What Three Cups of Tea Teaches Us #1: Nonprofit Education Efforts Matter

Less interesting than Greg Mortenson's various alleged missteps** is how his story illustrates our (US Public) general misunderstanding of nonprofit organizations, social change, and development. 

This is the first of what will be many blog entries dedicated to this issue. Today, the role of education in nonprofit programming. In the days to come: 

• naive development amateurs, 
• the alleged inappropriateness of Three Cups of Tea for university audiences following the scandal,  
• and the challenge and uncertainties of 'development.'

By now the story has been told and re-told: Climber, author, and philanthropist Greg Mortenson is accused of exaggeration and outright fabrication in respect to his inspiring narrative of friendship, education, and hope for children in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan (On the story: 60 Minutes, NPR, Nick Kristof, The NYT - and Mortenson's response in Outside Magazine). The story itself is important, but what's more vital is what the scandal says about our understanding of development work, nonprofit organizations, and other places and peoples. Mortenson's story demonstrates our simultaneous over-reaching optimism and unfounded expectations for development and social change.

What I find most disturbing about the Three Cups of Deceit narrative is its potential to create the inaccurate impression that development is 'not working.' On the contrary, the world is making progress toward reaching the UN Millennium Development goals and I see change agents among the Millenials, Generation X, and Generation Y marching toward unprecedented appreciation for common human dignity and interconnectedness around the world. To establish a world that better recognizes broad opportunity for human flourishing, however, we must better understand some basic development and nonprofit sector realities brought forward by this most recent controversy. First, there is the importance of education for nonprofit efforts. 

If, as the parable goes, nonprofits are going to rescue drowning children they should at least work to identify the source of the babies in the river. Nonprofits must clarify the structural issues that communities face or at least (as is more the case with Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute (CAI)), help people with access to resources (e.g. US Citizens) see that other humans elsewhere may have access to a greater set of options (education, choices) with a relatively small infusion of resources. To do that nonprofits must educate. 

The problem with education, of course, is that it costs. Mortenson's CAI made many mistakes relating to the real need for education. Most importantly, it did not explicitly communicate that donations would be used to support US-based education and outreach. This could be due to malfeasance, to lax interpretation of nonprofit accounting best practices, or due to an under-developed understanding of how the organization needed to change its funding structure as it quickly grew in size (See related resource on nonprofit capitalization). 

As CAI clearly expresses on its website, its primary purpose is to "promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan." This would not happen in a broad and sustainable way (at least in the current environment) without an increasingly broad and growing population of developed country citizens and foundations interested in donating to support this cause. Put another way: no book tour, no movement, no schools. 

CAI is actually not being as blunt as me. They're not attempting to defend their education efforts on the grounds that they're an important part of programming. Instead, they're suggesting they can demonstrate that particular restricted funds never supported the book tour. If they can do that, great - then they can continue to compete inside a narrative space that demands nonprofit organizations raise incredible sums, spend little to nothing on their staff members, do not expand education and outreach programs, and figuratively move mountains while otherwise holding up the world. 

We don't expect businesses to introduce a new idea (product) without spending extraordinary amounts to get their vision (buy me / sign-up) across. How can we reasonably expect someone who seemingly cares deeply about children in the remotest parts of countries that most Americans cannot identify on a map to not spend considerable resources educating Americans on (1) the fact that these children really are wonderful, innocent, beautiful children (like all children), (2) these children will not necessarily become terrorists (as many competing narratives might suggest), and (3) that these children are located in a particular place, and we have reason to think that many of them and their communities are interested in better school and education access?      

The CAI absolutely, positively should have been more explicit about how monies were being spent. They should have been clearer about the domestic education component of their mission. And they clearly should have done a better job of clarifying the lines between and among the book, its costs, and its revenues (including speaking fees). Those mis-steps suggest sloppy management and accounting, even inexcusable ignorance, but the public response focuses just as much on the fact that they were involved with education in the US at all. As Krakauer's critiques are recounted in a USA Today article: 

On its website, the CAI says it spends at least 85% of contributions on programs and only 15% on administrative and fundraising costs. This ratio is one reason Charity Navigator gave the charity four stars.

