The True de Tocqueville Story

This morning, the Boston Business Journal ran a story  (BBJ log in required) on United Way's Alexis de Tocqueville society (AdT). You can get the full details of AdT here, but as a summary, AdT is United Way's highest giving society. It is named after the author of the historic book "Democracy in America," which highlights America's spirit of philanthropy.

The article gives a sense of the recent growth of our Alexis de Tocqueville society, due in part to a giving challenge posed by Robert Beal, president of The Beal Companies. And that of course is tremendous news. But that's not what I want to talk about today…

For me, the story in Alexis de Tocqueville and the Beal Challenge is larger than the money raised through it (though I will be the first to tell you just how critical those donations are). The story is in the personal commitment of Alexis de Tocqueville society members – the epic decision they've made to opt-in when it comes to this community, to remain connected, responsible, to take a stake in the success of our region and the people within it. This is no small feat.

I can guarantee you, if you stay up late enough tonight, past the late night talk shows into the hour of infomercials, you will find some snake-oil salesman hollering about how to get on “The road to wealth and independence.” Wealth is a wonderful thing, and I can certainly see how it could lead to new levels of independence, but I'm not sure that independence should be our end goal.

What's special about Beal's challenge and the challenges of people like Warren Buffett is that it asks people to step out of isolation. To think more broadly about the impact they can made to the larger community. To change the very way they live and think about their success.

Dollars are easy to measure. Dollar amounts allow us to know if we're up or down, winning or losing. But the figure alone, without context, is just a tally. The article mentioned that there will be 770 de Tocqueville members and more than $16 million raised this year. That's an incredible figure, but think for a moment, about just how powerful it becomes once invested into driving real change -- closing the achievement gap, giving youth better opportunities, fulfilling a plan to end homelessness, supporting a network providing Massachusetts families with the education and skills to get ahead. That's where the growth of AdT really gets exciting.