Creative Philanthropy

Given Wednesday’s post about Food, Inc. and creative activism, when I came across this article this morning, I had to post it here: “Secret Society” Tests Boundaries of “Philanthrophy,” from the Idealist NYC blog. The article’s author, Putnam Barber, describes the Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy:

“Creativity may be more at the core of the Secret Society’s work than traditional notions of philanthropy. Participants get $100 (their own, or a gift from another member) to spend in some way on a “committed act of kindness” – whether it’s handing out umbrellas during a rainstorm, hiding $5 bills (with brief quotes about doing good works) in unlikely places, or sending the whole amount to help with relief efforts in Haiti, New Orleans or Darfur.”

I like the idea of extending people’s thinking about ways to serve their fellow man to include small acts of kindness. It’s like the person who thinks they can’t be a filmmaker because they don’t live in Hollywood, and never thinks to just pick up a FlipCam and start making films with friends (especially in this day and age, making movies is hardly the sole purview of official Hollywood). Translation: If you only have 10 dollars, you can still help someone. If you only have an hour, you can still help someone.

Of course, not all acts of kindness or generosity have the same impact — feeding a starving person serves a deeper need than helping a rain-soaked New Yorker. But this isn’t an either/or proposition, after all; as the founder of the Secret Society, Courtney Martin, said in a recent interview with the New York Times,

“I could not argue giving away 100 flowers is as important as giving money to Paul Farmer,” Ms. Martin said of the anthropologist who helped found the medical charity Partners in Health. But, she added, there’s something to be said for “a visceral engagement with joy and spontaneity, and injecting more of that into our lives.”

The Times article identifies other benefits to the Society’s brand of giving; for one, it requires active engagement on the part of the giver, which is perhaps more meaningful than passively donating $5 via text message. This is provocative – does the engagement level of the giver mean more, or as much, as the impact on the recipient? I’m not sure.

But I think there’s danger in calling these acts of kindness “philanthropic,” because it invites direct comparison to other philanthropic activity, which then obscures the Society’s central purpose and value: Small acts of kindness. Making someone’s day better.

Semantics aside, I love what the Secret Society is doing, and I love its origin story, recounted in a recent article in Forbes:

In 2005 Courtney E. Martin, a Brooklyn writer, landed a six-figure advance for her first book, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection Is Harming Young Women. She wanted to give away some of the money, but she didn’t know how. “I really didn’t start this to get kudos,” she says. “In fact, I started it from a self-interested place. I wanted to share the burden of trying to figure out an ethical way to share a disproportionate amount of wealth and some great luck.”

The themes of creativity and compassion are woven through the Society’s entire existence, then, starting with a writer’s commitment of time and energy writing a book to help young women. I love this. I love, too, the quote I found on Martin’s website:

“Engrave this upon your heart: there isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you heard their story.”
—Mary Lou Kownacki

Related Links:

• The Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy (official website)
• Courtney Martin’s website
• On Tastee Pudding:  the power of a smile and musings on creative activism