The Power of One Person to Transform and Unite

The Power of One Person to Transform and Unite

In honor of National Volunteer Month

by Debra J. Berg

America is polarized over the Economic Stimulus package, health care, presidential candidates and what is and isn’t politically correct. But there’s hope for unity long-term thanks to an army called volunteers. How so? A new breed of volunteer has been fueling an emerging and growing movement for over two decades now and it’s transforming the nation’s cities and neighborhoods with a new twist. As individuals, they represent a myriad of political viewpoints but, collectively, they’re unified on the value of alleviating human suffering. Some, much like Bruce Wayne of Batman fame, swoop in and rescue the less fortunate with grassroots solutions they’ve invented to address chronic poverty, housing shortages, crime, youth issues, or other social ills. In the process, they engage volunteers of other races, ethnicities, and religions. The shining result is a united citizenry rallying against the “bad guys” by coming up with social cures that are confounding the experts!

Why the lack of a celebration? Partly, there’s low-level acclaim for these efforts because grassroots innovations have only recently received serious review by academia and the government. It’s also because these humble heroes tend to avoid the media spotlight and focus on those they serve. But grassroots solutions or any social cure for that matter, seldom draws mass media attention like social crises do. This is highly unfortunate because all of this new citizen creativity is unprecedented in American history and sparks real hope for our country’s destiny and unity.

Who are these innovative superheroes? Five of them founded the nationwide Amber Alert child abduction prevention program in 1996, which replicated nationwide in only seven years without one piece of government paperwork. Hundreds of children have been rescued and lives saved. A businessman and a pastor designed a jobs-training program on a napkin during lunch one day. That 9-month program, Jobs for Life, is now operating in over 240 cities and touts an 85%,
1-year job retention rate for the previously unemployable. Yet another heroin, Brenda Eheart, has engineered Generations of Hope, a unique community comprised of unrelated “grandparents”, kids, and parents (built on a retired military base) that boasts an unheard-of 89% adoption rate of difficult-to-place special needs foster children. These three social inventions represent just a fraction of the many dazzling examples invented by everyday citizens. Individually, they can engage thousands of volunteers of all ages, races, and. persuasions. Collectively, they’re transforming the nation’s civic landscape.

This trend, I call the “New Civic America”, shines ever brighter because citizen cures are now replicating into hundreds of towns and cities, even other countries. Spurred on even more by the troubled economy, it’s a trend that has brought Americans out of the woodwork to go well beyond volunteering motivating them to sacrifice personal lives, 401ks, and six-figure incomes to rescue those they don’t even know. And it has thousands more tweeting ideas informally on social media as to what’s working and what isn’t. Other democracies even benefit as they hear about these new tried and tested, highly compassionate solutions. All the while, the humble civic superhero remains oblivious to their larger impact. They haven’t fully grasped how they’re breathing new life into what some consider a floundering democracy and civic culture while they unite people of otherwise disparate views and backgrounds. One might think of their efforts as “civic glue” for the nation.

In what is predicted to be a brutal battle for the presidency this fall, the pundits surmise that the U.S. will remain divided into red and blue states for decades, but maybe not. This new confederation of volunteers, a colorful political mix of heroes shouldn’t be underestimated as to their long-term impact. Years of both formal and informal interviews with them tell me that they rally on topics of helping others over their political opinions. The underlying message to policymakers is that American citizens are simply unwilling to hang-on forever for politicians and big institutions to hash out their trivial differences over fundamental needs. The process is too slow when there are lives at stake. As Mother Theresa so succinctly put it, “Don’t wait for leaders. Do is person to person.” Yet, isn’t that what democracy is all about?

The bonus to each of us is twofold; real answers for those struggling with self-reliance and a healing balm to advance national unity and democracy. The new volunteers are challenging us to participate, to rally around what’s really important; bringing self-reliance to those who are struggling once-and-for-all. As they grow the bridge of volunteerism, they lay the groundwork of hope for agreement in more areas. Scandals, trials, and politics divide us in everyday conversation. But during National Volunteer Month we’re challenged to emulate the example of the new volunteer and wave the white flag for those less fortunate. Thanks to many nameless citizen-heroes, volunteerism remains the one institution of American culture where we can, for good reason, still all agree.

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Debra J. Berg, M.P.A., is the author of The Power of One: The Unsung Everyday Heroes Rescuing America’s Cities and co-author of Living in Abundance, a BarnesandNoble.com bestseller. She holds several nonprofit certifications in addition to Volunteer Management and is a nonprofit coach and trainer with the National Development Institute. She is also the founder of the National Institute for Civic Enterprise (NICE), a nonprofit project which “cause-partners” human service initiatives with business. NICE also fosters the replication of successful citizen innovations. Access her book and subscribe to Debra’s monthly newsletter, HEROES, at www.NICENetwork.org.

Are We Betting Against Human Flourishing?

