Making good choices
I earn a good technology company salary, so I can give a good amount of money away.
But I don’t consider myself especially gifted at sorting through all of the country’s—or even my community’s—needs, because that technology company salary is attached to a full-time job that takes up quite a lot of my time and attention.
Yes, we have access to resources like Charity Navigator, or GiveWell. And with the shift of retirement savings into private investments, there are often ways to direct those funds into “ethical” investments (environmental, social, impact, et al.).
I do think about how I might rather delegate some this responsibility to a centralized cohort of, oh... let’s call them “representatives” that we might choose via a voting process in some kind of “election”, whose full-time jobs would be to make decisions about how and where my money might be best invested, rather than hoping that the individual investment choices of each of us moves society meaningfully towards progress at scale? (This might make me a 😱 socialist.)
This is part of the cost of the degradation of trust in institutions—this transfer of responsibility to the individual.
But this idea that it is my job to make good choices (or to even know how to make them) about where to invest “my” money into building a better world reinforces an idea that I am a main character in the world.
I do not think of myself as the protagonist here, which is why I would rather support an existing organization or cause than to try to start a new one myself.
One @#$%ing thing
I spent time reading about serving on nonprofit boards, and registered with two board matchmaking websites. I imagine I might have useful or applicable skills to offer (as a technology company executive), but I had not previously made time to do this.
The replies were automated, and will require additional homework. It will take time to sort through these lists of orgs seeking board candidates, and in one local case I know that the org is already winding down operations 😭.
I do not know if this is the right way to go about this, but I will start by starting.
All the @#$%ing things
Night 17: Contributed to Trans Lifeline
Night 16: Spent time together with loved ones
Night 15: Bought from a not-for-profit online store
Night 14: Refined an icon and wordmark
Night 13: Contributed to the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund
Night 12: Contributed to The Guardian
Night 11: Read, reflected, and rested
Night 10: Sent money to support vaccinations in Nigeria
Night 9: Sent money to a friend in need
Night 8: Gave gifts and spoke words of appreciation aloud
Night 7: Contributed to a California-focused nonprofit newsroom
Night 6: Made homemade donuts for my team
Night 5: Opted into a paid Buttondown tier
Night 4: Reviewed my local election results
Night 3: Deactivated my X account
Night 2: Contributed to my local nonprofit newsroom
Night 1: Started by starting
Words, sorts, thinks, and actions by Chris Ereneta, from Oakland, California. Thanks for reading! Thoughtful feedback and questions are welcomed at that.often@gmail.com