What do Matt Damon, Michael J. Fox, Andre Agassi, and Bette Midler have in common?
They all have created charities. 
Matt Damon co-created Water.org, Michael J. Fox the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Andre Agassi has the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education, and Bette Midler the New York Restoration Project.
It reminds me of when I was a very young child and I was taught to tithe, giving 10% of my allowance in the Sunday collection plate. (I was the preacher’s daughter).
Beyond that the teaching encourages us to give offerings in addition to the 10% tithe. Something I’ve always admired about my parents is that though we were poor, they modeled for me how both tithes and offerings are important in giving. So beginning with my allowance when I was 7, to my paper route earnings when I was 10, to my tips as a waitress in high school and college, my tithes and offerings have been something I have taken seriously.
I’ve been one of the lucky ones in this world. All it takes is a glance through the newspaper or a look at CNN headlines to know that while my income has gone through some lean years, it was never as bad as what 85% of the world’s population experiences.
While I may no longer direct all of my giving to a church, to me it feels obvious that having received so much, I have a responsibility to share.
This year I set a goal that NICABM would donate $100,000 to charity.
So how did we do? Well, take a look:
- $37,500 – Doctors without Borders
- $36,500 – Save the Children
- $15,000 – Smile Train
- $12,435 – Barre Centre for Buddhist Studies
- $5,000 – CT Public Broadcasting
- $5,500 – Windham Hospital Foundation in Windham, CT
- $4,000 – Amnesty International
- $2,000 – WAIM (a local ministry to help the poor)
- $2,000 – FINCA
- $2,000 – AmeriCares
- $2,000 – Covenant Soup Kitchen
- $1,000 – The Salvation Army
- $1,000 – Amherst NPR Station
- $1,000 – Hurlock Family Fund (for a local family)
- $1,000 – Oxfam
- $1,000 – Habitat for Humanity
- $1,000 – Democracy Now
- $1,000 – World Vision
- $1,000 – International Justice Mission
- $1,000 – Open Windows Foundation
- $1,000 – Perception Programs
- $500 – CT Audubon Society
- $500 – Insight Meditation
- $500 – ASPCA
- $200 – The Mansfield Holiday Fund in Mansfield, CT
- $100 – Windham Textile Museum
Total: $135,735
There’s always more that can be done and so we are looking ahead to next year.
Soon we will be discounting one of our programs and offering it as the Holiday Special 2011. Not only will there be a significantly reduced price, but we will be giving half of the sales to charity.
Which charity? That’s something the staff gets to choose, so I’ll let you know in my next blog post.
Where do you feel most compelled to give, whether it be money, time, or services? Please leave a comment below.
I Love To Help Give Food To The Homeless People. Establish An Organization, Where We Can Help The Homeless Individual, To Get Housing, If They Suffer From.Depression,,Get Them Help To A Social Worker, So That The Person, Can Help With Their Medication, If They Need It. Hi, My.Name Is Leonor Pugh, My Passion Is To Help, People Because I Want People To Feel Safe.
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Ruth and Staff: I love what you are doing, both with free admissions to the teleseminars so that those who cannot afford to pay are given this great opportunity which can be passed on to others, and also to your many charitable efforts.
The question you asked was: Where do you feel most compelled to give: money, time or services? I give with my time and services to the college I work for, my community, friends, and family. I give with my money to many wonderful efforts that cross my path. One of my favorite efforts is the Drepung Loseling Educational Fund (www.drepung.org)established to help support the education of nearly 3000 young aspiring Tibetan Buddhist monks (mostly refugees and orphans). It helps with food, health, and educational needs. Many are as young as age 10 – 12, with no parents. You can give outright monetary gifts or an on-going $20.00 monthly stipend towards the needs of specific monks, each of whom loves to receive cards of encouragement and will respond back. It is a great “joy” to support 3 young monks with their on-going education and development. Joy
Yay for tithing! I, too, was taught and am teaching my children. We have received so many blessings over the years when we have given and followed the Giver’s leading to give above and beyond. So many miss the blessing, not realizing how God blesses in return–sometimes with money–but always a blessing. I love that you exceeded your goal! We helped the family who fostered our daughter in Guatemala to build a new house. They had been living in a metal shack in the cold highlands. They now have a gorgeous and strong/warm house that should withstand an earthquake. It’s been so thrilling! May God continue to bless you as you bless us and the world!
You share with many of the same organizations on our gifting lists.
Great to have both philanthropic and professional alliance.
Jude Blitz
I support Joining Forces
Thanks!
Thank you for all that you have done, I’m amazed. I’m sorry I can not help at this time. I have had other commitments..
I appreciate your support for these excellent causes and your accountability to NICABM supports and the public, and join with many of the positive comments about your work and committment to a better world. I give whatever funds I can whwen I can to many on your list, and through in-kind canine rescue work and pro bono legal services to immigrants and refugees. Thank you, Ruth.
Thank you Ruth for all your hard work. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that when I subscribe to one of NICABM’s programs I am also supporting so many needy causes.
