Mother Teresa On The Gift Economy

Lynne Twist has raised over $800 million dollars for worthy causes; she’s as good a fundraiser as anyone can be. Yet, in Soul of Money, she speaks about a person she knew really well and who beat to a different drum:Mother Teresa

Slow Money: Bringing Money Down To Earth

Woody Tasch has thought a lot about money: what it does, how it moves, and how to connect people who have it with people who need it. He even helped found a field of investing with the rather surprising name “community development venture capital.” But he found that even socially responsible investing couldn’t do much to fix an economy that focused too much on extraction and consumption and too little on preservation and restoration. In 2008, Tasch wrote Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered. Soon after, he founded the Slow Money Alliance, an NGO devoted to the principles of slowing money down, reconnecting it to the Earth, and respecting carrying capacity, the commons, sense of place, and nonviolence. Tasch calls it the transition from “Making A Killing” to “Making a Living.”

Suja & Scott Thomas: Ultra-Frugal for A Cause

Suja Thomas, who wears socks with holes, isn’t giving her husband anything for Christmas. Likewise, when Scott Bahr proposed to Thomas in spring 2008, he offered her a red plastic heart in place of an engagement ring. The Champaign couple’s intense frugality is by design. Their idea is to save as much as possible in order to give more money to others in need. This Christmas, the pair raised the stakes. Thomas and Bahr have pledged to give up to $50,000 of their own money to five charities by matching donations from others…The couple said in their mission statement. “We have discovered that we obtain the most fulfillment in our lives, from looking beyond these daily cravings to what our money can do for people who are in need.”