Gift Hub

Leverage for Good by Lester Salamon

If you follow the scholarship on civil society you already know the work of Lester Salamon, at Johns Hopkins. Given his internationally known work on the nonpropfit sector, you may be suprised to learn is that he has a new volume out, Leverage for Good: An Introduction to the New Frontiers of Philanthropy and Social Investment.  That is turn is the first section of an extended volume, soon to be published. He has mastered the burgeoning field of social investment, and its supporting infrastructure. His attitude is optimistic, supportive, and also cautionary. In other words, balanced. The book could and should raise the quality of conversation about market solutions to social ills.

In one of my favorite passages Salamon mentions a list of 400 social good criteria and says, in effect, this is like a second grade drawing contest in which every kid leaves with a prize. In other words with hundreds of social good criteria to choose from, why would not a diabolical company or diabolically self decieved or complacent or opportunistic socal entrepreneur not cherry pick the one social thing made better, along with profits, and ignore the 399 dimensions on which social impact is negligible, counter-productive, or disastrous? (Why measure what you can't manage to your own benefit? Why measure your own collossal failure in all dimensions other than the one or two that reflect well on the Enterprise?) How is this different from branding and how will more of that save the world? It sounds kind of like business as usual or Wealth Bondage Rebooted as we say here. That diatribe, of course, is me riffing on Salamon who is a) better informed, b) smarter, c) more balanced, and d) living in a real house, not a Dumpter. Get the book, weigh his views, and let's see if we can all live in houses, some sweet day, when Astraea the goddess of Justice returns in Market Form to guide her mechanical men and women to measure ends.

 

Teaching Meaning, Truth, Story and Philanthropic Planning to My Colleagues in Wealth Bondage

Capitalism is so hungry - TED talks are devouring the Muses. I will not be left out!

John Milton in Paradise Lost mentions a mariner lost at sea, who in danger of losing his life, beaches his little skiff on a small island, the color of slate. He builds a fire there, as I recall, only to find the island move - he has beached upon the back of a whale.  So, we are gathered together today in the Bank of Wealth Bondage to discuss how meaning will lead money through a conversation of purpose.  Meaning, the meaning of a life, is the whale, as here in Milton or Moby Dick. Meaning makes its presence felt as story (propaganda, faith, marketing, brands, dreams, fable, fairy tale, allegory, parable, quest romance, comedy, tragedy, farce, satire, pantomime, children's story, alibi, delusion, myth, history, FOX News, MSNBC, even TED itself! Yes, all is story. All art is a lie. But not all lies are art. To tell the difference requires taste. And had you taste you would be a Pariah, like Jonah. Another whale of a story.) When we ask a donor or client a deeper question what will emerge is not a fact, not a value, not a vision, not a corporate style mission statement, not just the personal brand, what will emerge is the back of the whale on which we beach our frail craft, or better yet into which we sink our harpoon. That, my dear friends, my fellow leading lights in Wealth Bondage, is how the conversation of purpose begins. How does it end? Simple! It ends with butchering the whale for blubber, boiling the blubber to render oil, storing oil in casks, then selling the oil at prevaling rates to make lamps light, so we can sort our money, even after dark, draw up charts of account, and do the most good. That is how the story ends. Welcome! In section II, you get the questions to harpoon the whale.  In section III we will discuss the cutting of blubber. In section IV, we will discuss the profits and how they will be divided. Any questions so far? Yes. I will get to your share of the profits at the end. It depends on the size of the whale, the time taken to acquire and butcher it, and other metrics. More on that later.... Now let us discuss how to elicit from our clients the meaning of their life.... I have only got 45 minutes left, so listen up.

Effective Altruism As Measure of Good as we Bulldoze All Cultures That they Might be Managed According to the Principles of Wealth Bondage The Measure of Man

How do we who are God's gift, God's Brains on Earth, determine where to give? Answer: we compute the most good done, Stupid! How do we do that? We need a measure and we need a spreadsheet, Stupid! - I know this because Bill Schambra and I took Candidia's short course in Giving4Good here in Wealth Bondage, and I got 100% on the final test. He may hold a Doctorate in Political Science, but he got a 15%, a Big Fat F. Of course, I cheated and he answered according to this own lights. More Fool he. If we were funnier he might yet be heard.

Is God Social? And if so Can we Own It?

