kristinesocall

There is a global funding crisis – and I’m not talking about the banking system that needs another bailout.  I’m talking about people in poverty and the organizations that are trying to help.  Nonprofit donations are down, foundation grant-giving is down and the need for critical life-supportive services is skyrocketing.  Lately, I’ve been having a lot of conversations with nonprofits about what to do to make up their budget shortfalls.

#1 suggestion = social enterprise (generate profit, earn money, use it to “love” and help people)

This is a blending of for-profit activities that benefit non-profit types of goals. Nonprofits need to find a way to convert or add revenue-generating activities onto to their existing programs.  Business & marketing 101 – find a need and fill it; and right now people need jobs that will pay them a working wage, and not leave them in the category of the “working poor“.

For example, a Chicago nonprofit with a large facility and a facility expansion that will be underway later this year is currently providing food assistance, job skills training, supportive housing/shelter, and other types of assistance.  They are located in a “food desert” – which means that everyone in that neighborhood is spending bus transportation funds and time to leave the neighborhood to go grocery shopping at a major grocery chain.

I am working on a business proposal that involves either a conversion of a small part of their existing facilities into a grocery market, or the purchase of a commercial building 2 blocks away that is 90,000 sq feet and can offer more than just a grocery market for that Chicago neighborhood – it can offer affordable housing units, other retail stores, and a community kitchen and common spaces where area residents can come together.

Instead of job training workshops, the nonprofit organization would be able to offer actual paying jobs to the people they’re trying to help out of the poverty cycle. There are numerous other community goals that will be furthered through this social enterprise, such as community gardening on the facility’s new green roof, healthy cooking classes, tutoring classroom spaces, not to mention the income generated for the nonprofit’s programs.

There are almost 1,000 families that interact with this nonprofit a year – all of whom need and want employment.

Nonprofits who learn how to employ social enterprise models create jobs for the people they are trying to help, and kickstart an economic development cycle that reverberates new life all throughout the rest of the community.

I get emails several times a week asking if I’ve heard the news on our property funding request. It’s a painful reminder of the daily patience/trust/faith/hope challenge that our Gifted Dreamers team of over 70 people are in right now. We’re in week 6 of a 90 day process. Trust me, everyone will hear the news when I do.

However, I would love to get emails offering to help in some way (writing, researching, website design/programming, and other volunteer opps), or perhaps a $7/mo donation that will help me feed/clothe/house people in immediate crisis right now. http://gifteddreamers.org/gift-a-dream/

When people I know – whom I call my friends, are not eating every day because they can’t afford to, do not have winter coats, shoes, socks, food for their children, school supplies, or are wearing clothes that don’t fit, don’t have gas money/bus fare to get to job interviews or food pantries – it makes all my own “needs” seem small and it redefines “needs” and “comforts” or “luxuries”.

For example, it doesn’t matter so much that my computer takes 20min to boot up and sometimes when I click on something, I have to walk away to do something else while it’s taking its time to open a file or program.  I’m lucky to have a computer at all, and I’m grateful to be able to have money to pay for internet service.  That’s a luxury.

It also doesn’t matter so much that my eyeglass frames are super-glued together and that my lens prescription isn’t up-to-date and I see blurry…I’m grateful to even have glasses! This past year, a friend who was homeless at the time, helped someone in a homeless shelter get glasses, in order to be able to see well enough to fill out job applications and hold a job.

After I returned home from living in Russia for 6 months, I couln’t spent $9 on a movie ticket because that would have fed an entire family in Russia for a week, where rent for an apartment costs $30.  I realized the value of my small choices and how much impact it could have to change lives if I changed the way I spent money.  How could I justify spending $20 to dine out?  I also couldn’t justify spending money on “snack” food, since that kind of food is a luxury…it’s nutritionally not necessary for survival.  So, my grocery bill was chopped, my cable was turned off, my heat/AV were reduced because I made simple choices that reduced my costs and then I could use that money to help people.

Is there something in your life that you could chop and give that money instead to buy food for a neighbor in need or donate it to a nonprofit organization?

I was officially hired today through a temp agency, to work part time doing accounting for a local election campaign.  The last time I worked on a campaign, I was a volunteer for a Presidential campaign; it was 1996 and I was 18 years old living in Washington DC.  I spent two summers working a paid full-time internship in the Department of State.  In between those two summers, I interned part time (unpaid) in the US House of Representatives and also part time (unpaid) in the US Senate.  During the unpaid internships, I worked part time as a concierge at a hotel near Embassy Row, where I interacted with Ambassadors and other diplomats.  That year was also when I went on my first international volunteering trip – to Santiago, Chile.  After that year was over, I went off to college in another state.

That was also the year that I decided that I didn’t want to get a degree for the purpose of a future government or political career.  I wanted my life to have the greatest impact possible in this world, and with my particular vision and skills, I saw that I couldn’t do that if I were working in government.  My vision for sustainable development and a better world required collaborating with government, but not working for the government.

