Thankful

Much has been made of a recent research study published in Science Magazine about the impacts of poverty on people’s ability to function and thrive. The researchers found that living in poverty is like trying to cope having lost a full night’s sleep – every day.

Similarly sobering news is that a recent Pew study found that 70% of those who grow up in poverty in the U.S. (in the lowest 20% of household income) will never make it past the median income in the U.S. Certainly paints a bleak picture, eh?

So here’s what I’m thankful for in light of this dreary outlook. I’m thankful for the determination of people like Lorena who stepped forward this fall to ensure that her little sister gets the opportunities she didn’t. Lorena asked for our help in paying college application fees for her sister. Here’s what Lorena said:

“My goal is to give my sister the opportunity to be the first out of our family to receive a bachelor's degree. That will be a great start for her independence and have something to hold on to in the real world.”

Lorena hasn’t given up for herself, her family or her sister. She’s seeing the glass as half full and she believes that her sister can and will overcome the poverty and tragedies that have touched their family’s life.

The numbers support Lorena’s belief that with the benefit of education, her sister can rise above her family’s circumstances. While only 30% of those who grew up in poverty rise to the middle or upper income levels, 86% of people with college degrees make that positive move up the income ladder. With a college degree, Lorena’s sister will have much more than a fighting chance.

Here’s another. Shirley, like so many low-income breadwinners, can secure only part time work. Shirley knows full well how difficult it is for a low-wage worker to secure full-time employment. In fact, this year’s numbers show that around 75% of new jobs created were part-time. Shirley, though, is determined to be one of the few who secure a new full-time job this year. She knows that new full-time jobs are coming open at the hospital where she works part-time as a security guard. 

To get one of those jobs, she needs to move a roadblock. She knows that without glasses to see, read, and apply she won’t even be in the running. Shirley is doing the hard work of believing and working towards her goal despite the odds against her, and I’m grateful that something as attainable as prescription glasses can help fuel her in her quest.

It would be so logical to lose hope in light of today’s economic realities. This Thanksgiving season, I’m grateful that my kids and I can learn from and be inspired by those who see that sliver of light and drive directly towards it.

Thanks to those of you who set an example of what it means to be a parent, a citizen, a community, and who find hope in overwhelmingly tough situations. Thanks to those who keep alive the spirit of American determination and caring and who help us remember what it means never to say “never.”

- megan kashner

  founder & ceo

  Benevolent

  www.benevolent.net

People Give for Beautiful Reasons

While browsing through Benevolent’s list of needs a few days ago, Benevolent donor Geetha saw a story that touched her heart and made her think. It was the story of Macaba, a woman who reminded Geetha of her mother, Mrs. Swami, who passed away seven years ago.

For the last fifteen years of her life, Mrs. Swami had suffered blindness which hampered her otherwise stalwart, delightful, spirited life. When Geetha read Macaba’s story on the Benevolent site, she was moved to give in dedication to her mom, honoring her by helping another brave woman struggling against the impact of unexpected loss of sight.

Photos of Mrs. Swami over the years 

On the surface, the two women – Macaba and Mrs. Swami - have little in common. Macaba is a young woman; Mrs. Swami lived a long, full life. Macaba is a refugee from Uganda; Mrs. Swami was from India. Macaba is a student; Mrs. Swami raised eight children.

What reminded Geetha of her mother is Macaba’s blindness—and more than that, Macaba’s attitude of engagement with the world that does not let her disability hold her back. “The blindness aspect touched my heart,” Geetha told me.

Macaba's photo is
blurred because
she remains in danger
from her persecutors
from Uganda

Macaba, whose story is posted on the Benevolent site right now, fled persecution and torture in Uganda, leaving everything she knew including her family behind. Once in the United States, doctors discovered a tumor pressing on Macaba’s brain, which has since left her with permanent blindness.

