(no subject)
I'm toying with the idea of starting a charitable scholarship trust...
It occured to me, as I was doing the financial projections for the orgs that occupy my NineToFiver life, that it wouldn't be all so hard or expensive to establish a bareboned scholarship fund of my own:
A contribution of around $85.00 per month would over the next ten years would establish a corpus that, given no major economic implosions, could fund two $250.00 annual book scholarships in perpetuity. (This is assuming that I began awarding the scholarships immediately...if I refrained from awards until the fund was complete, I could reach 'in perpetuity' status in only five years) If I chose to continue my $85 payments for another five years after that, I could award a total of four scholarships yearly, forever.
There are issues with this of course, not least of which being that I don't exactly have an extra $85 sitting around in my bank account at the end of every paycheck, and its not exactly social entrepreneurship to start yet another save-give-save-give nonprofit...
...my argument with myself on this mimics those I have whenever I consider donating to worthy causes:
"What's worthy? Tossing another couple hundred bucks to a whiny arts major who refuses to study a field that imparts real marketable skills? While millions of people starve worldwide, nonetheless? While I have to scrape and save for my own rent payments some months, nonetheless?"
All true, I know. But the thought of creating some lasting good appeals to me, even if it means I have to trim my budget a little bit...and speaking of 'worthier causes' is a silly hole people dig to hide in when they want an excuse not to do good where they are (is it fair to penalize whiny arts majors just because they didn't have the social validation of growing up in a grass hut in a war zone? You can go down down down down into that 'worthier cause' hole and find people who desperately need help, but nothing of the sort of help you're able to provide. I've been that whiny arts major and I assure me, it ain't all peaches and cream, lack of starvation aside.)...and besides, if I can't give a little when I have little to give, how can I reasonably expect myself to give a lot later down the line?
The personal enjoyment also factors into this: it would count as leisure. I would love to review scholarship essays and write nice award letters telling a bright young star that their essay about the Sociocultural Implications of Ecotourism really was the most compelling of all the applicants, and I hope this little drop-in-the-bucket of an award helps you pursue your dreams. (I can phrase this another way for the more selfish side of myself: would I pay $85 a month for the ego boost of deciding who deserves the money I made sacrifices for? And while we're talking selfish: starting and managing a scholarship fund would be one slam-dunk of a resume line next time I'm in the job or grad-school market. I feel bad writing things like this, for posterity and public viewing in my LJ no less, but if I learned any one tiny thing from Peace Corps its that you can't lean on purely charitable interests over the long term...when things get nasty down the line (and the will) charity will be the last thing on one's mind, and one needs some selfish reason to keep things alive.)
Who knows...this is something I need to consider more...I haven't even discussed the gritty bureaucratic aspects of the whole affair, or of whether I can reasonably expect myself to want to make such contributions ten years out, or even how I would manage such a thing, but its tantalizing to realize that only $85 a month could make a diffence in dozens of lives...
It occured to me, as I was doing the financial projections for the orgs that occupy my NineToFiver life, that it wouldn't be all so hard or expensive to establish a bareboned scholarship fund of my own:
A contribution of around $85.00 per month would over the next ten years would establish a corpus that, given no major economic implosions, could fund two $250.00 annual book scholarships in perpetuity. (This is assuming that I began awarding the scholarships immediately...if I refrained from awards until the fund was complete, I could reach 'in perpetuity' status in only five years) If I chose to continue my $85 payments for another five years after that, I could award a total of four scholarships yearly, forever.
There are issues with this of course, not least of which being that I don't exactly have an extra $85 sitting around in my bank account at the end of every paycheck, and its not exactly social entrepreneurship to start yet another save-give-save-give nonprofit...
...my argument with myself on this mimics those I have whenever I consider donating to worthy causes:
"What's worthy? Tossing another couple hundred bucks to a whiny arts major who refuses to study a field that imparts real marketable skills? While millions of people starve worldwide, nonetheless? While I have to scrape and save for my own rent payments some months, nonetheless?"
All true, I know. But the thought of creating some lasting good appeals to me, even if it means I have to trim my budget a little bit...and speaking of 'worthier causes' is a silly hole people dig to hide in when they want an excuse not to do good where they are (is it fair to penalize whiny arts majors just because they didn't have the social validation of growing up in a grass hut in a war zone? You can go down down down down into that 'worthier cause' hole and find people who desperately need help, but nothing of the sort of help you're able to provide. I've been that whiny arts major and I assure me, it ain't all peaches and cream, lack of starvation aside.)...and besides, if I can't give a little when I have little to give, how can I reasonably expect myself to give a lot later down the line?
The personal enjoyment also factors into this: it would count as leisure. I would love to review scholarship essays and write nice award letters telling a bright young star that their essay about the Sociocultural Implications of Ecotourism really was the most compelling of all the applicants, and I hope this little drop-in-the-bucket of an award helps you pursue your dreams. (I can phrase this another way for the more selfish side of myself: would I pay $85 a month for the ego boost of deciding who deserves the money I made sacrifices for? And while we're talking selfish: starting and managing a scholarship fund would be one slam-dunk of a resume line next time I'm in the job or grad-school market. I feel bad writing things like this, for posterity and public viewing in my LJ no less, but if I learned any one tiny thing from Peace Corps its that you can't lean on purely charitable interests over the long term...when things get nasty down the line (and the will) charity will be the last thing on one's mind, and one needs some selfish reason to keep things alive.)
Who knows...this is something I need to consider more...I haven't even discussed the gritty bureaucratic aspects of the whole affair, or of whether I can reasonably expect myself to want to make such contributions ten years out, or even how I would manage such a thing, but its tantalizing to realize that only $85 a month could make a diffence in dozens of lives...