Wowed by Structure Lab

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Find My HeartStructure Lab – the place to learn what structure to ask your legal advisor for. It can also be useful for foundations, investors, and others working with social benefit start-ups.

I feel wowed. I have been reading about structures for social benefit start-ups and considering my own for years now. I felt like I had a pretty good idea. Now I feel like I have a clear map. I even know what signs to look for.

Creative Commons License photo credit: PharCyder
A hearty thank you to Joy Anderson, whose breadth of experience and warm comfortable facilitation style made the day fly by delightfully. I appreciate clarity. Now, I see more clearly the people collaborating with me and the roles they play. I understand better the vehicles for getting funding (and the structures those work with). And I grasp better what the asset types of the organization are and who I want to own and control them. I also gained clarity about some of my fears! Let me share with you some of my key learnings:
  • No one owns a nonprofit. You can’t do investment vehicles with equity. And you can’t close them easily.
  • Certain core factors drive decisions at different layers of your structure from the legal form to the governance structure. And governance structures can help manage mission/vision holding.
  • Understanding what makes the IRS nervous helps uncover which structure will work for your organization.
  • Foundations and investors avoid making their heads hurt. Your strategy for structure can help reduce their confusion and headaches.utzon died today at ninety
  • The last two are about understanding where those relationships fit on several values matrices. Knowing where you are in relationship to them, helps you communicate. Understand where you are on those matrices helps more smoothly facilitate many of your relationships.
  • The difference between PRIs and MRIs.

Key questions and explanations allow participants to create solutions that fit their situation.

  • Some structures are easy to start or end, and others are hard (read, take time or capital). Consider where you will encounter resistance and what benefit that will bring you. Choose the resistance in a legal sense and resistance in the market that is right for you and your endeavor.
  • It is hard enough to describe a new enterprise. Consider that when choosing a form – what structures do people understand.
  • Clarity about the roles different relationships play and the degree of formality of your agreements support each.
  • The management of your assets and your access to capital dance with the structure of your organization. There is a complex choice set that doesn’t neatly fit a decision tree.
  • Consider the exit plan. It has implications in the structure. Do you plan to sell the org? What if you get hit by a bus?
  • Don’t be seduced by scale nor lured in by the idea of wild profits. What is the right approach for the appropriate growth of your organization. Yes, it has implications for certain structures.
  • Mediate the concerns of one level of structure (for example LLCs at the legal form level) with tools of another level (for example, governance and agreements).
  • When creating hybrids, there are benefits and drawbacks to the 3 simple forms (and
    one complex form). The workshop explains what each one is useful for.

look downstairs into stairwell whirl

Creative Commons License photo credit: quapan

There is more, but this hopefully gives you a sense of the information provided. The approach of the workshop is playful, and the process allows for each person to understand their specific needs and values.

We also delved into L3Cs. They were legalized in January for Illinois. We discussed what makes them useful as well as what the alternatives are.

I wanted to come away with a clear decision on how to structure thrivable.org. I have that decision. I also know now how that can change over time, and what my plan can be for the organization(s) over time. Best of all, I feel equipped to manage the unexpected, in terms of structure. So I feel resilient and flexible structurally.

Way to go Criterion Ventures!

Transformative Structures

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I read the latest issue of Beyond Profit magazine on my flight to the west coast. I was headed to Beyond Social Media conference. What I most enjoyed reading was about going beyond existing structures. For years now, as part of several startups with varying degrees of social good intent, I have pondered over appropriate legal structures. It was so exciting when BCorp certification came out. Finally something to say that an organization was for-benefit with rigorous criteria. However, BCorps were, at that time, just a certification. We still had to operate in the space of either for-profit business (but working on double or triple bottom line outcomes), or as a nonprofit. The very name nonprofit annoys me. It is so far from being aspirational in purpose. It is framed by the profit issue and not by what drives a nonprofit — the mission to serve.

