Let’s say that you’ve been gifted with $100,000. You must use this money to put some good out into your community.
What do you do?
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Do some good!
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Responses
Let’s see here… open a 501-3C and open a soup kitchen… with many things bought from this place called “hands of hope” in town. It sells random stuff CHEAP. Prepackaged things have a best “use by” date, which would be the basis of my meals. Furthermore, they give out fresh fruits and veggies daily.
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I don’t know…
$100,000 doesn’t seem sufficient to make any lasting difference in a community.
Is it possible to increase that figure to $100M?
If so, then I will put the money in an endowment to fund scholarships at my local Community College. The beneficiaries will be low-income family high school graduates who are interested in pursuing vocational and trade courses such as welding, HVAC, crane operator, carpentry, shipping, transportation, nursing assistant, etc.
There will be two conditions attached to the scholarship before it is granted. The participant agrees to (1) complete the course, and (2) work for at least 6 months after the completion of the course.
In the event that either of these two conditions is not met, the participant agrees to pay back the grant.
A $100M endowment will be sufficient to fund the education of 200 graduates annually for the next 100 years at the cost of $5000 per course.
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Why not do things cheaply or that are based off of people donating things (including hours of time)
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100k doesn’t go far these days, so it would have to be leveraged in some way to make an impact.
I’d probably give it to this organisation I have worked with that helps charities raise money. They work with a very thin overhead and staff and have helped charities that have no other sources to bring in revenue in the neighbourhood of about $3,000,000 a year. I personally know the guy that started it and I know he is all in when it comes to community outreach. I’ve also met other pricks who do it strictly for the cream they shave off the top. This organisation is in it purely to help those who are in it to help others.
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tell the homeless mom with 2 kids that $100K “doesn’t seem sufficient” or “doesn’t go far these days”.
doesn’t always have to help the masses. local acts of kindness are the best kind.
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I’m a big fan of random acts of kindness. Random anonymous is even better. There’s taking care of physical needs, and then there’s taking care of heart/spirit.
As someone’s pointed out, this isn’t a huge sum of money by today’s standards. But a little bit of hope can go a long way to mending/encouraging the Human heart. It would be a relatively quiet, perhaps even invisible process . . . save to those touched by it. A small gesture, at just the right time, can have drastic and enduring positive effect.
And there is always the option of using it to start a small fund and using the interest for this purpose. This would mean smaller and less demonstrative acts of kindness; but over a much longer period of time.
And one would add the challenge of being a faithful steward of the money over time PLUS have their eyes continually open to the lives and processes of people around them; always looking for that absolutely perfect chance to make a difference.
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Just for the sake of discussion, is it better to use the money in singular acts of charity that have a momentary impact on immediate circumstances, or leveraging the money in a way that it could have a more meaningful influence over a longer term?
Another thought, and I equate this to “voluntourism”; is the momentary act of support to an individual as much for the purpose of making the giver feel value as a contributor, so they can look in the mirror and say, “I am better that both the one in need and the rest of “them”, because I am doing something specific where I can see the results.
Anecdote; I know a woman who was going to Cambodia on a mission trip to bring Jesus to local prostitutes. I asked her what her local experience was in the same regard? Blank stare response.
My point is that anyone can react to specific circumstances but to stop, think, plan and execute has significantly more value. Being proactive is sometimes a luxury that few have the opportunity to capitalize on, but somewhere along the line, we need to do just that. Sometimes it takes a while for the “luck” to catch up, but the odds are in favour that they can.
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It’s hard to say until the situation presents itself! Perhaps part of the reason why it was a limited amount of cash, was to get us thinking not of changing a person’s physical reality . . . but of helping them to change their outlook? Because sometimes the greatest changes in my life have not come from huge bail-outs but from exceedingly small “gifts” happening at just the right time.
The example I shared in the thread on influencing the younger generation was one such very small “gift”; and I “invested” in the process with just the price of someone’s lunch. But I know for a fact (not sure how, but I just do), that this had a huge positive impact on the recipient. And it also know that it had a compounding positive impact on me.
Yes, there certainly is the spectre of doing something good just so one can “get a feeling for themselves” — get a proverbial pat on the back. This is a very hard line to skate up to without crossing . . . because there ARE a lot of good feelings for you in being there at the right time and in the right measure to help another move forward — or just to help them change their perspective! It’s a lot like a drug: and the difference between the right amount at the right time for healthful benefit . . . and becoming an addict.
“I asked her what her local experience was in the same regard? ”
A wise response. It’s very easy to be someone you’re not when abroad, especially if under the guise of “charity” . . . and you’re only going to be there for a short while before jetting away back to a culture one might rarely invest in for reasons other than short-term personal gain.
Or it’s like “doing one’s duty for one’s country” 1000’s of miles from home; and having little of oneself left to invest at home. Or worse, thinking “duty has been discharged” and now it’s time to reap the rewards just for self.
I’ve also noticed that almost all of the instances where I’ve been able to minister to someone’s needs have been spontaneous; and hardly any of them were planned.
So back to that very small fund: I would probably start with the intent to manage it into something that could give over time. But if several spontaneous and very obvious needs came across my doorstep that would decimate the fund, I probably would take the stance that this was what that money came to me for.
And that if I handled it honourably, tomorrow there might be double that amount!
On a personal note, I reached out to someone in need recently; to the tune of more than I thought I could reasonably afford. And within less than a week, almost that exact same amount came back to me through a clerical error that had me overpay my property tax last year. The money I’d set aside this quarter to pay it, was suddenly “just there” as a windfall.
Yes, I know it was my money and fully understand the means by which it was “suddenly there”). There was really “nothing miraculous” about it . . . except for the exact amount . . . and the timing.
So that money went back out again to help someone out! And who knows how many days I will have to wait for it to come back again . . . if I administered it properly!
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………keep me off the streets…. unless I embezzle a ’66 Batmobile replicar…hmm?
If I had to really do the namby pamby goodie two shoes thing, I’d split it between 10 old ladies living in squalor.
….9 old ladies living in squalor and an SX-R Jet Ski?!?!?!?
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As far as it would go, I would feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and house the homeless.
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