Maverick Philanthropy is direct action by ordinary people who see a need and simply
decide to fill it. Maverick philanthropy is small-scale and grows only through the
activities of those directly involved. There are no mass-marketing campaigns, no large
administrative structures to support-- in fact there are seldom more than a couple of paid
staff outside the project itself, and many such projects are run entirely by volunteers.

A good example is Barbara Sher's project in the Turkish village of Ortahisar. (You can
read more about it at www.kilimwomen.com, or here on these pages.) Her description
of one of the projects she has there sums up the Maverick Philanthropist's philosophy
very well:

"I have a little job corps in the Turkish village, about 4 or 5 girls of high school age
from the poorest families, who I've asked to help the oldest people with their gardens.
Those gardens are so beautiful you wouldn't believe it, but it's harder each year for
the elderly to even get to them. But the girls help all summer and make what feels like
a lot of money to them, and help their whole families with that money. It's a tiny bit of
money to us, but there you are. A tiny little job corps. Who can stop me?"

"Who can stop me?"

All over the world, and often in our own backyards there are
millions of small projects. Things which need doing. Things which
we have the tiny bit of money or the skill necessary to do. We
don't need big organizations, gigantic fund-raising campaigns, or
large staffs to do them. We just need to ask, "Who can stop us?"

At www.maverickphilanthropy.org we hope to encourage more people to ask this
question by show-casing the projects of people who have answered it for themselves.
To see the list of projects show-cased, click on the 'projects' button above, or click here.

If you have a project of your own-- or know of someone who has-- please write to me
about it at statoun@maverickphilanthropy.org