$1.6 Million for Everyday Philanthropists

We can all agree that education is a valuable part of any civil society. We can also all agree that in order for the U.S. to be globally competitive, it is in our best interest for our nation's brightest to be able to finance a college education.

What if the brightest came here illegally as a child, has excelled both academically and as a community member, but has no way of securing college financing because they are ineligible for federal financial aid and because many scholarship based organizations are hesitant to award undocumented applicants because of potential negative impact on donors?  Is it still fair that these high achieving, most likely high contributors to our society still deserve a college education?

Four everyday philanthropists think so and have not only raised over $100,000 in funds for these students, but more importantly have persevered in influencing one of our community's highest profile funders to realize the importance of investing in these students is greater than the fear of any negative backlash.  At the annual Community Leaders Luncheon last week, Ron Gallo announced that the Santa Barbara Foundation Board of Trustees voted that documentation need not be considered when determining recipients for their $1.6 million in scholarship dollars.  Ron Gallo said,

"because we realize we are in a worldwide competition for the best workforce in this new global economy, because we believe in investing in all of our best and brightest and we believe that our country is always at its best when it is supporting the next generation [regardless of documentation]."

You can't get more everyday than four childhood friends taking time from their professional careers to found and run Adsum.  Jonathan Wang, Debra Roets, Maritza Mejia-Wilson, and Travis Wilson aren't any more special than you and me, but what they have achieved and will continue to achieve is pretty special.  

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/margaretme100502.html#kozy73AHvEUyjsj1.99

Takeaway:

The best take away I can think of for this post is Margret Mead's famous quote:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that has."

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/margaretme100502.html#kozy73AHvEUyjsj1.99

Harnessing Your Power

One of the great things about my job as the facilitator of the Katherine Harvey Fellows is I get to hear fabulous community leaders speak and yesterday was no exception.

As someone who sits on the Board of Trustee for the Towbes Foundation and the Santa Barbara Foundation, Rob Skinner clearly fits into the category of being a philanthropist, but you might not consider him an Everyday Philanthropist.  However, his message to the group was astonishingly everyday: 

"Philanthropy isn't just about giving money, its being thoughtful about how you are going to be a catalyst for change and finding the things that energize you to be that catalyst. "

By harnessing your power to be a catalyst for change, it is no longer about how much money you can give, but about the number of people you can energize to make sure we live in an inclusive society, whatever the focus area you chose.

Rob gave the example of a school field trip where not all of the children can afford the price of the field trip.  Let's say it's the fifth grade four day trip many schools take to places like CIMI.  He said you could just reach into your pocket and help pay for the children who can't go  OR you can be energized to find a solution that eliminates this need on an ongoing basis for the school. Maybe you start an annual school wide fundraiser whose purpose is to provide scholarships to those kids who can't afford the camp and brings the school community together at the same time.

The message Rob left the group with really resonated with me because my philanthropic dollars don't go as far as I'd like, but I know I am an enthusiastic person and that I am good at finding ways to bring people into the causes I care about in a way that works for them.  I am also good at connecting people to opportunities I think they will care about thus providing them an avenue for harnessing their own power. I suddenly felt like a much bigger philanthropist!


TAKE-AWAYS:

• Where do you already harness your power by being a catalyst for change by energizing others?
• What other places could you harness your power by being a catalyst for change by energizing others?

110 Youth Everyday Philanthropists

The other week my three girls participated in the 6th Annual Keiki Paddle.  The Keiki Paddle consists of children between the ages of 7-16 paddling in an open ocean paddle to provide financial and emotional support to both a child with a life threatening illness and a nonprofit that supprts children with a life threatening illness. 

What continues to stick with me these last few weeks, is that this event is over 100 everyday kids participating in philanthropy and what's more, the event was started by everyday dads. 

The Keiki Paddle is an offshoot of the Friendship Paddle, which was founded over 10 years ago when a group of ocean loving guys wanted to do something to show support for their 39 year old friend battling cancer.  The Keiki Paddle was started several years later because many of the children, seeing their Dad's paddle in the Friendship Paddle, wanted to participate.

Additionally, the Dad's wanted to instill the fundamental concept of giving back to your community and having a little fun while doing it. They have even taken it a step further and have created a junior advisory board so kids can also get experience organizing and running an event.  These everyday kids have raised approximately $100,000 since the event began.

So what started out as everyday dad's wanting to do something to show love and support to their friend has impacted hundreds of other everyday dads and children who have participated in both the Friendship Paddle and the Keiki Paddle over the years. They have also provided financial and emotional support to almost 20 beneficiaries both adults and kids with life threatening illness and to multiple nonprofit agencies that support these families.

This year's beneficiaries of the Kieki paddle were 7 year old Samuel Helfand and the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation.  Click here to support this year's paddle.  

You can also hear more about the Keiki Paddle on this NPR story including hearing from teens Tavis Boise and Chase McFadden who both had parents who were beneficiaries of the Friendship Paddle.  They carry on the memory of their parent by being key organizers of the Keiki Paddle.

