Poverty will last longer than the holidays

Having spent my entire adult life working in the nonprofit sector, from a fundraising perspective, all nonprofits look forward to end-of-year giving. For many of us, December is the month that salvages our budget because of that last-minute burst of donations.

I love holidays … how they give us a reason to pause and celebrate, pause and worship, pause and feast, pause and share with others. The generosity that the holidays inspire also makes life better for those who are under-resourced. Bellies will be full because holiday meals were provided. Toys will be opened because angels have been adopted. Clothes and blankets will be in abundance because caring people have distributed them.

But the holidays are just a few days a year. Poverty lasts 365 days a year. The question my organization, Cooperative Christian Ministries and Clinic, wrestles with, as do most organizations, is “How do we disrupt poverty and help under-resourced people find stability and sustainability?” That’s the year-round challenge that requires long-range thinking and planning.

The old saying, “Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach them how to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime,” concisely sums up long-range thinking and planning if poverty is to be disrupted. Yes, there are urgent, immediate needs that people in poverty face, but after the crisis, there must be more. There must be hard work, guidance, training, re-educating, and the opportunity to take ownership of one’s own life and destiny.

The thing about every one of us is that we only know what we know. If you grew up in an environment where you had opportunities to learn, grow, and plan for a future, you have an understanding about how the world works. If you grew up hungry, sick, afraid, neglected, or marginalized, you have a different understanding about how the world works. Disrupting poverty involves gaining new knowledge, new understanding about how a more sustainable world works, and the grit to do the hard work of creating a better future for yourself and your family.

For those of you who generously support the work of organizations that serve the underserved, thank you. Thank you not only for your end-of-year generosity, but for your ongoing support of missions that you care about. By all means, bless the work of nonprofits with generous abundance during holidays and then keep in mind that poverty lasts longer, but so does “teaching a person to fish.” With gratitude for your support both now and throughout the year, I hope you will take time over the next few weeks to pause, remember, celebrate, worship, feast, reflect, and share, if you can.

Sallie Culbreth is executive director of Cooperative Christian Ministries and Clinic, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve life for those who are under-resourced.