We are a little less than a month away before
the semester ends. It's been an interesting process and an interesting class.
In less than a month, I will walk away from this class having made a decision
with a bunch of strangers that impacts a whole community. I get to graduate and
say, “I made a difference”, but I leave this class questioning whether this
class has truly made a profound difference for us as philanthropists.
Over spring break I returned home to New York
City. The familiar skyline and murky air greeted me. Blaring sirens, rude
pedestrians, and dancing kids in subway cars engulfed me once again. I was
home. However, to most New Yorkers, including myself, the need in New York confronts
us every day on our daily commute. One city block can make a world of a
difference. You can walk from one of the richest parts of the city into one of
the poorest, without giving it much thought. I saw beggars beg and starving
artist perform their craft in exchange for a few dollars. I saw kids dance in
the subway, then narrowly escape cops who tried to arrest them. I saw all these
things unfold before me and just like every other time, they made me uneasy and
angry, but just like everyone around me, I did nothing. I knew better, but I
didn’t do the “right” thing. In the same way that I ignored the need in New
York, I believe we ignored the time once must dedicate to philanthropy.
In many ways, though democratic, I felt that we
rushed our decision in picking organizations. I completely understand that we
are constrained by time, but for a class that values time so much, perhaps we
should of devoted a bit more of our own. I guess my point overall is whether
the process merely facilitated the donating part of the program, but failed to
cultivate/foster the philanthropist culture. Amanda put up a good fight in
order to up the total number of organizations we wanted to consider, but most
people, including myself, wanted the deliberation to be over quickly. We chose
some organizations based on impulse and emotions, rather than calculated
assessments. We were instructed to consider financial health a factor, but not
the most important. We, as a class, were far more concerned with impact, but
again, I ask, what good is the impact of an organization if we chose out of
haste, instead of true need.
I don’t believe any of the organizations we
picked are bad organizations, but perhaps they might have not deserved to be
there, perhaps it is the case that we missed out on picking a better
organization in a rush to do “good”. Did we compromise our philanthropic
values?
Hi, Stephanie. You've definitely hit points that a lot of us are worried about during this process. Many of us doubt the efficacy of eliminating organizations based on loosely defined criteria. Like I've said in a previous post, I believe these doubts are very vital to developing good personal philanthropy. If we were absolutely confident in our choices, then we couldn't possibly have learned anything meaningful throughout this course. This class has made us more critical thinkers, and we're becoming better at being able to see where our mistakes may lie. The most important step in becoming better at something is the realization of how much you don't yet understand. We can't expect perfection when we're still budding philanthropists.
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree that these 5 organizations may not be the "best," but they're what we decided on, and we have to live with that. No matter which organizations we chose, we would have had these same doubts. We have to continue to learn and grow to understand what gives rise to these doubts and how we can either eliminate/deal with them. We haven't yet developed that ability. No one becomes a master of anything after a single class.
We certainly didn't compromise our philanthropic values; we just don't really know what they are yet. We may have a vague idea, but it takes years, maybe even a lifetime, to really understand where our individual values really lie. Time won't help us in making better decisions; experience will.
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteThis is probably my favorite post yet! I believe you are right, we did rush the process and I feel the same way you do. However, for the amount of time and the amount of opinions we all share we had to expedite the process. We overlooked many organizations and it might make us feel bad. On that note, we are still doing the right thing by supplying donations to organizations in the surrounding communities. May one of the organizations handled our donations in a more effective manner? Probably... However each organization we chose for the donation will still better our surrounding community. This is the beauty of philanthropy and the non-profit sector in the United States. I really enjoyed your comparison from the City to Binghamton, this was an excellent hook to get me interested in your blog post. It intrigued me in particular because I come from a totally opposite geographic and cultural area. I to, went back and saw things that I am use to from home which are extremely different than Binghamton and NYC. For example, fishing, shooting clay targets with guns, thousands of acres of crop fields and farming facilities. This was a great post and a well thought out point!
Best,
Patrick LaBuff
I agree that our decision process was hasty and we might have looked over some otherwise great organizations. I think part of the way the semester is broken up maybe leaves too much time for discussion about philanthropy and not enough time to discuss the actual organizations. I also think that most of us (including myself) look at this class for what it predominantly is, a class. We sit around a circle twice a week debating where to give this $10,000 dollars to. But we write papers, present Powerpoints, and blog once a week. We are here for the grade. Don't get me wrong, the reason I was took this class was because it was different, interesting and honestly like nothing I had heard of before. I was and still am excited to participate in the giving process, but that's not the only thing that concerns me. With this in mind, I think I would gain more from this class if it wasn't a class at all, but instead a club of some sort. I want to be here and I love the thought provoking discussions we have all the time, but maybe if we were able to remove ourselves from the grading process and the readings we would be able to enjoy the giving more.
ReplyDeleteYou ask, "... whether this class has truly made a profound difference for us as philanthropists." It's undeniable that our decision has been rushed. Despite this; however, I do not feel disillusioned with the end result of our class, and I answer your question with a firm yes.
ReplyDeleteWe all came in to this course with different ranges of previous exposure and experience regarding philanthropy; I'm know that many, including myself, realized that our prior understanding of philanthropy was miles away from our current view. This class was not just about the 10,000 dollars, it was about introducing us to all the facets in making a decision of philanthropy as well as all the issues and factors to take into account. The fact that so many of us have written about our concerns regarding the decision as well as our ideas about how we could of acted better even before the conclusion of the course is concrete evidence that we have grown to become more effective philanthropists.
Even though I wish that we had more time, I'm extremely satisfied with how our collective knowledge and experience of philanthropy has grown and I know that these lessons will carry through with us in making our own decisions sometime in the future.
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI truly enjoyed reading this post and I agree with a lot of what you said. During this class I have definitely given back to more philanthropic organizations or gofundme accounts but I too did not do much when I was back in the city. My English teacher in high-school told our class a story once about his younger daughter who was appalled by all the homeless people roaming the streets or in the train tracks. As a five year old it was so sad to her that some people didn't have houses and thought her father should give money to everyone they passed. My teacher was a jaded New Yorker like the rest of us and even in the back of his mind he knew it was sad that some people didn't have homes he didn't give it much thought, he was just accustomed to it. It was his young daughter that made him realize how jaded he truly was and how it was so easy to walk past so much bad and not acknowledge it.
While I believe that our process was rushed and we may not have picked the best organizations we definitely gained something from this experience. I think as a class it made us aware of all the problems anymore. I used to pride myself on being a jaded New Yorker but now I strive to be the opposite. I want to acknowledge all the bad that is going out in the world and try to help out in anyway I can. I think this class is giving me the skills I need to do that.
So yes, we rushed through our organization selection and we should have spent more time deciding and looking through each organizations mission but that doesn't minimize this as a learning process. If we are ever involved in a giving circle we know now to give more time deciding which charities or non-profits to give our money to. And at the end of the day I am pleased by the organizations we choose because they all make a significant difference to the Binghamton community and we are aiding the community by giving money to these organizations.