In what does "the social" consist? (We ask so we can innovate, disrupt, and own and manage for our greater profit, the good of all, and the Greater Glory of God). The social consists of:

• The wise and the foolish (the foolish thinking themselves wise and the wise thinking themselves wise)
• The ugly and the beatiful (the wise per above considering their work beautiful)
• The virtuous and the vicious (the wise per above seeing themselves virtuous)
• The sacred and the profane (the children of darkness being wiser in this generation than the children of light)

I have business friends, netizens I follow, and a few artistic friends. I am noticing now a conversation among the gifted to the effect that unless we come out as artists our place will be taken by The Social, per above. In short, we will become, either Pariahs, or Secular High Priests whose presence in the Temple stinks in the nostrils of a just God, the Brand by which All Brands are Judged. If Catholicism, let alone the Baptists, The Episcopalians, the Jews, the Muslims, can monetize the Holy, you might well ask, why not Zuckerberg, or the next libertarian Zealot? What is the social or the human except matter and pixels, and digits in motion, within an intellectual property regime, preferrably on an electronic platform with a unilateral user agreement? I am only angry because I missed my own moment to sell art when the supply was limited. Now, with TED talks, what is the point? The market is already saturated with Truth, Beauty, Virtue, Community of the Elect, and the Holy. The hungry market ate the ecosystem, once considered The Book of Nature.  Before we perish, The Market in whom we live and breath and have our being, has has only one frontier left - things of the spirit, properly and improperly considered.

* Acknowledgement Gifthub is wholly owned Impact Investment of Wealth Bondage Incorporated: The Ground of All Being. The views expressed here are those of some idiot who seems to have used my keyboard in my absence. I can verify that I was at work when this post was made, writing crap for hire. (A TED Talk for Mistress Candidia on Innovating Wisdom.)

 

 

Tiny House to End Homelessness

Make my Dumpster look like a Dollhouse. I just need to raise $5,000. The wheels, though, make me nervous. Who will be wheeling it where? "No fixed abode." Will I wake up one morning and find myself rolling down hill at great speed? Can I afix my house to a lampost without violating a civic ordinance?

Albert Blows Billionaire Dollar Social Justice Gift from Wealth Bondage

Albert Ruesga in fine form, half earnest, half bemused, chastening simplistic, causal theories of social change. He seems to think of ordinary people as moral agents with free will and a sense of their own destiny, rather than as cogs in the causal machinery of crony capitalism. I ran it by my boss, and generous patron, she who rules us all, and her response returned me to actually existing reality. Sweet earnest Albert always gives me a good laugh, she said. He should drop by The Wealth Bondage Freedom Casino Center some day. Just look at our valued customers, having fun, pecking at the keys like Skinnerian pigeons for pellets. Social change theory - addict them, incentivize, manage and measure, and tighten the screws until they scream. Works for me, Albert. And just think!  I am considering a gift of $1 billion to Greater New Orleans Foundation to support your work for Social fucking Justice - and Peace. I love how you always add Peace after Social Justice, Albert, it so deferential and conflict avoidant. I have the check ready to sign! All those zeroes, and commas. My what a difference a gift like that could make, Albert. All those starving, ignorant people, you love so much!  Now, come here, sweetie, tell Momma you're sorry for your disrespectful little post. Are you whimpering, little man? I know you feel wretched. Think of the millions in New Orleans who will suffer tonight and for generations to come in terrible terrible injustice because of your one stupid post. Think what a billion could have done for the children, Albert, and poor and the downtrodden. Think of the suffering of the homeless. I am so so sorry, Albert. You could have done so much good with the money. But given your insubordinate little performance,  this check is going to Heritage Foundation, instead, Sweetie. And you are the reason why. Causal chain.... Am I clear now? You want a causal chain, Sweetie? Stretch out your neck, little man,  and I will snap on your leash. If you are a good boy, you can reapply next year. Momma loves you, that is why she is so hard on you - so you can be you very best self. Meanwhile if we can't have justice, we can certainly have peace. Heel!

New Stories from Old Harry

Stories write us, of course. We are no more than the stories in which we figure, most often as heros, in the comedy of humanity staged for the edification of angels, fallen and otherwise. Brands are our stories now and they do not work exclusively for us. They are double agents of a double bottom line. False art, debased religion. Folly who has forgotten even her own name. She goes by Wisdom now, and offers wise counsel as The Most Trusted Advisor to Fools, Rogues and Knaves. She thinks, with a pompous look on her face that she is a cunning little bitch now, and her double talk she considers not only artful but genius. To one who knows her as she once was, it is not only embarrassing and shameful, but sad. It is not that she, the teller of tales, has become a darker force, for power, seduction, and wealth; we all do our best in Wealth Bondage to set a scene, play our part with a flounce and a smile, and turn a buck, but that her new Act is clumsy, blind, and crude. Her teeth are gone. Her breath reeks of rottenness. Perfume cannot mask the stench of mortality. She had finesse once, and was self-aware, when as Folly she Praised herself. Now, Good God! They say art is a mirror in which we see the deformities in all faces but our own. On me, the asses's ear look good, as Midas said to his Barber. But he had the golden touch; what more could anyone want?

