Hi everyone, my name is Emily Rangel and I am a student intern at Nonprofit Connection. I attend CSUMB and my program is through the Collaboration Human and Health Services. Today, I get back to blogging!
As my summer begins, I volunteered to do summer hours because it’s a chance for me to learn more about the nonprofit world and continue to write my blogs. This week’s topic comes from one of Vu Le’s weekly posts. If you have a chance, check out Vu’s piece, “Advice for progressive billionaires who want to make the world better” here.
This week Vu talks about how billionaires can make good use of their wealth by collaborating with nonprofits. There are some tips, opinions, and even resources so that billionaires can decide where and how to distribute their wealth. A few great points made by Vu were; for billionaires to find causes they care the most and allow nonprofits that are already in place to allocate the funds, once donated. Also very clearly, Vu gives a friendly reminder that “they are billionaires because they were able to become great at their profession; that however, does not make them an expert in every subject and to leave nonprofit work to nonprofits; these individuals can donate or influence a cause but they should not connect with an organization and expect things to be done how they envision”.
Another great point Vu states is “move money to organizations and movements led by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, AAPI, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and other people from racialized and marginalized communities, and trust them to do whatever they think is best. These are the most effective and yet the least resourced forces in our sector. “
I read this line and wanted to clap as if Vu had just given a speech. It’s no secret the nonprofit world consists of many Caucasian males being part of boards and diversity among boards has not been made a requirement like it has for corporate boards ( which is also not being practiced very well but that’s a topic for another blog ). But in my opinion, the best way to improve a community is by directly asking that community what they need. If you are an outsider looking in, how can one possibly know what that community needs? Become part of the community, engage with the community, and ask the community to let them know they are heard.
The last point Vu made and the last I will be speaking on is taxes. Billionaires can simply help with paying their fair share of taxes. I know some wealthy people don’t want to talk about it, at times don’t want to hear about paying a more equal share of taxes. However, simply paying a fair share allow the government to allocate funds into programs that help communities. It also helps contribute to public schooling so that children can get proper education and even advance to high education, this allows for the progression of individuals. At this time, many who are born into poverty will remain in poverty through their life with little to no advancement. There’s potential for more fair tax laws so that tax dollars can be put into education so that those born into poverty can advance by being educated and contributing to a workforce that offers a livable wage. Ultimately, my blog similarly to Vu’s is to try to educate millionaires or billionaires on how they can contribute to existing programs to improve a cause.