Really? Seriously?

^"So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions." 

--Jesus

Luke 14:33

Santa's hearing different kinds of Christmas wish lists in 2011

Santa finds kids giving shorter lists in recession

By MARTHA WAGGONER
AP – Tue, Dec 6,

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A job for their mom or dad. Money for the heating bill. Food or a place to live. Maybe gloves or boots.

More and more, Santas say the children on their laps are asking for less for themselves — and Santa is promising less as well.

With unemployment stubbornly high, more homes in foreclosure and the economic outlook dim, many children who visit Santa are all too aware of the struggle to make ends meet.

"These children understand the conditions around the home when they ask for stuff," said Richard Holden, a 69-year-old Santa from Gastonia, N.C. "They understand when there are other children in the family, they need to be cautious or thoughtful of them as well and not ask for 10 to 12 items."

Cliff Snider, who's been playing Santa since he was a teenager, agrees.

"I think the parents are saying, 'It's an economic thing. Just list two to three things you really want to have,'" he said. "Parents are trying to encourage the children to be thrifty."

And the 64-year-old Snider does his best to help out. When he gets a big-ticket request, he typically responds: "There's an awful lot of children asking for that this year. What else do you want?"

At the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School, Santas learn lines like, "Wow, that's a big gift. Is there anything else you might like?"

These days, though, Santas are having to use it less and less.

"I think it's becoming more popular not to have that long list," said Tom Valent, dean of the Howard Santa school in Midland, Mich., which gets more than 3,000 letters to Santa a year and just graduated its 75th class. "Families are teaching their children to be as much of a giver as a receiver."

Starlight Fonseca has been teaching her five children, ages 5 to 14, "that we're not the only ones who have to cut things back. We're not the only ones struggling."

The 31-year-old mother and her husband Jose had been relying on a stipend from the University of Texas law school that Fonseca lost when an illness made it impossible for her to keep her grades up. She'd hoped to graduate in May but was unable to attend school this semester and can't get student loans due to poor credit.

Fonseca tells her kids that "to make it fair for everyone, Santa has to cut back for everyone. ... We paint it in a way that Santa is doing the best he can to make everybody happy at Christmas."

It's especially hard for the oldest children.

They were two little kids who used to be excited about Christmas, and now they know every gift under the tree should have gone to the utility company," she said. "It shouldn't be that way, but that's where we are now."

Of course, Santas still see some kids like the 9-year-old who pulled out a BlackBerry and showed Snider photos of all the things he wanted. "It cracked me up," he said.

Holden's response to a long list is to say something like, "Why don't you narrow this down just a little bit and choose two or three items you would really like?" Sometimes he'll even mention prices, and say, "With things like they are, Santa Claus will do what he can to help you get what you like. But we can't make you any promises."

Tim Connaghan, who runs the International University for Santa Claus in Riverside, Calif., conducts an annual survey among the 500 Santas he employs. The economy has become such a big issue that Connaghan asked them for advice on how to handle some of the questions kids were asking about unemployed parents or having to move.

"Let's all hope your dad will find a new job, or you will get into a new home," is one recommended response.

"Acknowledge the problem, give them a positive response and say, 'Santa loves you, too. Maybe I could get something special for you,'" said Connaghan. "It's that quick, usually. But the hope is that when the child leaves, he feels a little better."

Connaghan recalled the night he and other Santas took some needy children shopping. One boy wanted to buy toilet paper because his mother was taking napkins and paper towels from a fast food restaurant for toilet paper.

"He wanted to buy her real toilet paper — a common, everyday item that we all take for granted," Connaghan said. "And this child is thinking this is a Christmas gift."

Holden has had children ask for things like heat at home. He'll tell the child Santa will do what he can, then try to let the parents know about agencies that might help.

One child returned a year later and "said she wanted to thank Santa for getting her some help when they didn't have food or a place to stay." Someone had overheard the conversation with Santa and helped the family.

"There's more to being a Santa Claus than you think there is," Holden said. "You don't just go 'ho, ho, ho,' pat them on the back of the head and send them on their way. You get involved with them. ... You just make sure they feel loved and they feel special when they leave your lap.