Aristotle’s Ethics addressed human flourishing in happiness context. The Greek word usually translated as “happiness” is eudaimonia. Given the contemporary prevalence of hedonistic attitudes about happiness, this may be somewhat misleading. The term means something like “human flourishing” or thriving; this is suggested, for instance, in Aristotle’s description of happiness as “living well and doing well”.

Could it be that we, as consumers, are so disconnected to our purchases/investments that we could be in fact funding and earning a large portion of earnings inside of industries that fight against our core values?

What attributes or values should be present for human flourishing or thriving to take place in your world? Pause reading this and write down the answers that come to mind. Are you doing all that is possible to bring flourishing to your community, household or yourself? What does that look like? Again write it down it will be useful later.

What would be some activities that are not useful for thriving and human flourishing? Allow me to give you a few items to consider and by all means add more to this short list: usury or the charging of high interest rates, pornography, and other depictions of degrading women and their important roles in life, violent gaming or intense violent interactive media, gambling-the exchange of something valuable for high risk venture to win or lose it all. Write down what you find as the most negative pull on your world or your favorite nonprofits world of thriving. If you are an executive director or chair of finance perhaps it would be helpful to lists what you fight against the most in society and then have an assessment to see if your organization is actually aligned with your mission investments or are your investments more aligned in funding and providing more resources to the harms you so hate and worked hard to overcome?

My dentist tells me that you should only floss the teeth you want to keep. Likewise we should only address the values we really value and let the others decay and fall to the wayside. Getting clear about what we are doing in terms of our purchasing power and investing does matter to you and your board, your community and your world. Get this: You Matter!

My optometrist tells me that getting my eyes checked and fitted for glasses is not a one time lifetime event, rather, the health of my eyes demands a review every two to three years. Disease of the eyes or other complications can affect our vision. Over time, we forget that we once could see the flags on the golf course and recently they appear faded or blurred. Perhaps a checkup and corrective lens or surgery would be appropriate? This happened to me when my friends shouted “dude get to the doctor and get your vision checked.”

Lastly, human flourishing or thriving is not a common idea on television sitcoms. Why do we love the underdog raising to the occasion in American Idol or someone overcoming an inadequate hand dealt to them and then they thrive and succeed and win over others? In our hearts we love restoration, reconciled family, health renewed, and relationship enhanced and thriving. Look at what you have and do and ask for help- get coached, get exams, get assessments, get tested and know you are not alone in this journey. Do not overlook getting your investments screened for your core values and get them cleaned up. It is easier than you think. However many in the industry will tell you it is not worth it or worse they may even say it will harm your finances- all myths. See our blogs and videos on the 5 Myths. One way to find these videos is to do a search in You Tube “stewardship matters”.

Positive, Negative and Advocacy approaches

The 3 main approaches for “values” alignment come in one of 3 forms:1) Positive screens; 2) Negative screens; and 3) Advocacy approach. First, there are positive screens or support, or seeking others that promote and help similar type causes. In broad terms you may invest and support companies that sell positive products; for example … educational materials, safety products, products for the renewable energy sector, or products that are necessities of life (such as food, clothing, electricity, water or housing). It may also include policies and practices as it relates to energy, environmental, social and community issues. Perhaps the alignment is based on faith and religious affinity. Secondly, there are negative screens or harms, or the avoidance of companies based on how they engage with industries that go against your values assessment (examples: tobacco, or arms trade). This often is not a black and white issue, but rather a “gray area” in the degree of harms. Implementing strict screens may not tolerate more than 1% of the revenues originating from activities such as slavery or usury, while another approach may limit a wider range of activities not to exceed 10-15% of revenues. Today there are tools to dig deeper with better vision of what is there and how to address the specific values of each person or nonprofit values as it relates to screening harms. For example, a Catholic Values approach may focus its strict screening process on financial investment activities affiliated with abortions and pornography, whereas they may not screen as intently for investments associated with alcohol, tobacco or gambling activities. Another faith group may choose to screen for gambling and usury at the top of their values list, and not screen for abortion and pornography investments. Do not be fooled by the labels of mutual fund marketing; rather, get clear on the values you wish to screen first, and then check them out. However, do not be surprised if you get fooled by an investment’s label or package. This is why it is crucial to target investments that align with your values so you are not influenced by a good marketing pitch. Get your holdings assessed for YOUR values. And lastly, you may utilize an advocacy approach or engagement, which is a proactive way to improve on values and utilize money.

This can be accomplished in several ways. An advocacy approach can be applied through governance of proxy voting, or through the writing of corporate resolutions. Many advocacy groups have been highly effective and successful in effecting policy changes without a corporate resolution simply by engaging into conversation over an issue. It relies on using shareholder rights and effecting real change. Seeking to effect social, environmental or ethical issues is not new and seems to be growing exponentially in the past few years. Social Investment Forum has a tremendous amount of stats to back this up. Advocacy can take place without any positive or negative screening. And, here are a few examples of advocacy issues: executive compensation, climate change and bribery. One example of a proxy service is Egan-Jones and here is their website for reference http://www.ejproxy.com.

