To be up-front, this is to inspire my income-earning friends, family members, and whoever else may read this to give (or continue to give) money to charity, specifically to those that help the poor. For those that don’t currently give and aren’t overly inclined to start, like myself, I’ll suggest an initial commitment of $10 or $20 per month. I’ll start with $20, which can easily be accounted for in any number of different ways. For example, you could just have water, instead of dinner and drinks, when out with friends one night a month. I don’t think this should sound all that unappealing when you consider that (1) approximately 1,000,000,000 (one billion) people suffer from malnutrition (see http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm), including 40%+ of children in countries such as India, and (2) that approximately 70% of American adults are overweight (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm). Other benefits of giving would be developing discipline, generating curiosity among your friends, and possibly motivating them to start giving themselves. Anyhow, here we go.

Although I’m a Christian, I want this piece to have, at most, an indistinctly Christian ring to it, but I’m nevertheless going to start with a Bible verse. (If you’re not a Christian, don’t be put off, just appreciate the verse for its universal wisdom, like a number of esteemed non-Christians and even atheists do with the Bible as a whole). 1 Corinthians 4:7 provides, “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” To me, this verse points out that our assets—physical health, material possessions, intellectual gifts—were all received by us in large part. Sure, some people have developed them more than others, but I believe the desire and faculty to develop physically, economically, and intellectually have been received by us in large part, too. In fact, many scientists and philosophers believe that our free will isn’t as free as a lot of us think it is.

Despite this, a lot of us, including myself, are prideful, or inwardly “boastful” to use the verse’s term. I’m a fairly well-off, decent-looking, smart, athletic, well-built American attorney (not that I’m flawless; I’m certainly not), but I could have just as easily been a poor, unschooled, unathletic, malnourished, HIV-infested third-world beggar. When you consider the following stats, the latter was probably more likely: Of the approximate seven billion people in the world, the average income among adults is equivalent to a mere $18,000 per year (this includes inflation and cost of living factors; see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17512040 ). And more than a third of the world’s population lives on less than $2 per day. That’s less than $750 per year, which is what a lot of us make within just a few days. Let me repeat this: over two billion people make less than $750 per year! And most probably have very little say in the matter. They could maximize their talents, resources, and connections, and yet never rise out of this pathetic income bracket, that is, unless people like me and you do something about it.

So, even those who earn, say, $25,000–$30,000 per year as an administrative assistant or school teacher are rich, at least in comparison to a good chunk of the world. But our fellow men and women, one of whom we easily could have been through no fault of our own, are mostly poor, struggling with poverty, disease, and hopelessness. Let’s give them some help. But it is not only they who will benefit from our help. For “happiness doesn’t come from what we get but what we give.” (Neurosurgeon Ben Carson). And while “we make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” (Winston Churchill).

Even for a mere $10 or $20 per month, we can dramatically alter the course of several persons’ lives, people who will forever be grateful and also infinitely more likely to lead productive, beneficial lives—people who we could have very well been. $10 or $20 per month! That’s just 2–3 drinks at the bar or 3–4 lattes at the coffee shop. It’s a haircut once every six weeks instead of every three. It’s one less grocery item every time we shop. In other words, $10–$20 is practically nothing, even for those of us with a lot of school debt or bills to pay. And for those of us who are now opposed to giving up a small luxury or indulgence, you don’t have to—just save a little less money. As C.S. Lewis said, “nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours,” anyway.

Some of us would be happy to give, but don’t know where to start. As some of you know, I’ve been in Africa during the last several weeks, over which time I’ve been fortunate to have been exposed to a number of different African charities and missions groups. I’m going to list a handful of them tomorrow along with a brief overview of their outreach. Africa is a great place to send your money as, get this, 47% of its close to one billion sub-Saharan population lived on $1.25 per day or less as of 2008 (see http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/africa_hunger_facts.htm). That cute little guy in the picture below (my man, Huntingtu, whose mother I know earns 100 Kenyan shillings or approximately $1.25 per day) is probably on pace to be one of them—to lead a life of abject poverty, despair, and hopelessness. Give him a little something, even just $10 or $20 per month, and make a difference.

Alright, this concludes my message. Feel free to comment or ask me any questions. For every person who I discover will start giving $10 per month or more to a charity geared towards the poor, even the poor in the U.S., I will increase my monthly giving by $1.

Actually, on second thought, I’ll conclude with a quote by renowned atheist, mathematician, and author (my Dad’s favorite), Bertrand Russell. I think at first glance it’s a little too philosophical or scholarly for most of us Gen X or Yers, but, if you stick with it, I think you’ll find it moving, especially the second half of it.

United with his fellow-men by the strongest of ties, the tie of a common doom, the free man finds a new vision with him always, shedding over every daily task the light of love. The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible forces, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instill faith in hours of despair. Let us not weigh in grudging scales their merits and demerits, but let us think only of their need — of the sorrows, the difficulties, perhaps the blindnesses, that make the misery of their lives; let us remember that they are fellow-sufferers in the same darkness, actors in the same tragedy with ourselves. And so, when their day is over, when their good and their evil have become eternal by the immortality of the past, be it ours to feel that, where they suffered, where they failed, no deed of ours was the cause; but wherever a spark of the divine fire kindled in their hearts, we were ready with encouragement, with sympathy, with brave words in which high courage glowed.

$10+ per month. Do it.