Robert Egger´s Piece of Mind

Last September, when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Citizen’s United vs. the FEC, I wrote a blog (A New Era of Political Equity) articulating what I felt would be the ramifications for nonprofits should the court decide that corporations have First Amendment, free speech rights akin to those of the individual.

Yesterday’s decision, which “rejects limits of corporate spending on political campaigns” now insures that virtually everybody in America, along with corporations and unions, has the right to overtly advocate for, or against, a candidate or incumbent…except for America’s 1.4 million nonprofit organizations/businesses. We alone must remain silent.

Each of us must now consider this reality. In a year in which 36 states will elect new governor’s, and countless cities will elect mayors, we who feed the poor, shelter homeless vets, nurture the elderly, sustain the arts, protect the environment, care for the sick, educate children, etc…must sit on the sidelines and bear silent witness to a process that relies on our work, yet excludes our voice.

There’s a word for this….”wrong”.

And while I for one will work tirelessly to challenge this dynamic, none of us can, or should, loose sight of the fact that we do have power. There are 100 million people who work at, or volunteer with, any number of America’s dynamic nonprofit organizations. Our votes have currency.

We must recognize that we and we alone, are the ONLY force that can provide a counter-balance to powers that would emphasize dividends over citizens.

We must realize that this can ONLY be achieved when set aside historic, understandable, yet detrimental divisions, and finally and firmly stand together. Only from that vantage point will we be able to ask, and insure, that each candidate provides derailed plans for how they would use EVERY asset in the community to achieve their vision for a city, a state or our country.

It could take time, to be sure, to evolve from the cacophony of causes that now mutes our shared potential….but we don’t have the luxury of time.  That is why I, for one, am ready to join my voice with yours, and yours, and yours and yours….and I am ready to do it today, so that, regardless of how much money one group spends in a campaign—the community we share will come first.

To that end, I ask you to join me…and all the others who have already signed up for the V3 Campaign, so that the Voice, Value and Votes of the nonprofit sector is heard–legally, and loud and clear–in every election.

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In my ongoing dialogue with DCCK’s “under 30” employees, as well as the ones I have with the countless students or young leaders I meet on my journeys, I am asked, more often than almost anything else, for the secrets of making real change happen.

Last year, I wrote a blog about Unplugging (as in, from your IPod’s) so that you can really hear your community. I’m a 100% believer that you cannot be part of changing the world or your community if you don’t know your town, and that means living in it full-fuckin-tilt. Seriously–everyday, from dusk till dawn. And that means being able, or learning to hear the cadence of your community and grooving to the beat of its streets….literally.

Well…as we enter 2010, here’s another tip I use to make bold things happen.

I’m a connector. I’ve trained my eyes to see connections other might miss. The Kitchen is a good example of that. It seems obvious now, but back in the day…when I tried to get folks to understand my vision of connecting food from restaurants with poor people to get them fed AND employed…well, let’s just say that I got a lot of “WTF” stares.

I learned from that experience. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to stay one jump ahead of the curve by building on this lesson.  So now, I not only listen to my community, I eyeball it—hard—almost everyday. I walk and watch, listen and learn. I look for loose threads of similar fiber. Then I piece these seemingly random things together to get to a spot where we can launch a new program–a program that works, but that can also be used to get a new dialogue going. NOT about the program we launched (that just happens automatically when it’s badass) but about the issue the program seeks to remedy (hint–you can do both. Badass programs do it all the time) 

Campus Kitchens is an example of that. There are 60,000 school based kitchens out there. Just about every kid needs community service hours to graduate—BUT, more often than not, they have to LEAVE school to get those hours. I just made the connection, suggested that it might be smarter to bring the nonprofit to the volunteers versus the older, established model, and BOOM….there are now 20 of them across the country (collectively, they just delivered their 1,000,000th meal) and more are opening this year. What’s cool about it is that it opens lots of doors about the idea of existing community resources—just used differently (and, to quote AC/DC…”dirt cheap”). It also shows what Gen Next students can achieve if 1) you give them the keys to the car (Campus Kitchens are 100% student run) and 2) empower them to drive in the direction THEY think it needs to go.

My larger point. There are TONS of things that have not been linked together, that should. Creating something new out of old shit is what ever generation usually does to redefine the world. Never forget, man…..uranium was just a rock, until they split the atom. Oil was just black, sticky stuff until they invented the engine. And the guitar was just another instrument in the band until Les Paul plugged it IN. It’s the folks that put things that exist together to create something new that rock the world.

So….here are two examples of things I think can be put together. BOTH are bold. BOTH can be done. BOTH need to be done. Ready….

1. Seniors and Sustainable Food–As we talk, there’s a waiting list for Meals on Wheels in over 50% of America’s cities….and there are 80 million “baby boomers” beginning to grow old. In fact….12,000 people a day turn 60 in America…and we don’t have a plan. Right now, the Federal Government allocates $5.00 per meal for a senior and, understandably, demands a certain nutritional content for each meal for it to be eligible for re-imbursement. Now the nutritional content part was devised by the USDA, with heavy influence by food lobbyists, so each meal must include, for example, milk. Many local programs buy meals that are prepackaged to meet these requirments, as well as for convenience and storage. Many of these meals are shipped interstate. Few are made from scratch. But think about it….are these the kinds of meal that will 1) be palatable to a new generation of seniors? 2) keep them healthy? 3) and/or support the local economy?  They will if we make the connection between small farmers, locally grown food and seniors. Can you imagine the potential? Think of how many farms we could support if we directed that $5.00 per meal into the local economy, versus into big businesses (no disrespect to business…I’m just more interested in small town economics). Imagine if we also made students part of that equation. Students + seniors + sustainable food = seriously cool business. We’re talking inter-generational after school programs. We’re talking healthy meals-to-go for working families when they pick up Pop or the kids. We’re talking farm to cafeteria…but using the cafeteria as a community hub. That’s the next step for Campus Kitchens…or your program. But we need to make it national….and we need to do it in a hurry.  

2. Speaking of national, there are two FAT pots of federal money out there right now. One is for “green jobs”. Now a big mess of that cash is for home renovation…..“Cash for Caulkers” as President Obama announced a few weeks back. This means storm windows, solar panels or other improvements that make a home more fuel efficient. Cool. But there’s another pot of money, in a separate federal department, for “Aging in Place”. Remember the 80 million boomers I mentioned earlier? Well…they aren’t enough retirement homes for all of them, or hospitals for that matter. It’s a HUGE priority that as m-a-n-y folks as possible live at home as l-o-n-g as possible. To do that, they will need their bathrooms retrofitted, and simple things like electric outlets moved up from the near the floor (the “hip-breaker zone”) to waist-high level. Now imagine if we merged those pots of cash? Can you imagine the businesses that could be launched that would train young people or those who lost their jobs to meet this immense need? More important—a smart nonprofit could train AND employ—that’s called social enterprise. And social enterprise’s continually re-invests their profits back into the community, which is THE business model of the future.

And that’s why I launched the V3 Campaign two years ago—to make the connection between nonprofits and local elections, so we elect a new generation of leaders who see these connections, who understand the stakes and who help break down dumbo barriers. I’d like to see folks step up who are BORED by the divide between .com and .org….and who, most importantly, realize that FUNDING these kind of efforts (ie: providing access to capital to nonprofits versus making them jump through hoops to get grants) is smart business for any town…and for this country.

SO…that’s my advice for today. Make the connections others don’t see. LOOK for them–hard. Your community is a puzzle, waiting for you to help solve it. And in some communities, the pieces are green and gray as well as gold.

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