The Conical Glass: The giving life

Thursday, February 08, 2007

The giving life

A while back, during my year-end burst of housecleaning activity, I wrote about the piles of magazines that accumulate on our kitchen counter -- publications we don't subscribe to, but receive anyway, from alumni associations, AAA, the Humane Society, etc. A few days ago, a new one showed up in the mailbox: Benefit, "The Lifestyle of Giving." At first I thought it must have been a mistake because it had three rather glamorous looking women on the cover and was printed on such glossy paper that I figured it was a fashion magazine. (I don't subscribe to any of those.) Then I noticed the subheads: "Giving, Inc.: The top ten Bay Area corporate philanthropists." "Black+White+Gold: On the Red Carpet with the Academy of Friends." This was obviously a super-fancy magazine for rich people who give a lot of money to charity, so why were they sending it to me?

Inside was a notice stating, "You have been gifted a subscription to Benefit from one of the following." We've donated to two of the organizations on the list (826 Valencia and Project Open Hand), so I suppose I'm lucky that I didn't wind up with two copies. Anyway, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but Benefit seems geared to people who have much more money to give away than I do. Some of its advertisers include The Ritz-Carlton Club; Simayof jewelers; Ensemble Capital Management (specializing in "tactical philanthropy"); and Lily Samii, a designer whose fashions cost well into the four figures.

In addition to ads, Benefit features an eight-page fashion layout (prices for the clothing conspicuously absent) and interviews with local philanthropists. For instance, Lisa Stevens is a regional president for Wells Fargo, has three kids under 8 years of age, and volunteers for 12 different nonprofits. "This year, we took two of our children to Glide Memorial at Thanksgiving and served food. It started them thinking about giving and asking questions like, 'Where do these people live?'" There's also a "Philanthroscope" offering astrological advice: "Cancer: Start contributing to a cause that visibly transforms the quality of life on the planet."

A couple days after Benefit showed up in my mailbox, it was in the news -- it turns out that one of its staff members is Ruby Rippey-Tourk, the woman whose affair with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom has been the subject of banner headlines in the Chronicle for the past several days. Interestingly, the Benefit web site still depicts the cover of an issue from last fall featuring the mayor: "Why Gavin Gives." Oh, he gives, all right! Gav is also prominent in the current issue, shown lounging on a grass couch in front of City Hall (a temporary installation meant to raise awareness of environmental issues).

Benefit also includes page after page of photos taken at local charity events, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor's Red Tie Gala ("Guests were treated to six floors of international flavors by an all-star team of chefs"). I've never quite understood the appeal of charity galas. If you want to make a donation to the Little Sisters of the Poor, why don't you just send them a check? Why does giving have to come with a side order of entertainment? Here's my personal Philanthroscope: "Sagittarius: Write a check to your favorite charity, change into your sweatpants, and spend the evening at home on the couch with the dog watching 'Law and Order' reruns."

posted by 125records @ 6:48 PM

3 Comments:

At 11:10 AM, Joe said…

Gavin's 20-year-old "ex-girlfriend" Brittanie Mountz also works at Benefit. If Kimberley is ever down on her luck, I guess she knows where to send her resume.
At 4:35 PM, 2fs said…

"Brittanie Mountz"? Good lord but the jokes write themselves...
At 5:56 PM, yellojkt said…

The overhead on that must be enormous. There has to be a better use for that money.