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Is *clean money* a fairytale?
Once upon a time, in a land not very far away, there was a non-profit organisation. This organisation - run by student volunteers - has been around since the 1940s and has done all sorts of admirable work in the fields of Healthcare, Education, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability and Human Rights. In the 1990s, poor organisational leadership and a change in the country's government meant that the funding dried up. A pair of knights in shining armour joined the organisation in 1993 and rescued it from having its doors forced shut forever.
Now, in 2010, the organisation has grown, and has a projected budget of over R10 million ($1.37 million). And again, the funding is scarce.
One of the shining-armoured knights, a shrewd entrepreneur, has secured about R4 million funding over the next 3 years for the Health-related activities. From a casino. And funding proposals have been sent to the country's largest breweries, and are being sent to a giant tobacco company. If all goes according to plan, this development organisation will be kept afloat by gambling, alcohol and cigarettes.
Members of the organisation were outraged when they heard of this, but were met with the response: "There is no clean money". It remains unclear whether the organisation will live happily ever after.
This story is pretty much real. I've been charged with looking after the organisation for a year (student leadership changes annually), and I know very little about the money side of things - as my lack of Entrepreneurship power votes reflects! But I do think that we're sullying our brand - not to mention selling our souls - by taking on these funders.
Does anyone have any ideas of alternatives?
Views: 20
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Comment by PJE on April 3, 2010 at 9:15am
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Hello Yumna Moosa,
I see the problem, you don't want to take money from the people who are causing many of the problems in the first place, doing so gives them credit and some leverage.
I don't know what the answer is but just looking at the Forbes list yesterday I see that among the most generous people in the world are techie people, perhaps some of those people could help, not Forbes list people, but IT companies.
I don't think that clean money is a fairytale, some money is certainly cleaner than other money but it is very difficult if the money you are being offered is going to save lives, to turn it down is very, very difficult. You are going to learn to be wise over this, I hope you get some good advice and lots of good funding. I don't envy you, it is a very difficult question.
Best Wishes
PJE
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Is *clean money* a fairy tale? This is such an important question I'd like to see more answers.
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Comment by Michael Texeira on April 3, 2010 at 5:22pm
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clean money...hmmm. legal tender....no. currency...yes. currency is just a symbol for human energy. as such, currency is only as clean as the energy of those who are bringing it to bear on a particular project. if someone is putting together a charity simply for prestige of having done so, that is not clean energy. if someone is making huge profits from a desire to reinvest those profits for the benefit of all sentient beings, than that energy is clean.
in Tibetan Buddhism there is the idea that one can take in something dirty and make it clean through compassion and presence. take Moby, selling his song to a car manufacturer for a commercial, and then investing the profits from his sale into alternative fuels research or something else which is working towards alternative transportation technology. so, it is very much possible to take that which is dirty and clean it with your intent and actions. the reverse is also true. you can work at an amazing charity, and then go spend the money you make on cigarettes, alcohol, and gambling.
the major issue in the taking of money from dirty sources is crafting contracts which do not allow them interest in the activities of the charity, and having the strength and faith to turn down any money which comes with strings, including changes to pre-existing deals.
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Comment by Sarah Shaw Tatoun on April 4, 2010 at 8:24am
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Yumna-- thank you for this very important and provocative question. I tend to be very suspicious of funding that comes from 'dirty' sources, but I find Michael's answer quite persuasive. On the other hand, if taking money from sources they don't approve of causes members to lose motivation it's already had a pernicious effect.
The Prime Minister of the Czech Republic in the 1990's- Vaclav Klaus famously said that there is no such thing as 'dirty money' and refused to enact legislation against money-laundering. The result was that the Czech Republic was soon full of restaurants that served no one, businesses that had no purpose, and other means of laundering money. They have long since had more sensible laws, of course, but some of the effects of essentially inviting in criminal elements still linger.
Of course this isn't the same-- gambling, alcohol and cigarettes are legal -- at least in many countries-- but the bad effects of your organization allowing itself to be dependent on them could also linger even if you later manage to find other sources of money.
One suggestion-- why not look into some of the newer methods of funding -- such as crowdfunding, or some of the methods listed on this page. Create a Fund. Something that sounds a little like 'Kickstarter' that funds organizations is Create a Fund. Perhaps some of these ideas will spark more ideas among your members.
Also something that struck me looking at more conventional funding sites was a paragraph about the importance of older donors. Perhaps your students could reach out to retirees? I think students and old folks are natural partners in a lot of ways-- but they often don't think to talk to one another.
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Comment by Yumna Moosa on April 4, 2010 at 9:47am
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Thanks for your suggestions and links, Sarah :)
This is exactly what I was hoping for. Will see what we can do with this...
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