But in an online exposé of the charity published by Byliner.com, writer Jon Krakauer noted that the CAI categorizes the money it spends promoting Mortenson’s books and his travel costs as program expenses. If those costs were categorized as fundraising and administration expenses, he says, they would exceed 50% of the charity’s annual budget.

For development organizations that are broadening a public's understanding of an issue, education is absolutely part of programming. Without education, we have no consciousness-raising. Without consciousness-raising, we have no movements. 

Let me be clear: I do not support CAI's alleged playing fast and loose with accounting. I do not support fabrication of facts. If, however CAI were to act very responsibly, I suspect they would report a significant portion of book tour costs as fundraising but another significant portion of those costs would absolutely be categorized as programming. That education is necessary to meet the mission of the organization.

Until broader percentages of the public understand the importance of education in nonprofit work, arm-chair critics will be able to undermine many important efforts with ease.

Even Krakauer is allowing that Mortenson and CAI built scores of schools and educated thousands of children in this remote region of the world. This is an astonishing feat. Because this feat has been accomplished by a nonprofit organization, we expect the work to be completed more cost-effectively and creatively than government might do it, and with far less invested in outreach and marketing than would be the case if the private sector were developing a new initiative. It could still be the case that Mortenson has done several inexcusable things**, but one set of allegations is based at least in part on the unrealistic expectations we foist upon nonprofit organizations to outperform governments in terms of costs and corporations in terms of permissible behaviors, including the simple act of selling ideas (education).

If you think I've said something ridiculous, I invite your comments. If you think I've said something interesting, I also invite your comments and urge you to repost the blog link please. I will stick with this issue for the next several posts and look forward to the conversation.

Additional interesting resources:

• Humanosphere's ongoing coverage and collection of resources on the topic. 
• Good Intentions Are Not Enough's blog collection of emerging articles. 
• Author and Journalist Daniel Glick offers a unique perspective. 
• The Chronicle of Philanthropy features lessons for charities and their trustees. 

**There are many different parts to the current set of accusations. As I make clear above, I think the allegations relating to the speaker circuit and book tour are over-stated. If, however, it does turn out that Mortenson absolutely lied in reference to his alleged hostage experience (something that many members of the 'gotcha chattering class' are now focusing on with growing fervor), then he has clearly acted irresponsibly and has clearly done so consciously.  Compressions of time, on the other hand, are common in creative nonfiction narrative, making some of the allegations about the narrative arc of the story less damning than a clear finding of fabrication.

News: Be Optimistic = Live Long, Justice via Consumption?, The Education "Debate," Higher Education Relevance?

Particularly interesting articles today:

• Want to Live to 100? Try to Bounce Back from Stress on NPR adds credence to my long-standing theory that vigorous living, engaged living, and maybe even sometimes excessive living might just in its own ways also contribute to a good life lived long. OK, that's not really the article. But it does help explain why my Great Aunt Helen lived to 100 and also managed a whiskey or two every single night.  
• No Need to Volunteer or Engage - Just Buy is a book review in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The book takes up the important question of the limits of the "conscious consumption will change the world" - story. I haven't yet read the book.  
• Speaking of higher education and markets, the creator of the cartoon Dilbert has an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal today suggesting that instead of the conventional university model most students should be taught how to run a business. It is one of the most popular articles on the WSJ's most-emailed list right now, second only to "Obama Puts Taxes on Table," which of course is always going to be a #1 question among WSJ readers. I find it important because it calls attention to one of the many ways in which much of the general public seems to be currently dissatisfied with higher education. 
• And this brief editorial in the (sadly, no longer completely free) New York Times calls attention to something else I plan to write on soon: The Deadlocked Debate over Education Reform.  
• Finally, the 4th Annual Amizade Water Walks for Women's Rights in Pittsburgh and Morgantown were great successes this weekend, and got some excellent coverage in local press: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette front page and Faithburgh blog, The Daily Athenaeum (WVU), and the main Morgantown TV Station.  

