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Secret Society For Creative Philanthropy
by Steve Rubenstein
February 27 |
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Giving away free umbrellas in the middle of a rainstorm is not that easy.
David Ibnale had no idea how tough it would be to give away umbrellas on Market Street the other day. He figured that he and his free umbrellas were going to change the world. The world had other ideas.
"People thought there was something fishy about it," Ibnale said. "There wasn't. It was just free umbrellas."
Ibnale was one of a dozen people in San Francisco who had been given $100 by a startup charity that is trying to get strangers to start doing nice things for other strangers. It's a novel concept. Most folks, it turns out, aren't prepared for it. "What's the catch?" a man asked.
No catch, replied Ibnale. Take an umbrella. You're getting wet.
"No, thanks," the man answered, and kept walking through the rain. Ibnale began keeping count. He asked 27 wet people if they would like to have an umbrella. Seventeen of them said no.
Altruism is something of a novelty these days, and most people have little time to partake. But altruism is the whole idea behind the new charity, called the Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy.
It's the brainchild of Courtney Martin, a South of Market writer who dreamed up the idea four years ago in New York and has handed out a stack of her own $100 bills every year to select good-deed doers who agree to dream up unusual ways to use the dough.
About the same time that Ibnale was handing out umbrellas, Brett Lockspier took $100 worth of dollar bills to the 16th Street Mission BART Station and held up a sign.
"I will give you $1 for you to give to someone else," the sign said. Throughout the evening rush, Lockspier stood in the station, trying to give away dollar bills.
"Everyone though I was trying to scam them," he said. "They wanted to know what I was up to. I told them they just had to promise to give the $1 to someone else."
After three hours, Lockspier had managed to give away only $52. One passer-by did not take the $1 but, suspecting that Lockspier was down and out, handed him a pair of socks.
Supporting the arts
Some people who took the dollar bills immediately dropped them into the hat of a street musician a few steps away.
"He was very happy about the whole thing," Lockspier said.
The 12 members of the society got together last week for a party on Folsom Street, to report to Martin on how tough it had been to do nice things with her cash.
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