CCC Week Twenty Two (which for those of you who have been paying close attention to my bi-weekly letter will know is a YO number): I have sent out 12 bi-weekly letters (plus a few others) that have tried to make the case for uber-rich individuals and foundations to step up to the plate and respond in a meaningful way to the pandemic.
The math, even for those who hate math, is fairly simple: 0.1% (one in a thousand) of taxpayers are sitting on approximately $12 trillion ($12,000,000,000,000) in their bank and investment accounts. Add another $1 trillion sitting in private foundations. If this wealthy donor class gave just an additional 1% to nonprofits (nonprofits have already laid off one million workers and face the prospect that 40% of them will have to close their doors next year), it would put $130 billion where it can do a huge amount of good, a 50% increase over what Giving USA says goes to nonprofits currently!
2020 is coming to a close but, unfortunately, the crises stressed by the pandemic are not. If you’re a member of this donor class and haven’t responded to help…what more can I say today other than to remind you it is the Giving Season?
Since this is exactly the 5-month anniversary of the Crisis Charitable Commitment (fittingly, we launched on Bastille Day), I’ll pause from proselytizing and recap some accomplishments. Of course, numero uno is that 57 individuals and foundations have made the commitment–representing nearly $300 million in charitable giving and over $1 billion in assets. It is one thing to argue over who to give to, or how to give, but these champions have answered the equally critical question of “how much.” Money is power, and they have given up more than their fair share for the greater good.
We still need to increase (double) the number of signatories who currently meet the Charitable Standard in order to have the critical mass necessary to convince the fence-sitters–the persuadables–to join on. Perhaps the greatest failure of the CCC to date is that not one single billionaire or billion-dollar foundation has signed on. It’s telling, sad and ironic that those most capable of responding to the crisis have not done so yet.
But the CCC is clearly already having an impact. Nearly $300 million has gone to meet health, economic, racial justice and democracy crises this year. CCC also has raised the visibility of the “giving crisis” among foundations and the wealthiest top .1%, garnering a fair amount of media coverage.
I want to call attention to a couple of my favorite things on our website. Twenty years ago I wrote a book titled, “The Fun Also Rises,” a guide to the 100 most fun things to do in the world. I got the nickname Mr. Fun Guy! So when I say a fun thing to do is go to our Charitable Standard calculator, I know what I’m talking about. Plug in the net worth of your favorite movie star or billionaire, and it will give you the amount we should expect them to be giving to charity. (Rihanna, with $600 million, should be giving $16,250,000 to nonprofits!)
The amazing editor for my book, Chuck Thompson, an accomplished author in his own right, interviewed some of our signers to add their voices to the call for philanthropic responsibility. It is definitely worth a read.
A final thing I’ll mention is the launch of our first Big Bet Bundle, the Election Integrity Fund (the first of six we’re planning). Luckily, it doesn’t look like we’ll need the additional resources we feared would be required to effectuate a peaceful presidential transition. As I mentioned in my November 3 letter, the Chinese phrase Yóuxì jiéshù (YO She) means“game over,” as in, if all tries are lost, the game is over.” I think we can finally say to President Trump: Yo She!