Philanthrocapitalism_ How Giving Can Save the World - Matthew Bishop [28]
Career Gear is a similar organization for low-income workingmen and men who want to get off public assistance. It works much like Dress for Success. A man gets one suit when he has an interview and another when he has a job, along with support for job retention. There is also an alumni program to help with budgeting, housing, nutrition, time and stress management, and job advancement. Career Gear accepts new and used suits, dress shirts, contemporary ties, and unworn shoes. They ask donors to give only clothing they would feel comfortable wearing to an interview, and they especially need big and tall sizes.
Another opportunity for giving is a sports program that serves kids whose families can’t afford the necessary equipment or outfits. Because I’m an avid golfer, I’m especially partial to First Tee, which provides golf instruction for young people of all backgrounds. First Tee has gotten so big that golf club makers supply most of their needs, but they can still usually make good use of golf clubs and balls; in addition, many public golf courses run their own independent programs for kids who need clubs. If you provide them, chances are you’ll be helping a boy or girl who’ll soon be playing the game better than you do.
I’ve been supporting golf and clothing programs for a long time. Several times a year, I look over my clubs and clothes and if there are things I’m not using and that I’m not emotionally attached to, I send them where they will be of more benefit. Of course, because of the fortunate life I’ve had I accumulate too many clothes and good golf clubs, but lots of people have things incidental to their lives that would benefit others more.
One giving program I really like because people of all ages and income levels can participate is Operation Christmas Child, run by Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian NGO led by Rev. Franklin Graham that is committed to following the example of the Good Samaritan by aiding the poor, sick, and suffering. Samaritan’s Purse runs relief, community development, educational, vocational, and medical programs throughout the world. Operation Christmas Child began in the United Kingdom in 1990 to provide gifts to Romanian children. In 1993, Samaritan’s Purse adopted it and solicited gifts that would fit in a shoebox, including small toys, hygiene products, and school supplies. Twenty-eight thousand boxes filled with gifts were delivered to Bosnian children in the first year. A couple of years later, I went to Bosnia and saw at first hand the happiness and gratitude sparked by those small boxes. Over the past fourteen years, Samaritan’s Purse has collected and distributed more than fifty million boxes to boys and girls in more than 125 countries. In 2006 alone, about eight million boxes were delivered to ninety-five countries. Countless gift-givers of modest means have made a real difference in the lives of children who otherwise might have been forgotten. Though Samaritan’s Purse is a Christian group, it offers a proven model of caring for children that members of any synagogue, mosque, or temple might want to emulate.
One of the most unusual examples of giving things I’ve come across is Locks of Love, which provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age eighteen suffering from hair loss from any medical condition. Most of the children the organization helps have lost their hair due to alopecia areata, a condition of uncertain cause and with no known cure. Locks of Love was started by Madonna Coffman, a retired cardiac nurse who developed alopecia in her twenties after a hepatitis vaccination. With the help of medication, she eventually recovered her hair, but fifteen years later, her four-year-old daughter developed