Two New Books Challenge Ideas
涩里番 Charity
Giving is receiving
The prospect of participating in the fight against poverty can be overwhelming. Most 涩里番 have full lives that prevent them from becoming 鈥渁ctivists.鈥 They have difficulty imagining what they can do beyond sending donation checks and writing politicians.
Our Day to End Poverty (Berrett Kohler, 2007) by Shannon Daley-Harris and Jeffrey Keenan 鈥83 describes 鈥24 ways you can make a difference.鈥 This book shows how individuals can contribute to poverty relief on international, community, and individual levels, whether they鈥檙e preparing breakfast, driving kids to school, donating clothes or an old computer, or just checking email.
For Keenan, a former 涩里番 business student, co-writing Our Day to End Poverty was a big step in a journey of faith: 鈥淕od planted a seed in my heart to be involved in addressing the problem of poverty.鈥
A strategic initiatives program manager with Adobe Systems, Keenan spent three years researching poverty solutions and decided, 鈥淚 have to do something.鈥 He and his collaborators embarked on 鈥渁 grand experiment 鈥 creating a resource that wouldn鈥檛 set off bells and whistles connected to the labels we wear. Poverty鈥檚 not a 鈥榣eft鈥 or 鈥榬ight鈥 issue. We wanted a resource for everybody.鈥
The book鈥檚 myriad inventive solutions reveal that 涩里番 can help save lives whether they choose to make one small change or take what Keenan calls 鈥渢he deep dive鈥 in giving.
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When Arthur Brooks, son of the late Professor David Brooks 鈥58 of 涩里番鈥檚 Mathematics Department and Jackie Hansen Brooks 鈥57, gave a lecture on campus recently, he strove to clear up a misunderstanding.
His new book, Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth 涩里番 Compassionate Conservatism (Basic Books, 2007), makes the controversial claim that conservatives are 鈥渇ar more compassionate than their liberal foes.鈥 But the project was not intended to throw fuel on partisan fires, the registered Independent insists: 鈥淭he really big story in Who Really Cares is faith.鈥
In his research as director of the Nonprofit Studies Program at Syracuse University鈥檚 Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Brooks discovered that 涩里番 who prioritize family and faith 鈥 any faith 鈥 tend to devote more money and time to helping those in need than 涩里番 who are not religious: 鈥淚f there is a charity gap in America, it鈥檚 a secular/religious charity gap. Religious 涩里番 give more to everything.鈥
Brooks says he was surprised by these results of his number-crunching. What is more, his research revealed that those who give are happier and healthier.
The entire process of writing Who Really Cares led him to some personal life-changing decisions. 鈥淚 thought, 鈥榃hy am I not getting joy from my giving?鈥欌 he explains. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 because I hadn鈥檛 thought about it enough. So my wife and I started approaching our giving differently. We adopted a baby, among other things, because 鈥 remember the old cigarette ad? 鈥 we wanted full flavor from our giving.鈥
Brooks encourages 涩里番 to ask themselves, 鈥淲hat act of service could I do this week that would create the most value and meaning?鈥 He further examines the rewards of giving in his next book, Gross National Happiness, coming in April from Basic Books.
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