The following guest post was written by Christy Moss, a writer and fundraiser for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois. Christy is passionate about encouraging a spirit of philanthropy among her peers. Her favorite non-profits include National Public Radio, Kiva, public libraries, and Greenville College, her alma mater.
Through her show The Big Give, Oprah seeks to change the way we view giving. While most of us already agree with her pay-it-forward style of philanthropy, it is a bit more difficult to connect with contestants giving away $100,000, when $10 is all we have to give. Don’t be discouraged! I am here to help you realize that $10 is a significant start – and that giving away $10 is more like giving away $100,000 than you realize.
Forget the Numbers
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
Did you see the Easter episode of the Big Give? Contestants were challenged to give away $100,000 in 24 hours. One contestant was actually paralyzed by the amount she had to give away. And only one contestant was able to give away all $100,000. Numbers can be crippling. Whether your gift is large or small, $10 or $10,000, giving is an act of the heart, not the act of a calculator. Don’t be discouraged by starting small. You may feel your gift is insignificant, but what if everyone who made $10 gifts felt the same way? Your gift, combined with the gifts of countless others, do make a substantial difference.
Continue reading ‘Give Big: How Giving $10 Is Like Giving $100,000′
In the midst of March Madness, Jarred and I clearly can’t be trusted to update this blog at our usual pace. So, once again, we’re turning things over to our readers. We had great responses to the first edition of Questioning Things, so I’m going to give it another shot. Each of the questions this week are inspired by a recent news story:
Emirates Air will offer in-flight showers for first class passengers flying from Dubai to New York in an Airbus A380. Showers will cost $18,000 but that’s not the only price:
“in order to offer every first-class passenger a shower, the airline will have to add one metric tonne of water to its payload, dragging a carbon cost of around 50,000 lbs. per trip.”
Since the first class Airbus A380 experience is likely beyond our collective pay scale, let’s focus instead on a flight experience we can all relate to: coach.
- Have you ever accepted an airline voucher in exchange for giving up your seat on an overbooked flight? Were you happy with your decision, or did it come back to bite you in the behind?
- What’s the worst food to be eating when unexpected turbulence rocks your tray table?
- Do you believe that airlines should refund passengers (or pay for overnight hotels) when flights are canceled due to weather? What about maintenance? Do you generally believe in some sort of “passenger bill of rights,” or do you think of air travel like Jerry Seinfeld thinks about produce: “Jerry: I don’t return fruit. Fruit’s a gamble. I know that going in.”
- What ridiculous amenity will a competing airline introduce to trump Emirates Air’s showers for first class passengers?
- What amenity will airlines take away from the dwindling coach service as fuel costs continue to rise and airline profits continue to shrink? What do you anticipate paying for on your next flight that you’ve previously expected as part of your ticket?
My answers after the break; your answers (pretty please) in the comments.
Continue reading ‘Questioning Things: Vol. II’
Sorry for the posting delay. Here are a few Monday links…still nice and fresh for a Tuesday morning:
- If Tropophilia makes you want to branch out and explore more of the blogosphere, but you’re not sure how or where to find good blogs, I recommend you check out Alltop. Tropophilia fans might particularly enjoy the Green, Venture Capital, and the Social Media categories. Take a look and get hooked on a few more blogs (it’s a healthy habit, I swear).
- Russ Quackenbush, the head of Google’s engineering department, brags to Fast Company about his employees:
“Google is investing in brains. And that’s a pretty good investment, because that way, you don’t have to know what the next thing is. Those people are going to figure it out. [...] The odds are pretty good that if you bump into someone in the cafeteria, they are way better than you at something. They are world-class at something.”
- Social Innovation Camp brings software developers and social entrepreneurs together “to find ways that easy-to-build web 2.0 tools can be used to develop solutions to social challenges” in 48 hours. The projects for London on April 4-6 range from Barcode Wikipedia (“A site for storing user-generated information–such as carbon footprint, manufacturing conditions and reviews–against a product, identified by its barcode number”) to Prison Visits (“A tool to support the families of prisoners coping with the experience of being apart from a loved one”).
- This business card that grows seems like a pretty cool way to make an impression…as long as your business contacts save your email address on their computer before the roots sprout.
- Finally, in light of the happy distraction that occupies the minds of Davidson alums across the globe (and fans of those other schools too…), Mental Floss offers NCAA Tournament Pitfalls to Avoid.
Sorry again for the delay–on the positive side, it’s one day closer to Friday.
Tropophilia readers–I apologize for the complete lack of new material this weekend. Jarred and I have been otherwise occupied watching history in the making:
Davidson College has always toiled amid the giants of college basketball, but just beyond the spotlight that follows North Carolina, Duke and the other power programs in the heart of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
It takes a lot to get noticed around here.
But Stephen Curry and the Wildcats have surely earned their moment on the greatest stage in the game. They are in the Round of 16 of the N.C.A.A. tournament, singing the team’s theme song, “Sweet Caroline,” all the way to Detroit.
We’re both a little road-weary, incredibly hoarse, and unbelievably proud of our alma mater. New material coming soon including Monday Links (a bit delayed this week). Thanks for your patience.
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