The first article I devoured discussed advances in hybrid organizations, Blended Value: Weaving Profit into Social Mission through Hybrid Models. Which states,

In the nomenclature created by Pamela Hartigan and John Elkington in their book, The Power of Unreasonable People, there are three categories of social enterprise: leveraged nonprofits, hybrid nonprofits, and social business ventures. As these categories indicate, where there is no single legal form that meets the need of an entrepreneur, they create their own: engaging in profit-making activities within a nonprofit, yoking a nonprofit with a for-profit, or creating a profic-making subsidiary within a non-profit.

Several states in the US have adopted new L3C legislation. L3C’s are low-profit, limited-liability companies designed to help foundations comply with program-related investment rules (as foundations push to use more than 10% of their endowments toward mission/program related opportunities). As a long-time advocate for mission-related investing, I was really excited to see L3Cs enter the market. However, they have not been tested with the IRS enough to build deep confidence in their worth and security.

And to be frank, this is really about confidence, trust, security. And while the B-corp certification acts as a “trust-mark” according to the article in Beyond Profit, it is not legally binding the way legal structures are. These legal models are all about trust! Founders want to be sure that the organization survives with the original intent (to make a profit or to serve the public). Combining the two is transforming the legal system and the structures we use to create organizations. Beneficiaries of a service also want to trust an organization to do what it is structured to do.

Lakra, citing the preconceived notions people have about certain structures, said. “You wouldn’t use a non-profit courier company, nor would you trust a for-profit company to provide HIV education to the deaf.”

We know we can trust that a for-profit company, no matter what gloss and cover elides it, will be driven by the need for revenue. They will be generous, helpful, and good citizens to the degree that serves their “rational actor” in the market approach. And a well-meaning entrepreneur can end up selling a for-profit business and seeing the core values get wrecked in the pursuit of revenue. Creating a structure that ties the organizational activity to a social mission is tricky. There are paths through it. And legal forms are actually more complex then just “for-profit” and “non-profit” lead us to think. There are member-owned organizations and cooperatives of different flavors. To create a legal structure that the founder and the public can trust to be consistent requires some expert advice.

I am off to get mine. March 3rd, I am going to Structure Lab, a workshop held by Criterion Ventures at innovative cities around the United States. I am told the workshop involves a game (and I love games!) as well as focused help on my particular concerns, so I can walk away much more clear about what organizational structure meets my needs.

I have some serious transformation in mind. I need a transformative structure to match, please.

Gratitude and TweetsGiving 09

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This post is in several parts. First, I want to talk about the power of gratitude. Second, I want to share some of my gratitude. Finally, I want to share with you an opportunity to share gratitude with me and many others. If you want to jump to the gratitude event of the season, scurry over to Tweetgiving.

Gratitude

I remember being teased lovingly for my gratitude and thanking habits when I was a teen, and I am still at it. Why? Gratitude is such a powerful force in creating happiness and joy – both in the giver and the receiver. This isn’t just my experience. Research has tied gratitude to happiness, combating depression, greater creativity, and greater overall success. Gratitude can show up in many ways: keep gratitude journal, remember to thank others for kindness, acknowledging privilege of place/time/birth, documenting appreciation of others, give back (volunteer) or pay it forward (donate) and many more. I regularly use the #gratitude tag on twitter and post my appreciation of others. Not only is this about being positive, it also creates a feedback loop so those I thank might feel encouraged to do more of what I admire about them. Let me expand on my gratitude in specifics here.

My Gratitude

It is a daunting task to express gratitude here today. I am usually flowing with it, and I wish I had the space here to say everything I am grateful for. Today, wanting to be more comprehensive, I fear I will forget many important people and experiences I am profoundly grateful for. However, to be exhaustive may take the rest of my life. So consider this a small excerpt.

