Without really giving it too much thought, I’ve been calling the economic philosophy that we’ve been working on “the Contribution Economy.” The idea is simple, perhaps even simplistic: since people get the greatest satisfaction from “making their contribution,” why shouldn’t we have an economy based on their doing so? If everyone got to make their highest contribution, and felt they were doing so effectively, wouldn’t we have a more successful economy, i.e., one that satisfied more people?
Compensating people for what they contribute seems both the fairest approach, and a way to incentive what we want most, which is to encourage people to make their highest contribution to society overall. Of course, there’s a certain minimum that everyone requires to live (which many people currently fail to receive), and this ought to be considered their reward for simply “showing up.”
Asking for money is one of the more challenging things that every charity has to do. The first question we need to answer, however, is “Why are we asking?” If we don’t have a clear and compelling answer, we’re handicapping ourselves from the start.