From the WSJ article / Dilbert-creator column: 

And the #1 Social Justice Song Is....

We're not ready people. We're not ready for that kind of definitive victory. There are way too many excellent protest, freedom, and organizing songs out there. We'll have to keep sifting through the many suggestions you've been advancing. But for the moment, in honor of the Amizade Water Walk and all that it symbolizes, let me suggest Stand by Me as delivered by Playing for Change, an organization that pulls together musicians spanning the globe in common songs. They create a shared sense of hope and they raise money to increase children's access to music and musical instruments. Wicked Cool. Here's their most-watched video, which has more than 30 million hits:

Take a look and feel good about the world. Have great weekends. And props to all who are walking in or supporting this year's Amizade Water Walk. It's excellent work. Feel good about your efforts to change the world. They're making a difference. Catch you in a few days.

#4: Why I Hate John Mayer's Social Justice Attempt

Apparently some people find Mayer’s song inspiring, and it has even made it on to some otherwise great political / social justice song sites. But “Waiting, waiting on the world to change,” as the song goes is about as anathema to good work, democracy, progress, rights, hope, and the improvement of the human condition as one can get. This blog title – Journey toward Justice – is no joke. It’s a journey: improving rights and lengthening life expectancies is the product of human cooperation, collaboration, and effort (not waiting, fool). 

That effort takes many forms, and musicians have a role. Mayer could take cues from Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, the bizillion artists who have given voice to We Shall Overcome, or currently from Angelique Kidjo and Wil.i.am (immediately below), as well as from scores and legions of others. But instead Mayer is waiting – and beyond that he’s whining: “We see everything that's going wrong / with the world and those who lead it / We just feel like we don't have the means / To rise above and beat it.”

What? You can’t make a difference? You’re famous, fool. You can move mountains. My friends can manage to make the world change for whole villages. And we’re just average Joes. It’s true that sometimes celebrities’ attempts at good works are un- or under-informed -- but study-up. Often enough celebrities behave as serious and smart people with clear commitment to specific issues that they learn a great deal about. Excellent examples include George Clooney, Bono, Mariska Hargitay, and Matt Damon, who has been a driving force on water issues through the nonprofit organization Water.org.      

Interestingly, in Mayer’s video the waiting involves spray-painting as consciousness-raising (and at the end, just to be sure you know neither Mayer nor his boys are radicals, there’s a message indicating that all spray painting was completed on private property with permission). Now I’m waiting for Mayer to do something interesting. Here’s the thing: I deeply respect, value, and appreciate the role of musicians and other artists in consciousness-raising. Mayer sings (and then even paints!) so close to this idea, but the message we get is just wait. Just wait is blasphemy to the good citizens of the world who fancy themselves as working in the tradition of fundamental human freedoms, democracy, and universal rights.

At least other artists dreaming after an as-yet-unimagined tomorrow paint us some kind of picture, like Cat Stevens’ (now Yusuf) Peace Train (which he did a sweet rendition of for Muhammed Yunis’ Nobel Peace Prize Award) and Billy Bragg’s Waiting for a New World Order. (By the way all of you out there who think “social justice” or “activist musician” is precisely equal to “totalitarian commie,” listen to the equal abuse Bragg hands out to the far ends of the political spectrum).

Of course it’s not surprising that Mayer’s song suggests what it does. We seem to have been struck (in the United States and many other places around the world) with an irrational and unfounded assumption that somehow the miracles we see all around us (basic human security, individual rights and respect for diversity across cultures and genders, 300 million people getting along pretty well across a whole continent, water when you turn on the faucet, public education) are not the product of cooperation, collaboration, and individual sacrifice for purposes that are bigger than ourselves: purposes like improving the human condition.

