loading...
Canwest News Service
VANCOUVER – There are guerrillas sneaking about Vancouver, leaving mysterious parcels for unsuspecting strangers.
It’s the work of a Vancouver family experimenting in what it calls “(r)evolutionary philanthropy” – giving 10 per cent of their modest gross annual income away in tiny parcels stashed about the city.
“It’s strange how it almost feels criminal to be giving out money,” says the man behind the guerrilla gifts. “We don’t want people seeing us planting these gifts.”
The family of four, who live on a modest income, have been gifting money and goods to random strangers since the beginning of the school year.
Anonymity is crucial to the social experiment so not even their family and friends know about their modern-day tithing.
The family patriarch “John” came up with the idea as his yearlong stint as a stay-at-home dad came to a close this summer. Ruminating over whether to jump back into his career trajectory, John decided he would do what brought him the most joy – giving.
Since then, almost every day, money-filled envelopes and pouches are placed in the oddest of places – fountains, bus stops, telephone booths, crosswalks, bicycles, any place that appeals to the family’s values.
Photos are taken of each location and posted alongside a blurb on their blog guerrillagiving.org describing why they were inspired to give that day.
There are no strings attached to the gifts – the recipients are free to spend it, save it or pay it forward. The idea, the family says, is that the right person will receive the gifts at the time and for the right reason.
“The challenge is to trust that our needs will be meet. . . and trust the universe will find the person who needs this,” says matriarch “Jane.”
They also hope the parcels will generate discussion about giving.
“We hope we could inspire others that we can all be philanthropists regardless of our income,” John said.
Everyone in the family is in on the tithing: they carry journals to note people, organizations or places to gift and all four help place the packages throughout the city – the school-age sons particularly come in handy as lookouts.
The plan is to keep up their guerrilla giving until next Labour Day, after which they hope to increase how much they can gift.
To learn more about the family’s philanthropy, visit: www.guerrillagiving. org.
Vancouver Province
loading...
Test. I lost my first post.
loading...
I wish I could say that this is a good idea, but it’s not. I have met way too many drug users and gamblers in this city… Lying cheats and deadbeats are commonplace, and they often look like nice ladies, or teens, or respectable types… They would sell their grandmothers for cash.
Easy cash does not help most people. It only exacerbates their unrealistic relationship with money. Then they get more desperate, and more out-of-control in their behaviour. Easy money just gets re-tithed to the casinos.
If one wants to give, give… to a targeted person or charity. They sure need the funds.
Dropping money out of the sky at people who already have unrealistic relationships with their finances is just an arrogant way of playing/creating a god/Santa Claus… In most cases, it will not help. People have to learn to fish.
Please continue discussion on the forum: link