HOW TO GIVE

There are few problems so simple that a single donation can fix them.

But I mean how nice would that be? I wouldn’t even have to write the rest of this post. Everybody wins.

Anyways, usually, to turn a problem into a realistic opportunity takes many donations. Over time, spread over a large number of donors.

But all the work before that is kind of exhausting: you’ve gotta make sure your donation go to the right place, the right organization, the right people — usually the ones closest to the problem — with the most pragmatic intentions.

Because your town or humanity’s problems can be so big and so complex, while still grounded in our most basic needs, becoming a part of who we are and how we operate, they can take a very long time to address, much less solve, and so we have to find ways to relieve the symptoms now, while we hunt for a cure for...someday.

Relieve the symptoms, chase a cure. It’s that simple.

But, of course, it’s not.

We can’t help everyone right now. And efforts to relieve the symptoms may either not work at all or have known or even unknown side effects.

Similarly, we might know what form a cure should take, but have no idea how to get there.

For example, even if the desired outcome is clear and still possible — for example, to live — the effort we give can make torture like chemotherapy worth a shot.

If we can imagine the possibilities of a technology like mRNA vaccines, we might spend our lifetimes trying (and failing, and failing, and failing, and then, just in time, succeeding) to make the human body not freak out with inflammation when we use it.

If — like Dr. Ruth Gottesman literally this week, you had a half-century of intimate knowledge of not only the why and how of an invaluable institution, but also access to the means to address its most specific issue, one that may help unfuck a very timely societal bottleneck — you may decide, having all of the info you can possibly have, to put your thumb on the scale.

I am here to tell you that while, unlike Ruth, your single donation will almost certainly not make tuition free at an entire medical school, get your favorite candidate elected, keep a place like Mexico City from running out of water, or reduce childhood diabetes, it will combine with many others, coming at the problem from many different approaches, at every level of support, over however long it takes, to at least put a dent in the fucking thing.

Giving money is far, far, far from the only way to give — we can and should also give our time and our bodies and skills, don’t @ me I have written a gazillion words on it and recorded almost 200 hours of conversations about it — but for today’s purposes, and short of these (or if you’re a moron like me, when your skills simply aren’t applicable), giving money can continue a tradition of directly supporting people on the frontlines of a more hopeful future.

You may have heard it called “earn to give” or something similar. Whatever you call it, giving will make you feel good, and it will do good.

It will cost you some money upfront, and it will also save you on your taxes later.

It will help you see the world differently, to further illustrate our inequalities and how incredible the helpers can be.

It will make you angry and thankful.

Giving will become a part of who you are.

You will become a helper, even if, again like me, you have very few practical skills. Billions have done it before you, and with fewer resources.

This is Compound Action. And it’s how to give.

Where should you give?

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