While activism is virtually synonymous with “not-for-profit,” a San Francisco startup called Virgance has begun a slew of campaigns that aim to make money off of activism. As reported in The Economist, one campaign is a “green venture fund” on Facebook where users can invest their money (as little as $100), with Virgance getting a portion of the returns.
But can Virgance find enough do-gooders in the midst of a recession? In other words, how is the altruist market doing?
According to this Reuters article, charitable contributions are down in the U.S. only “modestly” so far this year. But charitable giving, unlike the stock market, is a lagging indicator.
Open question to our readers: how has your charitable giving and/or activism changed in light of the recession? To those of you working less than before, have you filled in those hours with volunteer work, e.g.?
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In this tight economic downturn my “contributions to charities” in monetary form have wavered considerably. I adjust this however by giving something I consider equally valuable.. My Time. I do this by volunteering at my local library as a computer docent (helping PC newbies understand it all) as well putting some time in at a local homeless shelter. Cash is good, I realize these efforts take money, however Your time can prove to be just as effective and leave you with an even stronger feeling that your doing your part to help out in the community.
If this is a venture fund how are they able to allow anyone to invest as little as $100 dollars. They have to be an accredited investor. Prosper and other P2P lending get around this I think because they are offering loans, not “investments”. However, they still got taken down for a short bit of time.
To answer your question, I would have volunteered my time if I had not found a new job after losing my old one. I don’t have the money to give but I have time even now that I am working again. But I would want to volunteer for an organization that empowers me and doesn’t just stick a “Hello, my name is” sticker to my chest. I once did volunteer work for a local literacy council through which I taught 2 girls ESL lessons I created myself. I think there is enough altruism for organizations to profit from if the altruists get a better experience than the warm fuzzies.
Seeing that altruism is a luxury, it seems strange that “charitable contributions are down in the U.S. only “modestly” so far this year”. I know for one that De Beers the diamond company has taken a big hit amidst the recession…
If people are too busy taking care of themselves, they sure won’t invest too much time being altruistic.
My charitable giving is down by about 2% of my gross income, compared to last year. Also, my wife is now getting paid to do work at a library that she was formerly a volunteer for. Time and effort that would have gone to helping others, is now being invested in our family and our home. We are now spending our time to maintain (hopefully increase) our property value, and we have severely limited spending on non-essential items. We don’t eat out or buy coffee, and any clothes we buy come from Goodwill.
My charitable giving is roughly the same as i previously had been, but my free time has been spent with self learning rather than volunteerism. Recently I bought a new copy of the Calculus book I used during undergrad (only $8 on ebay as it was an old edition but still in the shrink-wrap) and have been slowly working through the multivariate content I never did while still in school.
My charitable giving is unaffected, but I have been fortunate to retain my job and don’t have significant secondary expenses.
As an aside, I don’t think there will be a tight relationship between Virgance’s profits and the altruist market in general. Speaking for myself, when I give money to a cause I desire that as much of that money reach the cause in question as possible. I don’t want to support middlemen in the process, because they aren’t “in need”. Therefore, if I became aware that a particular donation channel was operated by a middleman who was skimming off of my donations, then I would stop using that channel and seek a different one.
I don’t expect to profit from my charitable giving, and I expect a similar attitude from those to whom I give. Obviously, the people to whom I give “profit” from my gift in an efficient sense, but my gifts are intended to offset a loss, hardship, or inequity, or to support a morally worthy operation. My goal is not that they profit, but that their adverse circumstances are balanced. I would expect this motivation to be typical of altruists, and therefore I expect that Virgance’s profits will experience a negative correlation to the degree to which the public is aware that they operate at a profit.
I’m actually giving more to charity this year because I know that other people can’t. Instead of going shopping to make myself feel better, I’m spending what I feel I can afford on charitable contributions.
Feeling completely overwhelmed by the financial news 2 weeks ago, I made an $800 donation to my public radio station’s digital transmitter fund. Knowing that their matching grant would double-my money made that seem like a much better deal than picking up an HDTV at the pre-Superbowl sales. (And I’ll get a tax deduction!)
A local organization that collects non-food items (diapers,toothpaste, shampoo, etc) for families with low income put a collection box in the lobby of my grocery store. Rather than cheering myself up with a $4 latte, I toss whatever shampoo is on sale that week into my cart and drop it in the box on my way by.
I haven’t finished my taxes, but if I get a refund, half of it is going to the United Way to support the battered women’s shelter that serves my county. The other half. . . will probably go back into the HDTV fund. I do still intend to buy one . . . someday.