We often align spending based on our personal interests and well-being, without necessarily thinking about impacting our community. That’s where patriotic spending come into play. Patriotic spending is the utilization of personal assets to benefit our community, cities, and inevitably our country. What it means to spend patriotically is to focus expendable income in a way that directly influences and benefits our country.
We are faced with American corporations who often times offshore manufacturing, tech support, and other aspects of their value supply chain. Reliance on other countries to help us meet bottom lines is not patriotic. Money is being invested in countries where labor laws are less stringent, and “sweatshops” are a cheaper means of meeting production demands. According to Reuters.com, currently large corporations hold close to $2,100,000,000,000 in other countries to avoid U.S. taxation.
A means to spend patriotically is through local nonprofits. Unlike big corporations, local nonprofits are a way to ensure that every dollar that you spend is benefiting our neighbors directly. Every cent of every dollar is either being utilized on programs that affect the communities we live in, as well as paying wages for our neighbors, friends, and relatives. Money is powerful, and empowers individuals to become stake holders for activities and causes they care most about.
The report: “Return on Investment: Alexandria Nonprofit Impact Report” delves into just how important this region is for philanthropic work in the Commonwealth, as well as how nonprofits divide their efforts based on different community demands. “Alexandria is a key driver of nonprofit activity in the Commonwealth of Virginia.” This rich and diverse city has a broad range of needs, and many opportunities financially to address them. This is part of what leads to “Northern Virginia accounting for 39 percent of the state’s nonprofit activity.”
What nonprofits and charities in the area do is help improve the lives of American families. What is more patriotic than focusing on aiding and assisting current and future generations? The report also shows: Homelessness is just a small portion of what nonprofits in the human services sector are tackling, 17 percent to be precise. Twenty percent goes towards child development and elementary education, 7 percent towards family services, and another 17 percent for youth development. The last 39 percent goes towards garnering support for physical and mental disabilities, workforce development, health and mental services, secondary and adult education as well as other pertinent concerns.
Contributing to local nonprofits is not only a means to donate your money, but it also invests it in a way which directly impacts our immediate surroundings. The work that nonprofits and charities do fills in the gaps where government and corporations are least effective. Ultimately we’re left with a choice on how we spend our well-deserved assets. Just remember that to spend patriotically is to invest in our community.
Timothy Wong is the marketing and communications intern at ACT for Alexandria.