If you’ve been studiously reading my bi-weekly letters (if not, you can catch up here) you know that I’m fond of numbers–in fact I’d say I’m a borderline numerologist. When I started this letter late last week we had just hit 50 signatories and I was reflecting on the significance of that number.
People who know me well are aware that my favorite number is eleven, or YO. But YO’s peculiar popularity derives from the craps table, a very lucky number in that game. Croupiers use “YO,” rather than saying “eleven,” to distinguish it from “seven.” Hebraic scholars suggest that “YO” was chosen to signal luck because it is the opposite of the not-so-good “Oy.” I even subscribe to the view that life goes in eleven-year cycles. You can test the theory out by thinking about your life changes at 22, 33, 44, 55, etc.
Whereas YO is a good news number, almost everything about 50 is negative: 50 ways to leave your lover, 50 shades of grey, 50-cent. We have 50 states, but we should have 51 or 52. In football, teams can’t wait to cross the 50-yard line. 5-0 is the warning that police are coming. And perhaps worst of all, when you turn 50 you get your AARP card, psychologically signaling that you are on the downhill slope.
Fifty-fifty; half full, half empty: it’s all pretty blah. Think about the Giving Pledge, the one where billionaires pledge to give 50% of their wealth away. That, too, strikes me as pretty blah: someone with $100 billion gives away fifty? Maybe for Pledgers it’s time to argue that 99 is the new 50! Even after giving away 99%, the lowliest of billionaires would still have a lot of money.
Money is power. What distinguishes those who have signed Crisis Charitable Commitment is that they have voluntarily given up some of their power at a rate that is at least double that of their peers. Some have been doing so as a matter of course; others have done so in response to the Covid-19 crises. In either case, these are the charitable leaders. While it is important for funders to empower others with their funding, to actually give up power by digging deeper, that is extraordinary.
This message gets lost among the headline-grabbing major gifts: $10 million here, $100 million there. Even the most far-left organizations can’t help but admire the million dollars a donor drops on them, even though they know that wealth inequality is at the core of most problems. A good friend of mine who once worked at the National Institute of Health couldn’t praise Bill Gates enough for the COVID work he was doing. Just imagine that if our democracy were functioning, government could easily have taken on that task, and the decision-making would itself be democratic.
Of course, our government isn’t functioning and has no hope of functioning unless the donor community immediately invests in organizations working toward a safe and secure election. There are many nonprofits working toward that end. We hope to bring attention to this urgency with the announcement today of our first Big Bet Bundle, the 30-Day Election Integrity Fund. This is just one of many opportunities for major donors who have been sitting on the sidelines to make the Crisis Charitable Commitment and also make a big bet (YO) for the future of our country. Oops- maybe it should be the 33-Day Election Integrity Fund?
Now I’m not superstitious, and I’m not trying to make you true believers of my elevens theory, but when I started writing this letter we had 50 signatories and now we have fifty five. YO – 55!