Did America’s most popular public figure really say goodness? Well, maybe the language is a bit strong. Let’s just call it the Nicer Nineties, where a fat portfolio is no longer enough if people think you’re an s.o.b. That gives folks like Powell a chance to make the case for spending some time and money helping to rescue the next generation. If the stock market stays buoyant, 1997 may be remembered as the year it became hip to be philanthropic. Suddenly any self-respecting millionaire who isn’t giving lots of it away is in danger of being labeled a Scrooge.
Some of this year’s giving was loud: Ted Turner pledged $1 billion to the United Nations and challenged his Forbes 400 brethren to get cracking, too. Some was soft: Charles Feeney, cofounder of Duty Free Shops, was unmasked as a longstanding donor of hundreds of millions of dollars with a passion for anonymity. Some was creative: George Soros, unloading $350 million, gave to everyone from starving Russian scientists to addicts in need of free syringes to cut down on AIDS. And much was predictable: Slate magazine launched an online list of the top 60 donations per quarter and found that more than 90 percent went for the usual bricks and mortar (plus the shiny name plaque) at the old alma mater.
Of course, the biggest money comes from small individual donations, which dwarf foundation and corporate philanthropy. While it’s too early to tell how much charitable giving increased this year, it rose 7.3 percent in 1996, to total more than $150 billion. The good news is, that beats inflation; the bad news is that it lags far behind the stock market. And the long-term trends in giving to churches–which receive the vast bulk of American largesse–are not so auspicious. According to Empty Tomb Inc., a Christian research group, church members gave an average of 3.11 percent of their income in 1968, compared with 2.46 percent in 1995.
Every contribution to a well-run non-profit helps, but not every worthy cause is a needy one. The neediest–those often lumped under the rubric ““human services’’–receive less than 15 percent of all contributions.
This suggests there’s a fundamental misallocation of charitable resources in the United States. A report last week from mayors showed hunger on the rise in inner cities, apparently a consequence of welfare cuts. And even where welfare reform was surprisingly successful this year in getting more mothers jobs, it also put more kids in the streets to take care of themselves during their parents’ working hours. Giving time and money to the Boys and Girls Clubs or the YMCA might not be as ego-gratifying as, say, giving to a business school, but it’s a lot more connected to the country’s enduring problems. There’s now a universe of 15 million American kids at risk of joining gangs, going on welfare and costing society billions of dollars down the road. Government, alone, can’t reach them.
It was to coordinate support for those kids that President Clinton, the former presidents, Colin Powell and thousands of volunteers assembled in Philadelphia last April. The early days after the summit were a mess, with no coherent strategy and sometimes no one even to answer the phone at America’s Promise, the post- summit umbrella organization in Alexandria, Va. Squabbling broke out with the Points of Light Foundation, which was initially unwilling to cede authority, despite its own decadelong inability to mobilize large-scale volunteerism.
Even after America’s Promise got better organized this fall, the grumbling continued. Some nonprofit activists who have worked in the trenches for years remain critical of the glitzy marketing. Meanwhile, many corporations are reaping public-relations credit for volunteering that their employees do after work or on weekends–instead of giving some company time for community service.
But for all the growing pains, America’s Promise shows plenty of promise. ““People talk about the “Volunteer Summit,’ but it was in fact much more focused than that,’’ Powell says. By asking corporations, nonprofits and state and local governments to make specific commitments to help 2 million at-risk kids by the year 2000, America’s Promise may have stumbled on a structure that can actually build a national movement.
Some of the commitments made in Philadelphia have not been fulfilled (chart), but many others are being redeemed ahead of schedule. BJ’s Wholesale Club promised to adopt 100 elementary schools by the year 2000; the company is already up to 46. Louisville, Ky., coordinated a campaign in September that doubled the number of mentors citywide, while ABC-TV generated 120,000 would-be mentors nationally from aggressive advertising. NationsBank has opened nine of the 25 after-school centers it promised by the year 2000.
The best news is that the original 300 commitments made last spring have blossomed into thousands more at the local level, where the movement will live or die. So far, 13 states and 41 communities have held mini-summits, with scores more planned for next year. Powell, still insisting he won’t run for president, often comes in for a rousing campaign-style pep talk, but the real action takes place when all state and local leaders–political, business, nonprofit–get organized, then strike partnerships to get the real work done.
One challenge will be to make the commitments more creative. Giving employees a day off a year for service, as several companies do, is nice, but insufficient. On the other extreme, most busy people simply don’t have the time for a sustained one-to-one relationship several hours a week. A convenient compromise is ““site-based mentoring,’’ where kids are bused into a workplace once every week or two for a little advice, introduction to the workplace or help with their homework. If a scheduling conflict looms, another employee volunteer can cover. Honeywell Inc. now has 1,000 employees doing this. It improves productivity by boosting the morale of workers, not to mention changing young lives.
The goal for next year and beyond will be for America’s Promise and the local structures (plus local newspapers) to hold companies and nonprofits accountable for their commitments. They have to be identified–even stigmatized–when they fall short. That’s tough in the cautious world of nonprofits. In his first ““Report to the Nation’’ on the progress after six months, Powell let the laggards off the hook. Instead of leaving a blank space next to the names of those that made big promises but reported no progress, he used the phrase ““details forthcoming.''
That was too nice. Shame can be a good motivator, as Ted Turner knows when he tweaks his billionaire buddies. Powell knows it, too. As he left a mini-summit in Mississippi last month, he smiled and wagged his finger at the audience like Santa Claus: ““I’ll be watching you– don’t make me mad!''
There was strong followup to the President’s Summit, but those listed below have reported no action in support of Powell’s cause so far.
Corps. & nonprofits AFL-CIO Alliance for Justice Amer. Booksellers Amer. GI Forum Amer. Medical Assoc. Assoc. of Jr. Leagues Int’l B’nai B’rith Catholic Charities Mentoring USA Nat’l Assoc. for Equal Opportunity in Higher Learning Nat’l Assoc. of Child Care Referral Agencies Nat’l Black Child Development Inst. Nat’l Conference Nat’l Education Assoc. Retired Program Sun Microsystems Tootsietoy Cities Dallas; Gary, Ind.; Miami; Nashville; Portland, Ore.; Tampa
