Paying attention is part of my work. Sometimes I see connections in random events that make me ask if there is a pattern. While this last week may have been unusual in the number of seemingly unrelated items, I wonder if this flurry of activity is an indication of solid growth, solar flares erupting, or good examples of jumping the shark.
Maybe all those?
Like you, I have been watching the response to the ALS ice bucket challenge. As of this morning it has raised more than $94 million compared to $2.4 million during the same period last year and added 1.2 million new donors. It’s likely this will reach over $100 million by the end of the week.
If you watched the Video Music Awards earlier this week, you saw Miley Cyrus send a young homeless man, Jesse, to accept her award while she sat off to the side “fighting back tears.” Why? No one seems sure, but her claim is she is now committed to help end youth homelessness with this being her announcement. Afterwards, Brittany Spears tweeted, “So much respect for Miley for what she did tonight. You’re the modern day mother Teresa.”
Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS, sold half of his privately held company valued at $625 million to Bain Capital. Blake said he will use half of the proceeds to start a new fund to support socially minded entrepreneurship, and Bain plans to match his investment.
Finally, I met for several hours with a small group of social entrepreneurs exploring how they could jump start movements – not just individual organizations and ministries – but whole movements from scratch. The second part of that conversation was how to do it quickly through the use of social media instead of toiling away for years on a cause.
It’s clear we are seeing the first results of social networks that have not only brought to the forefront a proliferation of “causes” that capture our attention and imagination, but also allow a huge boost in individuals making small donations while feeling they belong to something bigger than themselves.
We are also well into the second decade of growth in newly wealthy entrepreneurial donors who are attracted to – and energized by – tackling large and complex issues.
Big philanthropy is growing. Small giving is growing. Causes are proliferating and even subdividing into specialties. Are these opportunities and confirmations for those of us who have been working in the field of philanthropy for decades? Is it a time to be daring and jump on the wave or concentrate on what we know best?
Maybe it’s both as Winston Churchill said. “This is no time for ease and comfort. It is a time to dare and endure.”
At the same time this week I re-read “The Man Who Planted Trees.” It is the allegorical tale of Elizeard Bouffier, a shepherd in the foothills of Provence in the first half of the 20^th century. While the surrounding landscape is desolate and ruined, the shepherd decides to cultivate a forest, tree by tree, by planting carefully selected acorns. Over four decades, Bouffier continues to plant individual trees, and in time the valley is transformed. By the end of the story it is vibrant with life and is peacefully settled.  It is a story of what we have come to call “a long obedience in the same direction.”  Nothing hurried, flashy or self-serving. Just a commitment over the course of a lifetime.
As Scripture says, “I have been young and now am old,” so I don’t want to write off Miley Cyrus. As well, there is nothing wrong with plotting movements and taking advantage of change. Who can argue with raising $100 million for research that has been underfunded forever?
But of all these, what has encouraged me the most is Blake’s decision because he has been planting trees for years. Now he has an opportunity to do even more.
For Blake, it is a time to dare and a time to endure.  He will. Carpe diem, friend.