Dig In. Do.

I have worked most of my life in nonprofit organizations. You know, the kind that purposely do the work many people want to see done, but other business forms simply cannot do with a profit. The motive is not in the money but in the social outcomes.

The work of nonprofits is often invisible. Yet roughly 15% of the American economy is represented by nonprofits. Those nonprofits provide business to other businesses, too, so the total economic impact of nonprofits is probably more like 20%, possibly more.

That’s the economic side. What value, though, do we place on helping a single mom find safe housing for her struggling family? What value do we place on early childhood education that buoys the life of countless kids, giving them the chance to develop into thriving adults who then support economic vitality for themselves, their communities and the nation as a whole? Incalculable is that value. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could determine that value?

The world is in disarray today, February 24, 2022. War is happening in Ukraine. Russian landscapes will not be immune from battles in this unnecessary war. Effects of this war will be felt globally as well. The price of oil will soar, and maybe that is the short-term effect Putin wants? He is, after all, a gas station to many nations, and that may very well be the only economic trump card Putin has for Mother Russia.

Pandemic concerns continue as nations all over the globe struggle with containing the effects of COVID while preparing for yet another mutation. This is a disease that will likely remain with humankind for generations. It is now part of our biological environment. Like Chicken Pox and Malaria, COVID will be with us to propagate colds, flu, pneumonia and countless other diseases. The ravages of the worst kind of COVID will destroy lungs and other vital organs in battling the disease one patient at a time. This now is a descriptor of the world’s condition. And ours.

Economic instability caused by the pandemic, nasty politics designed to divide nations everywhere, plus war, have created vast human needs. Food desserts in cities, lack of adequate safe drinking water, effective public sanitation systems in many regions of the Earth, and highly variable and dysfunctional public education systems globally have created human suffering.

Someone has to attend to these matters. Governments should but most of the time they are handling other politically sensitive issues that distract from helping our brothers and sisters in need. That is the job of people who care about others. They form organizations to deliver services and supportive care to people in need. These are the nonprofit organizations begging for donations and government funding grants. These are the organizations educating our kids, feeding the poor, housing crime victims, battered wives and kids from fathers and husbands too dysfunctional to fulfill their responsibilities.

There is much to do to fix bad things. This requires all of us to dig in and get to work. Lend a hand or donate dollars to struggling organizations attempting to make a big difference in the lives of our current and future generations of adults and leaders. If we don’t dig in and do the work, our national fabric will become soiled, worn and unreliable.

This is our future we work to protect.

Please. Dig in. And do!

February 24, 2022

 

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