‘Tis the season for giving.
Emails, pop-up ads and a mailbox full of junk I don’t want or need all tell me so. As with the Christmas season, though, the gimmicky marketing leaves me grumpy as I grudgingly try to get into the spirit for the upcoming Giving Tuesday and Colorado Gives Day (which are separate days — we’ll get to that later).
Oh, the need is great. I’m not suggesting it’s not nor that we shouldn’t give of our time and money and goods.
While the excessive number of return address labels I’ve received from those seeking my donations are wasteful and annoying, there’s a bigger issue that’s led me to probe into the world of philanthropy and giving: Why is there so much need?
Like most societal issues, it is complex. But I’m going to focus on the ever-growing financial inequality in our country and what I’ll call the greed feeds need cycle.
Examples are abundant. We recently learned that our millionaire governor, Jared Polis, paid no federal income tax in some recent years and in others paid at a rate lower than someone making $45,000 a year. Federal taxes fund many services that benefit all, and the decisions on how that money is spent, whether we agree or not, are made by Congress not individuals with their own priorities and prerogatives.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos is the second richest person in the world, but the thousands of people working in his Amazon warehouses face grueling conditions and wages that, while higher than minimums, are barely livable in many places.
Polis and Bezos and other rich folks point to their philanthropy — what they “give back” to society — in defense of their low tax bills. Along implying that they’re returning something they’ve taken from others, that “giving back” comes with this caveat: They choose where the money goes, what causes they deem worthy. Often it involves a family foundation (read: tax shelter) or a building with a wealthy person’s name on it.
Even those in the wealth club recognize this.
“As more lives and communities are destroyed by the system that creates vast amounts of wealth for the few, the more heroic it sounds to ‘give back,’” Peter Buffet, the youngest son of Warren Buffett, wrote in a 2013 New York Times op-ed about what he coined the Charitable-Industrial Complex. “It’s what I would call ‘conscience laundering’ — feeling better about accumulating more than any one person could possibly need to live on by sprinkling a little around as an act of charity.”
I went back to the 19th century and the words of that heralded philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who made his fortune in the railroad, oil, and steel industries. His is a rags to riches story — you know, the poor kid from Scotland who achieved the American dream and then wrote about how the wealthy should give away their money during their lifetime.
In two articles published in 1889 known as The Gospel of Wealth, Carnegie declared that “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.” Essentially, he said don’t leave a lot to your heirs because they need to work for their wealth and don’t leave it until you die because it might not go where you want it to, it will be heavily taxed and no one will thank you.
What is often omitted when people cite his advice to the wealthy is his belief that only a few “men” are capable of managing the capitalist systems that lead to great wealth, and that’s the way it should be. He discounts arguments for increasing wages because “if distributed in small quantities among the people, would have been wasted in the indulgence of appetite, some of it in excess, and it may be doubted whether even the part put to the best use, that of adding to the comforts of the home, would have yielded results for the race, as a race, at all comparable to those” that flow from a particular institute or foundation over generations.
In other words, the working class isn’t capable of knowing what it needs and the wealthy, who are apparently smarter and more capable than everyone else, should decide what’s best for all. He advocated for things such as his trademark libraries, universities and public halls for performance, which aren’t bad things if you can afford tuition or a ticket to an event. His name is found on such buildings.
Philanthropy itself became big business. Americans gave more the $471 billion in 2020, according to the National Philanthropic Trust.
Let’s pause here to distinguish between philanthropy and charitable giving. Philanthropy is supporting causes that help people over the long term or lead to systemic changes (such as grants to education, medical research, libraries or the arts), and charitable giving is generally considered as meeting immediate needs such as supporting a food bank or homeless shelter.
In times of great need, such as during the coronavirus pandemic or natural disasters, the wealthiest often switch some of the philanthropic giving to charitable causes. Bezos, for example, donated at least $150 million of his more than $10 billion in 2020 giving to pandemic relief. Generally, his gifts go to environmental conservation causes, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where you can see where the wealthiest people give.
We may be stuck in the greed feeds need cycle, but we can work for change by advocating for more fair tax policies and transparency on charitable foundations established by the wealthy that may be used primarily for political influence.
We can also target our own giving to local causes where we can see the differences in our own communities. Where we, as communities, make the choice on what we need.
That’s where Colorado Gives Day comes in because the Community First Foundation that sponsors it has done your homework for you. It has vetted the 3,100 nonprofit organizations that can receive donations, ensuring that they are registered 501(c)3 nonprofits, have registered with the state and have significant assets, said Kelly Dunkin, Community First president and chief executive officer.
The first Colorado Gives Day was in 2010, and donations have steadily risen over the decade. It’s the first Tuesday in December, this year Dec. 7. That is different from the international Giving Tuesday, which started in 2012, that is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (after Black Friday and Cyber Monday).
They’re both a big deal because donations given on a specific day often are matched by incentive funds. In 2020, Giving Tuesday raised $2.47 billion in the United States alone (it is in 80 countries), according to its website.
Colorado Gives Day last year brought in a record-breaking $50 million, which Dunkin said was fueled in part by pandemic-related needs and the fact that donors had more discretionary income because they weren’t traveling or going to events. The goal this year is $45 million, although she’d like to see a repeat of 2020 giving, she said.
“Coloradans never cease to amaze me in the way they step up,” she said.
Coloradans sometimes are confused by the two giving days, so her organization has used the first one as a time to set up your donation for Colorado Gives Day. The advantage of Colorado Gives is that you can make your donations through one stop on one website even if you want to give $5 each to 10 different organizations.
The minimum donation if $5 and the average is $102 – a $100 donation with $2 added to offset credit card fees. Of the 225,440 donations made through coloradogives.org in 2020, more than 64,000 were $50 or less.
You can also search for the type of nonprofit you’d most like to support, including those that work for policy changes by using search terms such as civil rights or advocacy or for ones in your own zip code. And, importantly, you can give anonymously and choose not to have your information given to any mailing or email lists.
My own giving philosophy has evolved over the years, and changed again this year as I looked into the greed feeds need cycle and philanthropic giving. While giving to help with immediate, critical needs in my community and state is important, so is breaking that cycle.
If I’m going to give to get something I want it to be policy changes that work to create a system where we have less need for the basics such as food and homes, not for more return address labels that nobody needs.
Sue McMillin is a long-time Colorado reporter and editor who worked for The Gazette and Durango Herald. Now a regular columnist for The Denver Post and a freelance writer, she lives in Cañon City. Email her at suemcmillin20@gmail.com.
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