You Can Do This!

Give Miami Day is Thursday this week, but they've started accepting donations as of today.  I guess that makes it more like Give Miami Week than Give Miami Day.

The web address is givemiamiday.org, and there are over 1000 non-profit organizations that would like donations.  You've never heard of many of them, some you know well, and if you "Learn More," you'll find that the vast majority of them are what you would consider worthy of your help, although you'll also consider some to be of no interest at all.  But like anything else, you can't afford to help everyone whom even you consider worthy.

The minimum donation is $25, and they would be happy to have you agree to pay just a little more to cover the cost of getting the donation, like by paying a commission to your credit card.  The maximum donation is whatever you want it to be.

I will tell you what I tell everyone, at least about the arts organizations: not one of them in the world can keep itself afloat by selling tickets.  (And if they tried, they'd have to charge so much for the tickets that no one could afford to attend.)  Ticket/admission fees generally cover between a quarter and a half of the budget.  And I'm talking about everyone.  The Louvre, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and none -- not one -- of them can do this based on selling tickets or an admission fee.  In many countries, the government funds them.  In this country, they rely on various government grants (federal, state, and local), but also private donations.  I'm talking about you and me.

If you go to a show, and at least in the "old days," you got a paper program, you would likely see a list of donors.  The big dogs donated $100K or $50K or $25K.  A year.  But you'll see people listed because they donated $500, or $250, or $100, or $50.  Some organization will print your name in a program because you donated $50.  That's how much it's worth to them that you did that.  That's how grateful they are.  And Give Miami Day will bother to process and accept a donation of $25.  You pick the organization(s).  It essentially all goes to them, and some of them get a little extra for having earned your devotion.

So go to givemiamiday.org, and do a little shopping.  You'll make the world outside yourself a better place, and you'll make someone else happy, and make their mission easier.  Remember, if you donate to them, then you agree with them.  You value them.  If you frequent them, then you rely on them.  They rely on you, too.  Really they do.