Holophernes, Brand Builder

Here in Gifthub, flacking for Wealth Bondage, I see money catching up with art, and making brands. I am going to go back to my old trouble-making friends, in diaphanous dresses. Brands dance with Pretty Girls at the Brand's own risk.

 

Scenes from a Life: Conducting the Philanthropic Conversation

I am being asked these days by financial services companies and nonprofits how to conduct the conversation of purpose that underlies philanthropy. Of course it means listening. But listening to what? Not the words. I wonder if I might stage the following class in a round theater, or an empty warehouse?

Imagine a bare stage, walls painted black, with an MC (me in a business suit, polished shoes) and an actor, or dancer, or mime, in a leotard. I a dead soul in business armor, she vulnerable and alive.

MC: Who are you? 

The answer is not words but a few minutes of improv – an interpretive dance, or a pantomime, or a near wordless enactment of, say, successful business person being businesslike.

MC: Where are you now?

Mime of calls to business people, calling spouse, having dinner, patting dog, feeding kids, looking out at the night sky, and sighing.  Stuck, as a big moon rises.

MC: How did you get here?

Again the near wordless enactment of times past: infancy, parents, house of worship, coach, the mentors, the tradition. Shadows on the wall.

MC: Where are you going?

Again the mime. Now an ideal outcome:  joy, love, being loved. Giving, care, concern. Impact on others. Sounds of voices rising as at a party.

MC: What holds you back?

Mimed response (confusion, finances, fear, inner conflict, quandries)

MC: How will it end?

Mimed final scene. Death bed, soundless eulogy, grave. Sad organ music. One flower rising.

MC: And what will live on?

Renewed energetic bustle as the scenes come full circle, like the seasons, and new life begins where old ends, through the cycle of love and the gift. A baby's birth cry off stage. Blackout.

The class is then asked, What did you hear? And, How can you help?

Open Space for Giving to Flourish

Several times over the last 15 years Jean Russell, Tracy Gary, and I have teamed with others, this time including John A Warnick and Steven Meyers, to open a space for giving to flourish. The most recent occassion was at the Advisors in Philanthropy Conference in Chicago on April 23. The convening call was, "How do our many networks intersect, connect, or fail to connect locally and nationally?" Networks present included Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy, AiP, PPP, Purposeful Planning Institute, Heritage, Legacy, ACTEC, and many others. A lively cluster of discussions ensued with energy continuing to ripple in all directions. Jean has now put together a recipe book, or guide, or gardener's handbook, on how to conduct open space. I would not have had the courage to do the convening without her. 

People always ask what will be the result of open space? I see it as an end in itself, a blessed relief, a convict's walk in the prison yard, a moment in which all in the circle become ends in themselves, not means to the end of anyone else's business plan or double bottom line scheme, or master plan for saving the world some time in the future, after sacrifices of our humanity are made on a long march. That we have worth and dignity in ourselves, as members (Kant said) of the kingdom of ends, not a means to another end, is a staggeringly subversive idea, and if the result is achieved, the subversion or transcendence of Wealth Bondage (Market Based World Views, Freedom understood as Economic, The New Social Economy, Markets4Good, the sale of all that is holy, Hierarchical Structures for Moving Wealth and Power to Pinnacle, Brands as Gods, and Gods as Brands) might ensue, not as a done deal, but as one heartbeat in which we sense eternity. (Wm Blake).  Not that I am anti-Wealth Bondage. My bona fides as a Dupe, Consumer, Executive, Investor, Manager, are not in question here, any more than are yours and those you love. Every check I have ever cashed, fee charged, every brand experience by which I have been bedazzled, all are from Wealth Bondage: The Alpha and Omega. Against that is the economy of love, the circuit of the gift, not on an owned plaform with power and wealth and governance in the hands of the owner, but as living seed fallen into the chinks in the pavement. The open space guide is a propagator and cultivator of that wild seed, thanks to Jean. As for the harvest, perhaps the birds will find it, and excrete the seeds where they may yet flourish, beyond the walls of this prison.