• @AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca
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    5828 days ago

    1 million dollars doesn’t go that far these days, at the world scale it is almost nothing.

    You could however make a lasting difference in your community by making a scholarship, building needed facilities, or doing something else where you directly make sure the funds go where needed and can’t be used for other uses. Lets face it, if you give it to some charities 90% of it will just go to the administration.

    • @tetris11@lemmy.ml
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      26 days ago

      One of the things that I’ve seen is that politicians can be bribed for shockingly little money. I think with a 1million dollars you could bribe one high member of congress, or 10-20 low-level politicians.

    • 10_0
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      -127 days ago

      “1 million dollars doesn’t go that far” depends on what you use it for. Donating it all in one go will not take it far. Investing it in an education for climate science (or paying for some to do climate science) will take it further as you’ll have some leftover to make more of an impact. Also isn’t admin apart of the cost of being a charity org?

  • lettruthout
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    2028 days ago

    Follow in the footsteps of Gil Cisneros

    "…is an American government official, philanthropist, and politician who served as Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness in the Biden administration. He served as the U.S. representative for California’s 39th congressional district from 2019 to 2021

    “In 2010, he and his wife won a $266 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot and became philanthropists, establishing endowments for scholarships to be given to Latino students at GWU and the University of Southern California. They also founded Generation First Degree Pico Rivera, with the goal of ensuring every Latino household in Pico Rivera has at least one college graduate, and the Gilbert and Jacki Cisneros Foundation with an initial investment of $20 million to provide mentorship in education.”

  • @Didros@beehaw.org
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    1328 days ago

    Hire as many hitmen as I can to kill the wealthiest people. But we would have to keep doing it, and it wouldn’t dissuade anyone from hording money…so?

    • Vanth
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      528 days ago

      Put 3/4 on the hit and 1/4 betting on the stock market reaction only you know is coming. Profit. Repeat.

    • @Dave@lemmy.nz
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      128 days ago

      Well, every time assets get split between their 3 kids, you reduce the assets accumulated in one couple.

  • @Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
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    728 days ago

    Set up a trust to invest the money, from the compounding returns, use a sustainable portion of the dividends to fund a cause you believe will help change the world. Be very explicit to the trust managers as to the long term instructions of the trust.

    With compound market returns the million dollars could be worth $40 million in 50 years and would be distributing af a sustainable 3% dividend, 1.2 million a year to a cause you believe in.

  • LalSalaamComrade
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    28 days ago

    One million dollars can’t do jack shit to “fix” this world. It’s like telling the doctor to put an adhesive bandage over a third-degree burn.

  • @Joshi@aussie.zone
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    728 days ago

    I have an idee fixe that I could set up a non profit that bought homes and rented them at a price somewhere between the maintenance cost and the market price. It would make a profit and slowly expand providing more and more affordable housing. Ideally it would start with more than 1 million but doesn’t need to.

    • @mke_geek@lemm.ee
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      -228 days ago

      If you rent at cost or even a little over you’ll go broke. People won’t pay their rent and trash the places. Non-profits are finding out that they can’t even support what they’re trying to do with housing because the actual costs are more than what you think are “at cost”.

  • @WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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    727 days ago

    Dedicate the $1 million to funding zoning reform efforts in your city to allow for the construction of more housing and reduce the cost of housing for everyone.

  • @Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee
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    628 days ago

    I think spending all of it on feeding people who are starving. You could keep a lot of people alive on a million, even if it was just for long enough to give them a second chance on their own. And even if that second chance failed, then at least all of the goodness of those people would have more time to be in the world.

  • @blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk
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    428 days ago

    You might be able to buy some land, build a playground and maintain it for a few years in a deprived neighbourhood. If you have money left over, do it again somewhere else.

  • 10_0
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    427 days ago

    Give to a charity. Get an education that persues ecology or climate science. Fund someone doing ecology or climate science. Ignore the money and find a group planting trees. Plant trees. Plant trees. Plant trees. Plant.trees

    • @lemming934
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      223 days ago

      I’m generally against the idea of planting as many trees as possible.

      Trees are not very good carbon sinks because they decompose and burn. Also, there are also some ecological communities where adding trees makes the land a worse carbon sink.

      Avoiding cutting down forests to build suburbs is something I can certainly get behind though.

      • 10_0
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        223 days ago

        Fair, but I think that the economic benefits of growing more wood is a big factor, I’m in the UK so planting trees is OK basically anywhere. I think kelp forests are also a good option, not sure about any other benefits outside of using green house gases.