TEAM MODERNIST ON Funding Your Heroes, Ladies Who Lovebomb, and Mahalia Jackson
This month we’re excited to share our new philanthropic giving plan (and ask for your feedback), inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and thoughts on values-aligned financial planning.
Modernist giving
Modernist is so grateful for the non-profits that support our community. Each year we are proud to help fund their heroic work. As we grow, we want to be a more reliable partner for them, especially in light of systemic inequities undermining their efforts. Moving forward, we intend to give through structure, not anxiety. So we created a philanthropic giving plan to Fund Our Heroes (and yours).
Our desired philanthropic impact is to:
Increase the number of Oregonians with access to arts education
Move the needle on wealth inequality
Practice intentional giving alongside our clients and business community
To help us live up to this mission, we would love your input on organizations we should support! You can give us your suggestions here.
You can also check out our blog for Modernist’s 2017 Year in Review, including a full list of our 2017 donations.
Modernist heroes
Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches inspire us in our dream to fund our heroes, especially those working to combat wealth inequality. At the beginning of his “I Have A Dream" speech, he highlights a money story in America’s too-slow progress towards justice:
In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
Songs that are really about heroes
Artists are often the soul of great social change movements. Martin Luther King Jr. had a particular reliance on song to inspire and lift himself up for the noble and fearsome task he set himself. Watch Mahalia Jackson set the stage for his famous speech on a day that was just one step in the many that are needed to dismantle racism and bring about true equality.
Modernist takes it outside
Last month, Georgia was featured on Ladies Who Lovebomb - a podcast that seeks to make activism more accessible.
Georgia and host Jill Hilbrenner had a fun chat about how *not* to hire the patriarchy as your financial planner. Listen here!
Q4 2017 insights from our investment committee
Global stock markets delivered robust gains once again in the fourth quarter, capping off a stellar 2017. Read a thorough review of the quarter here.
You can check out additional Market Commentary on our blog, including the high costs of trying to time the market, Richard Thaler’s studies on self-control, and ways to protect your information online.
