It’s been quite a while since I last posted and I’m afraid to let much more time pass, so I’m writing what will probably be a ramble rather than a carefully thought out and edited essay. Another difference is that while most of my previous posts have emphasized the activist part of me; for better or worse this post is emphasizing the reluctant side.
A couple weeks ago, RESULTS officially launched a fundraising campaign called the Friends and Family Campaign. Much of the work RESULTS does, especially the advocacy (i.e., lobbying) work is funded directly or indirectly through RESULTS volunteers. Many RESULTS volunteers contribute on a monthly basis and/or help put on various events to raise money to pay staff salaries and other operating expenses. I think I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that RESULTS is actually two organizations–at least from a tax accounting point of view. Both are non-profits, but only one qualifies for tax-deductible donations.
RESULTS Educational Fund (REF) is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to (surprise) education. Specifically, educating the public, media, and government about poverty-related issues like microfinance and Head Start. Donations to REF are tax deductible and consequently, REF satisfies a key need for foundations and the wealthy who need tax write-offs.
RESULTS, Inc. is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to influencing Congress to support specific poverty-reducing policies and legislation. Since the purpose of RESULTS, Inc. is to lobby, the IRS does not allow contributions to be tax deductible. However, because RESULTS, Inc. supports direct lobbying by volunteers and staff, it has a significant multiplying affect. Because we have directly asked Congress to vote for particular bills and have requested increased budget and appropriations amounts for specific programs, over the years we have shifted literally billions of tax-payer dollars into poverty reductions programs that really are reducing poverty rather than being lost in the shell game that is often foreign aid. I emphasize foreign aid, because several years ago, I learned that much of the funding appropriated for foreign aid never leaves the U.S. border. That should be the subject of another post, though.
I won’t pretend to understand how RESULTS staff know when to charge their time to REF or to RESULTS, Inc., but I trust they carefully follow guidelines specified by the IRS in doing so. What I do know, is that a substantial amount of funding for both sides of RESULTS (and in particular, RESULTS, Inc.) comes from RESULTS volunteers.
The previously mentioned Friends and Family Campaign is one of the ways volunteers raise money for RESULTS. As you might surmise from the title, in the campaign RESULTS volunteers tell their friends and family members about RESULTS, what they as volunteers and the organization as a whole have been up to, what kinds of results RESULTS is achieving, and–most importantly–invite their friends and family to contribute to RESULTS.
For me, inviting people to help fund RESULTS is one of the most difficult things I do as a volunteer. I like writing letters to the editor. I like going to Washington DC to learn about poverty, poverty-reducing tools, and sharing that knowledge with Congressional staffers. But, I don’t like asking my friends and family to donate to RESULTS.
It’s strange. I totally believe in what RESULTS is doing and has done. I know without a shadow of a doubt that RESULTS is largely the main behind-the-scenes reason that “only” 23,000 children are dying each day because of poverty rather than the 40,000 that died each day in the early 1990s. RESULTS was primarily the reason immunization funding was significantly increased during the 1980s and beyond. From what I understand, that’s the single largest cause of the reduction in child deaths since the 1970s or so. RESULTS has been the lead organization responsible for expanding the use of microlending and microfinance (like savings and health insurance accounts for the very poor) around the world. Because of RESULTS-led efforts, now over a million families have access to tiny loans and services to help them start businesses and save for emergencies.
So why is asking my friends and family to contribute to RESULTS so hard for me? I’m not sure. I suspect it’s because a significant part of who I am is tied to RESULTS. I’m a RESULTS volunteer because it’s the most effective organization I know to enable me to help those less fortunate than myself improve their economic standing. I think I have a subconscious, emotional response that activates when a friend or family member declines to contribute to RESULTS. It’s like that person is denying the value of RESULTS and by extension me when they decline to fund.
Consciously, I know there are many reasons why my friends and family members would not fund RESULTS and still be completely in support of RESULTS and my volunteering with it. Soon after my last lay off, my wife and I reduced and then stopped our monthly contributions to RESULTS. I salve myself with the idea that since we’re no longer financial supporters, I’m still contributing time and energy to RESULTS and so supporting it that way.
Over the years, I’ve learned to disassociate people’s decision whether to fund RESULTS from their level of respect for me. For whatever reason, however, I find that especially at the beginning of a fundraising campaign, my fear of asking people to support RESULTS, and by extension me, rises.
It’s a fear I’ve battle before and won against, so I’m not too worried about it now. I’m excited that this year, the Friends and Family Campaign includes the capability of using team and individual web pages to facilitate asking for and tracking contributions to REF. It still requires a few hours, for me anyway, to write some content, post a picture or two, and make some phones calls, but I know this year will be easier than in previous years because of the web page and more fun.
However, I’ve yet to really take the first step in carrying out my own portion of the Friends and Family Campaign. It’s much easier to keep putting off until the never-arriving tomorrow the writing and the calling necessary to support the campaign. In the next two or three days, however, I hope to publish another post with a link to my as-yet-to-be-readied contribution site. I’m hoping this post will motivate me to invest the time and effort needed to realize that hope.
So, stay tuned and cheer me on.