Archive for October, 2009

More Than Money, Part II

October 30, 2009

I wrote earlier today about taking inventory of your assets–beyond writing checks–to support your charitable causes. (Click here to review the checklist.) I’m still playing with these concepts, but as of now I see at least five categories that comprise your power to bring about social change.

1) You are a consumer

Linking our consumer purchasing decisions with our values is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal as a community.

If you have an iphone, arm yourself to make good purchasing decisions with the free goodguide app, which will allow you to type in the bar code for products on the shelf and get back a rating that will help you understand the social and environmental impact of that product.

When you shop the Amazon catalog, do it through www.alonovo.com, which pairs the search results with corporate social responsibility ratings for the company so you can include your values in your decision-making.

2) You are an investor

The old model of screening out “evil” companies is falling by the wayside. Instead, talk to your investment advisor about finding green tech or clean tech stocks or funds. And when you get those proxy notices in the mail, instead of pitching them, look at what the corporation is going to do and use your position as a shareholder to advocate for responsible decisions. For more info on working in partnership with corporations to address environmental concerns, check out Ceres at http://www.ceres.org

3) You are a person with a reputation

Have you considered how your name as a supporter and contributor might be used to lend credibility and even a “stamp of approval” to support the charities you care about?

4) You are a person with skills and talents

If your professional expertise is accounting,  have you considered how your knowledge of cash flow and accounts receivable could help the smaller charities you care about manage their money more effectively? If you are a school teacher, have you considered whether your skills as an educator might be put to use? Lots of  charities need their walls painted and their envelopes stuffed. But I always find it more  rewarding to use my professional expertise to help the charities I care about, because it’s something not everyone can do.

5) You are a person with a social network

Your friends and acquaintances are also more than money. If you’re not a graphic designer but you have a friend who is, you might recruit them to the cause. They could design a logo, a program for the big event, table tents, web design, etc.  If you have a twitter following, can you recruit them or mobilize them to take action on behalf of your favorite organizations? Putting a badge on your Facebook page or changing your icon to the charity logo lets your friends know you are passionate. And when your favorite charity asks you to take action, pass it along to your friends to magnify your effect.

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Posted in Giving Things, Giving Time, Lifestyle | 3 Comments »

More Than Money

October 30, 2009

I’m on a panel today at the Chicago Global Donor’s Network 6th annual Conference on International Philanthropy.

More than Money: Expanding Your Philanthropic Toolbox.

Many times donors think their primary contribution to the cause comes when they write a check.  In fact, passionate, committed supporters bring so many more assets to the table besides their financial wealth–including their own networks, skills, reputation and so much more. In this session you will hear how different populations, including ordinary individuals, foundations, celebrities and businesses, can mobilize the full complement of resources at their disposal to bring about social change.

Scott Lazerson, founder of the Interface Foundation, and I have developed a worksheet to help Interface Celebrity Global Ambassadors think through all the many assets they can use to further their philanthropic goals.

Financial:

  1. Donate ____% of my gross income, or  $__________ during the next twelve months
  2. Donate ____% of proceeds from my (book sales, speaking fees, designated product, etc.)
  3. Clean out my closet/basement/garage/trophy room and donate at least ___ items for auction or resale to benefit my charity; Donate gift baskets for charities to re-gift/auction
  4. Work with my financial advisor to ensure that my investment portfolio is aligned with my values
  5. Ask my sponsors/business partners/vendors to donate merchandise to benefit my charity
  6. Use my consumer purchasing power and give business to organizations who are helping the Millennium Development Goals, i.e. buying fair trade coffee, handcrafts, etc.
  7. Ask for donations in lieu of birthday/anniversary/graduation/wedding gifts

Time and Talent:

  1. Dedicate ___ days this year to volunteer with my charity or attend fundraising events
  2. Appear in Public Service Announcements, promotional videos or printed materials
  3. Donate my professional skills, such as writing, web development, marketing, or accounting
  4. Allow my charity to use my name publicly

Traditional Media:

  1. Mention my charity in at least ____ interviews or media appearances this year
  2. Wear charity clothing items/logos at ____ public appearances
  3. Provide a link on my website to my charity
  4. Take pictures and allow media access when I participate in charity events
  5. Include information about my charity in my personal newsletter

Social Media:

  1. Recruit ____friends, relatives to support my charities
  2. Tweet once every day/week/month about charitable projects; Tell my followers to be sure to follow my charity’s tweets.
  3. Blog: Write ____ posts about my charity this year
  4. Join a Facebook group, Ning network or other social community for my charity
  5. Use a charity badge as my social media icon for _____ weeks this year
  6. Include my charity in my email or iPhone tagline (instead of “Sent by my iPhone”)

What other assets do you have that you can use in service of your philanthropic goals? Leave me a comment to share your ideas.

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Why Do You Give to Charity?