To bring this closer to home(s), Pennsylvania and Arizona are advancing massive cuts in education budgets. I know there are strong contingents emerging and organizing in Pennsylvania to put pressure on the state government to continue its investment in our shared futures by better funding education. Some students, for example, recently put together this video:

That’s what strong democratic (small d) states do: invest in their citizens’ human capital and tax them at reasonable rates later to continue to pay for the ongoing investment in the future. In Arizona I have students telling me that they’re going to have to pay more for college  and that their four-years of funding doesn’t match the five-years of schooling they’ll need with the planned schedule cuts and lack of class availability, but there’s no strong organizing. Perhaps they’re waiting, waiting for the market to take over their lives more completely.

Wherever you are, speak up for education. It’s something many generations of Americans have taken for granted. And it only exists if Americans work together to make it happen.

Beyond the explicit political sphere is the strong nonprofit and volunteerism sector – and the place I was really referencing above when I asserted what my friends could do. This is why the water walk is so phenomenally important. We’re not waiting for the world to change. We’re making it happen, in clear and considered cooperation with community organizations half-way around the world. These small efforts: organizing, cooperating across cultures, people donating, people walking – extend lives and give women and children a chance to get an education or work rather than constantly returning to the daily drudgery of gathering water.

Register and walk this weekend. If you can’t, donate. Don’t wait. Change the world for families in rural Tanzania, right now.    

Really. Donate. Just $25. It’s a world-changer.  

OK, thank you for reading. Now I must admit: I’m flummoxed, flabbergasted, confused and maybe just a little bit maligned – I keep hearing from people via individual emails, etc., about the blog but I have no comments and few followers and I would absolutely love more of either. I’d love to hear your song suggestions that have yet to make the list. (Tomorrow we will have the Best Social Justice Song Ever, in celebration of Amizade’s Water Walk, but in the days that follow I’ll continue to post enough to follow the due course of this fun little exercise in social justice song). I also remain generally curious about your thoughts, feedback, etc. OR, OR, OR – tell me how much you really love John Mayer and why he’s amazing, or re-post, re-tweet, and share how your share my considerable consternation with the whole unacceptable notion of “Waiting, waiting on the world to change…”  

Social Justice Songs: Imagining Peace & The Great Leap Forward

Performing at the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony for Muhammed Yunis (Founder of The Grameen Bank and so much of the micro-finance movement) makes this Cat Stevens / Yusuf performance especially poignant:

And in a similar vein - imagining future possibilities - is Billy Bragg's classic Waiting for the Great Leap Forward (from the Henry Rollins show, no less):  

Social Justice Songs: Springsteen

Born in the USA and This Land is Your Land just begin to indicate Springsteen's talent and considerable commitment to expressing social issues and working class challenges through his music.

With more time or on another day, we'll do much more with The Boss.

Social Justice Songs #3: Fight the Power, Public Enemy

Classic, important. Sometimes the fights come through protest, sometimes they come through solidarity. If you can't make the Amizade Water Walk this year, be part of the fight for basic rights and water access for women and children by leveraging some of your resources with a donation today.

Take Time for Great Music & Justice-Dreaming, Day 2. & 4 Days to the Water Walk!

First, this pensive and beautiful I wish I knew how it would feel (to be free) by the Lighthouse Family. This is a 2001 version of the song originally written by Billy Taylor and Dick Dallas and first recorded by Nina Simone in 1967. The Lighthouse Family's version picks up some lyrics from U2's One at the end. 

So we get four for one today, because it wouldn't be fair not to share Nina Simone's version:

To offer U2's One (in a version featuring Mary J. Blige):

And then of course, ever since he started doing remakes, it's not fair at all to mention One without sharing Johnny Cash's version (which for my money, no offense Bono or Mary, is the best version). Enjoy:

The connection to the Amizade Water Walk? These songs are all about solidarity. The Water Walk is at its core a creative fundraising, awareness-raising, and solidarity event. And the fruits of the walk go toward raising the funds necessary to continue building a better world - one that we're only imagining at present. Be there!

And I'm still looking for more song suggestions, from you, please!

Gearing Up for the Amizade Water Walk: Social Justice Songs that Inspire

After listening to some upbeat and soul-full bluegrass from Old Crow Medicine Show, don't forget to register for the walk or learn more about Amizade's crucial work with water in Africa here. Any other social justice favorites?