Occupy…Give to the Max

Posted by Liz on Nov 7, 2011 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program…

“All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!’ So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'”

Do you recall this famous monologue from the 1976 film, Network? In it, Actor Peter Finch, playing a news anchor about to lose his job, takes the airways and actually spikes the ratings responsible for the pending demise of his job.

This scene reminds of the ‘Occupy’ movement that has taken hold of our country to protest social and economic inequity, corporate greed and corruption in government. However, one of the paradigms operating in our culture is that many of the very organizations formed to help individuals in need and lend assistance to people who have lost their jobs or their homes or their livelihoods are in higher demand than ever. And yet, their coffers are emptying quicker than they can be filled.

That’s why  I’m calling for an ‘Occupy’ to reverse the backlash that has turned it into a four-letter word and reframe it positively.

The path? Give to the Max.

Back in early October, I wrote about Give to the Max Day, a one-day regional online fundraiser to support local nonprofit programs in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Developed and supported by an ‘Eight Neighbors Group’ alliance of the area’s leading nonprofit and civic organizations (Center for Nonprofit Advancement, Greater Washington Board of Trade, Leadership Greater Washington, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington and the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers) who have joined forces with the online fundraiser Razoo, The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region and the United Way of the National Capital Area, Give to the Max aims to help local organizations fill their coffers through social giving. And this effort, while certainly focusing on the immediate area in which I reside, is truly an offshoot of Occupy in the sense that it provides an example of how individuals can take back their power and and heal communities that are suffering because of economically-driven cutbacks. Even better? This isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ event that focuses on a single type of assistance; in fact, more than 100 nonprofits have joined the movement thus far, proving that giving doesn’t have to be strangled but can be as small and large as one can afford, and focused on causes that individuals are most passionate about.

In the United States, the Occupy movement started in the Wall Street area, the quintessential birthplace of capitalism and greed. It has since spread like wildfire, with events held in Boston, D.C., Oakland, L.A., Pittsburgh and St. Augustine. This coming Wednesday, November 9, we have an opportunity to leverage Give to the Max, focus attention away from greed to toward charitable giving and occupy the interwebz without even leaving the comfort of desks. Truly, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves if we’re mad as hell at cutbacks that many of these organizations (or organizations in your region) have been forced to make to stay afloat? On November 9, why not boot up the computer and make your voice (and donation) count?

Occupy Give to the Max? Sure, why not? Occupy does not have to bet a four-letter word and neither should giving. And it starts with you. And me. And we.

Let’s occupy the Interwebz and Give to the Max on November 9. I hear that it spreads…like wildfire.

p.s. Pass it on…