Kids on Computers is planning a trip to the Huajuapan de Leon, Mexico area in June. If you can, please join us! If you can’t, please consider donating to help the labs we’ll be working on. Most of us will be going down for a week or so. There are travel stipends available for those […]
Use your vacation to do good in exotic locations Read More »
As many of you know I’m fascinated not only with how the open source software model works but how companies are unintentionally influencing the model by injecting money. I’ve shared my research and thoughts in my “Would you do it again for free?” talk. So when I saw Volunteer staff are surprisingly committed, I was
Are volunteers more dedicated than paid staff? Read More »
Bill Gates’ graduation speech at Harvard is well worth reading. He uses it as a call to arms. As his mother said, "From those to whom much is given, much is expected." We all need to work on the world’s inequalities. In his opinion the biggest obstacle to giving is complexity, "To turn caring into
Bill Gates’ thoughts on why we don’t give more to charity: we don’t know what to do Read More »
Yesterday I wrote about how one of the reasons people don’t give more to charities is because they don’t know the people personally. I think another very real reason is that it’s hard to give aid to people whose values don’t match yours. I know people that could very much use some help – or
Why don’t people give more to charities? Part II: Values Read More »
This quote from Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, really hit home for me. The obstacle is that poverty is often not personal. If your next-door neighbor’s child was dying and you could save her for $100, you wouldn’t think twice. But a child 10,000 miles away whom you have never met, that’s just different.
Why don’t people give more to charities? Read More »
My cousin Kelsi is in the Peace Corps and people have been giving her a hard time that she’s got it easy. She’s really been enjoying the Domican Republic and writing some great stories about the country and the people there. Having been in third world countries and a lot of Carribean countries, I don’t
Is life too easy in the Peace Corps? Read More »
I just discovered that "three of the four greatest American philanthropists have been atheists or agnostics" thanks to the New York Times. They are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Andrew Carnegie. John D. Rockefeller is the fourth and he’s the exception. This struck me for two reasons. One, I have Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion
Atheists, agnostics & charity Read More »