Mattress Maker and Urban Ministry: Great Bedfellows!

The following report appeared last Friday, August 27, 2010 in StreetInsder.com, a stock market information and news website. 

I thought you'd find the story interesting.

Sleep Experts, Central Dallas Ministries Share Gift of Sleep with Those in Need

August 27, 2010 1:05 PM EDT

Dallas-Fort Worth mattress retailer Sleep Experts continues to share the gift of sleep with North Texas families in need with a donation of more than 50 mattress sets to Central Dallas Ministries, a faith-based organization focused on fighting poverty.

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) August 27, 2010 -- Local mattress retailer Sleep Experts continues to share the gift of sleep with North Texas families in need with a donation of more than 50 mattress sets to Central Dallas Ministries, a faith-based organization focused on fighting poverty.

Among the Central Dallas Ministries programs that will benefit from this donation are Transition Resource Action Center (TRAC), a program aiming to improve the self-sufficiency of youth aging out of foster care; CityWalk@Akard, a model of affordable permanent housing which recently opened in a 15-story office tower in downtown Dallas; and Destination Home, a program providing rental assistance and other support to chronically homeless, disabled individuals transitioning into self sufficiency.

To read the full report click here.
Thanks to Sleep Experts! 

What is enough?

Randy Mayeux sent me this post from Seth Godin's blog.  It raises an interesting question for fundraisers to confront. 

What do you think?

Fear of philanthropy (avert your eyes)

Peter Singer is famous for posing a stunningly difficult question, paraphrased as, "If you are walking by a pond and you see a child drowning, do you save her? What if it means ruining a very fancy pair of Italian shoes?" Okay, if we assume the answer is yes, then why not spend the cost of those shoes to save 20 kids who are starving to death across town or the world? There's really no difference. Or by, extension, invest in research or development that solves a problem forever... The issues are proximity and attention.

My take is that most people would instantly save the kid, but given the choice, probably wouldn't take the road by the pond again any time soon. We like to avoid these situations, because these situations make us uncomfortable.

Avert your eyes.

The reporter tells you, I'm going to show you a video of the meat you're going to eat for dinner being slaughtered. Avert your eyes. Or the fundraiser says I'm going to tell you about easily avoidable suffering in the developing world. Avert your eyes...

It boils down to a simple question, "how much is enough?" She knows that one iPod is all she needs, but she wonders how much philanthropy is enough? And this is a key marketing question for anyone seeking donors.

To continue reading click here.

Church folk and generosity

United Methodist Bishop and preacher, William Willimon reported on a new study of giving in American churches, Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don't Give Away More Money (Oxford University Press 2008), in his weblog (A Peculiar Prophet).

Here's a taste of his April 27, 2009 post:

The poor widow who gave out of her poverty rather than her wealth (Mark 12:42) and the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-30) who refused to give anything out of his both typify American church giving. Sociologists Christian Smith, Michael Emerson, and Patricia Snell have recently published a study on Christian stewardship, Passing the Plate (Oxford University Press). Their findings are a call to action. More than one out of four American Protestants give away no money to their churches. Evangelical Christians tend to be the most generous (giving the lie to the misconception that liberal Christians are more liberal in their concern for the less fortunate), but even their giving is nothing to brag about. Thirty-six percent of the Evangelicals report that they give away less than two percent of their income. Only about 27 percent tithe.

Passing the Plate’s researchers estimate that American Christians who say their faith is very important to them and who attend church at least twice a month earn more that $2.5 trillion dollars every year. If these Christians gave away 10 percent of their after-tax earnings, they would add a whopping $46 billion to ministry around the world.

Tithing is practiced by few. The median annual giving for an American Christian is about $200, just over half a percent of after-tax income. 5 percent of American Christians provide 60 percent of the money churches and religious groups use to operate. “A small group of truly generous Christian givers,” say Passing the Plate’s authors, “are essentially ‘covering’ for the vast majority of Christians who give nothing or quite little.”

