The ask
Phillips, Maxine
THE LAST PAGE If you're not afraid to ask for money, says nonprofit fundraising guru Kim Klein, then you weren't born in this country or you're a child. The taboo against talking about money,...
...By the next one, we were more prepared: "Why don't you think Bush and Cheney should be prosecuted for war crimes...
...But of course, it was impossible...
...The corollary is that if you don't give, you can't ask...
...Still, he and his friends gave and gave often...
...Your mailbox will not fill up with address labels and note cards bearing our logo...
...Your `left internationalism' is too close to imperialist intervention...
...THE LAST PAGE If you're not afraid to ask for money, says nonprofit fundraising guru Kim Klein, then you weren't born in this country or you're a child...
...Isn't it time to give up on a two-state solution...
...Fear not, Dissent reader...
...Giving to such a project made sense, for it was a place, as Walzer described it, where you could argue with your neighbors to your right and left but still live in the neighborhood MAXINE PHILLIPS...
...Selftithing, we called it, for the Left must tax itself if it is to remain independent and alive...
...What we learned showed us a lot about the interplay of the Left, the culture of asking, and the culture of giving...
...As one said, "Think about how many times a month you're asked to save the environment...
...At the first event, we got a taste of what was to come: "Do you really think there's a Left in this country...
...Because there is no officially state-supported religion, religious traditions instill the habit of giving, and religious organizations provide a wide range of social and educational services...
...Still, we face the same dilemmas all print journals face and then some...
...Dissent has its own culture of asking and giving...
...And the checks were written, by friends of the co-hosts, by lawyers, artists, writers, professors, adjuncts, students-from each according to ability...
...What do you think Israel should do given Iran's nuclear capability...
...Because our government funds so few human needs, individuals are asked over and over again to give...
...The taboo against talking about money, much less asking for it, has survived even as all other taboos have fallen...
...Americans are asked to dig deep, and despite the recession, they are still giving, albeit in smaller amounts...
...Whenever I tell a fundraiser or nonprofit executive about our fundraising schedule, the person gapes first, then announces, "You have to ask more often...
...For founder Irving Howe, asking was so distasteful that he insisted on sending out a fundraising letter only every two years...
...By that she meant the hot-button items of left politics: Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, torture photos, prosecution of the previous administration for its torture policies...
...For our readers and people who should be our readers, dissenting is deeply connected to giving...
...If we are to survive, we have to get over our reticence...
...At the end of the evenings, the debates continued in groups of two and three...
...If you don't ask, you won't get, is another fundraising axiom...
...This could never happen at home, people getting together like this in a private house to raise money," said a young European at one event...
...An early letter to the board listed the dollar amounts he and other founding editors were giving and challenged the rest of the board to ante up if they wanted the project to continue...
...And so it was that in mid-May we ventured into that peculiar institution, the fundraising house party, where readers and their friends were invited to hear Michael Walzer speak and then contribute to the magazine...
...But another strong cultural norm in this country is that of giving money...
...Why are you so hopeful when Obama is such a disappointment...
...The house parties turned out to be a living laboratory of the magazine, as the attendees honed their arguments, stretched their minds, butted heads...
...Don't touch the third rail," one person warned us...
...I didn't know adults could be this passionate about politics," a twenty-one-year-old confided to his parents, who had attended at the behest of a friend...
...Why are you so pessimistic when Obama's election opens up so many opportunities...
Vol. 56 • July 2009 • No. 3
