Letter To A Young Philanthropist

I had the opportunity to speak in front of a group of seventh graders recently. Their science teacher was developing a wonderful project, in which each student chose a problem facing the world, researched the problem, possible solutions, and organizations working on the problem. The project is called "Take Action," and —here’s the important part —after doing the research, the students take action. No being overwhelmed by the size of problems, or feeling like one can't make a difference in this class! Each student decides how they will make a contribution. They might create a poster or do a presentation to raise awareness of the problem and possible solutions. They might raise money to support a nonprofit they feel is making a real difference to the problem. They might write letters or otherwise advocate for government action.

As you can imagine, this project really engaged the students. After my presentation to the class, in which I shared ideas on how they might go about evaluating nonprofits working on their cause, one student emailed me. She told me about some impressive charitable activities she had already been doing, making and selling earrings and sending the proceeds to India, where her family is from. She ended with, "I would appreciate it if you could possibly give me some ideas for helping out in non-profits."

Her energy and idealism really touched a chord in me, and I found I had a lot I wanted to pass on to her. Here is my response.

Nice to hear from you. It sounds like you have a lot of great energy to contribute and really help make a difference in the world.

There are so many things you could do. But I think the first place to start, similar to the project you are doing in class, is to think a bit an decide what is the cause (or causes) that are important to you that you want to focus on. Some people figure out that cause that is really important and meaningful to them, and it ends up being a major part of their lives. Others might focus on one cause for a couple of years, and then shift their interest in response to new things they have learned about. A cause is bigger than any one organization, and you might work with different organizations over time to make a difference to your cause.

It's also totally fair to think about what you want to get out of your volunteer or donor experience. The best help for nonprofits comes from people who are enjoying helping and are also getting something they value out of it. In addition to the good feeling of making a contribution, the thing they get out of it might be: working with other volunteers who are really fun, learning more about a country or issue they are interested in, getting experience and learning about a skill they want to build, like office skills, organizing a concert or event, or teaching; an opportunity to take on more responsibility and leadership; even a chance to travel.

For instance, the issues that are most important to me include women's rights around the world, AIDS, Africa, and building philanthropy in poorer countries. During my life I have donated, raised money, volunteered in offices of nonprofits, written college papers about my topics of interest, travelled to Africa for four months as a volunteer for YMCA, worked as a staff member at Global Fund for Women, helped start a new nonprofit (New Global Citizens), and now am working as a consultant to several nonprofits that work on issues I care about. And I still donate and volunteer, of course. Of course, not everybody gets as involved as I have. But that's just to show the nonprofit world has a lot to offer.

Once you decide on the problem or cause you want to focus on right now, you can do some research to find nonprofits working on that. There are a lot of small nonprofits that you might have to look a bit to find, but who may focus very precisely on what you care about. For instance, there's a great organization called the Firelight Foundation in Santa Cruz, who focuses all their work on children who have AIDS or are AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. Because their mission is very focused, they know tons about the issue, and work with the best local organizations.

Good places to start looking are:

Newglobalcitizens.com
Dosomething.com
www.globalgiving.com
www.universalgiving.org
www.idealist.org

Also ask people you know, like me.

You might decide to do more than one thing for your issue. For example, you might raise money as you have been doing to send to a nonprofit in another country, and also see if you can arrange to volunteer for one week next summer with a nonprofit around here that works on your cause, so you could learn more about it.

If you ever travel with your family to India or another country, you could do research in advance (leave lots of time for planning!) to find a local nonprofit there that you could visit. My daughter at age 15 volunteered for three weeks in an AIDS orphanage in South Africa as part of a family visit we made there, and it was a very important experience for her (plus the topic for her college application essays, which seem to be working!). Just be sure to be respectful of the organization's time, and be sure to give a donation when you visit. You could find out ahead of time if they need anything you could bring from the States, or just give them money, which always works.

I hope these thoughts are helpful. And do keep in touch and let me know how it's going.

Best,

Anne