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Welcome to Week 35 of Be the Change!
Despite all the trials of 2021--the Jan 6 insurrection, ongoing pandemic, continued radicalization of the GOP, worsening climate crisis--I prefer to view last year as one during which we laid the groundwork for an amazing 2022. Personally and professionally, I can see a lot of things coming together, things that make me hopeful. Yes, 2021 did not see voting rights or climate legislation pass Congress, but it's conceivable that they will this year. Capital Good Fund, having closed a record 2,550 loans for $5.45 million, has a goal of financing 4,500 loans for $20 million this year--with a particular focus on loans for immigration expenses and residential solar installations. And millions of activists stand ready to advocate for change in the streets, in the boardroom, and in the court of public opinion.
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We find ourselves in a brief window of time during which it's possible to affect the course of history; we are at an inflection point. What we do between now and the mid-term elections, which will determine whether or not authoritarians return to power, matters for democracy, for climate, for poverty, and for hope. The people who are presently in power, while imperfect and hamstrung by tiny majorities in Congress, are persuadable. So let's do a hell of a lot of persuading in 2022!
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Since, as the CEO of a nonprofit, I spend a lot of time raising money from donors and, more importantly, deploying those dollars for impact, I thought I'd share how I think about my personal giving--and where I give. First off, I make two general types of donations: those that are tax-deductible, and those that are not. A tax-deductible donation is the one most people are familiar with. Organizations like Capital Good Fund and your local food bank are 501c3 nonprofits, meaning that whatever you donate to them can be deducted from your federal tax bill.
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A non-tax-deductible donation, by contrast, goes to an organization that is usually a nonprofit but which, by virtue of its work, is ineligible for tax deduction. Examples include political campaigns, political action committees, and entities that advocate for specific policies; many of these are classified as 501c4s. The main difference is that the federal government only wants to provide tax deductions for groups that work for the general good and not those that work for partisan aims, though there is a gray area. For instance, Capital Good Fund can advocate for certain issues that we think are key to our mission--such as payday loan reform--so long as advocacy doesn't account for more than about 15% of our time. But we are absolutely forbidden from supporting specific political candidates.
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The main focus areas of my 2021 giving were supporting democracy / voting in general and Democrats in particular; tackling the climate crisis through frontline advocacy; and poverty alleviation / social justice. In total, I gave $19,413, of which $12,970 (67%) was tax-deductible and $6,443 (33%) was not.
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Within the tax-deductible giving, 50% went to poverty / social justice; 32% to environmental justice; 10% to public policy; 4% to nonprofit news; 3% to equitable financial services; and 2% to other categories. Below is a full list of donations, including a link so that you can learn more and, if so inclined, donate:
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Organization
Amount
Category
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Oxfam
250
Poverty / Justice
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With respect to non-tax-deductible donations, I gave to some specific political campaigns, such as Stacey Abrams' campaign for Governor of Georgia, but mostly I focused on groups that are organizing for Democrats, for democracy, and climate policy. Below is the full list, again along with links to donate:
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Organization
Amount
Category
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ACLU
250
Voting / Civil Rights
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DCCC
150
Political Campaign
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Finally, a word about 2022. This year, when it comes to giving I have three primary areas of concern: ensuring that Democrats pass democracy reform, including voting rights; ensuring that action is taken on climate change, especially at the federal and, to a lesser extent, state levels; and working to re-elect Democrats so that they hold on to the House of Representatives and expand their majority in the Senate. To that extent, I will double my overall giving, and engage in non-monetary ways as well--phone-banking, writing letters, essays and poems, calling elected officials, attending protests, etc.
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Where did you donate in 2021? What will you be advocating for and working on this year?
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“Edward O. Wilson, Harvard naturalist often cited as heir to Darwin, dies at 92”
–The Washington Post
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Born with a Stradivarius in hand,
Andy struggled to prove worthy of its wood
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His head was often cocked to the side,
like a dog begging the Big Dipper for a treat
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His successes include the narrative of him as a
crusader for justice, and many acts of kindness
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He had five tattoos, such as Lady Liberty cradling a refugee
and other motifs that proved he had no fear of needles
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Friends and colleagues disagree whether
he took himself too seriously, or not seriously enough
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Andy claimed to be a poet, not to like music—was often
seen dancing to the folksong in 2,000-page federal legislation
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To prove there is no God he once sliced a vein,
let the magma flow, remade a suburb in his image
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The doctors diagnosed him bipolar,
which is to say he didn’t care much for small talk,
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which is to say he could light up a room
or drive a herd of buffalo to suicide
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No one that met Andy ever forgot him,
though some fervently wished they could
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He died after a battle with ennui, despair, and bliss; when
death came, he asked it to come back—said he was busy writing
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Mr. Posner would not have wanted his life summarized in couplets...He
wanted a lot of things, got some of them, left others for you to lust after
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It’s 45 and raining, the kind of cold
that makes you flinch if not cry out,
that leads you to quarantine and call it
a boycott of the world, to swaddle
yourself in righteous indignation and
seek comfort in the nursery of night—
as if, stomping your legs like the giraffes
you saw on a sunny afternoon at the
Santa Barbara Zoo, tall and graceful and
able to kill with one indifferent kick,
you could subdue man’s instinct to
destroy, convince the greedy that a kiss
is worth more than your bones, hair, and hide.
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No, I haven’t time to tally the fading light
or read the latest forecast: I know how much
water the Thwaites glacier holds, have a
doctorate in Apocalypse. If I stay home
any longer, grinding my teeth until all
I can chew is lettuce from the hands of
children, the zookeeper who, after a bad day,
lets the sun out of its cage will hang himself
from a tree he didn’t mean to let die.
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Who then would touch their torch to the sky,
bring down a raw, pure flame—
make light of so much devastation?
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My New Year's Resolution this year is to live by the David Orr's maxim that "hope is a verb with its shirtsleeves rolled up." What's yours?
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