m-cause

There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up. –Oscar Wilde

Closets full of clothes and basements full of stuff…but we still buy more & lag when it comes to giving. Oscar Wilde’s quote made me laugh…and then think. So as a follow-up to my “sufficiency” article a couple of days ago, I am asking myself a couple of hard questions on giving this weekend.

One hard thing to reconcile as a marketer is balancing the need for growth with sustainability. Consumer spending makes our economy move and we definitely depend on it more than ever. But over-spending is an epidemic in the US (click here for the numbers). How can we give more when we are in over our heads in debt? One way to reign in all of the spending (read greed) would be to see a surge in lifestyle change combined with giving. On the giving side, according to Intelligent Giving the avg. person from the US gives roughly 2.0% of their income to charity. This is anemic, but when compared to Brits (1.0%) and the French (0.1%) Americans seem quite generous. There are encouraging signs of an upsurge in philanthropy and giving over the past few years as influential celebs like Bono and Bill Clinton have made it a focus. Bill and Melinda Gates have demonstrated amazing examples of giving.

Maybe we should shift our mindset the next time someone comes up and asks for a donation…all to often our response is: I don’t have the cash, so I better not. But if we are honest this lack of cash has not stopped us from over-spending when a purchase is for us & benefits our own world. Indeed, we don’t let the fact that we “just don’t have the cash” stop us from upgrading our lifestyle though we may not have the means…so we need to ask ourselves if acquisition and upgrading does, in fact, = our life (wouldn’t this be sad). I am challenging myself to get more creative & find bigger ways to give…even when “I don’t have the cash.”

Note: Andy Stanley influenced the closing paragraph.

Here is a good recent blog post on the state of philanthropy from tactical philanthropy