What’s going on, everyone. I’m not sure if anyone noticed the “Blog Action Day” banner I added to this site last month, but it’s an initiative driven by bloggers across the Web to get the word out about a particular issue. On one day per year, bloggers are supposed to write an entry about a topic to get their readers to think about something outside of themselves and of importance to the world at large. Well, today October 15 is the 2008 Blog Action Day and this year’s topic is poverty, which is a high-visibility issue with the current US economic climate. I had a hard time determining what to write about this issue because so many American people are struggling financially and probably aren’t thinking about the true meaning of poverty, but I might have found a compelling angle for it…
Like most Americans, I’m sitting in front of my TV eagerly awaiting the start of the third presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain and I can’t wait to hear what they say. One of the biggest issues in this election is the American economy and how each candidate plans to address the downturn. I’m still shocked at how the poor/crooked decisions of a small number of highly-placed rich people negatively affected the lives of every day hard working people. Much of the media attention has focused on “Wall Street” versus “Main Street”, but what about the people who fall into the category of “Living out on the Street”? There were impoverished people in America before the current economic downturn and, if everyone else is struggling, then you KNOW that America’s poor are currently doing a million times worse than usual.
So, what can be done to help the people in America who truly need it most? You know, those who have traditionally barely been able to survive or have anything in life because of their dire financial situation. The U.S. government has several programs to help, but, in the current economic climate, I wonder how funding will go to those programs in the future. If we look past governmental measures, what can be done to help our fellow citizens who really need it and who should be the ones doing it? I can’t help but think that those of us in the MBA community could have major impact in fighting poverty in America if we put our minds toward doing so. Thinking about how MBAs could affect poverty, I’ve come up with the following list of targeted actions that all of us can do in the near future:
1. Create or work for a poverty-focused non-profit – MBAs can have a huge impact on poverty in the United States by either starting a non-profit organization focused on addressing the issue or working for a similar organization. In this capacity, MBAs can use their business acumen and strategic thinking to attack poverty in key areas that large sweeping efforts often miss. An example of this sort of organization is the Acument Fund, which is a venture fund that provides funding to organizations focused on helping people who live on less than $4 per day. Acumen Fund’s founder doesn’t have an MBA, but what she did in creating the organization is a fantastic example of the impact that MBAs could have in the fight against poverty.
2. Volunteer your time for a worthy cause – If you don’t want to work for a non-profit, you could always volunteer for one. You could volunteer in a wide range of ways, from serving food at a soup kitchen to helping the executives of a non-profit with their high-level strategies. I recognize that many of us have careers that make finding the time to volunteer difficult, but it’s not like you have to give your time every day. You could volunteer once per week, once per month, or maybe even once per year…the main point is that, as an MBA community, we could collectively have a major impact on poverty if we each give a little of our time to bring about needed change.
3. Serve as a mentor to middle/high school students – I’ve often heard people talk about “intergenerational wealth”, but wealth isn’t the only thing that can cross generations…poverty can as well and I believe that education is the way to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. In some instances, children end up in a cycle of poverty because that’s what they’re exposed to throughout their lives. As MBAs, we have an opportunity to expose poor children to a different life experience than they may have ever thought possible. I can attest to the effectiveness of this action because I’ve been mentoring students for years and have witnessed the impact that seeing someone who took a different life path can have on a child.
4. Help people help themselves – In addition to giving of time and resources to fight poverty, MBAs can take action to help impoverished people forge their own paths out of poverty and into self-sustainability. My friend Jessica Flannery GSB’07 has done a great job of this on a global scale with her organization Kiva.org, which allows people to make microloans over the internet. There’s got to be some way for the MBA community to put our heads together and come up with some innovative ways to help the poor climb out of poverty. As the Chinese proverb states, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”…it’s time for us to teach folks how to start fishing.
5. Care – This one is simple, right? As a community, MBAs simply need to care about poverty as an issue and have the desire to do something about it. Unfortunately, some people don’t see MBAs as people who would think outside of their own successes, so this is a chance to flip things a bit. We just need to care enough about the issue and put forth the effort to address it through actions like the ones listed above.
The list above is far from exhaustive, but it is a start and, often, a start is all that is needed to affect lasting change. The most important item is the last one, simply caring about poverty. Often, MBAs are seen as self-absorbed and only concerned about money, but reality doesn’t have to be that way. I hope this entry has created a spark within each of you to at least care about this issue in the U.S. and abroad. You may feel that one person can’t do enough to affect lasting change, but, if many of us do something, perhaps we’ll be able to make a lasting dent in poverty around the world.
Like most Americans, I’m sitting in front of my TV eagerly awaiting the start of the third presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain and I can’t wait to hear what they say. One of the biggest issues in this election is the American economy and how each candidate plans to address the downturn. I’m still shocked at how the poor/crooked decisions of a small number of highly-placed rich people negatively affected the lives of every day hard working people. Much of the media attention has focused on “Wall Street” versus “Main Street”, but what about the people who fall into the category of “Living out on the Street”? There were impoverished people in America before the current economic downturn and, if everyone else is struggling, then you KNOW that America’s poor are currently doing a million times worse than usual.
