Philanthrocapitalism_ How Giving Can Save the World - Matthew Bishop [30]
More than five thousand in-kind contributions to the Points of Light Foundation have generated more than $600,000 in revenues. The Prostate Cancer Foundation raised more than $200,000 from the sale of 350 items. The Red Cross in Washington State has generated almost $700,000 from the sale of 3,500 items over the past three years. The House Ear Institute brought in $59,000 to support hearing-health research from the sale of 244 items. The Laura Iverson Gallery sells original oil paintings on eBay to raise funds for a variety of charities. This kind of giving is bound to increase in the future. Buyers and sellers by the millions meet on eBay’s marketplace. If just a small fraction were part of eBay’s Giving Works, the givers of things would drastically increase the capacity of thousands of good organizations to pursue their missions.
One final note on giving things. We all want to give useful things to victims of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the tsunami, but giving usefully in the immediate aftermath of an emergency can be difficult, because even though clothes, toiletries, bedding, food, and toys are needed, there are likely to be bottlenecks in the transportation or distribution networks. To avoid them, you have to be careful in your giving. For example, shortly after the tsunami hit South Asia, Hillary and I visited the New York Buddhist Vihara Temple in Queens to support its efforts to collect supplies to send to Sri Lanka. Their neighbors of all faiths were so eager to help that the Buddhists were able to fill a moving van with large cardboard boxes. Of course the van could not drive to Sri Lanka, so the temple asked Hillary to help them find a cargo container to ship the goods to Sri Lanka, where members of another temple would see to their distribution. They got their container and their Sri Lankan counterparts received and delivered the goods. Meanwhile, other groups were sending donated goods by air in such volume that there was a huge backlog of crates on the tarmac at the Colombo airport, leading to some significant spoilage and lack of delivery. This cautionary tale doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give things in an emergency, but it does demonstrate why unless you know that your gift will reach its destination in time, it’s often better in such circumstances to send even a modest financial contribution to an established charity or relief organization used to dealing with the unique logistical problems that large numbers of needy people in a disaster present.
FIVE
Giving Skills
ONE OF THE greatest gifts anyone can give is a useful skill. Most of us know how to do something not everyone can do as well as we can. Transferring that knowledge and the ability to use it can empower others in amazing ways.
Perhaps the most common volunteer skills-giver in the United States is the reading tutor. Every week, thousands of Americans tutor young people and immigrants who want to learn English. When I was president, we increased the number of tutors dramatically through a partnership with colleges and universities called America Reads. Participating schools allowed their students to earn federal work-study funds, not by doing jobs on campus but by going into community schools to help young children improve their reading skills, a precondition to success in all other subjects.
Tutoring is a great way of giving that’s open to volunteers in almost every community, but as with other kinds of giving, it’s not always easy to do well. Sometimes even very literate volunteers don’t know everything necessary to teach or to monitor the progress of those they’re committed to help. In 2001, Gary Kosman founded an organization called America Learns to provide guidance and support to tutors and mentors, and to help them improve, evaluate, and