Another part of the engagement or advocacy process would be to vote for impact investing or ethical investments. These take on many forms of investments from Program Related Investment (PRI) to Community Notes to Microfinance to loan funds or mutual funds investing into loan funds. Some are providing cash flow in the form of loan interest and others in the form of equity investments. Researching online search for impact investing or ethical investments will yield an overwhelming bounty of information. So, if you are looking for some help in this process, we can help you address various options on this important topic in future writings … because how we invest our resources does matter.

Social Security and Individual Disability Insurance

Social Security Disability Benefits & Individual Disability Insurance Policies:

Many of the individual disability policies that are sold to professionals today do not offset for social security disability benefits. If one applies for disability benefits through social security and is granted payments, these payments are made in addition to individual disability insurance benefits. On the other hand, social security benefits are generally reduced group long-term disability (LTD) monthly payments.

Some individual disability insurance policies do reduce monthly benefits if social security is paid. These policies include social security offset riders and are typically sold to managerial and blue-collar occupations. This is another good reason to have these group policies reviewed. At the same time, review your beneficiaries both primary and secondary to update what you want.

If you are unhealthy, or what the industry calls a rated case, and you currently have a disability contract then there is something else you may wish to explore. See if your contract has a conversion to Long Term Care without medical underwriting. Generally, we see this before age 62 or 65. This could be viewed as an extension of benefits during retirement years or pre-retirement and could be a significant advantage to your family in preserving your assets. If you are healthy, there are now some creative alternatives to traditional long term care and many are able to function as investments, life insurance accelerated benefits as a long term care alternative funding. Some will not require medical underwriting as they are attached to annuities. Why are these new contract riders just now popping up? The Pension Protection Act of 2006 changed the rules and it took most of the insurance industry and legal industry a few years to figure it out and get it approved in most of the States.

Living Trust: A GREAT WAY TO AVOID PROBATE & SAVE TAXES

Reprinted here with permission by Scott C. Dixon, Esquire

Many people are unaware that a will is a one-way ticket to probate court. Many think that if you have a will, your personal representative can just give your assets away. That is simply not true. The statistics are staggering. As many as 71% of our population die without ever having made a will or a trust. The result of such lack of planning can be both time consuming and very costly for your family.

Probate is the process by which your estate is transferred from yourself to your beneficiaries. Its primary purpose is to assure that your creditors are all satisfied in some manner prior to distributing your assets to your beneficiaries. On the average, probate takes 9-24 months, assuming that everything goes smoothly. Any contest or litigation can result in extending that time many more years. In addition to your estate being tied up in the legal process, probate is very costly. Probate can cost a total of 5-10% of all of your assets, with much of that money going to attorneys.

AlthoughFloridadoes not have a state estate tax, Federal estate taxes can be quite punitive for larger estates. For larger estates, federal tax begins at 37% and caps out at 55%. Imagine over one-half of everything you own going to the Federal Government instead of your family or charity of your choice.

A properly drafted Revocable Living Trust can and should be used to address the above issues. Planning ahead is always the least expensive choice for all concerned. It is possible to avoid or at least greatly minimize probate and estate taxes with the proper documents and usually for a fraction of the cost of probate. Other advantages of a Living Trust is that it remains private, is quickly managed upon your death, can also financially prepare for incapacity and best of all, can be done in a way that keeps you in complete control of all of your assets.

It is not always comfortable planning for a day when you will not be here or when you will be unable to manage your own affairs, however, wise advanced planning can save time, money and aggravation both for you and your family. For many people a Living Trust has proven to be a valuable tool for making such plans.

Ten Creative Ways to Make Gifts

What is not creative is the gift of cash. Why is giving of non-cash assets creative? Because it reduces your tax potential on both capital gains and ordinary income, and estate taxes and fees. Additionally,it could be leverage your income or grow your income with advantage of reduced taxes or guarantees.

Here is the short take:

1) Giving of appreciated assets= stocks, real estate etc.

2) Gift Annuities= make a gift and then receive income back.

3) Charitable Remainder Trust-avoids the taxes for now and utilizes tax money to help provide income-delayed taxes

4) Charitable Remainder Trust/Wealth Replacement Trust combination-wealth replacement provides to your heirs money tax free

5) Charitable Lead Trust- income to charities and then principal to heirs later.

6) Enhanced Income Trust/Accelerated Inheritance Trust Combination

7) Charitable Lead Trust-deferred

8) Charitable Life Estate Agreement- generally your home allows you to live there and then gift to others

9) Family Foundations (7 types) Operating,non-operating, pass through, Types 1,2,3 and Donor Advised Fund

10) Testamentary Bequests. Will, Trust, or other documents established ex. beneficiary provision.

The most simple and popular is the Bequest.

One of the better assets to leave charities are qualified assets or IRA’s and 401K as they create special taxes, and charities are exempt from these special taxes. Win-Win.

A group of advisors around the country that are really serious about learning advanced materials and how to properly come along side donors and nonprofits is represented by Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy or CAP through the American College graduate level program. The planned giving council in your area should also be a good reliable choice in helping you make such decisions. http://www.pppnet.org/