December 24, 2010
When I was much younger, my parents sponsored a girl living on an indian reservation in Arizona. In addition to the monetary donation to Save the Children, we exchanged letters with her and sent her Christmas presents every year. When I was a junior in high school, we had her up to visit us over winter break where she saw snow for the first time. Though she has children of her own now, she and my parents still keep in touch. Sponsoring her though save the children has proven to be one of the most rewarding acts of charity they ever partook in.
The Lottery of Life is an ad campaign for Save the Children that reminded me of how lucky I’ve been my entire life. If you’re feeling as lucky as I am this Christmas, please consider sponsoring a child with Save the Children. Though the idea is to help a child, you might just find you’ll get something out of it, too.
(via Chris Blattman)
March 1, 2010
Four years ago, a writer named Courtney Martin had a novel idea. She created a startup “charity” concept that gives people $100 to do nice things for strangers:
“One hundred dollars is not going to change anyone’s life,” Martin said. “It’s a small thing. The money is just a framework for people to use their imagination. It’s like a kick in the ass.”
One of the participants had trouble giving away the $100. It seems people are naturally suspicious when you’re being nice to them:
“I will give you $1 for you to give to someone else,” the sign said. Throughout the evening rush, Lockspeiser stood in the station, trying to give away dollar bills.
“Everyone though I was trying to scam them,” he said. “They wanted to know what I was up to. I told them they just had to promise to give the $1 to someone else.”
After three hours, Lockspeiser had managed to give away only $52. One passer-by did not take the $1 but, suspecting that Lockspeiser was down and out, handed him a pair of socks. [emphasis mine]
Read “Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy” at SFGate (viaMarginal Revolution)
