Cool Rich Kids

"Do you have a friend who...

a) Comes from a rich family

b) holds a lucrative job

c) is not an asshole

d) wants to do good

Instructions:

DO NOT blow their cover by handing them this flyer in front of people and laughing ha ha ha.

DO send them to our charming little website www.adventurephilanthropy.net"

So reads the flyer for one of the hippest and stealthiest movements around: the Cool Rich Kids. From the wording of the message, it is hard to tell exactly what they are. Secret society? Social justice organization? Self-help group? All of the above? For the uninitiated, the flyer raises more questions than it answers. Like, who is cool and a rich kid? Do they really exist?

They do exist, and possibly in larger numbers than you'd expect. Take Gita Drury. She grew up in the affluent California city of Palo Alto. As a teenager she was aware of the difference between life in her town and in East Palo Alto, its much poorer neighbor. What Gita did not understand was how the system of inequity functioned, or what her role was in changing it. When she was older, she started doing work for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. Even then, she kept her personal life, and her considerable personal finances, separate from her advocacy. One day her mentor and fellow Legal Services empoyee, Dorsey Nunn, showed her another side to her potential as an activist. On a long drive to a prison, Dorsey spoke to Gita about her connections to other people with money, connections that could be mined for the sake of social justice. He said, "I'm never going to be invited to those pool parties. The people at those pool parties need to know what's going on. You are invited to those places."

That day Gita began to understand how she, as a person with resources and contacts, could use them to further her dream of making the world a better place. Her assets, which are a source of shame to so many socially-conscious young people, were not just baggage or a personal issue -- they were another avenue of involvement, and potentially, a critical one.

27-year-old Gita is one of many young people who have chosen to use their wealth to further their activism. Gita isn't always thrilled about her position within the activist community -- she says that sometimes people try to pigeonhole her as the fundraising person, as if that is all she has to contribute. Yet Gita realizes how important that sort of contribution is to the expansion of the progressive movement. She and other Cool Rich Kids represent the next generation of donors and networkers in philanthropy that is making change, not charity, its first priority.

According to organizer Jamie Schweser, 28, Cool Rich Kids existed before they were labeled as such. Young people have a history of using their wealth to make change, and the Cool Rich Kids are the poster children of this generation. Despite their rising fame, don't waste your time looking for their website or phone number. The Cool Rich Kids aren't an organization, but a network. The phrase itself was coined by Billy Wimsatt in his 1999 book "No More Prisons," the title of which has since been tattooed on sidewalks all over the country. The book is about fight against the Prison Industrial Complex, among other things. It includes an entire chapter on "the Cool Rich Kids Movement, and Why Philanthropy Is the Greatest Art Form of the 21st Century."

Billy actively promotes the movement, both through his book and through college recruitment visits. His the most famous name attached to Cool Rich Kids, but he is not its only leader. Jamie and Gita, among others, have taken on important roles in the Making Money Make Change conference. The conference enables wealthy young people, usually "trust fund kids," to get together to talk about using their money to promote social transformation. This September marks its fifth anniversary.