Most Methodist preachers already know that America’s biggest givers –as a percentage of their income—are its lowest income earners. Americans earning less than $10,000 gave 2.3 percent of their income to churches. Those who earn $70,000 or more gave only 1.2 percent.

Read the entire essay here.

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Poor outgive the rest of us. . .

Over the years, I've witnessed it again and again: the remarkable generosity of people who have nothing really. We see it in our food distribution center in inner city East Dallas. People receive something to relieve their immediate needs, but find it amazingly easy to turn to another and share from what they have received.

I've seen guys give their last dollar to a friend who needed bus or rail fare. The poor share their clothes, pool their funds and work hard at helping each other.

I know I've reported the fact that our poor neighbors who come to us for various services like health care or legal counsel out give the churches who support us by over 2 to 1. Not really a surprise to me.

Now comes the empirical data to prove up what's back of the anecdotal stories. A McClatchy analysis of census bureau numbers drives the little chart below. . .not sure you can read it too well.

So, here's the bottom line: the poorest of our citizens out give the rest of us by almost 2 to 1!
What does that say to and about all of the rest of us?

Sharin'

From John Steinbeck's, The Grapes of Wrath (page 49)--a conversation between Jim Casy and Muley Graves:

“You sharin’ with us, Muley Graves?”

Muley fidgeted in embarrassment. “I ain’t got no choice in the matter.”

He stopped on the ungracious sound of his words.

“That ain’t like I mean it. That ain’t. I mean” – he stumbled – “what I mean, if a fella’s got somepin to eat an’ another fella’s hungry – why, the first fella ain’t got no choice.”

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Speed Giving, the adaptive unconscious and "gut formation"

A popular consensus tells us that giving will be down in the non-profit sector during 2009, thanks to the economic woes of the nation and the rich. I wonder about that assumption, but we can hold off on the subject for another time.

Here's a question for today: How do people best decide where to place their donations? It seems a good, valid question given the heightened sense of both responsibility and scarcity at work today.

I am intrigued by a short piece from Fred Smith, Gathering President:

In his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of the purchase of a $10 million sixth century marble Greek statue by the Getty Museum. Having been subjected to a 14-month exhaustive analysis for authenticity by an electron microscope, electron microprobe, mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence, it was pronounced authentic, but not without some doubt.

Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was invited to look at the statue. What happened is the essence of "thinking without thinking" or what Gladwell terms the adaptive unconscious.

Hoving looked at the statue and within two seconds pronounced it a fake.

Another curator repeated the same experience in Greece. More importantly, they were right.

"In the first two seconds of looking - in a single glance - they were able to understand more about the essence of the statue than the team at the Getty was able to understand after fourteen months." Their brains had reached a correct conclusion without immediately telling them how it reached that conclusion. Both men had tapped into the adaptive unconscious.

There are givers who share the same uncanny ability. This is not to be confused with emotional giving, impulsive giving or irrational giving. It is simply judgment located in a part of the brain not accessible to most. It is the innate ability to discern with great speed and reach conclusions that might take others months or years. I have seen very few individuals in my life who have it, but I would put their results up against any other system for giving. In a time when the emphasis is on "strategic giving" with all the systems for analysis that go with it, let's not discount those who have been gifted with this rare ability to see clearly, quickly and with remarkable results.

Fred is a guy I've known and respected for many more years than either of us would want to admit, I expect! And, once again, he and Gladwell are on the money.

I have no scientific research to back it up, but what he describes here, I call the "gut factor."

Some of the most effective donors, in terms of outcomes achieved, come out of their gut with their decisions to give. I have seen the phenomenon here at Central Dallas Ministries many times over the years.

These special donors have advanced our cause and our work more than any others.

It is as if we share in an unusual, but common experience of gut formation!

We know instinctively what works and what doesn't.

These donors pick up on it and fund our dreams and plans.

Partnerships like this are really hard to beat.
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Generosity. . .

Here's an interesting blog on a challenging subject:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/05/marketing-the-c.html.

What do you think?


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