I was asked by the Golden Age of Gaia team to speak about how non-profits will help build Nova Earth during our blog sustainability fundraising drive. During my time as editor for the Golden Gaia News Roundup, I have discovered many wonderful examples of non-profit groups that are doing just that.
I would like to share something that I discovered before I go on. As a marketing professional, who worked for a number of US national non-profits, I learned that most charities operate under the shadow of a double-standard in public perception.
People generally believe that companies who are “doing good” should spend the least amount of money in pursuit of their goal, while those working for profit can spend away, providing lucrative returns for their investors.
I would like to share a short TED talk from 2013, that presents Dan Pallotta, who created the AIDS walk program and the 3 Day Breast Cancer challenge. He puts this pervasive, unconscious undertone into perspective. He believes that everything the public thinks about charity is dead wrong. I agree with him.
Dan Pallotta: The way we think about charity is dead wrong-TED Talk
Why have we, as a community of people, not given thought of philanthropy as a true investment in our society and future? Why have we previously spent freely on products and services that did not do any good for the planet, but consistently increased the profits of corporations? What subtle levels of control and belief have kept us thinking that those who do good have taken a vow of poverty, while we don’t think twice about celebrities making millions of dollars?
I am not immune to this. I stand guilty as charged. For many years, it infuriated me that the CEO of a national Breast Cancer Foundation made a high six-figure salary. I was incensed that they would be rewarded so handsomely by a company that was not supposed to make a profit. She was certainly profiting.
Watching Dan’s talk changed my mind. To really tackle the huge issues that stand in front of us, we, as a community of Lightworkers, and a global society in service to a new earth, must attract the brightest thinkers, the most innovative creators to the table with us. We must also make the investment of rewarding them well for their thinking, their innovations and their actionable visions which will change the world.
Our world needs change. We all see that. We all yearn for it with every breath our bodies take. The energies of co-creation that are presenting at this time will support that change, but we must understand as a whole planet of community that we need to invest freely in our future.
We need to release any beliefs that hold service and abundance apart from our community in any way. All of us should be blessed to exist in a profoundly supportive universe, and to begin moving in that direction, we must examine our beliefs that hold those in service apart from this abundant embrace.
The good news is, of course, that this energy and belief system is shifting. As the new energies have poured out upon our blessed planet in the past few years, global citizens have had enough of big corporations making huge profits, while families in every nation suffer along with our blessed Mother Earth.
Charitable giving in the US remained constant from 1970 until the turn of the century. Due to inflation, this means that less actual value was put into doing good, as dollars in 1970 were worth significantly more.
A miraculous thing happened in 2000. People started to give to non-profits more freely. More concerned beings began forming their own grass-roots niche non-profits. In the past 10 years, donations to US non-profits have grown 41%. The number of registered non-profits increased 24%. This is in the US, but the trend is matched world-wide.
People are opening their pocketbooks to support non-profits, who in turn provide direct assistance to those in need. In many cases, they reach small, under-served niches, that simply fall through the big cracks in global governmental support.
People are also donating their time and love to non-profits through volunteer service. The Nonprofit Quarterly estimates the economic value of a volunteer hour at about $22US. In 2011, 64.3 Million Americans donated 7.9 Billion volunteer hours to non-profit service, to the tune of $171 Billion dollars of people-power.
With the expansion of telecommunication on planet earth, and the introduction, and firm establishment, of social media across the globe, caring beings are more aware than ever about the plight of those in need. Innovative platforms, such as crowd-funding, have helped to establish fundraising that support all sorts of worthy causes.
The diversity of non-profits has also expanded. Volunteers focus their interests and talents to help others. They build a network of like-minded souls which form the backbone of the service community. There are non-profits that share skills, such as carpentry, to build homes for those in need. There are others which focus on innovating reclamation of food or materials to provide real value, where none existed before.
Most non-profits are also moving towards sustainability. This effort allows more charitable dollars to go directly to those in need, but also attracts cutting-edge thinkers and creators to the organizations. Non-profits are opening up to the new way of things much faster than the private sector, which has yet to understand that the old ways no longer work.
I strongly believe that as the energy continues to grow, non-profits will become the conduit through which prosperity will flow out to all the world. People who have the best interest of all involved, and who hold the highest personal integrity, will be given the means to support others. This divine gift of abundance will be placed into the hands that honor it, and not into those who hoard it away for their own gain.
Will non-profits help build Nova Earth? Not without loving beings to support them with their positive intention, donations and service hours. Without loving souls to embody the non-profit, it is simply a piece of paper, a charter, hollow, without life-blood. I am very excited to share that there are plenty of wonderful beings stepping up to take active roles in these wonderful organizations, and that alone, will change the world.