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LINKS:
•Partial
Client List
•The
Case Statement
•Is It
Love?
•YOUR
Feasibility Study Rights
•Check
Out Bob's New Book!
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The Getz Development Group expounds the
doctrine of love . . .
Try
to feed a hungry child via email . . . heal a stricken soul with voicemail . . .
clearly these cannot be done. Yet the entire philanthropic sector is unwittingly
sacrificing effectiveness on these and other altars of efficiency every day.
The word “philanthropy” comes from
root words meaning “love of humankind”. Philanthropy is not a theoretical word .
. . it is a human action. Neither the action of a loving embrace nor a warm
blanket can be transmitted electronically, no matter how hard we try. A steaming
bowl of soup cannot be served by an answering machine. A tear cannot be wiped
away by the Internet. Love can only be transmitted effectively person-to-person.
It is ludicrous to say that society
has “embraced” high-tech-low-touch, but it has. The philanthropic sector
scrambles to encourage electronic transfers of gifts when these yield the least
personal satisfaction for both the donor and the solicitor (and marshal the
smallest gifts as well!) Human service organizations are sucker-punched by
so-called communications experts resulting in the incarceration of their
constituents in "voice-mail jails” rather than “reaching out and touching
someone.” The great private foundations increasingly eschew face-to-face
encounters in favor of short-form, “by invitation only” e-proposals. Development
consultants are asked to submit proposals for “capacity building” in the
impersonal vacuum of cyber-space . . . capacity building is something for "whom",
not for "what". The long-proven axiom that people give to people, not to
institutions, is being altogether ignored.
All of these and more are enemies
within the camp of philanthropy – insidious enemies we ourselves have recruited
and trained.
The philanthropic sector is not a
democracy. It could be argued that it has become a fiefdom ruled by out-of-touch
elitists, behind the ivory parapets of private foundations, wielding the swords
of someone else’s wealth. Yet these deputized few can neither control what we do
nor how humankind will support it. We have the power if we are willing to
exercise it.
We must begin anew by embracing
humankind and not being strangled by technology. Technology is meant to serve
humanity, not to control it. The choice is ours alone, embracing people, one by
one by one.
Start
making a difference by taking a needy computer to lunch
today . . .
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