About
About Sharon
Here’s what I’m about: philanthropy as a lifestyle, not a year-end check.
Here are the things I value: my family, honesty, compassion, sharing, respect, enlightenment. These values lead me to be a bit of an environmentalist and a believer in Fair Trade. I was raised a Catholic, so I have a particular passion for social justice and poverty issues.
The Philanthropic Family is meant to be a resource for everyday people to infuse everyday life with love of humanity. This translates to many small acts of kindness, teachable moments, big projects and family traditions. To read a bit more about why I started this blog, see Introduction to The Philanthropic Family.
Professional Bio
Sharon Schneider is an expert on family philanthropy and the private foundation sector. She is currently Philanthropic Director at Foundation Source, the nation’s leading expert on private foundations. From inception to impact, Sharon assists the company’s 1,000 family foundations to accomplish their philanthropic goals. She has been an adviser to dozens of philanthropists, from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to individual donors.
Sharon’s specialty is getting donors excited and engaged in philanthropy through social entrepreneurship, program-related investing and creative, non-traditional approaches to using our social capital for the social good. Along with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, she co-founded of the Chicago Social Venture Forum to encourage and facilitate program-related investing among small foundations. In partnership with the Foundation for Global Leadership, Sharon designed the first International Family Philanthropy Institute, culminating in a two-week donor education journey to Rwanda and Uganda in 2009. Most recently, Sharon has launched the Executive Director Institute, a year-long program that prepares family members acting in a staff role for their family foundation.
Prior to joining Foundation Source in 2002, Sharon was in Institutional Planning and Evaluation at The Pew Charitable Trusts. In addition to working with the Trusts’ program staff to develop and manage strategies for social change, she helped to incubate the foundation’s efforts to capture and share 50 years of experience in philanthropy, including “Pew University” for internal grantmakers and donor services for external grantmakers.
Sharon has spoken at the Council on Foundations, Resource Generation, Advisors in Philanthropy, Northwestern’s Global Engagement Summit, and for dozens of charities, donor organizations, estate planning councils and others. She also has experience as a grant seeker for the Dayton Art Institute inDayton, OH
Sharon currently serves on the board of her family’s private foundation and on the family philanthropy committee of the Council on Foundations. Sharon is a past board member of the International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy and a Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Dayton, and served on the program committee of the Chicago Global Donors Network. Sharon received her undergraduate degree from the University of Toledo (summa cum laude) and her master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
You can reach me at sharon dot l dot schneider at gmail dot com
July 1, 2008 at 10:59 pm |
[...] Jump to Comments In her blog The Philanthropic Family, Sharon Schneider discusses the merits of Product (RED) and its new music service, as well as the controversy over [...]
December 13, 2010 at 2:32 pm |
Hi Sharon -
Friday’s post on One Hen was very compelling. I had not heard of the book, and though my kids are a little old for it, a good book is a good book – especially when the message is so important. So I will share it with them, maybe even when there’s a friend around! (oh, I am a conniving mommy!)
Thought you might be intrigued by an organization I volunteer for. Its called SeeYourImpact.org. While so many wonderful organizations are working to pull people out of poverty through MicroFinance, what SeeYourImpact does is MicroPhilanthropy. Very similar, but the difference is that its targeting different needs than banking – things like medicine, education, clean water.
What I am just jazzed about is that since its micro-level you reach a real individual when you give. Better yet, donation amounts are super-small, so kids can use their allowance to make a tangible, even visible difference in another child’s life.
Through SeeYourImpact.org, charities on the ground receive fully 100% of the donation you – or your children – make. Turnaround time is super fast so in just two weeks you get a photo of the person you reached with the story of how your donation impacted their life (or saved their life)! It is very powerful – especially since kids can actually “see” their “impact.”
Please forgive me, but I am absolutely sold on this and I think you will be too. Here’s the link for more info: http://seeyourimpact.org
Also, I am in process of writing a series of posts for the SeeYourImpact blog specifically addressing how moms (parents) can (should) get their children “addicted to Giving instead of Getting.” I am always checking out your site, but would greatly appreciate any insights you can provide directly.
Keep up the amazing work – I love to read it all!
Cheers -
Erin DeChristopher Turtel