[Peace-discuss] Advice requested

Sun Dec 30 18:41:31 UTC 2018

One approach some folks use: tithing. Giving away ten percent of their
income.

An advantage of this is: you establish the total amount you are going to
give each year in advance. Then it's just a question of how to allocate
your ten percent.

Another idea: think about how you allocate your volunteer time. That's also
a finite resource. In choosing how to allocate your volunteer time, you're
making choices about your priorities. Allocate your dollars as you allocate
your volunteer time. How much of your volunteer time do you devote to
protecting national parks? How much to peace? If you allocate your
volunteer time to peace, allocate your dollars to peace.

Along this line: when you volunteer your time, you learn about a particular
terrain, more than someone who isn't volunteering on that terrain. Why not
use that information to make more effective donations? Suppose you're
tempted to donate something to protect national parks, but that's not
something you ordinarily focus on. Which organization working to protect
national parks should you donate to? Where would your donation be most
effective? As someone who doesn't work on protecting national parks, I
would have no idea. But if you're ordinarily focused on peace, then you
have some familiarity with the organizations working on peace, and you can
use that knowledge to help you choose where to donate.

===

Robert Reuel Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1

On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 1:20 PM Brussel, Morton K via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> It is useful(?) to know that others are as inundated with requests for
> donations as I am. Having so many requests for worthwhile if not essential
> causes tends to lessen the urgency to contribute to any of them— a self
> defeating process.
>
> I tend to give more to those for which I think others will less likely
> contribute, and which, on some ambiguous scale have greater needs. But this
> is a uncertain evaluation.
>
> All this private charity/giving seems corrupting. If only public
> institutions and programs  provided for public needs… through taxation?
>
> —mkb.
>
> On Dec 29, 2018, at 5:13 PM, kmedina67 via Peace-discuss <
> peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
>  Amen Bob.
>
> The pile of mail and emails asking for a generous donation does pick up
> more at this time of year.
>
> If peace is our priority issue, then the peace groups, like just foreign
> policy, should float to the top.
>
> - Karen Medina
> "The really great make you feel that you, too, can become great" - Mark
> Twain
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> Date: 12/29/18 14:15 (GMT-06:00)
> To: "Szoke, Ron" <r-szoke at illinois.edu>
> Cc: Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Advice requested
>
>
> I would assume that many people here are having the same experience.
>
> As someone who has responsibility for fundraising for a non-profit - Just
> Foreign Policy - I can tell you that there is an expectation that one will
> send "end of year fundraising appeals." We've sent one of them every day
> since the twenty-fourth, some of them more fundraise-y than others. I try
> to include new information with each one, so that the interaction isn't
> wasted, even if it doesn't result in a donation.
>
> Looking at it from the side of the potential donor, nobody has infinite
> resources, everyone has to prioritize.
>
> I think that if you're a peace person, you should take into account the
> fact that the peace movement in the U.S. is woefully underfunded, compared
> to other things. Other people are going to give money to Yellowstone, the
> Grand Canyon, NPR, etc. who are not going to give money to the peace
> movement.
>
> [I say this as someone who donates money to WILL-AM, about which I feel
> somewhat conflicted, given that that means indirectly subsidizing NPR,
> which often annoyingly promotes the Pentagon line; but I much prefer the
> media landscape with NPR in it to the media landscape in its absence, and I
> listen to it all the time, though it grates, so I donate to it modestly, to
> do my part to keep it alive.]
>
> So I think that everyone here who is going to donate something to somebody
> should, first of all, donate to the peace organization[s] of their choice.
>
> Obviously, I'm happy whenever anyone donates to Just Foreign Policy [
> http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate], but putting that to the side,
> here are some other recommendations:
>
> UFPJ
> Peace Action
> FCNL
> AFSC
>
> Two other organizations that are not peace movement per se but are
> extremely helpful to the peace movement on the media front are FAIR and the
> Institute for Public Accuracy. When I give to FAIR and IPA, I feel like I'm
> "offsetting" my donation to NPR. :)
>
> ===
>
> Robert Reuel Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1
>
> On Sat, Dec 29, 2018 at 2:47 PM Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss <
> peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
>> Help!  Am I their savior?
>> Here are a few of the things I have been called upon to SAVE (by signing
>> an online petition, or more to the point, by sending money) in the past few
>> days:
>> Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon, National Public Radio,
>> public libraries, African wildlife, wolves, & at least two dozen political
>> candidates & various do-good organizations and causes of various stripes.
>> Unfortunately, I am not wealthy enough to be the savior of all of them,
>> nor even probably of any of them.  Which one(s) should I choose?
>> Note that, for your reply to have any credibility, you must tell me how
>> much, in actual dollars, you personally contributed to each one in the past
>> year, & not just tell me about your good intentions, noble motives &
>> sky-high ideals.
>> ~~ Ron Szoke
>>
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