An article from Lumbie Mlambo

How To Help Our Brothers & Sisters In Need
Tips & Reasons For Support, From Charity Founder

The poor are always with us – and in great numbers.

In the United States, about 46.5 million people live in poverty, according to the Brookings Institution. Worldwide, the number of impoverished people is about 1.6 billion, according to a study by Oxford economists.

“There is so much need out there and that’s why I believe it’s important that all of us do whatever we can to help the underprivileged,” says Lumbie Mlambo, editor of Equanimity Magazine (www.equanimitymag.com), an online publication that features inspiring stories of life and success.

“Who knows? You may someday wear their shoes. It’s like your health; nothing is guaranteed.”

Mlambo co-founded JB Dondolo Inc., a charity named for her father that promotes and develops projects that stimulate growth and improve people’s lives in low-income areas. One of the charity’s newer projects involves health and educational programs for underprivileged boys and girls.

“The truth is that regardless of whether a nation is industrialized or not, the needy are everywhere,” Mlambo says. “Many people require aid and support around the world and, most likely, in your community.”

A variety of private and public agencies try to help, she says, but their resources are limited and they can’t provide for every community in need of assistance or basic necessities. This leaves a large segment of low-income population with unmet needs, which is why it’s so important for everyone to do what they can to help the needy.

Mlambo offers tips for how we can get started helping our brothers and sisters in need.

• One person’s trash … Next time you’re taking time to clear some room in your closet or garage, remember that, though you may be finished with an item, someone else may need it. Those old pajamas, underwear and t-shirts that you’re fond of tossing in the trash can be turned into cloth rags for cleaning at home, or for other organizations to help under-privileged earn a subsistence income through using them for cloth crafting. Items such as loose leaf pages of paper, construction paper, crayons (broken and whole), markers, pens and pencils are perfectly useful, especially for poor children going back to school.

• Help others on date night. Lavish dresses, spotless tuxedos and expensive dishes are not only for fancy people. You, too, can attend a luxurious gala event to benefit charity. While this kind of event may be attended by affluent community leaders and well-to-do folks who may enjoy gratuitous back-slapping, the more important consideration is who benefits. Various good causes may be small businesses and historic sites in your town; better causes, however, often go toward organizations that benefit struggling families, disadvantaged children and homeless people. This will likely be more expensive than your typical date night, but most are doable for middle-class couples.

• Donate your professional skills. Among the great charitable organizations are programs supporting Guardians ad Litem, or GALs. A GAL is a person the court appoints to represent the best interests of a child in a divorce or parental rights and responsibilities case. The GAL will investigate the family situation and advise the court about where a child should live and what type of contact parents should have with their children. A professional with backgrounds including the law or journalism may be great for such work, but there are many other worthy causes if this doesn’t fit what you’re good at. A chef may help prepare tasty meals on Thanksgiving, or a salon worker may help make young girls with cancer feel pretty. Most professions can apply their expertise in the service of others.

About Lumbie Mlambo

Lumbie Mlambo is editor of Equanimity Magazine (www.equanimitymag.com), a lifestyle publication that shares the stories of “real people and their search to lead better lives.” She also has a background in project management, computer/software engineering and business analysis. She holds an associate degree in computer science from Indiana University South Bend; and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics from Texas Woman’s University. She is multilingual, speaking English, Zulu, Ndebele and French.

Giving is Good for You

4 Reasons Giving is Good for You
Philanthropist Says Money CAN Buy Happiness – But Only When You Give It Away

Many Americans are choosing to hold onto their money these days, a lesson learned from the 2008-09 financial crash.

It’s good to have savings – but not to the point of hoarding, says entrepreneur and philanthropist Tim McCarthy, author of “Empty Abundance,” (mindfulgiving.org ).

Americans are saving at a rate of 5.30 percent, well above the record low of 0.80 percent in 2005, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The world’s billionaires are holding an average of $600 million each in cash, which is more than the gross domestic product of Dominica, according to the new Billionaire Census from Wealth-X and UBS. That’s up from $60 million the previous year, signaling that the very wealthy are keeping their money on the sidelines and waiting for an optimal investment time.

“All of us could invest part of our ‘fortune,’ great or small, on something that gives back on a deeper human level, such as non-predatory loans to individuals from impoverished communities,”

McCarthy diverts all of his business profits annually to his foundation, The Business of Good, which invests in socially conscious businesses and scalable nonprofit concepts.

He reviews what everyone has to gain from mindful giving.

•  Money buys you happiness – up to $75,000 worth. Life satisfaction rises with income, but everyday happiness – another measure of well-being – changes little once a person earns $75,000 per year, according to a 2010 Princeton study. Another widely published survey by psychologist Roy Baumeister suggested that “happiness, or immediate fulfillment, is largely irrelevant to meaningfulness.” In other words, so many who finally achieve financial excess are unfulfilled by the rewards that come with that.

•  Remember the wealth disconnection to overall fulfillment. A Gallup survey conducted in 132 countries found that people in wealthy countries rate themselves higher in happiness than those in poor countries. However, 95 percent of those surveyed in poverty-stricken countries such as Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan and Sierra Leone reported leading meaningful lives, while less than 60 percent reported the same in wealthier countries.

“While more investigation to wealth, happiness and well-being is certainly in order, I think it’s clear that while money is important, it cannot buy purpose, significance or overall satisfaction,” McCarthy says.

•  Giving money reliably equals happy money. Two behavioral scientists, Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, explore in their recent book, “Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending,” what makes people engage in “prosocial behavior” – including charitable contributions, buying gifts and volunteering time. According to Dunn and Norton, recent research on happiness indicates that the most satisfying way of using money is to invest in others.

In 2010, multi-billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates co-founded The Giving Pledge, a long-term charitable effort that asks the wealthiest among us to commit to giving more than half of their fortunes to philanthropy. Among the first to join, Michael R. Bloomberg wrote in his pledge letter: “If you want to do something for your children and show how much you love them, the single best thing – by far – is to support organizations that will create a better world for them and their children.”  To date, 115 of our country’s 495 billionaires have pledged.

•  Anhedonia, amnesia and the fallacy of consumption. Anhedonia is the inability to enjoy activities that are typically found pleasurable.

“After making my wealth, I found that I suffered from anhedonia,” McCarthy says. “Mindful giving – intelligent and conscious giving to those who need it – turned out to be my best therapy.”

Everybody has experienced the limits of consumption, the economic law of diminishing returns. One cookie is nice and so, too, is your first $1 million. But at some point, your ability to enjoy eating cookies or earning millions diminishes more with each successive one.

“Everyone learns this lesson, yet the horror is that so many of us succeed in forgetting it,” McCarthy says. “I think that, in every moment, we need to remind ourselves that continually reaching for the next ‘cookie’ is not in our best interest.”

About Tim McCarthy

Tim McCarthy’s first business, WorkPlace Media, reaches more than 70 million employees with incentives for clients such as Coca-Cola, Lenscrafters and McDonalds. He sold the company in 2007 and recently bought it back. In 2003, he partnered with his son, Tim Patrick McCarthy, to open Raising Cane’s of Ohio, which had 13 stores with over $30 million in revenue in 2013. McCarthy, author of “Empty Abundance,” (mindfulgiving.org ), earned his bachelor’s in political science and MBA from Ohio State University. In 2008, he received the Fisher Alumnae Community Service Award and was named an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year.