PDC-6: The PDC Series: The Bird's Eye View - 2

PDC-6: The PDC Series: The Bird's Eye View – 2

 

Continuation of the list of topics we plan to discuss as part of PDC.

 

PDC-36: Giving: The Widows Two Cents
PDC-37: Giving: Can I make a difference: Ryans Well
PDC-38: Giving: Can I make a difference: Ryans Foundation
PDC-39: Giving: Can I make a difference: Hattie May Wiatt
PDC-40: Giving: Can I make a difference: The Infant
PDC-41: Giving: The Micro need: The $27 Nobel Prize
PDC-42: Giving: The Spectrum of Dreams
PDC-43: Giving: 10c + 10c +...+ 10c = $1.5 million
PDC-44: Giving: The Science of Giving for the Donor's soul
PDC-45: Giving: Beyond the Local Boundaries
PDC-46: Giving: How much Charity would the Next Generation do?
PDC-47: Giving: Church-Practicing the Preaching
PDC-48: Giving: Even the Leftovers count
PDC-49: Giving: To Accept or Not: The Modern Day Prodigal Son
PDC-50: Giving: Encouraging Giving: The Positive Outlook
PDC-51: Volunteering: The Power of Volunteerism
PDC-52: Volunteering: The Professional Call
PDC-53: Volunteering: Bringing the best of all the worlds
PDC-54: Volunteering: Building up the volunteers
PDC-55: Volunteering: Nurturing the volunteering spirit
PDC-56: Volunteering: The Global Networking
PDC-57: Volunteering: The Value added Channel Partners
PDC-58: Volunteering: Church as a value added Channel Partner
PDC-59: Volunteering: The Misunderstood Middle man
PDC-60: Volunteering: To serve, not to be served
PDC-61: Volunteering: The Neglected Bangalore Youth
PDC-62: Volunteering: The Volunteer Profile
PDC-63: Volunteering: Masking the unsung heroes: Mr. Photogenic
PDC-64: Execution: Charitable Organizations as an enterprise
PDC-65: Execution: Efficiency-Maximizing Output
PDC-66: Execution: Efficiency-Minimizing Cost
PDC-67: Execution: Keeping Informed
PDC-68: Execution: The Healing Style: 2000 Years Later
PDC-69: Follow-up: The Credibility Maintainer
PDC-70: Follow-up: Is it a Choice? Never!
PDC-71: Follow-up: Was it a Genuine Errors OR a Fraud
PDC-72: Follow-up: Location Independence
PDC-73: Follow-up: Rumors @ the speed of light
PDC-74: Follow-up: The Differentiating factors
PDC-75: Follow-up: The Golden rule of the markets
PDC-76: Follow-up: The Trail of your donations
PDC-77: Follow-up: The Push model
PDC-78: Follow-up: The Pull model
PDC-79: Openness: The Transparent Accounting
PDC-80: Openness: Alienating the fraudulent
PDC-81: Receiving: The Abroad effect: The Unfair Expectation
PDC-82: Receiving: The Value in the 2 Cents
PDC-83: Planning: Part of the puzzle
PDC-84: Planning: Reinventing the wheel
PDC-85: Planning: Learning from others
PDC-86: IOC Charity Initiatives: Kudos to the Visionaries
PDC-87: IOC Charity Initiatives: A SWOT Analysis
PDC-88: Catholicate Fund: The Most Misunderstood fund
PDC-89: Catholicate Fund: The Reality Check
PDC-90: Mission Sunday Fund: The Rs.1 per person fund
PDC-91: Mission Sunday Fund: Am I under the umbrella?
PDC-92: Mission Sunday Fund: Regaining the confidence of the masses
PDC-93: Our Spiritual Organizations: Budding the charity spirit
PDC-94: Our Spiritual Organizations: Transforming Faith into action
PDC-95: Our Higher Education Institutions: Charity, What?
PDC-96: IOC Charity Initiatives: The Openness in Process
PDC-97: IOC Charity: Maintaining the untainted credibility legacy
PDC-98: IOC Charities: Raising the bars
PDC-99: Regaining the Lost Value of Charity
PDC-100: Through the Eyes of the Saint of the Gutters
PDC-101: Thanks: We surely can make a Difference in our own ways!

 

To be continued...

