Articles from our E-Update

Despite economic uncertainty, a new generation of donors is moving into place -- an energetic and highly creative crowd that eventually could reshape philanthropy. Find out how Gen-Xers are putting their own spin on charitable giving, combining their desire to achieve with their desire to do good.

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Whether you're a seasoned grantmaker or new to the role, you can benefit from the resources found at GrantCraft.org. This website offers insight into the tools and skills grantmakers need to be effective. From guidebooks and case studies to videos and workshops, the site offers a host of helpful resources. In addition, their online discussion groups allow for networking with seasoned grantmakers as well as mentoring for those with less experience.

Click here to visit GrantCraft.org

A new report generated by Washington, D.C. economists Robert Shapiro and Aparno Mathur contends that every dollar invested by private and community foundations generates more than eight times that amount in economic and social benefits. Many are hoping that Congress will consider the facts of this report before it makes decision about where to raise tax dollars in coming months.

Click here to download a pdf of the full report: The Social and Economic Value of Private and Community Foundations

Related editorial: Let foundations go forth, multiply and prosper, Dallas Morning News

Craig Gross, founder of XXXchurch.com, is now taking the message of Jesus to the heart of "sin city" with a church that plans to show up where lost people hang out: The Las Vegas Strip. Watch Craig and his wife, Jeanette, explain their passion and reasons for relocating their young family to Las Vegas in this ABC News interview.

Click here to watch interview

Click here to download Winter '08 Gathering Newsletter featuring Craig Gross

Reflections on Haiti

Sometimes you are drawn to a place and other times you are pushed from behind. That is how I felt about our trip to Haiti. I didn't want to go there as much as I needed to go. I have had friends for years who have asked me to go and I've always put it off because of what I've heard about the poverty, filth, discouragement, hopelessness and despair. For whatever reason, this was the right time to go....and taking friends along made it one of the hardest but one of the best trips we've done.

First, the poverty is stunning. The border area between the Dominican Republic and Haiti says it all. On the DR side are houses, trees, paved roads, stores and laughter. Fifteen feet away is a stark and colorless landscape with no sign of being in the same geography - much less the same island. I felt I had been transported from Latin America to Sudan. As we waited to cross the border, I read over the material we had in our packets provided by HOPE International, our hosts. While we were only fifty miles from Cuba and 100 miles from the US, we were in a country that had a literacy rate of only 20% and an average life expectancy of just 47 years. There were 9.6 million people (70% living in rural areas) with the average annual income of $500. The unemployment rate is 66% and 50% of the wealth of the entire country is held by 1% of the population who live in guarded and isolated compounds. We think credit is scarce. The average commercial bank lending rate is 47%.

Half the population is age 14 or younger. The average mother gives birth to five children. While 80% of the population are professing Christians, half the population practices voodoo. Infrastructure was non-existent. We never saw a policeman but UN troops were scattered around. There is no military in Haiti. There are powerful gangs in the cities. A full 50% of the men are armed either with machetes, guns or knives. I asked a person in an isolated village what they did about criminals and they just shrugged and said, "They disappear". That was clear.

The people are isolated and not mobile. They are divided into small villages and easily controlled by a massively corrupt and ineffective government. In fact, Haiti is considered the most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International based in Berlin. I guess it's good to be the best at something. Many Hatians live their entire lives in one place. They are not connected by roads (300 miles of paved road in the country) or railroads (50 miles of track) and are informed by powerful radio stations. It reminded me of the power of radio in controlling the people in Rwanda during the genocide. I forget how connected, informed, and mobile we are until you see the effects of years of degraded systems.

It's particularly sad because of the both rich and devastating history of the country. Christopher Columbus landed here in 1492 and the Santa Maria was stranded and then used to build a fort for the Spanish. After the discovery of gold the natives were exploited as slaves. Only 1% of the native population survived the Spanish. As a result, they brought in slaves from Africa to work the mines. These slaves remained after the Spanish left. At the time of the revolution against the French (who had replaced the Spanish) there were eight slaves for every European. It was the first independent country in this hemisphere, whose independence was achieved by extraordinary leadership that defeated the French army in 1804. Yet, over the next 100 years there were 32 different tyrants who ruled Haiti. The United States basically occupied the country from 1915-1934 until Papa Doc Duvalier became President from 1957-1971. Those years were marked by violence, torture, bribery and a transition to a country totally dependent on outside aid. In fact, even today over 50% of the entire national budget is from outside aid. Followed by his son, Baby Doc Duvalier, conditions grew even worse until Jean-Bertrande Aristede was elected in 1991. Deposed, exiled and then restored to power, Aristede was deposed a second time in 2004 and taken to Africa.

On the other hand, all of us making the trip were amazed at the courage, persistence, ingenuity, fortitude and commitment of the people we met doing ministry in Haiti. Both Haitians and Americans there are among the most resourceful and sacrificial people I have ever met. The odds are impossible and yet, they press on. We visited Young Life, Esperanza (microloans), Floresta (consulting and aid to agricultural workers), Konbit Sante (a hospital partnership), Haiti Outreach (education and well drilling), Meds & Food for Kids (an innovative nutritional supplement for children), Sante Max Clinic (a "private clinic") and Danita's Children (school and residential ministry for orphans).

We had a long bus ride one night and got into a "vigorous" discussion about what our responsibility was as donors and Christians. I later told a group that discussion fit under four C's for me: There were those who felt a compulsion to fix the problem immediately. There was an inclination toward the corruption of emotion, or as one of us put it, "I bring my own frustrations, anger, confusion, doubt, guilt and sin to the poor and expect them to bless me, to drill down and bring up something clean and pure in me. I want to use them and then go home before they discover the well is for me, not them." Third, we talked about the codependence of empathy instead of the compassion of love. As Paul says in Corinthians, "No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love." It would be so much easier to simply give without the hard work of love. Finally, we discovered the opportunity of competence. Ray and Joan Conn working with the restavecs in Port Au Prince; John Getsch working with Haiti Outreach. These are people who have world class skills, connections and creativity and they are committing the balance of their lives to this country. What they bring to the table is priceless in a country overrun with incompetence, malaise, cynicism and pernicious hopelessness. As we left, we had not resolved the conflict but there is no better place in the world to wrestle with it. What is our responsibility for people who have none of their own and have been taught to be dependent on the outside world? They are wards of the world. They have no discernible assets. A full 73% of their exports go to one country - the US. What if the world turned off the tap? What do you do when there are no easy solutions?

Ironically, one of our group who was vocal on the very first day about never coming back is going back in January. Who knows what God will do through that? Is it bleak? Yes. Is it virtually impossible odds? Yes. However, in the midst of that darkness there are people working, some of them Gathering people, who are convinced this is where God wants them to be. I could not disagree with them.

Click here to view Fred's pictures from Haiti

Click here to read an interview with Gathering participants Ray and Joan Conn regarding their work to end child slavery in Haiti

Why should we try to do good...out there in the world when in fact all the hope that our society has lived on seems to be imploding all around us? That was the question recently posed by Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright, a top Biblical scholar, as he spoke to students and faculty at Harvard University. Read Wright's thoughts on the Christian's responsibility to help create a "world put to rights."

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