International Day of Charity September 5, 2024

 “The International Day of Charity is an international day observed annually on 5 September. It was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012. The prime purpose of the International Day of Charity is to raise awareness and provide a common platform for charity related activities all over the world for individuals, charitable, philanthropic and volunteer organizations for their own purposes on the local, national, regional and international level.

The International Day of Charity was conceived as a Hungarian civil society initiative supported by the Hungarian Parliament and Government in 2011, to enhance visibility, organize special events, and in this way to increase solidarity, social responsibility and public support for charity.

September 5 was chosen in order to commemorate the anniversary of the passing away of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace."  - Wikipedia August 20, 2024

When I was forty years old, I was invited to sit on the board of The Oristano Foundation as its Secretary and Vice President. It was a very small family foundation created around 1984 by my father-in-law, Victor Oristano. We only had $150,000.00 to give away annually, which in terms of philanthropic Foundations is tiny. Its mission statement was: To provide education and support to low-income children and their families.

For the next sixteen years, I donated my time and energy to vetting 501(c)3 charitable agencies located in three northeastern cities. I worked with the intention of giving grants of financial support to those that met our Foundation’s mission and standards. Since we were a small philanthropic Foundation, we wanted our dollars to make as big an impact as possible. To that end, we tried to find small, local agencies that provided services to low-income children and their families - usually overwhelmed single moms. A really big grant for our agency was in the $5,000.00 to $10,00.00 dollar range, but we started out between $2,000.00 to $3,000.00 as an initial, test grant to monitor how they made use of it. That was our niche in the scheme of being small grant Donors. It wasn’t the grand gesture, it as the most impactful, much needed one. My work entailed visiting each agency personally, interviewing their leadership, and touring the agencies themselves. I would receive a copy of their annual reports which I looked over to be sure that the greatest part of their finances was in service to their targeted populations. We absolutely did not want to be paying into top heavy agencies with overly big salaries for the people who ran them. “Not for the Fat Cats” as Victor would say. It was my job to determine if their agency was worthy of my recommending to make a grant of funds to them by the Oristano Foundation. And it was also my responsibility to discover if we could help them under the umbrella of our mission statement. If I really, really liked an agency, I would brainstorm like crazy to find a creative solution that made them eligible for a grant from us. If I could give to the childcare services that they provided to their client base while they moms were receiving education, job training or therapy, I’d consider that a reaslly big win. That meant that our small grants were being used twice - two bangs for a buck – meaning once for the kids and once for the moms. This was so very gratifying and satisfying to me to discover agencies that lifted the moms up while the kids were receiving preschool education and childcare at the same time... Once finished with all this leg work and research, I then wrote an extensive review and recommendation for each agency I had visited that passed examination I recommended the amount of funds we should donate when I felt that they had passed muster and sent this document off to all the board members of the Oristano Foundation. Then the Board would vote yay or nay and my father-in-law, and eventually, I cut the checks which I sent to the agencies with a letter including our compliments for their tireless efforts to help raise people up. I really and truly loved this job and if I felt that an agency was deserving, I would go to the mat arguing with Victor, if necessary, to support them. It was his Foundation, so he legitimately had his own vision for the Foundation and the right to have the last say as to where the funds went. We occasionally did not agree on what a “Fat Cat” agency was, but I could, and still can, be pretty passionate and persistent about my beliefs, if I need to be. Over the sixteen years that I worked for the Foundation, I was able to help women’s shelters, family shelters, inner city school food banks, after school programs that keep kids safe and off city streets while their parents worked, educational programs that helped single mothers to learn job skills to eventually feed their families themselves. We gave to one amazing agency that was working to reeducate women on how to care for their own children more gently and lovingly by being training to them to become licensed child care center owners and operators. There these moms learned new ways on how to correct and educate children in general, which led to a generational change and helping to end the cycle of abuse within their own families. Two generations were served and healed at the same time! This agency also empowered their women to organize and lobby the State legislature for funding and recognition as a political force on a statewide scale. The two women who ran this agency were, and still are, heroes in my eyes and heart, and I was honored to have been a part of supporting their vision for the future of inner-city, low-income children and their families. They understood what was truly needed on many levels and filled the void of that need with their brilliance and leadership.

I could go on and on about some of the other agencies I dearly loved and supported for as long as I was a part of the Oristano Foundation. We were small, but I know that the work I gratefully gave to our Foundation made a difference in so many people’s lives. And knowing this in my heart, honestly guys, that was all the salary I ever needed. Giving, for me, is truly receiving when it comes from the heart. I think I received as much from giving, if not more, than what we did for those agencies. It was certainly enriching for me and for my soul to be of service.

There are so many ways to give in this needy world. We can donate our time to our local schools, places of worship, clothing and furniture drives, food pantries, or even just helping a neighbor out by watching their kids for a few hours while they go to an appointment. Food pantries desperately need donations. If I could pick the greatest need at this time, it is the need for food from these pantries to stretch paychecks of the working poor to the end for the month. Hunger is a huge issue here in the USA. Housing is another.  I’ve seen hungry mothers go to school meetings to assure the best education for their kids. Their meals on those mornings were just a few cookies and tea or coffee that were intentionally being served at those meetings to help these moms get by. It still makes me sad to type this now so you can learn about it. There are used toy drives you can give old, cleaned-up toys to for low-income kids to play with. Men, women, and their teenage kids can sling a hammer for Habitat for Humanity one or two weekends a month. There’s volunteering at the local hospital to hold premature babies or you and your kids can help clean up a local park. I’m telling you that if f you can think of it, I’d bet good money you will find an organization that you can love and donate your time to occasionally. Or if you are too busy or infirm, donate some of your hard-earned dollars to or help raise funds for them. A phone and an email address is all you need to reach out for donations. Be creative! It only takes some of your time and your open heart to be charitable, and what your receive in return by just the act of helping is immeasurable.

So, today is the International Day of Charity. How can you pitch in and help?

Namaste,

Jean 🌱