Why Is It So Hard to do Good?

WHY DON’T OUR GOVERNMENTS WANT TO SOLVE THE LONELINESS PROBLEM?

I have been an entrepreneur most of my working life. It was easy and predictable to make money. Although I never made a lot, I made as much as I wanted. I mostly focused my work on shifting culture within business organizations.

Then 12 years ago, I switched to use my talent and resources to do something good for the world, bring neighbours closer together into trusting relationships for mutual support. That’s when I created the Happy Community Project.

For every step of our journey to shift culture so that it is normal for neighbours to know, care about and support each other, our governments have put up obstacles, objections, rules and barriers.  Even though we have proven our capabilities, we operate in an environment of government mistrust. So today, I ask WHY? What is more important than rebuilding our social fabric that binds us together?

With all the political drama going on right now; With all the mental illness and social problems arising out of loneliness (48% of adults experience loneliness), you’d think when a solution presented itself, our governments would pave the way.

Most people want this to happen, and many philanthropists are willing to support our good works. But then our governments at all levels place many obstacles on the road and lawyers and insurance companies operating under government laws and regulations place extra burdens on the path.

It seems the basic assumption that underlines government policy and lawyer thinking is if you are trying to do good, there must be a hidden selfish agenda that we have to protect people from. What a demoralizing, time wasting downer.

There are also attitudes that if you are actually doing good, it must come from the heart, isn’t that payment enough? Or worse, if you are doing good, how are you ripping off the system?

Here is very short list of challenges placed by governments.

• CRA makes it very risky for philanthropists to share money with not-for profits and so most don’t.
• Government granting agencies rarely fund holistic solutions like shifting culture. They focus on funding simplistic symptomatic problems that meet a check box, rather than results.
• Government people seem to forget that people doing good want to feed their families as much as they do. (When requesting a grant – I was told I hadn’t volunteered enough yet – even though I was donating my own money and hundreds of hours)
• Governments make regulations for how to prevent things, never how to make things happen. Example- volunteers have to go through as many as 5 qualifications to do a simple task such as pick up a can of beans and put it in the cupboard for someone else. Leaders are burdened with regulations, check lists and administrative duties and spend a lot of demoralizing effort begging for financial help, often leaving little time to actually do the good work.
• Provincial and Federal governments recognize that loneliness and mental health is a big problem – they recognize the social determinants of health are important, but they focus their monies on professional support for the mentally afflicted and are not interested in prevention (So I have been told several times by public servants)
• There is a resistance to try new ideas – instead money seems to flow toward ideas that have been tried many times without much success (I saw one government community building grant for $500,000 that resulted in 37 people watching an outdoor movie)
• Organizations that get Core Funding from granting agencies (we haven’t been able to) never know when they are going to be shut down one year to the next.
• The mental strain on those trying to do good is enormous. Many if not most quit in burnout because it is just too hard. 95% of non profit leaders say burnout is on their mind.

This is just a short list of obstacles and frustrations that are placed in the way of people trying to do good.

If I wanted to start a business that is doing harm – selling cigarettes lets say, it’s easy. I can be up and running in a week.

So I ask, why is it the policy of our governments to make it hard for people to do good? Why is the focus on risk aversion (I have been told 1 in a billion is too much risk) instead of solutions that work?

Why do people who make the rules want to design the rules for failure instead of success? Just asking?

Please tell me about your thoughts, your experiences. Perhaps you are a politician watching my feeds who can share how to cut through the obstacles or comment on why it is so important to make it hard for people to come together to do good. Or perhaps you are a nonprofit leader who has your perspective? Or you are someone who wants to start your own initiative?