 

The next two topics:
PDC-7: The Boundaries and the Disclaimers
PDC-8: En route Jerusalem to Jericho

 

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin, TX

PDC-5: The PDC Series: The Bird's Eye View - 1

PDC-5: The PDC Series: The Bird's Eye View - 1

 

Before we start with the discussion of the topics, it might be useful to introduce you to the topics that we plan to discuss. We believe this would help you to pitch in the right topic that you have firsthand experience. This series is still a work in progress, and hence changes might be made.

 

Although the charitable organizations of our church if the focus, we need to have a clear understanding of the metrics and best practices of an ideal charity before we look at our charitable initiatives.

 

In the beginning of the series, we will spend the time in analyzing the best practices followed by the ideal charitable institutions. We will look at factors that the common man expects from the charities that will ultimately gain his confidence and encourage him to be actively involved in reaching out to others. We will also focus on the ways the common man can use his talents to influence the charity space.

 

Towards the end of the series, we will try to feel the common man's pulse about our church's charitable initiatives. We will try to analyze our church's current charitable initiatives from its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats perspective. We will look at the current involvement of the people in its decisions, and the factors driving it to understand if it is a truly a people driven initiative?

 

Once we have discussed the two, we will look at the delta (if any) between the two (the ideal and ours). We will elicit your suggestions on the scope of improvements and the facelifts that our charitable initiatives might need to eliminate the delta. Here are the topics we plan to discuss.

 

PDC-01: Charity: A Tribute to Parumala thirumeni
PDC-02: The People Driven Charity: A series
PDC-03: The Evolution of the Fish Curry for the Common Man
PDC-04: The empowered compassionate common man
PDC-05: The PDC Series: The Bird’s Eye View – Part 1
PDC-06: The PDC Series: The Bird’s Eye View – Part 2
PDC-07: The PDC Series: The Boundaries and the disclaimers
PDC-08: En route Jerusalem to Jericho
PDC-09: The Samaritan to the Good Samaritan
PDC-10: The Good Samaritan: The inheritor of the Eternal Life
PDC-11: Why not a Good Levite?
PDC-12: The Traditional Charity Life Cycle
PDC-13: The People Driven Charity Life Cycle
PDC-14: Awareness: The Differentiator and the Value Builder
PDC-15: Awareness: The art of reading the mind of the audience
PDC-16: Awareness: Instant Lottery model Vs Insurance model
PDC-17: Awareness: The fine line between Awareness and Marketing
PDC-18: The transformational effect of Awareness: Information and Timing
PDC-19: The transformational effect of Awareness: Rearranging the puzzle
PDC-20: Awareness: Bridging the long distance ends
PDC-21: Awareness: Information at our finger tips
PDC-22: Awareness: The Challenges recap
PDC-23: Achieving the Awareness dream: The Missionaries’ hat 
PDC-24: Awareness: His right, His responsibility, Our right, ___
PDC-25: Awareness: Why we don't write
PDC-26: Awareness: Charity begins at home
PDC-27: Giving: Why Do We Give?
PDC-28: Giving: Donor Profiles: The Compassionate Careful Giver
PDC-29: Giving: Donor Profiles: The Investor
PDC-30: Giving: Donor Profiles: The Converter
PDC-31: Giving: The Face Value Vs the Cause value
PDC-32: Giving: Why We Don't Give?
PDC-33: Giving: The Donor Fatigue
PDC-34: Giving: Is there an Upper Limit of Charity?
PDC-35: Giving: Dealing with Donor Fatigue: The Third Habit

 

To be continued...

 

The next two topics:
PDC-6: The PDC Series: The Bird's Eye View - 2
PDC-7: The Boundaries and the Disclaimers

 

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin, TX

 

 

PDC-4: The Empowered Compassionate Common man

PDC-4: The Empowered Compassionate Common man

 

What is the role of a common man in the charity landscape? If we thought the financial support for the charitable organizations was the only role that a common man had, we have totally underestimated the unimaginable potential of a common man. The common man is an empowered compassionate human being that has the potential to help guide the charity to meet its goals and to be the ideal charity.

 

Our church has many charitable initiatives. While appreciating the wonderful charitable work done by our church and its organizations, our belief is that there are untapped potentials for our charitable initiatives of our church to reach out. In this forum, our ultimate goal is to realize the dream of making the charitable initiatives of our church as the most the ideal charities in the space.

