Gerrit Niezen

This week I've read several articles on philanthropy and giving, and this piece from MacKenzie Scott stuck with me:

the total donated to US charities of all kinds in 2020 was $471 billion, nearly a third of it in increments of less than $5,000. There was also $68 billion in reported financial support sent to family members living in other countries, tens of billions in crowdfunding, $200 billion in volunteer labor at service organizations, and nearly $700 billion in wages for the paid employees who chose to take jobs delivering those services over jobs where they might have earned more.

The people making the world a better place is us, not the billionaires. They're a drop in the bucket. Don't get me wrong: I think the work that MacKenzie Scott is doing is great. As she herself point out in her essay, it's but a tiny fraction of the personal expressions of care being shared into communities.

Everything adds up, so when you get that opportunity to help someone, to make even a small difference, take it. Making a difference by working together is our superpower – don't let the fools tell you otherwise.

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