This is an example of everyday people being philanthropist at it's best!

Paying to Visit an African Village, Right or Wrong?

We recently took our three kids to Kenya.  Of course, this included a safari in the Maasai Mara, home of the indigenous Maasai Worriors. I did my best to find an outfitter that seemed to give back to the local community and was pleased when we arrived to learn that it was one of only a few outfitters of over hundreds of camps actually owned and run by a Maasai.  Like many outfitters, this safari included the option (for an additional fee) to visit a local Maasai village.

The village clearly knew we were coming and welcomed us with a dance in their traditional Maasai Worrior clothing, took us inside one of their mud huts, talked about how they lived, let us take as many pictures as we wanted, and ended in a little craft market with heavily inflated prices.

Was this a contrived experience?  Should we have done it?

I am going to err on the side and say even though it was contrived to some degree, these people really do live and dress like this.  We are talking tiny mud huts, with no running water, no agriculture, children in tattered clothes of whom a small percent go to school (supported by our safari camp).  Nothing contrived about that.  The Maasai are also extremely proud people and there is pride in showing others how they live.

My travels have taught me that abject poverty and oppression do not necessarily go hand in hand as is easy to assume.  Enough cannot be said about the power of community and a strong sense of tradition to enrich even the poorest of lives.  This is important to me for my kids to understand.

The ending of the visit with the push to buy inflated crafts clearly diminished the geniality.  However, it is sickening to see the millions of dollars passing through the safari camps, a high percentage foreign owned, with obviously very little benefit to the Maasai people who clearly live in extreme poverty.  The ability to charge for people to visit the village is an income source for them.  While not quite what I would call a market based solution, it is an assets they have and one that actually allows them to maintain their sense of community and cultural traditions.  

This isn't because of the demands by  tourists to visit. The income source affords them to stay as a community rather than be swayed to sell their land for short term income.  This results in the disbandment of the community and displacement of many Maasai who have nothing to show for the sale once the money is gone.

Overall, I felt good about the safari outfitter we chose who has created a market based solution that benefits the community and I look at my overpriced purchases as a donation. My family will enjoy them along with the lessons for my children of seeing how differently people can live and do more than just survive even if not quite thrive.

Seeing Hope Where I See Despair

"I believe that every individual has the power to bring about significant change, good or bad. Whether we choose to use that power — and for what purpose — defines our legacy."

-Scott Neeson

Last week Scott Neeson, from the Cambodia Children's Fund, was our keynote speaker for our DirectRelief Women's event.  Scott found hope where I would find hopelessness.  Now, I have a passion for travel and I have a passion for wanting the world to be a better place.  But, I prefer to travel to indigenous villages over cities and I've recently realized why.  I am selfish.

I find the poorest of villages to be filled with hope because of the power a village has to provide a sense of joy through pride in your culture and pride in a shared sense of purpose .  When I see the poor in the cities, I feel hopelessness, despair, and oppression.  While it is not without it's value to experience this as a traveler, selfishly I don't like it. 
 
Scott saw things differently.  In 2004, Scott was on holiday in between jobs as a high profile Hollywood executive.  We are talking major success -  multiple homes, multiple cars and boats, single playboy life, the works.  While in Cambodia, he was exposed to what I would consider the most desperate circumstances possible, children living in the municipal garbage dump, many abandoned, wearing everything they own, no home, no community, and no hope.

Scott proceeded to sell everything, quit his job, and dedicate his life to helping the most destitute of children.  Today the Cambodia Children's Fund cares for and provides comprehensive services like housing, education, and health to over 1,200 children and their families in the dump region.

I have no idea how Scott found hope in the most hopeless of circumstance, but I sure am glad there are people in this world with that ability and power.  Something I noticed about Scott's approach is he didn't try to save all of all of the world's children (I imagine based on the power trip he was on he might have thought he could), or all of Cambodia's children, or even all of Phnom Penh's children.  He picked a distinct area and went really deep, and I mean really deep and he started with just one child.


We can't all be a Scott Neeson, but a few things I took away from his talk and questions to ask ourselves:

• There is always hope where it feels hopeless.  Where do you feel its hopeless and where is there hope in this situation?

• Making a difference in one person's life is making a difference.  Where can you make a difference in just one person's life?

• The value of depth versus breadth.  Where can you go deeper with your involvement on one issue or one organization?

Strategic Philanthropy for the Everyday Philanthropist

The Philanthropic Initiative considers Strategic Philanthropy a continuous cycle of assessment, strategy and implementation.  In other words, how do you go from feeling good to doing good and knowing you are?

Last week, Peter Karoff and I facilitated a panel on Strategic Philanthropy for our Katherine Harvey Fellows. Our panelists included Martha Harmon from the Santa Barbara Foundation, Laurel Anderson from Orfalea Foundation, and Erik Talkin from the Foodbank Santa Barbara County.  They did an amazing job of explaining how their organizations interpret and use strategic philanthropy.

