Top Ten Reasons Dave Rocked Last Night

Despite what you may think about his personal shenanigans, David Letterman did a great thing last night. He hosted Bettina Luescher of the World Food Programme to talk about the devastating famine that is happening right now in the Horn of Africa, and ways that you can help out. Check out the video!

Here's a link from the Late Show web site to donate to the World Food Programme, specifically to fight hunger in the Horn of Africa.

Calling All Aunts! (and Uncles!)

Lately, I've been reading a bunch of stuff from Melanie Notkin, the founder of Savvy Auntie, "the first community for cool aunts, great aunts, godmothers, and all women who love kids." Savvy Auntie has a book, web site, Facebook page, etc. with all sorts of fun resources for Aunts.

I was perusing the web site and found that it has a Good Deeds section, filled with all sorts of charitable/volunteer activities you can do with your nieces, nephews, or young friends. Everything from going to the local Humane Society to play with the animals, to making care packages for the troops, to just doing good deeds for the people in your family.

Great resource!

P.S. Check out the photo above of me and my delicious, loves-of-my-life nieces....

Twenty Percent of American Children Living in Poverty

Yes, you read that correctly. 20% of children in the wealthiest and most powerful democracy in the world are living in poverty. And that statistic is based on 2009 numbers; given the state of the economy since then, there likely are more than 20% living in poverty.

This kind of makes me re-think some of my own philanthropic choices. Should I be giving to overseas disasters, or should I focus on the DISASTER of poverty that is happening in our own country? And what exactly should I give to? Poverty is a complex problem with complex causes and impacts: should I give to hunger-related organizations? Vocational training for parents, so that they can lift themselves and their children out of poverty?

Read more about these newly-released statistics HERE, or get the original data from the annual KIDS COUNT survey HERE.

What does GENEROSITY mean?

I've been doing some thinking about the idea of GENEROSITY. What does it mean?

In the context of fundraising, we often think of a generous donation as a large donation. But is generosity in the eye of the beholder? In other words, if a donation is meaningful to me (is in an amount that I can feel proud of, or an amount that is a bit of a "stretch"), does that make it generous?

The Jewish Federations of North America have a slogan that I really like: Live Generously. I don't know if it's been successful for them (if it's raised additional funds), but I think it's provocative and interesting.

What does it mean to "live generously"?

What do we mean when we talk about "generosity of spirit"?

If we donate money, but we are not sharing our other gifts with the world - our talents, our humor, our insights, our quirky world views - are we living generously?

Wikipedia - my favorite source for, well, just about everything - says the following about the word GENEROSITY:

The modern English word "generosity" derives from the Latin word generōsus, which means "of noble birth," which itself was passed down to English through the Old French word generous. The Latin stem gener– is the declensional stem of genus, meaning "kin," "clan," "race," or "stock," with the root Indo–European meaning of gen being "to beget." The same root gives us the words genesis, gentry, gender, genital, gentile, genealogy, and genius, among others.

Brilliant! "Kin, clan, race, or stock"... and "to beget." GENEROSITY is related to a sense of interconnectedness, with being part of a clan. And GENEROSITY also is related to "beget" - creating, or birthing something. When you are generous, you are actualizing the notion of being a part of a clan, and you are creating, or begetting, something. You can feel connected AND leave your mark/legacy through generosity!

What does GENEROSITY mean to you?

In the Klink for DC Voting Rights

Nothing like a nice, juicy act of Civil Disobedience!

Denzel and Ricky and Justin... oh my!

What do Denzel Washington, Ricky Martin, Justin Bieber, Fran Drescher, Rachel Zoe, Richard Gere, Jewel, and scores of other "beautiful people" have in common? Find out HERE.

A childhood charity icon

The Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Telethon was soooooooo a part of my childhood! I vividly remember watching all of the musical acts, watching that electronic board to see how much money was raised (didn't the board have a name? a female name?), and collecting money to donate. I actually remember putting an envelope full of NICKLES, yes nickles, into my mailbox. It must have weighed 5 pounds.

As you may have heard, Jerry Lewis is retiring from the MDA Telethon. He'll still serve as National Chairman of MDA, but no more MDA all-nighters for this 85 year old icon. He has raised BILLIONS of dollars for this worthy cause, and I'd venture a guess that he inspired millions of people in America to make their very first donation to charity.

Hats off to Jerry Lewis! And a big, big thank you.

Giving to Alabama

I just made a donation to the Mid Alabama Region American Red Cross, to help the victims of the recent tornadoes.

Join me! It'll feel good. I promise.

Admitting Failure

Engineers Without Borders Canada is taking part in (or launching?) a new trend in the nonprofit world: admitting failure. Rather than trying to sweep failures under the rug, the organization started a web site, Admitting Failure, where they talk about their own project failures and encourage others to do the same. That way, the whole field can learn from its mistakes,improve projects and processes, and encourage innovation.

Fly Like A G6

File this under "taking something that went horribly wrong and turning it into something great"...

The American Red Cross took this tweet that accidentally went out under its twitter account:

"Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head's Midas Touch beer... when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd"

and turned it into a PR coup. More details HERE.

And for your viewing/listening pleasure, here's the Far East Movement song that's inadvertently found its way into this philanthropy story.