When I was in middle school, I started an Earth Club where my friends and I picked up litter from the local beaches. Soda cans, tampon applicators, random chunks of neon plastic—the sand was speckled with detritus from uncaring beach goers and dumpster runoff that washed onshore with the morning tides.
I hosted Earth Club for about a year before my inspiration gave out. As much as I cared about saving the planet, I lost steam for showing up to the nitty gritty. Once the tee-shirts were made, the flyers distributed, and multiple events organized and attended, all that remained was the long slog of repetitive grunt work that quickly lost standing against reading assignments, play dates, and softball tournaments.
I never stopped caring about the health of the planet. Twenty-five years later, I still weep with gratitude when I’m walking alone in the woods. Standing inside a cathedral of trees, I find myself closer to God. Sitting beside the unfurling ocean, I soften and heal from the inside out.
Needless to say, the progression of climate change strikes me like an axe. Every newsletter from the Nature Conservancy, every text message from the NRDC, every breathtakingly beautiful documentary splits the tenderest parts of my heart.
But way back in middle school, I got real with myself. My attention and energy were simply not wired to pick trash off the beach for the rest of my life. As I pondered career options back in college, I realized again that my skills, interests, and gifts would not be used to the fullest at an environmental non-profit.
Instead, I vowed to make a lot of money doing my true work in the world so I could help fund the people and organizations using THEIR gifts to do the work our world so desperately needs.
The best thing I ever did for my financials in business (beyond a) paying myself a salary before I felt ready, and b) raising my rates to match my commitment, experience and results as a service provider) was set aside a percentage of my cash flow each month specifically to donate to the causes I care about.
Now, as my business grows, my contributions do, too. This simple system promotes a cycle of positive growth, where I leverage my value as a service provider to serve the world in alignment with my values.
My wish for you, and for all of my clients, and every big-hearted, freedom-seeking, humanitarian-minded person I connect with, is that you give yourself permission to use your genius to shift the flow of wealth and power in our world.
I want you to appreciate and amplify the value of your ideas and your work, so you can live your purpose and multiply joy just by walking into a room.
AND I want you to make a bunch of money so you can give it away to those fighting on the ground for justice, democracy, critical thinking, love, science, compassion, and all good things in life.
Stewarding the flow of your wealth to protect the values you care about goes WAY beyond a balance sheet. But if you haven’t already set aside recurring funds for donation, start there.
It’s a simple practice, and listen, if the Church could convince millions of starving folks to tithe, you can choose to do the same. No fear of hellfire or eternal damnation required—just a commitment to leaving this planet and its people better than you found them.
So go ahead, do it if you haven’t already. No matter how small an amount you start with. Every dollar counts, and each cent we’re entrusted with is a privilege and signal of power. Use yours to make the difference you want to make, starting right now. Today.
I’ve been watching the unfolding horror of Russia’s power grab and feeling visceral anger, grief, and hope for Ukraine every day for a while now. I look at my 9-month-old baby and think, “What if we were refugees? What if I was living in mortal terror and attempting to shield him right now, using my body and fractured being, from the deep fear and daily threat of death?”
My inner critic wants to convince me that I am impotent, lazy, over-privileged, and far too sensitive to do anything except feel terrible about what’s going on. (As if this crisis is the only one. As if this current of injustice is solitary. As if this pain, this unfairness, this wave of suffering is a unique surge in an otherwise hunky-dory world.)
Maybe your inner critic is doing something similar — telling you you will never do enough, be enough, care enough to make a difference. And that voice is paralyzing you into inaction.
Fuck. That.
As much I as believe in the power of prayer to buoy our spirits and strengthen our journeys, the Ukrainian people who are fighting for sovereignty need way more than love and light. This is a GREAT time to leverage your wealth and resources and give back from the overflow.
If you’re looking for a place to put your money to work, consider one of the following:
- https://www.goodto.com/family/family-news/where-donate-to-ukraine-charities-652707
- https://togetherrising.org/give/
- https://www.gofundme.com/f/keep-ukraines-media-going
As we continue to move through this unfolding chapter of bravery and heroic action, please do take good care of yourself.
Make space to cry, to rage, to feel your feelings, to let the collective pain and limbic fears move through you.
Give yourself breathing room to recharge your batteries and build extra buffer to guard your energy and enthusiasm.
Let your outrage and upset be a passing reminder to go bigger, be bolder, in alignment with your truth and love.
Keep doing the work that is yours to do, and wield your influence and wealth like the transformative, transgressive, transmutative power it truly is.
