before!


We skip because 25,000 people die every day from hunger and related causes.

We skip because every 6 seconds a child dies of hunger and related causes.


We skip something because the world needs our help.

On the Ground: Grameen Foundation

We chose the Grameen Foundation as one of the charities to which we will contribute in the $50,000 challenge.  This year, we are new donors to the Grameen Foundation, which provides access to microfinancing.  The Foundation has received the best rating from Charity Navigator and an A from the American Institute of Philanthropy.  We are excited to be involved with this organization.  Here’s a Grameen story by Tamara Plush:

Village Phone Operator Marie-Claire Ayurwanda stands on the rock foundation of the house she is building in Setwara, Rwanda, and looks at the progress.  "I want to finish building this house for my children before I die," she says with resolve. As a woman living with HIV/AIDS, the weight of her words is heavy with a history of struggle and challenge. Yet when she talks about her present and future, her smile is light and her laughter comes easily. The years have not been easy. She had a son 17 years ago and then took in her brother’s two children when he was killed in the 1994 genocide. Her husband died in 2003 of an unknown cause. She then remarried and had a daughter. After learning that her new husband drank too much, she left him. Then, she discovered she had, as she calls it, "the Virus." After her husband died, Marie-Claire decided to start a business and took a 20,000 franc ($40) loan from [Grameen Foundation’s] Village Phone microfinance partner URWEGO to open the Isimbi Restaurant. The profits from the restaurant help support the four children in her household and pay school fees. Set against the backdrop of the rolling Rwandan hillside, Marie-Claire serves goat brochettes (skewers) and Irish potatoes. Her laughter bounces off the bright blue walls of the restaurant as she talks with her customers and employees. And if a customer wants to make a phone call, she proudly takes them to a separate, private room where she has set up her Village Phone. When Marie-Claire heard about the Village Phone pilot program early in 2005, she quickly got a phone. The business turned out to be profitable enough for her to pay her phone loan off in 5 months (rather than the standard 6 months). So now, all profits from the phone are hers. "Marie-Claire is one of the top five operators in Rwanda out of the fifty businesses created during the pilot phase of the project," George Conard, Technical Project Manager for Grameen Foundation, said. "She sells nearly thirty minutes a day and the phone generates about US$12 a week. In a country with the average income around $230 per year, the extra income from the phone has a huge impact on her life."  Read the entire story.

Give to the Grameen Foundation now, and we will match your donation.

 

Our Conscious Living: Consciously Eating

 We love eating.  We are trying though, even through eating, to live consciously in order to give away more money.  Here’s what we’ve accomplished or haven’t accomplished thus far with our eating and conscious living. As a general matter, we try to eat at restaurants where the entrees are $10 or less.  Sometimes this is difficult.  There's a place that we love in Champaign where our favorite entree is $13.  Also, if we visit friends and they suggest a place that is over the $10/entree price range, it tends to be awkward to suggest another less expensive place.  But we’re still trying to do this.  We also try not to eat out much.  We generally bring our lunches to work, and we usually don’t eat out at dinnertime.  Lately, we’ve been going out on Friday night.  Once, with drinks that we bought, it ran – we must admit – $55 with tip, at a popular chain.  Yikes.  Clearly there is lots of room for improvement.  One thing that Suj wants me to do is to give up soda (“pop” for you Midwesterners) when we go out to eat.  Her dad didn’t let them get sodas when they were at restaurants—at least until they were older and mouthier and it wasn’t worth it to argue with them—because they had soda (that had cost a lot less) at home.  Now, Suj wants to adopt the same philosophy with me.  I have definitely ordered less sodas when going out as a result.  Now, we also keep sodas at work so we don’t spend as much getting soda from a vendor.  Finally, Suj is a vegetarian.  She used to eat meat a few years ago but now doesn’t so that ends up saving some money, not to mention being alright for the environment.  I cook for us at home so I’ll generally forgo meat at home, and I take it out on the cows when I go out. 

The New York Times on Ralph Nader’s “only the Super-Rich can save us!”

Everyone has an opinion about Ralph Nader, and everyone will probably have an opinion about his new  book.  In it, he imagines a world where the super-rich come together to solve major world problems.  We just picked up Nader's book from the library on Saturday.  To the extent that Nader is proposing that this should be the job of the super-rich, we think that it won’t take the super-rich – although they do and can help – to make significant change to issues like hunger and poverty.  All of us can tackle it.  

The New York Times—The Wealthy As Crusaders For Justice   By HARRY HURT III

IMAGINE that Warren Buffett, profoundly moved by a visit to the disaster zone created by Hurricane Katrina, summons 16 aging, very wealthy friends to an exclusive Hawaiian hotel. The group includes George Soros, Ted Turner, Bill Cosby, Paul Newman, Barry Diller, Ross Perot and Bill Gates Sr., as well as one woman, Yoko Ono. At Mr. Buffett’s behest, they agree to join forces to fundamentally transform America’s economic, political and social landscape before another natural or human-caused apocalypse strikes.That is the premise of “Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!” (Seven Stories Press, $27.50), a clever, fanciful, thought-provoking but pedantically verbose new book by Ralph Nader. .  .  . The book is his answer to Ayn Rand’s 1957 best-selling novel “Atlas Shrugged,” in which leaders of a capitalist society go on strike to protest ever-increasing government control of free enterprise. Mr. Nader, by contrast, puts his eclectic, rich cadre to work on an economic, political and social rescue mission of sweeping proportions. “They were alike in only three ways: they were old, very rich and very unrepresentative of humanity, which they intended to save from itself,” he writes. Acting semi-covertly, Mr. Buffett et al. call themselves “the Meliorists” (after the belief that humans can help improve the world) and vow to advance seven principles, which the author describes as “a living wage, health insurance, tax reform, sustainable energy, more equitable distribution of wealth, electoral reform and the seeding of deeper forms of democracy.” .  .  . In its own way, the book is as elitist as “Atlas Shrugged.” Despite his hard-earned populist credentials, Mr. Nader presents a scenario in which an enlightened few rescue the media-opiated masses from self-destruction. He eschews the Hobbesian nightmare of a nasty, brutish man in favor of the Rousseauian belief that man’s basic good nature will eventually prevail. But for better or worse, Mr. Nader’s provocatively quirky dream of a “practical utopia” is not likely to become “a new reality” anywhere beyond the boundaries of his own imagination. Read the entire story.