Today, incredibly, Macaba is on the verge of completing her Associate’s Degree. Her goal is to continue her education until she is qualified to be a professional counselor. Her dream is to help others.

Macaba’s need is for a special laptop, outfitted with the tools and software that allow her to use it effectively, despite her blindness. Survivors of Torture International, the San Diego nonprofit working with Macaba towards her goals, put forward Macaba’s need on the Benevolent site just last week.

Geetha’s mother, Mrs. Swami, taught Geetha and her seven siblings about helping those in need. “I have always believed, and still believe, that we are products of the values shown and taught by our parents,” Geetha shared.

I am always touched to read the personal reasons that Benevolent’s supporters have for giving. Geetha’s support of Macaba crosses generations and continents. By supporting Macaba in honor of her mother, Geetha honors both women and draws comfort to herself in a way that is both selfless and fulfilling at once.

We’ve only been doing this Benevolent work for just over a year, so maybe in five or six years this won’t surprise me and move me to heartfelt tears as it does today, but man do I love getting a glimpse like this into what spurs people to give and what they derive from the act of helping someone else in this simple, complicated way.

How incredible that a courageous mother from India should be honored by her daughter on the East coast of the United States through a gift to help a woman from Uganda who had fled to safety in Southern California. I find myself deeply touched by this inter-continental honoring of strong women.

Last week we celebrated International Women’s Day. Is there a strong woman in your life whom you’d like to honor? You never know what will move you to give.

- megan kashner, founder & ceo

  Benevolent

  www.benevolent.net 

You’re Incredible

On the morning Christmas eve day, I put on a nice shirt and some makeup, asked the kids to excuse me for a little while, then sat in front of my computer for a TV interview accompanied by Benevolent supporter and believer Lisa Bloom (she was in a studio in LA). What happened next was nothing short of incredible.

If you haven’t been following Benevolent from its tiny inception this past year, here’s a recap. Benevolent started as an idea in February of 2011. By December of 2011 we were running a small pilot in the Chicago area. In September, we were ready to branch out and started working with just a few nonprofits in other cities to see if our systems stood up to the test. We were bolstered in that month when I was invited to speak to a gathering of philanthropy leaders at a White House Forum on Philanthropy Innovation. Benevolent began to get attention, and the opportunities started to flow.

In the weeks before that Christmas eve, a few wonderful grants were committed by some excellent foundations to help us expand into three to four new cities in the new year (stay tuned for those announcements next month). So on Christmas eve, the Benevolent office had been closed for the holidays. We had divvied up the responsibilities for responding to questions and managing the site through New Year’s, and then the interview ran on HLN – first live and then in one city after another across the country throughout the day.

Immediately, there was so much traffic on the Benevolent website that our servers had trouble keeping up. Within 33 minutes, 35 contributions came in, completing the funding needed for seven people. We filled all the needs that were posted, and people continued to reach out.

Since the 24^th, almost 200 new people have liked our Facebook page, over 90 signed up for our email mailing list, dozens posted to and liked messages on our Facebook wall and twitter feed, and several more sent us emails of encouragement, offers of help, ideas for expansion and contributions to fuel our work. Here’s one staggering (for us) number: on and after December 24^th, over 8,000 people – new people who had never heard of Benevolent before – visited our site.

What an amazing holiday gift. We’re thrilled to have helped so many people this year, and to have added so many members to the growing Benevolent community all in one day was breathtaking. We’re so pleased you’re all here.

There’s a flip side to this story, though. By the end of Christmas day, over 100 people had reached out directly to Benevolent asking for help. Homeless families, people with medical needs and debts too deep to tackle, seniors living without heat, students unable to continue their studies because of tuition burdens, and more.

So many stories of people sidelined by illness and injury, so many stymied in their efforts to reach sustainability for themselves and their families. They came in all at once and they’re still coming – like a flood, really. Each story tests my social worker mettle - my ability to continue to move forward and help, even when the stories and situations before me are painful and overwhelming.

