Content on this blog has been sparse as of late, I know. But I do have a good excuse: I've been job hunting and recently got an offer to be a Communications and Assessment Associate at Venture Philanthropy Partners. VPP is a great organization, serving non-profits in the DC area that focus on low-income families and children. They provide sizable investment capital, along with leadership development and support. I am very excited to join this team and continue my career in the non-profit sector. I will be joining at an exciting time, as they were named recently as a recipient of one of 11 grants in the inaugural Social Innovation Fund portfolio.
As it stands now, this blog is in limbo. They want me to continue my work on it, as do I, although I think it will end up being in a different format. I'm not sure how dramatically it will change; it will be distinct and separate from my work at VPP, but of course related.
I'm thinking now I will start to focus more on my personal thoughts and experiences as a young professional exploring the changing non-profit sector. I hope to use it as a guide for other 20-somethings as they explore and make their mark on the sector with me. If you have any thoughts on which directions I should go in, please let me know. This blog will probably be quiet for a while as I get into the swing of my new position and I'll start it back up when I've got a solid grasp on where I want to take it.
On a related note, in this time of reflection, I'd like to talk a little bit about my exploration in the last few months since I started this venture. Recently, I was cited by (link to? given a shout out by?) Lucy Bernholz at Philanthropy 2173, probably the biggest mention I've gotten so far. She discussed a post I wrote on collective venture philanthropy, not because of an insightful and interesting comment I made, but because, in her words, I was "raising the right questions."
In this blog, and in my professional career, I have mostly striven to do exactly this. I know I don't know much about much, but I do know that I'd like to know more. Maybe as I get more experience, I'll be able to create some posts that I see as a definitive message or opinion on something, but right now, I'm more interested in the discovery. Sasha Dichter expounded on this as a blogging technique quite eloquently.
So, I appreciate everyone who has come along on the ride with me. In the times to come, I hope to continue asking the right questions and discover the answers with all of you. Look for more soon.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
I am a Patriot
This past weekend, I got to celebrate our nation's birth in our nation's capital. It was quite an experience, full of heat, fireworks and BBQs. While mulling over my bacon veggieburger (don't ask), I began to think about something that comes up a lot when I discuss effective giving with other people: Where should we focus our charitable donations, here at home in the US of A, or abroad?
Undoubtedly, there are more problems abroad than there are at home--pick out any macro or micro economic indicator you want to support this. I know I have always felt compelled to help those abroad because of the images of destitution I see in the news and the fact that my quality of life is significantly better than most people in the world for absolutely no reason other than luck. I know that, using purely cost-effective based metrics, my resources are better spent abroad because they can go further there. What might be able to fund a small portion of a doctor's salary at a health clinic in the US could actually provide life-saving medication for several people in the developing world.
However, I also know that I am not African (or Asian or South American), I will always be an outsider and I have limited experience with foreign aid. I sometimes question if foreign aid can actually decrease (or eliminate) poverty and know that many aid projects are inefficient at distributing resources precisely because they are an external force on the community or the country. (See also White Man's Burden and Dead Aid.) I can gain experience in international development, but I will never actually have the same life experience of those I am trying to help, nor be from the same culture of the communities I am working in.
On the other hand, I am from the United States and I have a large understanding of the history of the country, it's culture and it's issues. I know that I will never have the same life experience as those I am trying to help here in the US as well--as I come from a privileged background--but I have a greater understanding of things than I would in a foreign country. There are many issues here to work on and I have trouble saying that they are not as worthy of my support simply because they require, comparatively, more resources.
Which brings me back to the Fourth of July. Maybe it was just the patriotism in the air, but as I chewed over my bacon veggieburger, I felt like my place is here and the people I want to help are those around me. It reminded me of the chorus to the Little Steven song "I am a Patriot:"
I do not want to discount the efforts abroad, because I believe those are important too. They both require equal support. For me, I've decided to try to navigate this support by committing my time--which Warren Buffett called the most precious asset--to domestic issues, while committing my money to organizations working abroad.
Of course, I could draw a different conclusion from this discussion and say that the differences between the developing world and the developed are not as distinct as one would think, therefore their problems are comparable and we shouldn't create false dichotomies. But the spectacular DC fireworks display instilled quite a bit of love-of-country in me, so I will leave you with this bleated happy Fourth of July message (sorry for the language):
Undoubtedly, there are more problems abroad than there are at home--pick out any macro or micro economic indicator you want to support this. I know I have always felt compelled to help those abroad because of the images of destitution I see in the news and the fact that my quality of life is significantly better than most people in the world for absolutely no reason other than luck. I know that, using purely cost-effective based metrics, my resources are better spent abroad because they can go further there. What might be able to fund a small portion of a doctor's salary at a health clinic in the US could actually provide life-saving medication for several people in the developing world.
However, I also know that I am not African (or Asian or South American), I will always be an outsider and I have limited experience with foreign aid. I sometimes question if foreign aid can actually decrease (or eliminate) poverty and know that many aid projects are inefficient at distributing resources precisely because they are an external force on the community or the country. (See also White Man's Burden and Dead Aid.) I can gain experience in international development, but I will never actually have the same life experience of those I am trying to help, nor be from the same culture of the communities I am working in.
On the other hand, I am from the United States and I have a large understanding of the history of the country, it's culture and it's issues. I know that I will never have the same life experience as those I am trying to help here in the US as well--as I come from a privileged background--but I have a greater understanding of things than I would in a foreign country. There are many issues here to work on and I have trouble saying that they are not as worthy of my support simply because they require, comparatively, more resources.
Which brings me back to the Fourth of July. Maybe it was just the patriotism in the air, but as I chewed over my bacon veggieburger, I felt like my place is here and the people I want to help are those around me. It reminded me of the chorus to the Little Steven song "I am a Patriot:"
I am a patriot and I love my country
Because my country is all I know
I want to be with my family
With people who understand me
I got nowhere else to go
Of course, I could draw a different conclusion from this discussion and say that the differences between the developing world and the developed are not as distinct as one would think, therefore their problems are comparable and we shouldn't create false dichotomies. But the spectacular DC fireworks display instilled quite a bit of love-of-country in me, so I will leave you with this bleated happy Fourth of July message (sorry for the language):
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