  • For their profound impact on me, their generosity, and weekly sharing, my dearest friends, thank you: Steve Crandall, Valdis Krebs, Todd Hoskins, Jill Palermo, Evonne Heyning, and Tracy Gary.
  • For deep and long term support, listening, challenging, and championing, thank you: Hava Gurevich, Jo Guldi, Monica Zaucha, Lewis Hoffman, Justin Lowell-Bellew, Michael Maranda, and Arthur Brock.
  • For deep spirit conversations and mentorship: Ken Homer, Sheri Herndon, and Chris Byrne.
  • For believing in me and my dream and taking it on as their own, the thrivable champions: Jerry Michalski, Kevin Clark, Kevin Doyle Jones, Leif Utne, Sidney Hargro, Gil Friend, Charles, and several of those already listed. And for investment in thrivable: David Hodgson and Ruth Ann Harnish. For being such an evangelist: Steve Jennings. Also thanks to Loren Cole for powerful conversations, support, and a magnificent picnic.
  • For creating a ring of female energy around me that feeds me and keeps me true: Kaliya Hamlin, Jessica Margolin, Lisa Tracy, Lisa Parker, Christina Jordan, Maryann Fernandez, Karen Payne, Julie Peterson, Judi Clark, Tree Breeson, Kara Carell, Dorothee Royal-Hedinger, Sarah Connor, Michelle Haimoff, Kathrine Mancuso, Diane Mikutis, Susan Gleason, Stacey Monk, Kimberly Olson, my mother and sister, and several of those already listed.
  • For their faith, by which I saw myself anew, may they each know how transformative they are and my undying gratitude, no matter how many years pass: Tom Munnecke, David Isenberg, Dan Rose, Ron Strickland, Rebecca Saunders, Thomas Kriese, Clary Mulvany, Christine Egger, Rory Turner, Susan Megy (and many of those above most notably Hava Gurevich, Steve Crandall, Tracy Gary, Valdis Krebs, and Jerry Mikalski).
  • For laughter and honesty: Ashis Brahma, Jim Fussell, Ethan McCutchen, Jack Ricchuito, Nathan Lenkowski, Peter Kaminski, Pete Forsyth, Tom Portante, Lonny Grafman, Chris Watkins, Gerard Senehi.
  • Most of all, my two amazing children by whose grace I realized why I am alive and what I am here for.
  • I am also grateful, beyond my social life, for growing up in the hilly woods and prairie of a morraine in central Illinois, for playing in dirt and in trees, for many days idly kayaking with loved ones, for the magnificence of my horses (who I miss very much), for the art that adorns my space, and the beauty of the world as a whole.
  • I am grateful for my senses that let me take in such a magnificent world. I am grateful for my travels which have taken me to nearly every state and a few countries beyond the US. I am grateful that I was raised in a multi-cultural university setting and the privilege and perspective that afforded me.
  • I am grateful for the pain in my life – the many surgeries, the broken bones, and the birthing which brought me into my body in generative ways. And the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional pain and suffering which has shaped me and strengthened me magnificently.
  • And I am grateful to myself – my constant companion and mirror friend, whose advice and instincts I trust above all others and who has carried me through thick and thin, found the goodness in all things, done hard work, and taken delight. That might seem a bit vain, but after 37 years on the planet, I trust myself in really inspiring and powerful ways that fuel my courage, commitment, and generosity, and that is a beautiful and precious thing.

To share gratitude this year, I am partnering with several others on TweetsGiving! Come appreciate life with me!

Share your gratitude via Tweetsgiving

TweetsGiving is a global celebration of gratitude benefiting US nonprofit  Epic Change and supporting Shepherds Junior, a primary school in Arusha, Tanzania. TweetsGiving gratitude parties are now scheduled in over 30 cities from Canberra, Australia to Tel Aviv, Israel to New York City.  We hope you’ll join our global gratitude celebration!  Together, our gratitude has the power to change the world.

Go to tweetsgiving.org or join me at http://thrivable.wagn.org/wagn/Tweetsgiving for opportunities to share your gratitude on a google map or on our wagn. Thank you!