This was high level, valuable insight being shared and it makes perfect sense for a grant maker, but what about everyday philanthropists?  I've spent the last week thinking about how everyday philanthropists can use the concept of strategic philanthropy.

One of the central ideas that came out of this session was the importance of identifying gaps in addressing community needs. But, identify the gap isn't enough.  How do you know it's a gap worth investing in?  Our panelists explained things they looked for in addition to the gap such as:

• leadership
• cross sector involvement (nonprofits, government, private corportions)
• political will
• solvability
• measurability
• community interest

This week also happened to be the week of the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara Awards Luncheon. Just before the awards were given, they explained their criteria for deciding to propose an agency for an award.  This criteria sounded a lot like the list above!  

As I listened to their criteria, I realized here was a room of 300 plus everyday philanthropists actively involved in strategic philanthropy via the collective giving model that defines the Women’s Fund. These everyday women had given approximately between $250 to $2500 to be part of the vote on how to award $525,000 in funds.  These women were not grant makers they were everyday people involved in strategic philanthropy!

Besides joining the Women's Fund (which I hope you do), what are some questions you could ask when deciding to support a nonprofit:

• Does the nonprofit have a destination and not just a mission?
• Does there seem to be a synergy between the Executive Director and Board Chair or is there a sense of discourse?
• Do they collaborate with other partners?  This could be other nonprofits or with entities like government and private corporations.
• Are they aware of what else is going on in the space besides what they are doing?
• Are they creating pathways or do they just have programs?
• Do they have any plans to create any revenue stream and not just depend on donations? 

The content of this article was compiled from information provided by Peter Karoff, Martha Harmon, Erik Talkin, and Laurel Anderson at the Katherine Harvey Fellows session on Strategic Philanthropy in April 2013. 

What I Thought Was a Smart Question

It's been awhile since I've posted, but I am back with an updated profile justifying why I still consider myself an everyday philanthropist even though I am now employeed in the nonprofit sector.  My recent trip to Guatemala, as a volunteer of DirectRelief, reminds me that regardless of the work I do, I am at heart just an everyday person trying to make a difference and I continue to wrestle with what is making a difference.

Our original intention for the trip was a "service" trip.  The DirectRelief partner we visited, ADRI provides comprehensive community development for 41,000 indigineous Guatemalan's in the Alta Verapaz region.  Notice, I said 41,000 not 40,000, that is because they are excellent at tracking every stat in the villages down to pet vaccinations.  The amazing program manager, Ruby started off providing us an overview of their main programs.

I proceeded to ask what I thought was a very smart question:  How did they determine the program areas?  Are these the essential areas of development identified by experts needed to improve conditions in developing communities?  Without missing a beat and with complete respect, Ruby replied,  "We asked the people in the villages we serve."  And BOOM a lightbulb went off!  Who was I, as a white middle to upper class American, to think these people needed experts to tell them what they needed.

I recovered from my gross error in thinking and we began our "service."  We helped to paint a clinic, we planted yuca root at a village school, and we even got to give out TOMS shoes.  Did our "service," make a difference?  Absolutely not!  Were their many intangible benefits to us being of "service" besides trying to make a bunch of American women feel good?  Absolutely!

Don't get me wrong, there was an inherent tension to doing this type of trip.  Unless you have a true skill and a chunk of time, it's unlikely you are going to blow into a developing country and do anything the locals can't do for themselves.  Does that mean the trip was a waste of time for both the participants and the partner?  In my opinion, it was net positive for everyone. 


What were the benefits of our "service?"

• Although Ruby and his colleague, Esteban, spent two full days letting us be of "service,"  our visit gave them the opportunity to show off and take pride in the work they are doing.  I hope our visit and praise was in some way a gift of reflection and affirmation to keep them inspired to do the work they are doing.

• While it was fascinating for us to gawk at the villagers, our visit was exciting for them, too and lots of laughter was exchanged (mostly due to my goofball friend, Rachael who was good at getting the kids to laugh).  Is this such a bad thing?  I hope our interest in their efforts to improve their lives also gave them pride and inspiration to keep helping themselves.

• There is nothing like seeing first hand the lifestyle of someone who lives in an indigenous village to give you compassion, appreciation for your own life, and inspire you to continue to volunteer your time to improve our world community

• Our visit elevated us to unofficial ambassadors of the good work DirectReleif is doing which we hope will cultivate more supporters of DirectReleif locally and in turn benefit partners around the world like ADRI.

• At the most basic level, in exchange for making us feel of "service,"  ADRI received both a cash donation and a physical donation of goods from us to support their programs. Neither would have be received without our visit.

• And finally, I was reminded of the wonderful Tao of Leadership

Go to the people

Live among them

Learn from them

Start with what they know

Build on what they have

But for the best leaders

When their task is accomplished

Their work is done

The people will all remark

We have done it ourselves.