PHILANTHROPY & PURPOSE

Post #1 By Isis

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There’s this quote by Congressman John Lewis that I love. I saw it one day at an art museum in DC and it stuck with me:

When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something. John Lewis

That sentence felt like a name for something I’d been doing my whole life.

I’m 24, so when I say “whole life” I mostly mean my adulthood. But even as a kid I felt like it was my job to help people. Not in a martyr way I wasn’t carrying the world. It just made me happy to see others happy.

I’ll give you one example. My sister had a friend, and he and his sister were in foster care. I felt so sick for them not because of whatever had happened, exactly, but because they had to be without their mom. They came to sleep over one weekend and I took whatever money I had (and I have no idea where I got it, because we were poor as hell) and bought them each an outfit and a toy. I was a kid and I cant even remember why I did it, all I know is that it felt like second nature.

That’s the instinct John Lewis was talking about. I just didn’t have a word for it yet.

The word, it turns out, is philanthropy. Most people hear it and think of billionaires writing checks, but the Greek root translates to “love of humanity.” That’s the whole thing. You don’t need money to love people. You need attention, and you need to be willing to act on what you notice.

This is a blog about a lot of things — politics, the system, the internet, the noise but I wanted to start here, because everything else I’m going to write comes from this. If you’re reading and you want to do something but you don’t know where to start, this post is for you.

Before anything else: figure out what you actually care about. I love helping people in general, but there are specific causes I’d burn the candle at both ends for. You’ll move faster, and you’ll last longer, if you’re working on something that doesn’t feel like a chore. Be honest with yourself.

Then pick from this list. Pick one. You don’t have to do all of them.

1. Volunteer. Obvious, but it’s first for a reason. Showing up in person, repeatedly, for an organization that needs you is the most direct way to make a difference. A few hours a month is real. Find something local — a shelter, a tutoring program, a food bank, a mutual aid network — and just go.
2. Give your skills, not just your time. If you can write, edit a nonprofit’s newsletter. If you can build websites, build one for a small org that can’t afford one. If you can cut hair, do it for free at a women’s shelter. Whatever you’re already good at, somebody needs it. This is volunteering, but more personal — and usually more useful, because nonprofits are starving for skilled help.
3. Donate directly, not just to the bin. Goodwill is fine. But group homes, domestic violence shelters, foster youth programs, and churches will put your clothes and household items directly into the hands of someone who needs them, often the same week. It takes one extra phone call. Make the call.
4. Get educated and pass it on. A lot of people don’t get help because they don’t know help exists. If you learn how Medicaid works, or what tenants’ rights look like in your state, or how to apply for SNAP — you become a person someone in your life can ask. That’s an enormous amount of good for the cost of an afternoon.
5. Be intentional with kindness.This one sounds soft and I almost cut it, but I’m keeping it because I mean it. Compliment strangers. Tip well when you can. Let people merge. Hold doors. The world is mean right now and most people are walking around starved for a single decent interaction. You can be that for someone five times before lunch. It costs you nothing.

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None of this is the whole answer. None of it fixes the system — and I’m going to write a lot on this blog about the system, and what’s broken in it, and what we’re going to have to do about it together. But you don’t get to skip the small stuff while you wait for the big stuff. Loving humanity is a daily practice. Start now.

Resources to Get You Started

GENERAL VOLUNTEERING

• Idealist — includes VolunteerMatch
• Points of Light Engage
• All for Good

SKILL-BASED VOLUNTEERING

• Catchafire
• Taproot Plus

DONATING GOODS DIRECTLY

• Find Help — search local orgs by zip code
• Mutual Aid Hub — community-led giving

EDUCATE YOURSELF

• Coursera — free nonprofit & social impact courses
• ProPublica — investigative journalism on social issues
• TED Talks — social change

SPREAD KINDNESS INTENTIONALLY

• Kindness.org
• The Compliment Project

Still Water, Loud Mouth · Written from Virginia