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This post was created as part of a global groundswell of gratitude called TweetsGiving. The celebration, created by US nonprofit Epic Change, is an experiment in social innovation that seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude. I hope you’ll visit the TweetsGiving site to learn more, and to bring your grateful heart to the party by sharing your gratitude, and giving in honor of that for which you’re most thankful.

Catalytic Philanthropy

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I am so deeply offended, I felt compelled to write, and now share with you. The following is my reply to Catalytic Philanthropy, an article in the Standford Innovation Review by Mark Kramer. It is subtitled: “Despite spending vast amounts of money and helping to create the world’s largest nonprofit sector, philanthropists have fallen far short of solving America’s most pressing problems. What the nation needs is “catalytic philanthropy”—a new approach that is already being practiced by some of the most innovative donors”

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I must agree with Ryan [in the comments]. The arrogance and condescension in this article is disgraceful. Articles such as What is a Donor To Do? www.tpi.org/downloads/pdfs/research-whats_donor_to_do.pdf [pdf] have a much more respectful approach to addressing the evolution of donors from checkbook philanthropy to transformational giving. Furthermore, playing a blame game with the subtitle, as if it is ills that business and government have failed to address should be solved by philanthropy (when they weren’t solved by business or government). The last thing we need to do is blame the generous souls who go beyond their peers with their compassion by offering their resources. If anything we should point the finger at the business sector for externalizing costs at the expense of their workers, their consumers, and the communities they touch with usual flagrant disregard for the systems in which they operate. Granted personhood and yet acting all too often with little compassion, respect, or even citizenship, the business sector as a whole could take a few lessons from Mr. Kramer, if we adjust a bit of the language. But finger pointing is not going to move us into the world we want.

I suggest a good read and then digestion of Claire Gaudiani’s book, Greater Good: How Philanthropy the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism (http://books.google.com/books?id=s2Bu-k4GvscC&dq=greater+good&printsec=frontcover&source=bll&ots=6m8IrKm6ku&sig=Hj8wm0_cU9M84pBM-pOWgeKQcgw&hl=en&ei=4dGVSrPcKNCTlAfY36mbDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11#v=onepage&q=&f=false)

I am an advocate of social entrepreneurship and a fan of blended models of business and social benefit. I believe it is more that these address gaps in our tool belt. I agree that we need to collaborate more, and innovate ever more effective ways of addressing the issues we face – individually and collectively. I have doubts that nonprofits are eager for donors to take leadership role in guiding their programs as a learning ground for trying new tactics. Wise philanthropists know how to honor the wisdom and resources of a nonprofit while leveraging the impact of their own dollars.

Finally, I have to question the issue of audience this article addresses, for if it hopes to lure in donors and potential donors into an evolved model of philanthropy, it might be best not to insult the form of philanthropy they have been practicing. If however, it seeks an audience of non-philanthropic individuals driven by the business-approach can solve the world mentality…well then, write on. (although business collaboration networks in competitive markets….mmm…yeah, where are those?)

To be clear, I appreciate the success stories here…and I don’t dispute them. Nor do I dispute the need for evolving philanthropy. In fact, I am an avid supporter of evolving philanthropy. What I take issue with here is the style, tone, and framing.

Social Media Fundraising Success

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Epic Change ran a fundraising campaign over twitter this thanksgiving – #tweetsgiving!
They raised over their target of $10,000 in 48 hours. The money is intended for building a classroom in Tanzania. While the lure of social media promise for fundraising continues to elude many, there are a few hopeful and stellar examples of success.

I believe this campaign was successful for the following reasons (there may be more, but this is my sense of it right now).

1.Tangible concrete goal – raising this amount for a project is more compelling for most small donors than contributing to a general effort of an organization. A classroom in Tanzania. Every $10 is a brick, and we need 1000 bricks. Thus the donor may ask themselves how many bricks do they want to invest.

2.Trusted organization/people – Epic Change has been on twitter with a sustaining present for a long enough time to be recognizable to many – and draw in visibility through a network of trusted connections. One has to have the inner network trusting you before you can scale to second tier networks of scale. I could do a whole post just on how to establish trust in these networks. For now, I will just say that Epic Change has been following the rule of give to get by joining conversations and engaging their network in non-monetary sharing consistently.

