Giving for Good

For reasons I can’t recall, I got involved with the One Percent Club when it was formed, 10 or more years ago. And I’m still involved, partly because I strongly believe in its mission, and partly because I live in fear that its founder, Joe Selvaggio, would physically attack me if I were to leave.

Joe may well be the number-one driver, advocate, and promoter of charitable giving in our community, or maybe any community. He created the idea of the One Percent Club, whose sole objective is to encourage people to give more—1 percent of their net worth or 5 percent of their income—to charities of their choice each year.

It was a bold, innovative concept that’s already signed up more than a thousand members; members who pay no dues, attend no meetings, provide no information, but simply pledge to give their 1 or 5 percent annually.

So a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting at a meeting of the organization’s board, and I was listening to Chairman Jud Dayton lead a very lively discussion on how to encourage people not to cut back on their charitable giving during these rotten economic times, when it suddenly hit me: This is an amazing community!

Here we are in the midst of the worst recession most of us have ever gone through, and the world is in chaos, and it’s 14 below zero outside, and my house has been on the market for 10 months and still hasn’t sold, and the guy next to me just had a really serious surgery down at Mayo, and here we all are, a bunch of busy people who could be doing a whole lot of other things at the moment, sitting around trying to figure out how to encourage greater giving in our town. The pervasiveness of the proverbial Spirit of Giving is extraordinary in our community.

Another example: I recently agreed to chair a fundraising campaign for the Children’s Theatre Company. For those of you who aren’t aware, it is widely recognized as the leading theater for young people in America. Its productions brilliantly entertain while simultaneously imparting important life lessons—tolerance, peace, life priorities, personal values—to audiences ranging from toddlers to teens. The shows open young peoples’ minds to ideas, to the whole concept of live theater, and to the world of the arts.

But beyond the productions on the stage, the theater has developed a vast array of educational activities, both in house and as outreach programs throughout the public school systems. Taken together, the Children’s Theatre’s efforts have earned it a Tony Award as the finest regional theater in America.