In the middle of the flood of needs, on Christmas day, I took a breath and took a moment to focus on and read the outpouring from people wanting to help others in their communities, people eagerly awaiting new stories and new needs we’d put up on the site after the holidays, people asking how they could help bring Benevolent into their communities. I realized at that moment that this was it, this was the original idea I had woken with on February 13^th, 2011 – not even two years ago – the certainty that there was a match to be made between those facing one-time challenges with those who want to help.

I believed that if we made it possible for low-income adults to tell their stories of striving and to invite others into their success, then we, their neighbors, would step up to the challenge, eager to know who we’re helping and how we’re helping; that the way we give can transform someone’s life at a critical moment.

I believed in you, and you came through. Thank you for that. Thank you for believing in people who need our help to reach their goals. Thank you for sharing your stories and your personal experiences with us. Thank you for proving in Benevolent s first year that this is a way we want to give and get help, and that the way we give really is transforming.

Happy New Year to each and every one of you. May this year prove to be one in which you get to be the person you want to be. May this be the year we bring light into one another’s lives and hearts.

- megan kashner, founder & ceo

  Benevolent

  www.benevolent.net

Giving With Kids

It’s the giving season, the perfect time to invite kids to get into the spirit and the act of giving. How, though, do we instill understanding and generosity in the kids in our lives without making those who live in challenging situations seem “other” or in a world apart from the lives our kids are living? It’s not simple, but it’s where we -- coaches, parents, teachers, grandparents, cousins and neighbors -- can make all the difference.

Kids are always listening. When we talk with kids openly and with an empathetic lens about what we see around us, we’re building responsible, thoughtful kids. When we make it personal through visiting Benevolent.net, reading people’s stories together and talking through some of the reactions that kids might have to reading about people’s circumstances and needs, we’re stretching all our perspectives, learning from each other as we go.

If we give with our kids, not just once a year but as a part of our family’s weekly life, and if we talk about the needs and ambitions of people who have greater challenges than ours, we’re modeling something they’ll carry with them into adulthood and into their own children’s lives.

I asked a handful of people to share the ways in which they weave giving into their family life. Here are three that I think I’d like to try with my kids:

1 – One family collects money throughout the year, setting some aside from allowance and spending money every week. At one set time each year, the parents sit down with their kids and each family member suggests a cause or effort they think the family should support. They talk about what issues are important to them, come up with a list of organizations that address their chosen issues, and make sure each kid gets to direct at least some of the funds for the year as they send off their family donations.

2 – A second family does a range of things, both as a family and as individuals. They go together as a family throughout the year to bring donations to the local food pantry and shelter. They have regular conversations about their own blessings and how fortunate they feel they are. Their oldest started teaching classes to younger kids as a required community service, but then got hooked and kept on volunteering.

3 – A third family has a rule that 10% of any money the kids get (as gifts, from working, etc.) is saved for giving to others. Each kid decides how to give his or her money and when. Sometimes they give to a cause or project through their church, sometimes to a person in need in their community, sometimes to a nonprofit. This way, each child is learning to set aside some of his or her own funds for others and then gets to decide on his or her own priorities for giving.

What if you chose a person a week on the Benevolent site? What if I did this with my kids? We could use that one person’s story and need to spark conversation, talk about choices and personal commitment, to imagine ourselves in another person’s shoes. Then we could give.

Maybe this week, it’ll be Tiffany who has already been certified as a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) but wants more for herself and her family than minimum wage. She wants to be a Nurse, an LPN.

Tiffany shares a great deal of her story, including the fact that she had been pregnant with twins, but lost the babies, then lost her job. She shares which college she’ll attend and how she will use the laptop she’s hoping to get to help with online classes. There’s a great deal to talk about there – goals, loss, setbacks, plans, and balancing kids, school and work – a lot to talk about at the dinner table or on the drive to school.

- megan kashner, founder & ceo

  Benevolent

  www.benevolent.net