3.Pass It On dynamic – the rules of tweetsgiving were clearly stated in the website put together just for this effort. They clearly encourage passing on the tweetsgiving to others. Furthermore, passing it on was facilitated by the core with ample thank yous and other acknowledgments. Additionally, donors are listed on the site as people to follow on twitter. There were also individual outreach efforts to get advocates for Epic Change to evangelize the the effort.

4.Tapping into Gratitude – the effort was tied into a holiday of gratitude. People give more when they are reminded of their own abundance – that they have enough. Thanksgiving is a good holiday for that reminder. And tweetsgiving reinforced this connection by asking people to post what they are grateful for along with the tag #tweetsgiving.

5.Event Bigger than Project Focus – sharing gratitude is a general activity around this holiday, so #tweetsgiving gave people a chance to share what they wanted to share in a way that really works on twitter. Tweeple like tagging for the aggregation of many voices about one topic.

6.Well-networked Core Team – this campaign was created and implemented by a team of folks rallying around the cause who are avid twitter users with networks of their own, including many vital influencers. This means the reach of the project was sufficient for success.

7.Clear timeline – the project was not open-ended or even long term. It was 48 hours. While there is probably not any clear urgency on the school being built necessitating a quick campaign, the campaign itself had a focused energy by being short-term. Attention to the cause did not require ongoing commitment of participants or even ongoing attention. Go in, twitter, make a gift, forward the action with a gratitude, and within 48 hours it is over. Meaning made, finances collected, and forward to the next activity for all involved. (note this is also cost effective for the fundraising team)

What do you think made it successful? How can you adopt these strategies in your fundraising and resource development?

Philanthropy – field changing

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This is extracted from a note I sent out to Leaders engaged with Inspired Legacies:

The theme for my trip seemed to be democratization of philanthropy and knowledge sharing across internet sites and organizational silos.

Tracy and I met up and joined Leif and Eric Utne along with several of my friends for dinner. Eric is doing some amazing work bringing multi-generational folks together for salons. See Utne Reader or Earthcouncils.org. He met up with Peggy from Wiser Earth to talk about adding a layer to Wiser that would enable peer standard form peer feedback across multiple criteria – rate the nonprofits based on your experience with them. It could be something to watch regarding donor attention.

This all flowed very smoothly into a conversation with Christine Egger from SocialActions (a tool that brings together actions from over 30 sites to be redistributed across the net). Christine is quite a thinker, and we had felt like we were path sisters when I met her in May. We want to have an event and produce a book/report/catalog with the aim of catalyzing philanthropy as gentle compassion (more than money and more than just an act of doing). We discussed transformative philanthropy, thrivability, moving from giving to sharing, and much more.

4 years ago there was a Giving conference in Chicago. Christine and I want to do something of a follow up on that. Much progress has been made, and we want to assemble the players for the next stage of the co-evolution. I will keep you posted. The event is tentatively planned for April. See what Christine had to say.

Finally, as I find more and more people in philanthropy on twitter, I also discover better and better information. Just yesterday one of my followers (from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation) linked me to an awesome report which includes about 70% of the trends I have been paying attention to in the field of philanthropy. I strongly encourage at least a perusal of this important report.

The report called Intentional Innovation: How Getting More Systematic about Innovation Could Improve Philanthropy and Increase Social Impact, calls to the importance and value of thinking and using more systematically about innovation in the work of philanthropy and nonprofit sector.

Through this study, the Kellogg Foundation, working with Clohesy Consulting and the Monitor Group, learned some concepts for helping change the way the social sector thinks about innovation.
ttp://www.wkkf.org/default.aspx?tabid=94&CID=6&ItemID=5001167&NID=85&LanguageID=0

Next, the same contact, Stephanie McAuliffe, also shared a bunch of pdfs about network weaving, strategy, social media etc.