I saw how things worked, and how they didn’t.  I saw government employees sent home on furlough when the budget couldn’t be balanced. I opened and highlighted letters from desperate people writing to their Congressional leaders begging for help with justice issues in their home state.  I tallied and answered phone calls from people wanting to express their views about a bill amendment or upcoming vote.  My job was just to listen and make them feel heard. I pulled reports from databases of constituents that listed every letter, every call and every issue those people had expressed an opinion about.  I saw good-hearted elected officials and their staff responding to those requests with respect and action, and some with indifference.

Government is necessary and can be an instrument of good, despite what the squawking media heads want people to believe.  But, it’s also a system that’s broken and it’s going to take a lot more than just one political party to fix.

My political views are: empathy, love, wisdom and justice.  To achieve those ends for the good of the people – businesses, government entities, citizens, and civil/nonprofit organizations must collaborate for solutions with humility, motivated by empathy and not for power or profit.  An economic and societal system founded on empathy is profitable for many more than just for the few. Simply search for stats related to the increasing income gap that our current economic and governance system has produced: the poor are getting poorer/increasing in number and the rich are getting richer and that group remains a small number.

We live in a broken invisible relational system that produces visible, measurable suffering felt by all regardless of income level.

Having empathy and compassion as the basis for our governing, business and societal decisions is not about helping people at a certain income level, it’s just the basis of being “good neighbors”.

This is the focus of my life’s work.  The strategic plan to implement this system on a micro level is underway, with scalable potential globally. I’m excited for what is to come!

My version of “tent-making” (a term used by St. Paul – earning an income and not wanting to burden others with supporting my “loving my neighbor” charity lifestyle) is “temping”.

Since 1996, I have worked on and off within temp agencies, accepting temporary assignments ranging from 3 days a week to a 12-week 40hr/week assignment.  As a temp, it’s my choice to accept an assignment depending on what else is going on in my life, whether I need the income, and whether the company sounds like it might be an interesting learning opportunity.  I’ve gotten to work in many industries and learn about how they work and what doesn’t work: corporate, school, medical clinic, church, hospital, retail headquarters, law office, trucking firm, etc.  I started off as a clerical temp, then administrative, then financial and accounting. Since my undergrad studies were in Organizational Relations, I was interested in learning how each organization could be improved. I could likely write a book on what salary jobs do to squash employee motivation and result in mediocrity and minimalism of effort. Quite a few wealthy people advise never to have your income directly proportional to your time.  1 hr = $X per hour wages.  This is called the rat race and it’s never-ending.

Later, when I began my MBA Economic Development, I accepted temporary assignments in the financial services industry, and worked 3 years as an employee of a commodities trading firm.  These working situations gave me the flexibility and minimum income I’ve needed to launch and lead a variety of organizations as a social entrepreneur.  I’ve also been able to travel internationally, and fund a lot of  charitable work – all related to loving my neighbors, which is whoever I happen across when they are in need.

Having been a temp – I have come to learn that people at the bottom of the pyramid get to see a very different perspective of an organization or business.  Often, a good receptionist is the most knowledgeable about what’s going on and can see what needs to change within the organization to improve it.

Leaders should ask their temps, receptionists and janitors what they would suggest be done differently in the organization. They might learn a lot if they listened more.

Tomorrow, I might be doing some financial bookkeeping “temping” in the office of a local political campaign.

This is exciting – I get to learn a new organizational structure!

Click below if you’d like to contribute to help me launch a nonprofit community development organization, I’d be grateful for a $7/mo donation. 100% of this donation goes towards critical assistance and help that I am providing to others in need.

Americans have swallowed a lie – “success comes to those who work hard”. How’s that working out for the shrinking middle class? We live in a broken system that legally mandates all businesses to do whatever necessary to maximize profits for owners/shareholders. This means, they legally are required to pay people as little as they can get away with, and to cut costs at the expense of justice and ecological resources. Welcome to the globalized world system.

In the midst of everyday life, there is always a tragedy and an invitation to joy. Today, a friend attempted suicide, another one hit rock bottom and is looking upwards, and this vision that I’m working to launch moved forward one step closer to reality. Tonight, I spent 90min in a hot yoga room reflecting on the duality of life, as our class exerted ourselves in a stretch, and then immediately laid down to rest in between poses. There is a time for work and there is a time for rest.  We must find that balance or we will die.

In the midst of mourning, there is a reason to celebrate. In the midst of joy, there is a reason to grieve.  I am surrounded by the needs of the world and the joys of beauty – there are many who suffer and those who lack. There are many who lack, but have plenty of joy to offer. Poverty is not just about resources; it’s about something deeper within us that is broken. We mourn our brokenness as we seek to fix ourselves. And, like a friend finally admitted today, we are unable to fix ourselves and must seek some power outside of us. If we are going to ever find joy, purpose and meaning for our existence, we must help others and thereby discover it for ourselves. This is the complexity that is hidden in the simplicity of loving one’s neighbor and discovering the whole world in doing so.  By living to serve others, we find what we were missing too.