It's not about the money...

     As I start this post, the two teams in the lead each have 100 votes. By the time I finish, one of them will probably be in the lead again. WOW!

     Each time our circle has a voting week, I get caught up in the competition. It's exciting, it's part of what powers our circle and keeps awareness growing - and money flowing - to great organizations making the world fair for women and girls.  

     And yet. And yet.

     There's a part of me that it wishes it weren't so. It's hard to see any of these Teams lose because they are all doing amazing work, in different ways, doing their part to help the whole world tilt just a bit more toward fairness.

     Occasionally, people ask me why it needs to be "winner take all", why we don't parcel out the money to each of the Teams like prize money?

     A couple of reasons.  First, $5000 is a substantial enough grant that it is a worthy prize for a lot of nonprofits and we need the nonprofits to come and do the work required to tell their stories here in order for our group to be able to adequately evaluate them and award our grants.

     Second, in this grant cycle, there are four great Teams in contention.  I think we could all be happy if the money went to any of them.  But that may not always be so. And do we want to award money to nonprofits just for showing up?  I don't think so.

     Third, and maybe most important, there is one phrase that has run through my mind since I first came up with the idea for 5 for Fairness...  

"It's not about the money."  

    Sounds crazy, right?  Here we are, voting, checking the leaderboard, getting our friends to donate and vote, all hepped up about our Team winning the $5000. How can it NOT be about the money?

     Here's how:  Awarding the grant is the job our circle has to do.  It is the reason we come together here in this virtual world.  And the money will do good.  But far more important than the grant, at least to me, is the platform we are giving these organizations.  We let them be seen, we let their passion and their good work shine.  And we give them a chance to hone their storytelling skills in the social media space in front of an audience of 5fers who are really interested in what I call fairness but what others might call gender equity.

     There's another way "it's not about the money". Two grant cycles ago, we awarded our grant to Orchid Project, which works to end female genital cutting (FGM/FGC).  I think there may have been many 5fers who, before that grant cycle, had been unaware of FGM/FGC and who were shocked to learn the extent and breadth of that intractable custom.  But in the process of the grant cycle, we all learned about it.  

     And then, in this grant cycle, one of our interns, Kearney, asked the Maasai Girls Education Fund Team a great question,

"I was wondering what challenges you as an organization have faced in addressing the subject of FGM, and how it was received by the Maasai villagers?

     So yes, we give away money and that is the work of the group, but our work is also to learn about gender equity and to bring that knowledge to the circle and use it to help evaluate the Teams in the running in each grant cycle.  It's not about the money, it is about learning as individuals and as a group, about becoming more aware of the complexities of the issue and more thoughtful in our approach to making a difference.

     And one last thing: One of the reasons we only ask for a $5 donation from anyone who wants to join our circle is that we HOPE you will find an organization here that sparks you to support them - with your donations and/or as an advocate or volunteer!