The Power of Half

Hannah Salwen was a lucky young woman. She was a member of a family of four, including loving parents who were successful professionals and a younger brother who wasn't too gross. The family lived in a famous three-story historic home in Atlanta, so large that it was often used for galas. But Hannah wasn't content. She felt that her family lived in too much opulence compared to most of the people in the world. And even though her parents tried to explain their yearly charitable giving, Hannah felt it was something of an afterthought.

Hannah and her father Kevin were stopped in Altanta at a stoplight that often took several minutes to change. At the side of the intersection stood a disheveled homeless man with a sign asking for help. Kevin, who typically carried five-dollar McDonald's Arch cards to hand out in such situations, discovered he was out of cards. Reluctant to give cash that might be spent on alcohol or drugs, Kevin tried not to look at the homeless man. Hannah, however, looked at the man and saw a Mercedes convertible pull in between her and the man. She said, "Dad, if that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal." And thus began a voyage for the Salwen family that would result in a house half the size of the three-story Atlanta mansion, an $800,00 donation to charity, a book, and a new family reality.

The book is The Power of Half by Kevin and Hannah Salwen. Tenacious Hannah started a campaign to convince her family to do something large and meaningful for less fortunate people of the world. Her mother Joan, knowing teenagers can blow hot and cold on such things, asked what the children would be willing to sacrifice for this goal. She said, "If you guys really want to make a difference, we don't need this large house. Enough is as good as a feast. We could live in a place half this size, and use the excess money to really do something to help others."

To her mom's surprise, Hannah shouted, "Dude, we should definitely do this!" The family ultimately donated $800,000 to two villages in Ghana, but more about what the money accomplished later.

Of course, Kevin and Hannah's book does not suggest that every family give away half of its belongings. There are benefits to all families in just having the "giving" discussion. As a father watching his family decide how to spend such a sum on others, Kevin noted that three "Cool Things" came out of the project other than charity. Deciding who to help and how brought about Cool Thing #1. The family was brought together more than ever before. They established a working plan whereby everyone had the same information and every family member had one vote in decisions. Kevin praised his children's growth as critical thinkers and the democratic atmosphere that was birthed in their home.

Cool Thing #2 is that just about everything the family did can be reproduced by other families. The important thing is to choose a measurable giving amount that fits your budget and have democratic conversations about how to spend it for good.

Cool Thing #3 is that the process works for all kinds of families: divorced families, nontraditional families and intergenerational ones. Any family can be enriched by those "Three Cool Things."

Now about that $800,000. The family researched the effectiveness of all kinds of charitable business plans. They were shocked to find out that so many of these plans were not effective because they were basically handouts, so they knew they wanted to work with an organization that required some "sweat equity" from recipients similar to Habitat for Humanity. Ultimately they decided on the Hunger Project.

The Hunger Project requires that the villagers who receive funding do the physical labor to construct an epicenter which will contain a bank, a meeting room, nurse's quarters, and food storage facility, and is wired for electricity in the eventuality that the power grid reaches the village. They must create a management board of which 50% are women. A paradigm shift happens in the villages moving them from "Here are the things we need" to "Here is what we can do for ourselves." The Salwens' $800,000 will be divided evenly between two villages to build an economic structure to support themselves.

For any family preparing to make its giving practices part of the its family dialogue, I strongly recommend The Power of Half as a must read.


Written by Pam Piedfort