I too was taught by my parents to give; as my mother was taught by her father. It was never about how much they had because they still don’t have much! I believe it has been one of the best things they taught me. Funny thing I have noticed – it isn’t necessarily easier to give when one has a lot.
Thank you for your commitment to make the world a better place. I can’t imagine what the problems of the world would look like without all the efforts of these charities. Yet it is still so bad, so polluted and full of strife. Let’s add our collective prayers to these efforts. And yes, more emphasis on the environment, the land air and water in which we exist.
10% giving, all the time, over time. It is moving to me that you are doing this. Thank you for setting the bar!
Inspiring! Thank you for setting an example of giving. 10% I am moved.
Congrats on over-accomplishing your giving goals.
It is a real honor to lend a helping hand to those in need.
I appreciate your sharing NICABM’s giving for 2011.
Janet
Thanks Ruth for your humanity and reaching out to others. I too would like to see an environmental group on the list for next year…Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, National Council for Environmental Resources? I am with Annie on this one. Keep up the good work, Ruth
Toby
Thanks for your inspiration. I chuckled at very similar childhood experiences and am grateful for all they tought me. Like so many of those who responded to your blog, I am proud to be a part of the NICABM community because of the quality of its work and the generosity of its heart. May you receive a hundredfold.
Rita
I so wish that I was in a position financially to make charitable donations. I look forward to the day when I can do so freely. God bless those who can make a difference……in any way.
Thanks Ruth for your tireless efforts to inspire and connect. Your generosity of heart is truly a gift in itself. As the founder of a not-for-profit mindfulway meditation and retreat centre I can appreciate how important a generous heart is. We give to several of the organizations on your list and wish we could do more, however we are just starting out ourselves. I feel truly grateful to be part of your community and value the many programs you have.
Wanda
Congratulations! I suggest that you add Prevent Child Abuse America to your list. As the on-going effects of both physical and psychological trauma on lifetime psychological health is well known, it is an especially appropriate cause for you and the professionals you serve to support.
Bette Morris
Great goal and wonderfully inspiring.
Thank you for publishing this information. I’m inspired! Well done, well done! Like Ivan, I too, do not belong to facebook or twitter, so thank you for reaching out through e-mail. A very joyous season of the returning of the light for you and for all whom you reach.
Thank you for sharing your material wealth and service with knowledge to help make individuals, families, and the world a better place.
We must balance charity with social justice actions for real change. Everyone can begin in their local community, once they have learned how to address problems at home through the lens of love, peace, understanding, and fun. People need to connect with healthy joy by using their unique gifts and talents.
Once I have been linked with a Database System and Manager and a real webmaster, a Wellness Weavers system can help your town put unemployed and underemployed people to work while renovating and revitalizing it in healthy ways. It also will allow those with needs and wants to be linked with help.
We need to be the change, grow gardens, have all places who care for children be quality early childhood eco-healthy learning centers. We must share the wealth that is the gift of time and attention. The illusion of what many Wall Street companies and TV ads and programs try to make us believe is the good life is really what is destroying us!
I expect that Wellness Weavers will have 501(c)3 status by mid-March 2012 but in the meantime, if anyone who feels lead by God to share any small amount please know that it will all go to help me fully bloom the system here in Waterville, KS so it will be ready to bloom in your community.
P.O. Box 268, 66548
I have already paid for the pivotal Wellness Weavers building but do need to add a commercial grade kitchen and a couple of showers and be able to put in an ISPN there. I have already paid for the flight for the mission trip that I will make to Peru in February for community health with the Siempre Salud project and I am trying to finally finish my flying lessons…a 40 year process.) so don’t think that is what you are funding.
As Amelia Earhart said, “If it is not fun, then change it.”
Fun boosts the immune system and that will help to lower health care costs and reclaim your health.
Sister Sue says, “Whatever your pure-in-heart mission…do it for fun and with love and kindness!”
Blessed 362nd Day of Christmas 2011 and remember to cherish the daily gift…each subsequent “present”!
~Helen
The list of charities is endless it seems and during this Xmas season,I always struggle as to where to direct my donations after receiving an onslaught of mail requesting help. Glad to see that the good old Salvation Army was on your list. They are the great first responders. I am also glad that there are people like you Ruth who move beyond the strict boundaries of their profession espousing traditional values. I have very much enjoyed the offerings of NICABM and you are such a delightful leader.I have not had the courage to join facebook or twitter, so I hope you continue your communications through other outlets and keep me informed about future telecourses and other happenings.
Ruth, Congratulations! Your contributions to my Mind-Body professional development is appreciated. I was there for the closing knowing your heart feelings and being with you! Also I have enjoy the ebinar process of the past year and already signed at the Conference in HH for the one coming! There is a different style of learning but anyway you bring to us the best!
I admire you for your commitment and consistent devotion to the profession.
Best in your path
Rosa
Thank you for the encouragement to make gifting a standard part of our use of money. Your modeling is remarkable. Your choices are too. And your online educational webcasts are also generous offerings of your expertise and of those who share their important clinical/mindful perspectives. I am grateful to have stumbled across my connection with you.
