Hello,
I work for an organization, the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market (www.folkartmarket.org). Through our work, we provide artisans from across the globe (for 2009- 165 artists from 47 countries) the opportunity to come to the U.S. and sell high quality folk art over a weekend (this year on July 11 &12).
Last year, booth sales averaged $16,300. Artists take home 90% of their earnings-- these earnings go directly to families and cooperatives working to improve the quality of life in their communities and as a reinvestment in their growing business enterprises. This experience is empowering for them and helps to build self-sufficient lifestyles.
If you are looking for a cause where your donation will provide direct support to a first-time artist to participate in this international Market-- this is it. Many have never left their villages and would not have an opportunity like this otherwise. Past experience indicates that that there will be great social returns on your investment in that artist.
You may learn more and make a secure on line gift at http://www.folkartmarket.org/index.php/support/C129/.
Thank you for your concern!
Best,
Laura Sullivan, Development Director
Santa Fe International Folk Art Market
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The Science Behind Our Generosity
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"Futility thinking" also plays a role. Giving money to help the poor is, we say, just drops in the ocean. We focus on those we cannot save rather than on those we can. People will give more to save 80 percent of 100 lives at risk than they will to save 20 percent of 1,000 lives at risk—in other words, more to save 80 lives rather than to save 200 lives.
Subtle shifts could help to overcome our psychological barriers to giving. Just as seeing other bystanders not helping makes us less likely to help, so knowing that others are giving makes us more likely to give. Jesus may have advised us to do our almsgiving in secret so that God will reward us in heaven, but if the aim is to get as much assistance to the poor as possible, that isn't sound psychology. The more people talk about what they give, the more we can expect others to give or even pledge it online (for example, at thelifeyoucansave.com).
In "The Life You Can Save,"I suggest levels of donation that Americans could reasonably give, without any great sacrifices. They begin at 1 percent of income for 90 percent of American taxpayers, rising to 5 percent for those earning above $105,000 a year, and gradually increasing until they peak at 33.3 percent for those earning more than $10 million a year. That would raise more than $500 billion a year—more than double a U.N. estimate of what it would take to cut world poverty in half.
Some will still ask why we should give at all. Don't we have a right to keep our hard-earned money? Maybe we do. This isn't a matter of rights, it's a matter of making choices that are wise for our planet, for our children and for ourselves. On the last of these, I will cite one more piece of psychological research. There is now abundant evidence supporting what philosophers and teachers have told us since ancient times: the good person is also—typically—a happy person. A survey of 30,000 American households found that those who gave to charity were 43 percent more likely to say they were "very happy" about their lives than those who did not give. The survey doesn't show whether giving made people happy, or happy people were more likely to give, but the anecdotal evidence is strong that many people find that when they begin to give, they free themselves from the acquisitive treadmill and find new meaning and fulfillment in their lives.
Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp professor of bioethics at Princeton University. This piece is adapted from his new book, “The Life You Can Save,” published by Random House.
© 2009
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