My friend Azriel Cohen is an amazing person who uses his gifts as an artist to bring more peace into the world. Among other things, he has brought together Israelis and Palestinians to study with Thich Nhat Hanh, the world renown Vietnamese Zen master. Azriel is currently in Sarejova presenting his Jerusalem cafes exhibit at an international leadership conference.
The Jerusalem Cafes exhibit is a traveling exhibit of Azriel’s in which he recreates the cafe culture of the Palestinian cafes of East Jerusalem and the Jewish cafes of west Jerusalem. In recreating the simple, Azriel helps people understand the complex. If you want to support his work, you can always make a donation, but if you want to support his work and have some wonderful art to show for it, I recommend you purchase one of his Giclée prints which can be found at http://azrielcohen.com/. There is a great video of the Jerusalem Cafe exhibit on his home page as well as buttons to see and purchase his art.
Azriel spent a month in the States during teh Jewish holidays this autumn. I had, and still have but in a less intense way, the pleasure of coaching him through fundraising for his projects. As I noted, he is not just an artist, but a social entrepreneur. His art and his work have brought him in contact with many top philanthropists and wealthy people, but he does not know how to use his rolodex and those contacts to build what he desires.
We were talking about a philanthropist who he had a chance to spend the day with a few months ago. A mutual friend had brought them together for a day in the Negev, and they ahd explored some of the beauty of Israel’s desert together. Azriel had not touched base with him since and thought he might be interested in helping to fund the travelling Jerusalem Cafes exhibit. However, another acquaintance had told him not to call the philanthropist because there were some health issues in the family that the man was dealing with. With that information, Azriel decided not to call.
I told Azriel he was being selfish. He possessed an opportunity for a donor to fund a project which was going to do much good in the world. In fact, it might possibly have an effect on a visitor who has influence with the right people such that it could even bring about change in a highly charged political situation such that it would not only change the world one person at a time, but it could have national, regional, and worldwide impact.
If Azriel was only thinking about himself and how the fundign might help him show the exhibit one more time during the year, then sure, why bother asking. But if he believed, as I do, that the potential impact of his work is something much greater than himself, and that he uniquely possesses the opportunity for a donor to fund a project which could change that donor’s life as well as the lives of others, then he has the obligation to ask for funding.
How can he know that hearing about and funding his project is exactly what this philanthropist needs to help him through the difficult time he is in? What if the man was looking for a project just like this to honor his son and demonstrate his love for his son in the last few months of his life? What if that were the case and Azriel did not ask?
Do you have have a project or are you involved with a charitble cause that is bigger than yourself? I hope so. And I hope you are not so selfish as to think that asking others to help with the work of that cause through financial gifts or investing time and wisdom in its operations and governance is about you.
The work we do when we involve ourselves with charitable not-for-profits is bigger than ourselves. It’s bigger than the fear of being told “no” by our friends and colleages. And when we realize that they are not saying “no” to us personally, then we not only have the right and the obligation to ask, but also we should have no fear of doing so.
So if you are not involved with a charitable organization, I challenge you to pick up the phone right now and call one that has meaning for you and let them know you want to help. If you are involved, then I challenge you to take one more “card”, to volunteer to solicit one more donor on behalf of the chairty and the beneficiaries of its good work. Or if you are not sure what kind of impact you can have, I encourage you to read James Brausch’s challenge to go buy some socks and hand them out to the homeless. He tells you how and why here: http://www.jamesbrausch.com/?p=842.
After you have taken action, let me and all of the readers here, know what you have done. Because when you get that it’s not about you, then amazing things happen to you.
