November 2010

Now that the election is behind us, we don't have to sit helplessly by for two years and watch our nation fall further behind. While Congress and the Administration battle it out, there's a way we can move forward: the Caring Economics Campaign. 

A Call to Action

Drawing from The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as "a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking," CPS's goal is to put caring economics at the top of our nation's agenda by 2012! This will not only provide much needed jobs; it's essential as we move into the knowledge/service era, where human capacity development is the key to personal and economic success.

In our wealthy nation poverty has been rising, the elderly can't pay their heating bills as winter approaches, essential education and other services for children are being gutted - even though caring jobs reduce  high unemployment and caring for children is the most effective investment our nation can make.

The Caring Economics Campaign

I am asking you to join with me, our powerful Advisory Council, Kimberly Otis (Campaign director), and CPS's entire team in mobilizing a new economic movement. The Caring Economics Campaign trains grassroots activists to do this through their networks, families, and organizations. We also work on the policy level, with exciting new developments with especially positive impacts on the lives of women and children - the majority of our population.

As our Campaign gains awareness and traction nationally and internationally, more people understand that investing in caring for people is the most critical and cost-effective investment a society can make. 

A few days ago, New York Governor-elect Andrew M. Cuomo said it well: "Balancing the budget is a priority for me," he said, but "the flip side of that equation is balancing that budget with the very necessary, important services that the state is providing, the services where you are literally taking care of human beings."

NoVo Foundation Challenge Grant

Help prioritize what really matters. Please donate now to improve our economy and our lives. Your donation will be doubled by a generous challenge grant from the NoVo Foundation that will match every gift 100%.  This is an unprecedented show of confidence in the Caring Economics Campaign that doubles the impact of your gift. 

Every $100 you give, matched with another $100 by our challenge grant, will underwrite a scholarship for our on-line leadership training program. Your gift will add another person to the hundreds we're training.  Each of them - including the people you support - will train dozens of others. I also want to invite you to become a leader by enrolling in this powerful program. 

State of the USA

And there's much more.  A major step toward humane, sustainable, and caring policies is our collaboration with the State of the USA (SUSA), which is working with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to develop new indicators that go beyond GDP. We proposed Social Wealth indicators to be part of the upcoming Key National Indicator System of SUSA, following the recommendations in the CPS-commissioned report this year from the Urban Institute, The State of Society: Measuring Economic Success and Human Well-Being - and are working with SUSA on their development.

Matching Funds Challenge

This is a breakthrough, and I need your help so these accurate and inclusive measures of quality of life and economic success become as well known as the misleading Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is today. Every $500 you give - matched by our challenge grant to be $1,000 - supports our convening of organizations to insert caring economics into their programs and communications with members and with the media. To date, we have leaders of organizations representing 30 million people signed up. Now is the time to energize and mobilize them - and this is where you can make the difference. 

With Social Wealth Indicators to support movement toward a caring economics, and more trained, dedicated volunteers, you can make the current economic crisis an opportunity for real change. Please join with me in realizing this opportunity. To donate now, please click here or you may send your check for $100, $500, $1,000 to Center for Partnership Studies, PO Box 51936, Pacific Grove, CA 93950. No amount is too small....every dollar makes a difference, so please donate what you can.

Together, we will succeed! I look forward to partnering with you in this exciting and urgent enterprise.

I thank you!

Riane Eisler
President, Center for Partnership Studies