I also was pointed to change.org blog — “In Defense of Raising Money” Very cool post discovered by my fellow Chicagoan and brilliant change agent, Nathanial Whittmore.

It is very exciting to see the convergence emerging, and there is no better time than now to shift gears for uplift in the philanthropic sector. Thank you for your part of this effort! Please share your articles, links, insights, and intentions!

Subversive Giving

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Of course activists have long given their time and money to causes, but this sort of activism I have not seen before. This kind–the kind where people contribute to a cause, planned parenthood, in the name of a political personality so that this personality would be blanketed in the usual “a contribution has been made in your name” letters. What an interesting way to take advantage of the system!

First, you must understand how much I truly and deeply appreciate subversion. Then you might benefit from knowing that planned parenthood is very good at overwhelming donors with materials and requests, which is why I stopped giving to them (paper is such a waste of resources). Third, I really prize innovation and creative thinking.

So I am totally celebrating this unusual form of philanthropy. Reminds me a bit of shareholder activism. Bravo. Now, my friends, how can we continue to evolve practices like this to fuel our purpose?

Bravo.

Here is the letter, borrowed from What’s Sarah Thinking blog.

Instead of (in addition to?) us all sending around emails about how horrible she is, let’s all make a donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin’s name. And here’s the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they’ll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here’s the link to the Planned Parenthood website:

https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor

You’ll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the “in Sarah Palin’s honor” card. I suggest you use Sarah Palin’s home address, which is:

Sarah Palin
PO Box 21
Wasilla, AK

PS make sure you use that link above or choose the pulldown of Donate–Honorary or Memorial Donations, not the regular “Donate Online”

Entering Social Spaces Online

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Seems like each week there are new social media spaces to join and participate in. And lots of people help others learn and adopt online social practices. Each space has its own nuance on social practices. There are general rules of thumb, sure. But each site – even a cluster within a site – is specific in the way it encourages flows of connection and information, and thus which practices are encouraged. So how do you know what to do where?

I see lots of do and don’t lists, and they are great. Very helpful if you want a rulebook to follow. But if you want to learn the skill of adapting as you enter spaces, the work you do needs to go deeper into your practice. What questions should you ask yourself when joining and contributing to online social spaces?

Be strategic. Social media is a huge flow of information and people often very loosely knit together. What do you want to foster? Disregard fads of tools and spaces. What you do with your extremely precious time needs to be purposeful. Do you want: friends, information, a thriving network to use as a resource, marketing your [fill in the blank]? How will you know when you have that? How will you maintain it over time? Social spaces online just like physical social spaces require your attention to stay alive and flourishing.

Listen. Like I shared above, each space has its own social norms. Yes, there are general rules, but if you lurk before blasting posts, you can get a sense of how often to post, ways to appreciate others, ways to find interesting people and ideas, ways to avoid trouble, what puts people off… How do people behave in this space using this tool? What best practices can you collect? Sense into what is working for you in other people’s social practice. What gets you engaged there? How can you offer or connect, mirroring what worked for you?

Applaud. In speech we often give praise or acknowledgment with our faces. We nod or even just keep eye-contact. There are zillions of body clues. And they don’t show online. At all. Not even with emoticons. How can you show you are listening? How can you show that you are giving your attention to someone or something? How can you show you are a contributor? How can you help others shine? Where can you quickly, easily, and usefully connect people, ideas, and resources? If the general principle of social relations is truly get what you give, then what are you giving?

What questions wander through your mind when you are visiting new online social spaces?
What really irritates you as a social practice?
How do you quickly and easily sense a spammer, a connector, a maven, an influencer?

Your answers help you figure how how you want to be online. And they create an opportunity for you to be genuine in your practice.

