Generosity

Although written from a Lutheran/Christian perspective, Adam Copland, Director, Center for Stewardship Leaders, Luther Seminary, St Paul, Minnesota has excellent insights on giving in his weekly e-newsletter. His topic this month is Generosity.

e-newsletter, 28 July 2015

What is Generosity?

In a class exercise, David King asked us to stop and consider the generous people we’ve encountered in our lives. When we did so, financial giving was perhaps part of their story, but just as likely to surface were other forms of generosity. People might be generous by sharing their time, skills, knowledge, or even their gift of listening well and asking good questions.

When we address generous giving in our congregations, it’s important not to limit our imagination of those so-called “generous givers” as those who give the highest dollar amounts. Generous giving takes many forms. Plus, when it does come to financial giving, let’s not forget members who depend on relatively small incomes streams, but who give a large portion of those financial resources to ministry. These generous folk may not show up on our list of “top ten givers,” but surely we should describe them as generous.

In the book The Paradox of Generosity: Giving We Receive, Grasping We Lose, Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson describe generosity this way:

“Generosity is the virtue of giving good things to others freely and abundantly. It is a learned character trait that involves attitude and action entailing both the inclination and actual practice of giving liberally. It is not a haphazard behavior but a basic orientation to life…”

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Communication forever...

From the LeadingAge Philanthropy listserv:

True story why communication is important:  

A long time fundraising mentor and friend of mine gave $100,000 to a Richmond area (VA) organization during a campaign and named it after her late husband.  About 5 years later, the organization failed to talk to her about their new expansion plans and the garden disappeared without her knowing in advance.  She discovered it on a visit …

She was not only insulted, but she never gave them another dime, plus she talks about them to her friends (people of means)!  Had they picked up the phone and shared their expansion plans, she would not only have not been insulted, she would have probably given them another $100K to the new campaign.  

What a loss for both the donor and the organization.

Patricia S. Morris, MPA, CFRE

Vice President

Virginia Baptist Homes Foundation

1900 Lauderdale Drive | Richmond, VA 23238

Office: (804) 521-9229 | Cell: (804) 873-0918

pmorris@vbh.org  | www.vbh.org/foundation

Wendy Steele's presentaton

Wendy Steele made a presentation to the Northern Michigan Fundraising Professionals group on Wednesday, 10 September 2014 at the Hagerty Center, NMC, Traverse City, Michigan.

She has provided her presentation slides to be posted - Click here

Collaborative Philanthropy - thoughts and musings

I attended Rotary Charities event with Paul Born. The video recording from Paul Born's presentation on April 9, 2014 about building community and Collective Impact is now up! View the video below or click here to see it on YouTube.

Based on that, I had some thoughts on the possibility of a regional collaborative philanthropy. Some people have gathered to have some preliminary discussions about this possibility.  Here are some thoughts about it.

Regional Collaborative Philanthropy:

Everyone is able to give their time, talent, and financial resources if properly motivated and informed based on an individual’s value system. People give to more than one giving enterprise if they give at all.

Giving is a learned behavior that needs to be nurtured, encouraged, and expanded for the sake of all philanthropy.

We need to break down the illusion that there is only so much money people are willing to give.

There needs to be more donors giving to charity.

In the USA, two - four percent (2 - 4%) of income is now average philanthropic giving.

There needs to be more and consistent information coming from charity encouraging giving and philanthropy for the benefit of the culture.

We need to expand giving which will help all charities because people do not give to single causes.

Create an effort that encourages more giving to charity. Increase giving in the area by 2% of income annually.

People are unaware how giving can impact the every expanding need of charity for helping humanity.

People are unaware of the lack of recovery of giving since the 2008 Great Recession. It was a Great Depression for charity.

Philanthropic professionals need to share expertise to other charities in order to expand giving in general to all in the culture.

Charity boards need to be educated on the need for they as volunteers to be helping to implement giving to charities. They need to share their giving stories to inspire others to give.

Charities need to educate their constituencies on the need to increase giving by all for all charities.

Philanthropic professionals need to be in a common voice of the need to expand giving to the region because of the gap of need vs current giving.

Outlandish giving needs to be nurtured, encourage, and high recognized to all causes for the sake of the giving enterprise.

Nonprofit impact on economy

From Public Sectors Consultants via NorthSky Nonprofite Network, May 23, 2014

Features

Michigan nonprofits make big impact on state's economy

Public Sector Consultants | Tuesday, April 29, 2014

For nearly two decades, PSC has been tracking and detailing the effects of the nonprofit sector on the economy and life of Michigan. In May, PSC will release its latest update. 

Rob Collier, president and CEO of the Council of Michigan Foundations

While all the details have to wait until then, the new report will track with previous versions that have shown nonprofits:

• Spend billions of dollars in Michigan each year.
• Are economic anchors in practically every Michigan community.
• Range in size from tiny fraternal lodges to huge hospital systems to three of the world’s largest private foundations.

“As PSC’s work has shown again and again in recent years, Michigan’s nonprofit sector is a major contributor to the state’s economy and its quality of life,” says Rob Collier, president and CEO of the Council of Michigan Foundations. “The investments our members make in communities large and small across the state bring real-life results to residents.”

Jeff Williams, the CEO of PSC who has been involved with every nonprofit sector review, adds, “It never ceases to impress me how important the nonprofit sector is to daily life in Michigan. We are proud to be the council’s partner in continuing to share this message with the general public and decision-makers.

“At PSC, we always are excited to find avenues to advance the quality of and discussion over public policy in Michigan, and beyond. Maximizing the contributions of nonprofits in our communities is just one facet of the broad issue of community investment.”

Economic Benefits of Michigan’s Nonprofit Sector 2012

Reminder

Have you talked to a donor today about how their donation was used?