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October 2001
VPP’s job of supporting promising regional nonprofits
has become even more important in the wake of the tragedies
of September 11.. So too has the job of each of us as individual
supporters of organizations that provide much-needed services
to the communities we care about. It is perhaps no mistake
that the chosen date for lasts month’s horrific attacks
was 9.11. And now, America must respond to many emergencies.
Those emergencies go beyond the need for blood, hot coffee
for the rescue workers, money for the families of victims,
or even the need for greater military might. There are many
more emergencies yet to be seen that will arrive at the
doors of the nation’s thousands of nonprofits that
feed, clothe, shelter, educate, counsel, and console millions
of Americans.
As the dust clears from the Pentagon and the World Trade
Center, there are people with broken spirits and people
without jobs who will need the services of nonprofit organizations
like the ones each of us support. While there is an understandable
outpouring of concern and giving for the 9.11 victims, we
need to continue our support for the organizations that
are already struggling to serve people in need and will
be asked to do even more. News stories abound of nonprofits
recalculating their year-end budgets because giving has
dropped and pledges have been withdrawn and redirected
At VPP, we are continuing our efforts with even greater
purpose to seek and find organizations with great potential
for improving the lives of children and preparing them to
be healthy, vibrant contributors to a world that grows more
complex every day.
Billy Shore, a VPP board member and founder of Community
Wealth Ventures, has been among the most eloquent in describing
this need. This is what he wrote in a letter last month
that was also shared on public radio: “America is
about to unleash the greatest demonstration of military
might in our history. Pray it succeeds in securing peace.
But military might cannot make a nation strong. It can only
protect the strengths already existing within. A concerted
campaign to end terrorism will take years, and requires
America to stand united. True national unity means more
than a chorus of support for military action. That is merely
the minimum requirement. A sustained campaign also requires
unity of experience, ability, purpose, and outlook. A nation
rent by deep divisions between black and white, or rich
and poor, is not sufficiently united. Children weakened
by malnutrition or missed immunizations, or dilapidated
housing and dangerous schools are not what a nation defending
its borders can afford. During peace and prosperity such
conditions challenge our notion of justice. During war they
threaten our very security…. Nonprofit organizations
addressing these issues, and the philanthropy that supports
them, must not take a back seat now, but redouble their
efforts instead.”
VPP must use its position to build on Bill’s message.
We should support a concerted regional and national effort
to remind our fellow citizens that we cannot allow the most
impoverished and fragile families in our communities to become
the next victims of this national tragedy. For more detail,
Billy’s entire
letter.
—Mario Morino
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