So, what can be done to help the people in America who truly need it most? You know, those who have traditionally barely been able to survive or have anything in life because of their dire financial situation. The U.S. government has several programs to help, but, in the current economic climate, I wonder how funding will go to those programs in the future. If we look past governmental measures, what can be done to help our fellow citizens who really need it and who should be the ones doing it? I can’t help but think that those of us in the MBA community could have major impact in fighting poverty in America if we put our minds toward doing so. Thinking about how MBAs could affect poverty, I’ve come up with the following list of targeted actions that all of us can do in the near future:
1. Create or work for a poverty-focused non-profit – MBAs can have a huge impact on poverty in the United States by either starting a non-profit organization focused on addressing the issue or working for a similar organization. In this capacity, MBAs can use their business acumen and strategic thinking to attack poverty in key areas that large sweeping efforts often miss. An example of this sort of organization is the Acument Fund, which is a venture fund that provides funding to organizations focused on helping people who live on less than $4 per day. Acumen Fund’s founder doesn’t have an MBA, but what she did in creating the organization is a fantastic example of the impact that MBAs could have in the fight against poverty.
2. Volunteer your time for a worthy cause – If you don’t want to work for a non-profit, you could always volunteer for one. You could volunteer in a wide range of ways, from serving food at a soup kitchen to helping the executives of a non-profit with their high-level strategies. I recognize that many of us have careers that make finding the time to volunteer difficult, but it’s not like you have to give your time every day. You could volunteer once per week, once per month, or maybe even once per year…the main point is that, as an MBA community, we could collectively have a major impact on poverty if we each give a little of our time to bring about needed change.
3. Serve as a mentor to middle/high school students – I’ve often heard people talk about “intergenerational wealth”, but wealth isn’t the only thing that can cross generations…poverty can as well and I believe that education is the way to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. In some instances, children end up in a cycle of poverty because that’s what they’re exposed to throughout their lives. As MBAs, we have an opportunity to expose poor children to a different life experience than they may have ever thought possible. I can attest to the effectiveness of this action because I’ve been mentoring students for years and have witnessed the impact that seeing someone who took a different life path can have on a child.
4. Help people help themselves – In addition to giving of time and resources to fight poverty, MBAs can take action to help impoverished people forge their own paths out of poverty and into self-sustainability. My friend Jessica Flannery GSB’07 has done a great job of this on a global scale with her organization Kiva.org, which allows people to make microloans over the internet. There’s got to be some way for the MBA community to put our heads together and come up with some innovative ways to help the poor climb out of poverty. As the Chinese proverb states, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”…it’s time for us to teach folks how to start fishing.
5. Care – This one is simple, right? As a community, MBAs simply need to care about poverty as an issue and have the desire to do something about it. Unfortunately, some people don’t see MBAs as people who would think outside of their own successes, so this is a chance to flip things a bit. We just need to care enough about the issue and put forth the effort to address it through actions like the ones listed above.
The list above is far from exhaustive, but it is a start and, often, a start is all that is needed to affect lasting change. The most important item is the last one, simply caring about poverty. Often, MBAs are seen as self-absorbed and only concerned about money, but reality doesn’t have to be that way. I hope this entry has created a spark within each of you to at least care about this issue in the U.S. and abroad. You may feel that one person can’t do enough to affect lasting change, but, if many of us do something, perhaps we’ll be able to make a lasting dent in poverty around the world.
thanks for your great post on poverty as part of Blog Action Day. check out what i wrote and please comment ASAP, i’d like to continue the interest on this issue with my readers
http://www.blogtogreat.com/2008/10/blog-action-day.html
Marquis … If I wasn’t voting for Obama, I’d vote for you! Remember when you wanted to be president? You got over that, didn’t you? (smiles) Son, you are such an inspiration. You have such a heart. Keep doing what you’re doing. Love you much! “mom”
cool post.
for my part, i turn to sites like freerice (rice donation), kiva (microfinance), and goodsearch (donation per search), as ways to help alleviate poverty online. i also put up their banners on my blog.
saw this post via the blog action day site. it’s great that you’re participating.
Marquis, I encourage you to take a look at some of the articles I’ve posted at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com
I maintain a database of more than 200 volunteer based tutoring and/or mentoring programs in Chicago and use maps to show where they are most needed, based on high concentrations of poverty and poor schools.
I use this information in a marketing/advertising type campaign aimed at helping programs get the resources (people, ideas, technology, dollars, etc.) they need to be effective distribution centers of hope, learning, experience, opportunity, and networking.
I’ve been reaching out to MBA groups for years, to create partnerships that result in a better flow of these needed resources to all tutor/mentor programs in any big city, not just the brand name programs or the high profile neighborhoods.
I hope you’ll connect with me and this work