Non-profit of the month: November 2006 - World Vision and The ONE Campaign

Have you heard of the One Campaign?

I know relativley little about it except that Bono and a number of notible people from both the right and left of the political spectrum are supporting it.

The idea is to encourage the US government to increase aid to the poor by 1%.

I recently was browsing on Mark D. Robert's blog and saw on his previous topics list his thoughts on the ONE campaign.

From his concluding remarks he wrote this:

I believe the ONE Campaign offers a chance for millions of Americans to get personally involved in the war on poverty, right now. We don't have to wait for Congress to act. We can start today to make a difference. In fact, we can help save lives today. And we can do so by participating in the EIGHTY Campaign.

Haven't heard of this Campaign? No surprise, since I just made it up. Let me explain what it is.

Using very rough figures, if the ONE Campaign succeeds, and if the federal government votes to dedicate an additional one percent of its budget for poverty relief, then this works out to about $80 per year, per American, in additional taxes. So, every supporter of the ONE Campaign believes that the federal government should raise his or her taxes by an average of $80 per year to fund the war on poverty. This means, or at least it should mean, that every supporter of the ONE Campaign is willing to give $80 per year (at least) for this effort. (In reality, of course, wealthier supporters of the Campaign would give much more, while less wealthy supporters would give less.)

So, here's the core proposal of the EIGHTY Campaign:

Every person who supports the ONE Campaign should freely give eighty additional dollars per year to help overcome poverty. This should start right now, and should continue until the legal strategy of the ONE Campaign prevails.

Of course if the federal government never goes along with the one percent idea, then the ONE Campaign would, nevertheless, have raised huge amounts of money for poverty relief.

In his sermon at the National Prayer Breakfast Bono mentioned having two million signers of the ONE Declaration, with five million by November. If two million people were to give $80 each, that adds up to $160 million dollars in 2006 alone. If five million were to give $80 in 2006, that's roughly $400 million. Now that wouldn't end global poverty, but it sure would make a big difference. And this difference could happen right now, without getting any government involved.

Personal involvement in the EIGHTY Campaign would also strengthen the resolve and the credibility of the ONE Campaign supporters. Let's face it, it's not hard to wear a white wristband, especially when somebody cool like Bono asks you to do it. It takes a bit more commitment to give away $80. After all, that might be the cost of a pair of jeans, or eighty songs downloaded from the I-Tunes Store, or one night out at a nice restaurant. I'm sure many of those who wear ONE Campaign wristbands are students who would claim not to have an extra $80. But I wouldn't be surprised if those same students spend that much each month on lattes from Starbucks.

I'm going to click over to World Vision right now to donate and I encourage all my readers to do the same.

World Vision has a long history of being on the ground doing the work in the field. Occasionally, when a major disaster hits, they get some television coverage but they keep working faithfully even when the spotlight of publicity is off.

UPDATE: I donated specifically to World Vision's project to help provide safe drinking water in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are many other projects that will make a difference. Click around the web site and see what moves you to give.