a thought
Sometimes, I hate the way my brain works.I got into a brief discussion with a good friend last night on the whole concept of non-profit organizations, my involvement with them over the years, and the idea of "contributing" to the common good...
...and on my way to lunch this afternoon, I came up with the following idea.
(side note to the friend who's at fault for sparking this: you were right, it's important to me to give back to the community, I just need a way to do so that isn't so freakin' disfunctional, and I'm starting to believe that it is against the laws of the universe for Pagan groups to not be disfunctional.)
Pagan organizations are often poor in every respect of the word. Not just in terms of money, but in terms of people with the needed skills to do what the organization means to do. And in a lot of cases, these things are linked: small groups have a harder time chipping in the cash to cover large expenses. Even when they're not, though, it's hard for Pagan organizations to apply for and receive mainstream grants, even for mainstream programs like food pantries and such. There was a scholarship fund at one point, but they had a hard time drumming up enough donations to keep the scholarship going.
There's also this whole idea that the reason that Pagan groups are cash-poor is that "all Pagans" are poor. Which is patently untrue. I'm Pagan, and I'm not poor - far from it, in fact. And maybe I can leverage that.
I envision a grant program. Actually, I see a couple different ways this could go.
First, the thing I could do without making an organization or having to deal with members: I can give my own grants. Small grants, maybe 4 times a year. Anything under $250, your cancelled check is all the proof you need for the IRS, so all I'd have to do is limit it to non-profit groups (not necessarily 501(c)3, since smaller groups aren't requried to be recognized), and it'd be tax deductible. Require a report from the group showing what they did with their money, along with all the other grant-related things that go with that sort of thing. Put together a list of guidelines, read proposals, and give away money. How hard could it be?
The slightly more work version would be to set up a website that allowed people to sign up to give their own grants too, and to allow people to submit proposals for review. You want to give a grant, you log in, read the proposals, select one you like, and tag it. You issue the check, we collect the reports from the groups and publish them to show what a little bit of cash can do, and you can check back in to see what groups you've given money to are doing.
The messy way to do it...would be to have memberships. For each $X you chip in, you get one vote on proposals for this grant cycle. The thing is, this would require making an organization....and that feels too much like work. Maybe when I'm independantly wealthy, and can hire someone to babysit that mess....but then again, if I'm independently wealthy, I could still do my own thing, and set the organization up on its own, without ever being involved :-)
Anyways. Something to think about.