A string of bad news that began earlier this month suggests to Russians that their security system is crumbling. First came the drone attack on the roof of Putin\u2019s residence in the Kremlin on May 4. Now comes an incursion into Belgorod, demonstrating that a year and a half into the war, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, which is in charge of the borders, does not have the manpower to protect against small units attacking from Ukraine. Russia was not even able to secure a nearby storage site for nuclear-weapons components, known as Belgorod-22\u2014instead it reportedly moved the materiel away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n1. Know how much you can afford to give.<\/strong> President Vladimir Putin sustains his power on the promise to Russians that he has, as he put it in 2010, \u201ceverything under control.\u201d This week\u2019s attack on the southern Belgorod region, launched from Ukraine, would have been alarming under any circumstances, but Putin\u2019s posture as the man in command makes it particularly hard to explain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-uncategorized","tag-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fund-one.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fund-one.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fund-one.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fund-one.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fund-one.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fund-one.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fund-one.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fund-one.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fund-one.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fund-one.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
When I spoke with Barbara Stanny, a financial educator who has written seven books about money management, she was very stern about the necessary groundwork. \u201cThe four rules of money: You spend less, you save more, you invest wisely, and you give generously \u2014 in that order,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t, not only do you sabotage your own future security, but you diminish the impact you can make.\u201d
Stanny also believes that, when done properly, giving money away can also inspire people to make and save more of it. \u201cFor many of my clients, managing money seems boring and stupid, but when there\u2019s a greater purpose, it becomes more compelling,\u201d she says.
In philanthropy parlance, this purpose is known as a \u201cgiving plan,\u201d and you don\u2019t need to be rich to make one. You can read entire books on the topic (Stanny recommends Tracy Gary\u2019s Inspired Philanthropy), but in short, it\u2019s simply figuring out how much you can give, where you want to give it, and when you\u2019ll be able to give more. If you can only pry a few bucks out of your budget right now, that\u2019s okay.
2. Do your research on the organizations you want to fund.<\/strong>
\u201cMy advice is to figure out what your passion is, and match it to an organization or an area where you want to see that change,\u201d said Mesch. This isn\u2019t difficult: What do you ruminate about in the middle of the night? Pinpoint that anxiety, and find the people who can fight it effectively. If your thing is women\u2019s reproductive rights, double down on it. If you\u2019re more concerned about racial justice, start there. Websites like Guidestar, Charity Navigator, and CharityWatch are great resources for researching nonprofits that align with the causes you care about; pick a lane (or a small few) and focus.
That said, don\u2019t fall victim to analysis paralysis. No charitable organization is perfect, and the websites that evaluate them are flawed, too. Once you\u2019ve decided on a cause and an amount, go through with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"