This Year's Patronage
An expression of values.
When it comes to charitable support, I am almost the opposite of Effective Altruists who believe it is best to direct your resources to the maximum bang for the buck for the good of humanity as calculated according to some apparent mathematical precision, a stance, which when taken to extremes suggests hat the fates of the uncountable number of future humans matter more than the relatively small number of people living on the planet today.
I dunno, that just seems goofy to me. Their obsession with AI as a bigger threat to humankind than war, disease, or climate change also does not resonate with my sensibilities. I wrote a bit about my gripes with Effective Altruism through the lens of the downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried last year.
When it comes to my charitable giving, I like to give money that directly funds specific work that I would like to see continue being done by people who rely on this support to do that work. This sometimes has me (and Mrs. Biblioracle) funding stuff that other people might see as trivial as compared to saving thousands of lives by purchasing malaria nets, but it makes me feel good to know that money I’m able to direct towards specific activities helps keep those activities going.
I suppose that’s more selfish than altruistic, but whatever, it’s our money. I wanted to take some time to highlight some of the places where Mrs. Biblioracle and I direct our donations, not necessarily to encourage you to join in supporting these groups specifically (though that would be awesome), but perhaps as an encouragement for you all to share those things you think deserve support, and why they’re worth supporting to you.
First, are the two charities to which the affiliate income from purchased to this newsletter will go, Open Books and the Teacher Salary Project.
Open Books has a mission to put books in the hands of children who need them in the Chicago area, working through a variety of programs. They will be receiving $316.18 thanks to you readers who have purchased books via links from this newsletter.
The Teacher Salary Project advocates to raise the minimum salary for all teachers to $60,000 per year. This would not solve all of the challenges of education, but it would an excellent start. They'll be receiving my matching donation of $316.18.
Every year, Mrs. Biblioracle and I give to the Avian Conservation Center of Awendaw, South Carolina. They work to protect the habitats of bird species native to our region and rehabilitate injured birds. They also put on educational demonstrations where you can experience what it’s like to have a big-ass owl skim a few inches over your head, but not hear a thing until it’s already past you. Where we live, we see all kinds of shore birds (egrets, herons, wood storks, the occasional roseate spoonbill) as well as raptors (a pair of Cooper’s hawks are often hanging out in our neighborhood), and there’s a kingfisher that likes to dive into the marsh for its meals that I often see from our back porch. These birds significantly enhance the experience of the landscape I live in, so we support the people who help those birds.
Full disclosure, I’m on the board of the Human Restoration Project, a non-profit dedicated to spreading the word and providing the resources necessary for centering the needs of the human beings at the center of the education process. I’ve watched the organization’s founders build from a two-person, part time enterprise to something of a rising force in education circles that serves as a counterbalance to corporatized education reform rooted in standardized assessments. The Human Restoration Project is my values about education in action, being done by people with far more vision and drive than I could ever muster. I can support them with some oversight, advice, and money, so I do.
Time Served is a brand new nonprofit started by my friend Shirene, a former public defender and lawyer for the ACLU who is bootstrapping this organization with a group of others in order to help the formerly incarcerated rejoin society and have productive and fulfilling lives. This problem is particularly acute in South Carolina, where 1 in 3 people have criminal records. In this case, we have a combination of a necessary cause directed by someone I know and whose work and integrity I trust, so I get a good feeling knowing that our donation will further that work.
If you’re considering donating to your alma mater and you want the money to go as directly to supporting the needs of students as possible, let me suggest directing your gift to the institution’s “student emergency fund.” These are small grants that students can use to ameliorate temporary disruptions that may prevent them from successfully continuing their studies. As a college instructor I saw first hand how students would get derailed by issues that could be solved with very little money, but which became big because students did not have that money. Disruption in housing, transportation, access to technology should not prevent people from graduating from college. These funds get students over the hump.
Please share your favorite charities below. I’m always in the market for more ways to make myself feel good by giving away money.
Links
This week at the Chicago Tribune I share my Biblioracle Book Awards for nonfiction.
Some not great news, Small Beer Press is going to stop releasing new books.
The Southwest Review has their 10 “must read” books of the year, many of them off the beaten path of best books lists.
LitHub has compiled their 10 biggest books stories of the year. Sort of fun to think about what they might be and then see if they agree.
Barack Obama has shared his favorite books of the year.
This McSweeney’s piece by Ali Kelley had me laughing until I cried “We’ve Remodeled Our Bathroom, So Now You Have to Take a Dump Behind a Sliding Barn Door.”
Recommendations
1. The Upstairs Delicatessen by Dwight Garner
2. The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt
3. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
4. Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer
5. The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen
Benjamin E. - Toronto, Canada
Benjamin asked if I could mention his newsletter, Get Wit Quick, and in the spirit of the season, why not? As for his recommendation, I’m going with the rather strange and original The Throwback Special by Chris Bachelder.1
I hope all who celebrate have a wonderful holiday. One more newsletter for the year coming next week, a reckoning of the year just passed.
John
The Biblioracle
All books linked throughout the newsletter go to The Biblioracle Recommends bookstore at Bookshop.org. Affiliate proceeds, plus a personal matching donation of my own, go to Chicago’s Open Books and the Teacher Salary Project, which is advocating to establish a federal minimum salary for teachers of $60,000 per year. Affiliate income is $311.30 for the year.
The largest chunk of money I give away each year (I should keep track some time) undoubtedly goes to panhandlers and tips to people in the service industry. I think of both of those as a way to help keep people alive. I know many people who think panhandlers are scammers, but I ask would you want to stand (or even sit) holding a sign for hours on end in the bitter cold and the scorching hot, watching most passersby ignore you? I also always introduce myself, ask what I can call them, and say I hope they’re doing okay. (I do not care if they spend this money on food or booze or whatever they want—I get the choice to make those decisions with my money; so should others.)
After that bucket my next one goes to small recurring donations to abortion rights organizations, some local, some national, and some larger onetime emergency abortion funding. (My great grandmother started an abortion fund in Florida that still exists—she’d had her own experiences there, and the moment Roe passed she though great, but it won’t help poor women, and she sold a bracelet and started the fund.)
My next bucket goes to recurring donations to local media sources (plus a few non-local newsletters) that do excellent reporting, give it away for free, and help keep me informed about the place I live in.
Thinking about my giving in categories was a worthwhile exercise and may inform future decisions I make—thanks for the opportunity to think it through.
Thanks, John. As someone who grew up in Chicago (and whose father was a Chicago policeman, with all that implies), I support the Invisible Institue, which does investigative journalism & human rights advocacy, particularly in regard to the CPD.
https://invisible.institute
[and a book recommendation on this topic would be Simon Balto's Occupied Territory]
After visiting Alert Bay, British Columbia a few years ago, I began supporting the U'mista Cultural Society. It concentrates on educating its young people in their cultural heritage -- that of the Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw First Nation.
https://www.umista.ca