October 27, 2009

According to a new study by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, differences in giving motivations can be explained by income and education. According to the press release issued last week:

  • Among lower-income donors (income less than $50,000), the phrases that resonated as a motivation for giving were helping to meet basic needs or helping the poor help themselves.
  • Donors with income between $50,000 and $100,000 were more likely than donors in either higher or lower income groups to say that they gave to “make the world better.”
  • Among donors with income of $100,000 or more, the phrases selected as motivations for giving included “those with more should help those with less” or “making my community better.”

For me, these phrases are too short and cold to capture my feelings on why I give to charity. My motivations are more complicated.

I won the lottery of birth. Through no virtue of my own, my soul was born into a healthy body, a loving family, a democratic nation. My life has been nothing but opportunity and I recognize that others have not been so fortunate. Out of gratitude for everything I have, and a desire to help others find opportunity in their own lives, I give to charity.

Garth Brooks wrote

I hear them saying “You’ll never change things. And no matter what you do it’s still the same thing “

But it’s not the world that I am changing. I do this so this world we know never changes me.

What I do is so this world will know that it will not change me

Charity, for me, is about living up to my inner voice, about bridging the gap between the person I am today and the person I aspire to be. And that’s also why check-writing isn’t the pinnacle of charity, no matter how big the check. In fact, it’s just the first step on a journey of a million steps.

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Posted in Giving Money, Lifestyle | 1 Comment »

Running Late

October 12, 2009

Last week I was struck by one of those unearned privileges of wealth and power: the right to be running late.

While visiting a nonprofit in downtown Chicago, I saw one of their donor relations folks in the hallway. In asking about her morning plans, she said she was rescheduling with a donor who ran into traffic and couldn’t make the meeting. We commiserated about the difficulties of navigating Chicago traffic for a bit and neither of us thought too much about it.

Later that same day, I was scheduled to give feedback to a job seeker about her interview skills and she was running late. By the time she walked into the room, I realized I already had a negative impression. “If she really wanted to make her life better,” I was thinking, “she would have found a way to get here on time.”

“Don’t be late” is one of the mantras of the interview process, especially at the lower end of the economic spectrum. Work out your child care issues, your transportation issues, whatever. Just don’t be late because it makes you seem unreliable, not serious, not a good team member. No excuses.

The double standard in our flexibility and mindset about overcoming everyday obstacles was glaring and uncomfortable. People in power are given leeway, presumably because whatever makes them late for the meeting, the lunch date, the deadline, is so important that we must understand the situation (especially if we need something from them). But the job seekers, the powerless folks who are hoping for that job, that chance at a better life, if they run into traffic or the bus is late, it just shows how irresponsible they are. Clearly, they should have planned to take an earlier bus but it’s okay if the wealthy donor didn’t expect to run into heavy traffic.

In my own journey to live an integrated life, I am confronting these uncharitable attitudes–my greatest obstacles– and trying to recognize them and name them out loud. It’s not that I want you to start being late for our lunch date, or that I won’t try so hard to be on  time. But I am hoping to slow my rush to judgment.

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Five Ways to Become Happier Today

October 8, 2009

Studying and teaching about happiness is, as I understand it, a relatively new field of positive psychology. The new definition of “healthy” is not a neutral state marked by the absence of mental or physical illness (surviving), but a positive state of productivity and satisfaction (thriving).

There is a web community called Big Think that brings thought leaders across disciplines together to share big ideas. This week, they featured a video conversation from Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard University lecturer on happiness on the topic of “Five Ways to Become Happier Today.”

According to Ben-Shahar, one of the key emotions correlating to happiness is gratitude. We often forget to be grateful until we experience loss or the possibility of loss–we’re grateful for our health after we’ve been sick, or we’re grateful for our jobs when we see others losing them. But cultivating our gratitude everyday helps us focus on everyday moments of happiness.

So How Do I Do It?

His big recommendation is to start keeping a gratitude journal. Each night before you go to bed, take a minute to write down five things you are grateful for, big or small. With my kids (who are 3 and 5), my approach is to ask them each night when I tuck them in to tell me three good things that happened to them today, or three things they are thankful for. When the answers tend toward “dessert,” I try to gently ask them about playing with their cousins after school or doing a puzzle with Daddy before dinner. They quickly catch on.

Gratitude Leads to Generosity

Ben-Shahar doesn’t go into what happens when you are more grateful and happier, but in my experience, gratitude leads you to realize just how much you already have, and that in turn make you realize just how much you have to give. Grateful people are generous people. Grateful people are philanthropic. If you want your children to grow up to be charitable, teach them empathy and gratitude by modeling empathy and gratitude.

Learn More

To learn about the other 4 things Ben-Shahar recommends in order to be happier, watch the full video by clicking here.

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Posted in Involving the Next Generation, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »