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Boulder Daily Camera
Making Money Matter
A SERIES OF ARTICLES - PART ONE
Rotary eClub One Director of Advancement
Columnist for the Boulder Daily Camera

Making Money Matter: Giving Defines Us

For a year and a half I have been writing about philanthropy and exploring the motivations, mechanisms and magnificence of the world of giving. What we have collectively experienced these last few weeks has brought us to the core of what it means to be human, and what it means to give. Some have given their time and their sweat as volunteers. Some have given blood. Some have given money. Some gave their lives.

As we adjust to our new world, we feel pain and disbelief. What happened to our sense of security? What happened to our perception of physical well being?

What about our financial well being? Our hopes for the future?

We must recapture our equilibrium. We cannot undue what has been done, but we can recalibrate what we feel and how we act. While we could look back and wish we had done things differently, what is more important is that we look ahead and know what we will do now.
It was easy to write about philanthropy when we were feeling secure. I could encourage people to give away “excess” income or unneeded assets and offer a little bit of guidance about how to do so. I believe in philanthropy now more than ever, so I want to ask a deeper question. What does money mean?

We’ve seen how money can provide an unprecedented lifestyle. It has been said that a necessity is a luxury used twice. In 2000, there were over 5 million millionaires in the US. The rich were certainly getting richer. Giving USA reported that in the same year, Americans donated $200 billion to non-profit organizations. In fact, for all but one of the last 40 years, the total amount of giving in the US has increased every year.

What will happen now? As we have experienced our national tragedy together, united in our grief and our collective losses, will our attitudes towards our money change? Do we now feel poor? Will our lifestyles change? Most of us have a lot less than we did a year ago, but do we have less than we did 10 years ago? Probably not. So, our perception of wealth is relative, isn’t it.

The Talmud says you are rich if you are satisfied with what you have. How do we accomplish that? It is a matter of attitude, isn’t it? Is your glass half-full or half empty? Consider this: however you perceive that glass, it still has water in it and you can offer some of what you have to someone who is thirsty.

Many of us have experienced a need to give unlike anything we have felt before. As a result of the attacks, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, we have given over $700 million to the Red Cross, to relief organizations, and to funds for victims and their families, and we will do more. The need is real and immediate, and we have responded with generosity and an outpouring of giving that has no precedent.

But we must also continue to support those organizations we have supported in the past. Now more than ever, non-profit organizations will be counting on your gifts to provide the funds needed to accomplish their mission. The work they do or the service they provide is no less important now than it was before September 11th. In fact, the functions of humanitarian organizations, universities, hospitals, arts organizations and myriad other nonprofits may be even more important. Without your continued gifts, many of those that operate on a shoestring and good will may have to close. We must not let our third sector, a part of what makes us a unique democracy, flounder when it is what helps define us.

In 1832, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about Democracy in America: “When an American asks for the cooperation of his fellow citizens, it is seldom refused; and, I have often seen it afforded spontaneously, and with great goodwill.”

Our philanthropic culture is unprecedented in the world and is a beacon for others. How we give is part of who we are. Nonprofits help us maintain our way of life.

Make your money matter. Give all you can.

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