 

The empowered compassionate common man cares for the needy and helps these organizations to unleash the potentials.

 

One can ask: If a charitable organization doesn't do what it is supposed to do, why even bother, we don't have to cooperate with it and it will die its slow natural death. It might sound fair enough at the first look, but for a second, think about the real looser: the needy.

 

The compassionate common man keeps in mind the betterment of the needy. He doesn't give up because the channel is not performing well. The compassionate common man realizes his potential to make a difference in some one else's life and tries to help the organization to do what it is supposed to do. He also supports it continuously. In order to enhance the system, he stays with the system and uses his influence to guide it. He uses his influence in forcing the good things to happen for the organization. He never forgets his responsibility to be the ambassador for the needy. His influence brings more people together in the fight against the hard realities faced by the poor and the suffering.

 

One of the aims of this exercise is to understand the aspirations of the common man when it comes to getting involved in charity. If you ever wanted to do more for charity, and backed off due to a challenge, we definitely want to hear from you. Please join us in the discussion so that your voice is heard loud and clear. Please help us with your suggestions, experiences in dealing with various charitable organizations and your ideas to improve the missionary zeal of our church. Your feedback is much appreciated.

 

We call on every compassionate common man to dive in this discussion to make this a truly the people driven feedback. We are sure we can help our church and its organizations to reach newer heights in its goal to be the source of the hope for millions

 

To be continued...

 

The next two topics:
PDC-5: The PDC Series: The Bird’s Eye View - 1
PDC-6: The PDC Series: The Bird’s Eye View – 2

 

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin, TX

PDC-3: Evolution of the Fish Curry for the common man

PDC-3: Evolution of the Fish Curry for the common man

Long time ago, making a fish curry was not a science, but an art, practiced and perfected by our ammachi's. This was the time when we did not have any packaged masala powders. The ingredients were hand picked, powdered, carefully mixed and cooked with the fish to make up the mouth watering fish curry.

As years passed by, the packaged powdered masalas came into existence. The availability of packets of chili powder, coriander powder and other masalas made the art of making fish curry within the reach of the common household mothers. More people mastered the art of making fish curry by just learning to mix the right amount of each powder.

As time passed by, the choices increased. The maker of the fish curry could get a packaged fish curry masala powder that had the right amount of all the needed powders mixed at the factory. The person making the fish curry only had to know the quantity of the fish curry powder to mix with the fish. This easiness made it within the reach of the super moms even if she was an unseasoned cook.

As time passed on, the instant fish curry gravy packs appeared. This breakthrough enabled the average Joe to make a fish curry :) All he had to do was to follow the instruction on the pack.

Over the course of time, making of the fish curry has evolved making it easier for the common man. The changes have provided the common man more choices and the power to make it. This easiness has enabled the more and more people to be fish curry makers rather than being just fish curry tasters.

Let's get away from the kitchen and get on the internet. Let's look at the evolution of the creation of web pages. Web pages once upon a time, were considered a craft of a highly skilled software engineer. The availability of the HTML WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors made it easier to build web pages. It became so easy that jokes started appearing that said "will code HTML for food" (picturing a person begging on the sides of a road). As time went by, blogs appeared and the extremely user friendly nature enabled people to put their contents on the web with ease.

The climax of the easiness evolution would happen at the crossroads when the ammachi who we started the story with can create her blog and the craftsman software engineer who was the web page design expert can make the fish curry.

When many such fields have made things easy for the common man, has the charity arena gone through such an evolution? How easy is it for the common man to create, customize, cooperate and influence the charity arena?

As part of the PDC series, we will try to understand if such an evolution has occurred in the charity arena. If it has not occurred, the series looks at the challenges and the steps towards achieving this goal.

To be continued...

Th next two topics:
PDC-4: The Empowered Compassionate Common Man
PDC-5: The PDC Series: The Bird's Eye View - 1

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin, TX

PDC-2: The People Driven Charity Series

PDC-2: The People Driven Charity Series

With the ever increasing natural calamities, man-made disasters and the widespread need of the hungry world, we have seen the emergence of thousands of charities. No one can deny that charitable organizations have played a major role in responding to the neediest in societies for decades. Their value gets much reiterated every time, natural calamities, and disasters strike us.