Today’s news is so depressing about the spreading violence in the Middle East and elsewhere, that it would be natural to back off, and feel what’s the use, etc.This commitment to giving comes at the right time for us to recommit to caring for one another more then ever, and not let meaning and growth and compassion be diminished. To survive, we have to find and create meaning, as Frankyl discovered in observing what life in a concentration camp was about. “Those who could discover or create meaning, even if it was to share a piece of bread, had a chance of survival. Those who couldn’t find any meaning had no chance.” Here’s to committing our minds, hearts, money and other resources to our own healing and the healing of others.
i can offer my TIME and SERVICES! I am 81 yrs. YOUNG last Nov. 22.REMY
Pastors for Peace is an organization that brings tools and medical supplies to Cuba. I would like to see a donation go there. It would certainly be helpful AND a gesture of good will. Happy Holidays!
Please find a good and worthy organization that supports the preservation of animals and the environment. Thank you. A Happy New Year to all
Congrats ! Both for the cutting edge work effectively utilizing technology in a welcoming, inviting manner and for the outreach, wide distribution and compassionate presentation of critically important information moving us forward into an awakening consciousness. I am so pleased to see this post, setting a standard for individual and collective responsibility for financial abundance given generously and with intention ! Yes, I say, yes !!!! and thank you.
Namaste,
Karen Lemieux, LCSW, RMT
Ruth,
Congratulations to you and your staff for the educational and life-changing work that you do and extend to others. I appreciate being, in a small way, part of the NICABM community through eduational offerings and community service programs.
There are so many ways to support others in need and it seems to me that you’ve done an amazing job at reaching a diversity of folks; unfortunately, it is never enough but always significant at any amount and any gesture!
Looking forward to future ways of learning and giving….
What a dynamite post!! As children in my family, we were taught that we are our brother’s keeper; that to whom much is given, there is much expected. Accolades to you who not only keeps “giving” in so many ways – professionally to us all, personally and financially but who has expressed your philosphy and rationale in such a clear, succinct and meaningful way. Many thanks for your persistent sharing.
Lois Ernst
Thank you Ruth. There are 12,000 children in my state who have a parent in gaol. These children are ridiculed at school, traumatized at home [if they have a home] and have no opportunity to recover sufficiently before it is their turn to earn a living. It is no wonder that they end up in gaol themselves. In the Bay area of San Francisco, a middle aged maried couple took a homeless couple into their home. The idea snowballed and now there is a wonderful charitable organization there. Here in Australia we have The Bridge of Hope, which includes newly released prisoners who have served their term and want to learn skills so they can re-enter society and not land in gaol again. The rate of recivicism is extremely high, so we feel we can make a difference, and help these people to help themselves. The Bridge of Hope is a charitable organization, founded by John Walsh, who has devoted his life to helping this unfortunate, unloved group of people who, after all, are human beings who, for whatever reason, committed a crime. Some have never had a home, others are there because of an injustice done to them. My interest is in education programs for these people, many of whom are illiterate, and also helping children to re-connect [bond] with their parent [mothers are not even allowed to cuddle their children on prison visits]. That really tears at my heart. What we need is a fresh approach – a renaissance. It will happen. The initial organizing is now underway. Funding will be handled by The Lord Mayor’s Charitable Fund. There are other charities keen to come under the umbrella of The Bridge of Hope, several of them focusing on children. All current charities in Australia are hard-pressed to keep up with the growing numbers of people in real need.
A powerful list.
Anything for the environment ? without which there is no animal world , plant world , without which there is no clean water, no food, no spiritual connection to the earth, no human health or happiness.
Any donations to a cause to limit human over-population. All the causes donated to are to assist the support of damaging issues that humans inflict upon other humans…..something wrong there …..is there not !…..
To many humans on the earth, with the earth’s capacity to provide for all flora and fauna, being pushed to its limits.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
I FEEL MORE COMPELLED TO GIVE MY TIME AND MY SERVICES.
BAD CRISIS IN ARGENTINA,FINANCIAL MOMENT IS VERY BAD,
EVEN THOUGH I HELP WITH SOME MONEY FOR THE POOR HERE AND IN OTHER COUNTRIES.
How did you get my email address? I haven’t signed up for anything???
The need all over the world is enormous and I am so glad to hear that NICAMB is giving so generously.
For my part I have given considerable service to Doctors Without Borders for the past 11 years and know that it is an organization that uses the received funds most responsible and they are generally the first to go into emergency areas, whether it is war or disaster. So I give money and time to them. However, this time I am just finishing my work in Kenya with the Centre for Victims of Torture (CVT) located in Minneapolis and they too do fantastic work with torture victims in several countries. NICAMB has also made considerable contributions in expanding my knowledge on trauma base which I was able to share with the local psychologists here who are working directly with trauma victims. Thanks very much for all your efforts.
Wishing you all a joyous holiday season.
Adrienne Carter