giving Archives - another jennifer

Philanthropy Friday: 3 Easy Steps to Becoming a Philanthropist

January 11, 2013 By anotherjennifer 4 Comments

Each Friday, the another jennifer blog shares stories of those who incorporate philanthropy into their everyday lives – personally and professionally – in a creative and unique way. If you have a story you’d like to share, please contact Jennifer.

The following article is a guest post from Susan L. Axelrod, CFRE, PFR

MOST of us are regular 99%ers, not in the 1% [celebrate your 99%ness, don’t envy the 1%].

What if you – and every 99%er – chose a cause that speaks to your soul and simply committed to helping create positive impact around that cause? [strengthen children, save animals, celebrate art, protect our environment, empower community, ensure good health, end disease, eradicate poverty, promote school sports, stop drunk-driving…YOU name it]

Imagine that.

Now imagine if every one of those people considered her or himself a Philanthropist, fully committed to and supporting that cause. There would be a slow but sure positive impact rolling like gentle waves across the earth, a transformation of mind then heart then influence.

Right now, this is face people think of when asked ‘Who is a Philanthropist?’

As a Philanthropy Advisor, my chief aim is to make this face the one YOU think of when you’re asked the same question:

New Philanthropy Movement

To accomplish this world transformation, I started a Philanthropy Movement called ‘Regular People Becoming Philanthropists’ to modify people’s thinking. I encourage people to share why/how/what they’re doing as philanthropists to inspire others to join in the fun! I invite you to join by simply ‘liking’ the FB page: Regular People Becoming Philanthropists.

I received continued inspiration recently from a quote on page 39 in Elie Wiesel’s new little book, Open Heart, about his emergency heart surgery. It was like the burst I get from the ‘energy nugget’ I bought recently at a health store [1000 MCG of B-12]: “As I face the gravity of this moment, I feel the need to search my soul.”

When I read those words, I thought to myself: will it take open-heart surgery for me to search my soul to know if I have lived as I want to live, done what I wanted to do, helped those I want to help, and create a meaningful and lasting legacy? What matters to me?

What will it take for you to search your soul to find out what matters most to you, so much that you commit to it and take action leading to positive change? (Read the Formula to Inspire)

Becoming a Philanthropist is simply showing your love of humankind. It’s important to volunteer, too, but we need to remember that charitable organizations run on money, like all businesses. You can choose any level of donation and still be considered a Philanthropist.

Here are 3 easy steps you can take to transform yourself…..today:

3 Steps to Becoming a Philanthropist

Select a charity that is meaningful to you, that you feel passionate about, and that you want to impact.
Figure out how much you can donate monthly to that charity. It can be a single dollar, $10 a month, $25 a month, even $100 a month…any amount that is manageable for you (would you really miss $10 a month on your credit card?).
Contact the charity and let them know you want to make this monthly commitment, discuss with them how you can make this happen (suggestions at the bottom of the Philanthropy Movement page on my website).

YOU ARE NOW A PHILANTHROPIST. [repeat 3-step cycle as often as you like]

Next time someone asks you what you do tell them, “I’m a Philanthropist.”

Susan lives her work as a Philanthropy Advisor, essentially acting as a change-agent for good. She helps people understand that everyone has the opportunity to create a meaningful and lasting legacy. You do not have to be rich; you just have to want to make positive impact.

Filed Under: Philanthropy, Philanthropy Friday Tagged With: giving, guest post, philanthropist, Philanthropy Friday, Susan L. Axelrod

Philanthropy Friday: Read Books, Give Books

March 23, 2012 By anotherjennifer 2 Comments

G’s first grade teacher sends home a note each week recapping what they did in the classroom. It’s a great way to stay in touch with what he’s learning, particularly because he normally tells me about gym and recess and skips the academic stuff.

Last week, his teacher introduced the class to a website called WeGiveBooks.org. The website offers children’s books online to read free of charge.

Free books, of course, is a great feature, especially for parents who might not have the funds to stock a library in their home. But We Give Books takes their website a step further. For every book you read, a book is donated to one of their campaigns that targets kids who have little to no access to books around the world via various nonprofit organizations.

We Give Books was created by the Penguin Group and the Pearson Foundation to support literacy and engage entire communities around the world. The website “combines the joy of reading with the power of helping others, providing a platform for caregivers and educators to inspire children to become lifelong readers and lifelong givers.”

The process is pretty simple. You sign up for a free account and choose a campaign (or campaigns) to support. From there, you can choose from the available books to read online. For every book you read, a book is donated to the nonprofit organization represented in your campaign. If you want to start by choosing a book to read, you can do that too. Each campaign has its own donation goal. Once the goal is met, the books are sent to the organization, and your child gets a nice email thanking them for their efforts.

We Give Books offers a great way to get kids more involved with reading and philanthropy. Showing kids that they can make a difference by doing something as simple and fun as reading is pretty powerful stuff.

Philanthropy Friday: Start a Snoball and Encourage Microphilanthropy

February 10, 2012 By anotherjennifer 1 Comment

I’ve been interested in finding ways to incorporate philanthropy into my life and have explored this concept via this blog. Recently I came across a company called Snoball, via Good, that makes incorporating microphilanthropy into your everyday actions easy.

Snoball is free for everyone – companies, nonprofits and individuals – and the concept is simple. You first start a snoball, which is an automated donation that benefits your favorite charity. Then, you share your snoball with friends via your social networks. As your snoball grows, so does the donation to your charity.

You can start a free account as an individual or business and create a snoball immediately. I set up my account, input my credit card number and started a snoball that would donate $1 to the Brunswick Public Library for every new like I get on my Facebook page. So, if you like my page on Facebook, a donation will automatically be made to my local library!

You can link your snoball to your social media accounts, like I did, or create your own. Businesses can use it to do a little cause marketing in their communities. A restaurant, for example, can donate money to a local soup kitchen for every foursquare check-in a customer makes.

According to the website, “80% of all on-line giving in the United States takes place during three weeks in December. Snoball is changing that. By incorporating micro-donations into everyone’s daily lives we are making giving something that takes place every minute of every day.”

As I mentioned, using Snoball is completely free. Snoball earns money through the donations made – approximately 5% of every donation goes to cover administrative costs and credit card fees. So, 95% of every donation goes directly to the charity.

Check it out and start your own snoball for your business or for yourself. And if you’re a charity, claim your nonprofit and empower your supports to do a little micro-donating for you.