On one hand many of these organizations have done a wonderful job and have been the source for hope for millions. On the other hand, at least some of these organizations have ignored the best practices followed in the charitable arena and have been sinks for disappointment and has tarnished the entire charity landscape.
Either way, it might make us wonder what have been the turning points between a successful and an unsuccessful charitable initiative. Who drives these initiatives? What has been the involvement of people in driving these charities? How democratic have these organizations been?

When we hear Democracy, the first thing that comes into mind is a people driven movement that is defined 'by the people and for the people'. In such a system, everything is open and transparent. Democracy emphasizes on the power of the people. Every decision is taken by keeping in mind the best interest of its people. As a result the outcomes are always close to ideal.
When we look at the power of people in driving the projects that make a difference in the lives of the needy, there are two schools of thought.1. The first school thinks that people do not have any control on how our mission is driven and that destiny is driven by and forced by the leaders or others.2. The second school thinks that people are empowered and they have the power to control destiny and can make the difference in the lives of the needy.
PDC (People driven charity) is a series on the people who believe in their dreams and work towards converting their dreams into actions to make a difference in the life of the needy. This series looks at different angles of charity and examines how a common man can influence the charity arena.

The previous articles of this series, will be archived in the ICON Yahoo group archives and at the PDC blog. ( http://peopledrivencharity.blogspot.com/ )

All the parts of this series will start with the abbreviation PDC. In case you are least interested in this topic, this would help you to skip the topic quickly :)

To be continued...

The next two topics:
PDC-3: Evolution of the Fish Curry for the Common Man
PDC-4: The Empowered Compassionate Common Man

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin, TX

Charity: A Tribute to Parumala Thirumeni

Charity: A Tribute to Parumala Thirumeni

 

Today, if we do a quick scan of the names of charitable institutions such as orphanages, old age homes, churches, schools and colleges, one name clearly stands out: the name of the greatest saint of Malankara: St. Gregorios of Parumala

 

Undoubtedly, the ideal life style, prayer, fasting, humility, compassion and care that Thirumeni showed to the poor and the needy were only few of the characteristics that made the name St. Gregorios more or less a synonym for charity.

 

Parumala Thirumeni was one of the earliest adopters of Christian compassion and charity. If we go back in history to the time period of Thirumeni's ministry, we can clearly see that it was plagued by the greatest evils of the then society: casteism and untouchability. Thirumeni could see the Jesus in every person regardless of his caste or worldly status. He reached out to the people of lower castes. He endorsed and taught the teachings of Christ's love for one another. His mission among the untouchables and the poor touched many lives.

 

Thirumeni had an unquestionable service mentality throughout his mission. He surrendered himself to the will of the heavenly Father and served the need of the sick and the poor. When the small pox epidemic hit its climax, thirumeni stayed with the sick and served them. His prayers and encouragement was the source of hope for many. Thirumeni's unconditional service to the needy and the suffering could only reinforce Thirumeni's Christian compassion and love.

 

Thirumeni was a great visionary with a compassionate heart. Even a century ago, Thirumeni emphasized strongly on education and promoted the idea of starting English medium schools. In every step of Thirumeni's mission, the charity aspect was very visible. The schools that Thirumeni started gave free education to the poor. His vision of a modern forward looking tomorrow did not leave the poor behind: they walked hand in hand with Thirumeni.

 

Charity was shaped by the hands of this holy saint. On this day, Charity pays its tribute to one of its greatest visionaries.

 

While Thirumeni led an ideal mission more than a century ago, where are we? How much of his values do the current day's charities endorse and enforce. Today, we continue to start English medium schools as Thirumeni did, but do we at least attempt to do what Thirumeni did for the poor. For a second, let's forget the free education, do we even subsidize the cost and encourage the education of the poor? While we name these organizations in the memory of Parumala Thirumeni, do our actions match even closely with his values?

 

On the 104th anniversary of the greatest saint of Malankara, we want to do a soul search to understand how far we have departed from Thirumeni's ideal mission.

 

In such a pursuit, we start a series called the "People driven charity". It will focus on the power of the common man to influence charity and attempt to maintain the same standards that Thirumeni envisioned a century ago.

 

To be continued...

 

The next two topics: 

PDC-2: The People Driven Charity Series

PDC-3: Evolution of the fish curry for the common man

 

Thanks,

Rajesh

St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Austin, TX