As a self-professed excellent student (I had my first Franklin Planner at 17 and used to like nothing better than getting a new Trapper Keeper ready for a new school year), I expected Philanthropy 101 to be a cakewalk.
I mean, isn’t that what 101 means?
Clearly, Professor Siobhan never got the memo, because she put us through the ringer (in a good way, of course, seeing as how she is my boss) today at the first of a series of philanthropic education workshops The Women’s Foundation is hosting for current donors.
I knew this wasn’t going to be underwater basket weaving when the good professor handed us a worksheet with a ton of values words–from acceptance to peace to democracy to dignity to justice to opportunity to access (and that’s just the beginning)–and asked us to narrow the list down to our top three.
Three?
Then, just when we thought we’d had enough, she did the same with a list of issues a mile long, including women’s rights, literacy, drug and alcohol abuse, environmental preservation, domestic violence, international development and employment training (Oh, and I’m not even covering a fourth of it.).
Only this time she asked us to narrow it down to one.
One.
It was madness, I say. Pure madness.
But educational madness, I must admit.
Philanthropy, she explained (as she has before), is as much about learning to say no as it is about finally getting to say yes. (The technical term for which, Prof. S explained is, "the good part.")
(And yes, you will be quizzed on this later.)
While at times tricky, the discussion overall was a thought-provoking, welcome introduction to thinking about philanthropy from an individual perspective and how to begin thinking about how to link your individual giving strategy (whether you’re the $10 or $10K donor) with your values and a personal mission statement (argh, homework).
It was also an intro–because there were 11 of us, with very diverse values, issues and interests–to the difficulty, and reward, of moving from individual philanthropy to the power of giving together and the real challenges, benefits and transformation that can occur from doing so.
When people begin to really examine their giving, Professor Siobhan explained, they realize it isn’t all that simple or easy. That giving thoughtfully is work.
As the discussion moved into sharing of our own individual backgrounds and experience with giving and philanthropy, I couldn’t help but realize that my first real introduction to being in a position of Big Giving was as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa.
Where even though I earned less than $200 a month, lived in a simple cement structure with no electricity or running water and cruised around town on a bicycle, I was comparably rich beyond measure.
I remember the day it occurred to me–after months of fielding requests to build a well, send this or that child to school, help this mother feed her family, pay for new desks at the high school (where kids were crammed four to a bench) and so on and so forth (seriously, on and on and on), combined with months of being the single most recognizable, sought after person in town–that I was as close to celebrity as I would ever be.
I get it, I thought. I get why movie stars and the extremely wealthy just want to run and hide much of the time. Why some with wealth would prefer to give anonymously, or quietly, at the very least.
Because no matter how much wealth you have, you cannot say yes all the time. And when you say no, often it’s never really understood why.
People in my village never really understood that I didn’t pay for desks because I was choosing to pay school fees for specific girls so they could stay in school, or that I was deliberately funding the education of girls over boys for a reason.
As much as I explained, no one ever really understood why I couldn’t do it all.
I had so much, after all. And it wasn’t like there weren’t poor, poor young men also deserving of an education.
But I had to make choices.
Maybe then, that was my Philanthropy 101. And today was a refresher.
But an important one, because as we discussed, every life stage and change can alter your giving priorities, issues and interests.
A re-introduction is never a bad idea, to make sure that your giving is on track with who you are–emotionally and intellectually.
"Because," said the Prof, "When the head and the heart come together to find their cause, their organization, their area of giving…that’s where the magic happens."
Indeed.
So, thanks Siobhan for the very cool workshop and discussion today. I’m sure I’ll be writing more about it as I continue to think through what we discussed and shared, and I hope the rest of you that attended will join the conversation as well as share your thoughts and impressions.
And for the rest of you, I hope you’ll join us for the next session, Research 101, on April 19 at 12, where Siobhan will lead us through the key steps in researching and finding those organizations that are the best match for your giving values and issues.
All current donors are welcome and are urged to R.S.V.P. to Tiffany Lightfoot (202-347-7737). (And if you’re not a current donor now, why not become one and see what the power of giving together is all about?)