Here are some resources for you that I saw on twitter today:
Top 10 Reasons Brands should Listen to Social Media
The Creation of Twitter Best Practices: Round 1

Unposted comment about nonprofit 20

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I submitted this to a blog asking where nonprofits were doing social networking and knowledge management. Specifically he was asking why foundations are not supporting social networks and knowledge networks. My comment was not posted–and when I went to check another comment had been posted (so he does post comments).  Thus I am sharing it with you here.

This is what I wrote:
I imagine connec+ipedia might be closest to what you describe. www.connectipedia.org (uses wagn–a wiki-style database) by Meyer Memorial Trust, focuses on Oregon now, but it is open to any and all.

www.wiserearth.org (created by Paul Hawken – see Blessed Unrest)

and for social entrepreneurs:

changemakers.net (Ashoka)
socialedge (Skoll Foundation)
We used to have Omidyar.net as an online community (Omidyar Network)

For local community leaders anywhere in the world who may or may not have nonprofits but are very grassroots, we are working on revising software for Catcomm.org, a tech awards finalist.

There is also Change.org and dozens of other online communities for social good that try to help people exchange knowledge, make connections, and champion organizations.

Via microblogging, things like nonprofit pulse pulling together nonprofit microblogs.

For nonprofits interested in social media and technology, there is NetSquared (a project of techsoup) and NTEN.

Can you explain clearly how your vision goes beyond these–because I think there is something to evolve here. And I am very interested in helping make that happen.

There are around 1.5 million nonprofits. I believe that stat is the US alone. Then include foundations, family foundations, corporate foundations, socially responsible companies, etc. The potential audience is gigantic, diverse, and most of it significantly underfunded.

Thanks for sharing.

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Tranform or be complicit

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I deeply believe in the work of the nonprofit/social benefit sector. And there are urgent issues of the day that need charity to address them, as change takes time. The idea of change-not-charity really appealed to me many years ago when I heard the phrase. YES, change the way things are so that we have different outcomes.

I was reading a site on philanthropy the other day, and they told a story of people saving babies floating down a river…that is charity. And then someone starts to run up the river–and the helpers beg them to come back to help save babies. But they shout back–I am going up river to see what to do about the babies going into the river to begin with. …that is about making change. Yes well…the river is there…and the babies are getting placed in it. Some are not helpless babies, but children and adults caught in the current. And going upriver to address the issues of how they are getting in the river is a huge improvement with leveraged impact over the band-aid result achieved by pulling people out of the river…but it still accepts–takes for granted–that there is a river.

Huh? Who made up this crazy metaphor?

My point here is that as long as we collectively empower the systems and structures; we aren’t really ending the problem. Micro-finance is not really going to end poverty. Different people might be poor, but it doesn’t end poverty. It might even change the dial on what is poverty…the new poor will live on $5 where last year they lived on $1, but their expenses will be higher, so it will go just as far. [Note: when I started writing about these issues 5 years ago, the stat was a $1 a day…now I see $2 a day…for example]

Farmers trying to deal with erosion could try to reclaim top soil (charity)…or they could try different farming practices that decrease erosion to begin with (change). But I would advocate that they look into the system that makes them farm in ways that are imbalanced with nature. Why do they grow so much corn and soybeans? [Read Biomimicry] What is the market driving the behavior that leads to erosion? [What are the policies governing international exchange and rewarding overabundance of some and wasting the production of others.]

Are you following me yet? The very rules of the game need to shift.

Fiat-currency –which we use pretty much universally, although it goes by different currency names, depends on someone being poor. Someone has to lose. Someone gets to win. The winners get to feel good about taking care of the unfortunate. This is the work of traditional philanthropy. I dream instead of transformative philanthropy where everyone involved leverages their wealth (social connections, knowledge, community strength and resilience etc) to shift systems. In this dream, there are no givers and receivers–only collaborators sharing the responsibility and benefits of improved communities.

What would workable ecosystems that enabled people to flourish be like? If we don’t ban fiat-currency–but instead see it as a stepping stone to our evolution, what is the next step that both includes and transcends this force in our world? Working toward that is transformative. Anything else results in being complicit in the very system that creates and maintains poverty.