“I am a philanthropist”. The first line of
the first video we were assigned to watch for this class. Remember this: four months ago, we entered Room
260 as a group of strangers. We introduced ourselves by name and year and explained
why we were taking the class. For some it was a Scholars requirement, for
others a PPL course, for others just a way to fill a gen ed. I would like to
use this blog post to recognize how far we’ve come and what we’ve truly achieved.
On the first day of class, I explained
that I was involved in theatre and hoped to approach philanthropy through that
lens. I then proceeded to not do that at all this semester. Instead, I opened
my mind to a whole new realm of possibilities. I soaked in everything that
every one of you said and know that I’ve become a more informed and fulfilled person
for it. I hope that you can all say the same. We are philanthropists through our growth, improvement,
and open-mindedness.
During our class today, as we deliberated how
to finally divide our $10,000, I was struck by the power and integrity in the
room. Some of the thoughts shared include: “Expansion is critical”, “Can
our money have a better direct impact on other organizations?”, “This request
has a sense of urgency to it” and “They gave us numbers for a reason”. These
are questions and ideas we would not and could not have articulated back in
January. This class has provided us with a new set of vocabulary and skills
that most people our age don’t have, and that many people probably never will
have. We are philanthropists through our understanding.
Some of us have expressed disappointment with
our finalists; others have argued that we couldn’t have gone wrong in our
decision-making. Many highly impressive and very deserving nonprofits applied
for our grant, so did picking the “right” three really matter? I wholeheartedly
answer yes to this question. Picking
mattered, less because of our outcome, and more because of the remarkable
process we struggled through together. We are philanthropists through our experience.
Once our decision was made, one class
member mused “Maybe the heart won over the head for me a little bit” and many
of us nodded in agreement. Will the heart always overpower the head, and if so
did we waste our time debating between emotion and reason for so many weeks? I
don’t think so. Heart alone would not have supported our process. Our hearts gave
us passion. Our heads gave us values, criteria, and insight into the difference
we could make with $10,000. Our reoccurring debate of Heart vs. Head perfectly
sums up this class experience: we all came in with a lot of heart, but the
heads we cultivated this semester led us to our final outcome. We are
philanthropists through our hearts, heads, and the balance found between them.
Whether we gave money to your favorite
organization or not, we should all be proud of what we have accomplished this
semester. We have transformed from 25 strangers to 25 collaborative, understanding, and enlightened students. Please take a moment to consider how much you have changed personally
and academically since our first day together in January. I would love to hear
if any of you have specific memories from class that have defined this process
for you, or rather that have helped this process to define you. Congratulations
to everyone and thank you for this experience! We can now each say with pride
and honesty “I am a philanthropist”.
Hi Brittany,
ReplyDeleteI think your blog is beautifully written and something really important to remember now that our decision has been made and the process is done. While we came to an agreement as a class as to how our money would be divided and who would be the recipient, I have no doubt that there are individuals who are less satisfied with the outcome--myself included. However, after reading your blog I realized perhaps who got it is not what's most important. As you mentioned, we have accomplished so much as a class beyond just giving away the class. It is clear that our discussions and understandings have progressed and evolved throughout the semester. We are all more aware of what it means to be a philanthropist, and understanding of what it takes to be an effective philanthropist. That being said, its not so much about the outcome of this particular process (albeit important) but rather about the tools each of us now has to progress as philanthropists in the future.
Brittany-
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful and meaningful post! I think you have captured the true importance of this class and have taken from it exactly what Professor Campbell intended! I definitely agree that we have all transformed this semester, and each class session was just another piece to the puzzle we wished to complete.
I agree that the heart and the head definitely played conflicting roles, especially in our last class and final deliberations, however I don’t think one surpassed the other. Since emotion is such an uncontrollable trait, I understand why the class was organized the way it was. By starting off with a great deal of philosophy the first few weeks, we were inclined to be torn from these prior inclinations.
So as our puzzle has finally been complete and the last piece has been placed with a wonderful outcome allocating $2,500 to Mom’s House, $2,500 to Kopernick and $5,000 to STAT, I think we need to appreciate this for a moment. We were given a unique learning opportunity that allowed us to apply real situations to a project bigger than ourselves, helping the local community and three incredible organizations. I think most of the class will agree that they have come out of this experience with a greater understanding on philanthropy and non-profit work, and I can say proudly say this class has affected me in ways even greater than that. This class has led me to beginning a new journey in my life by starting my MPA in the fall. Without this class I would not have been exposed to this institution of work and I can happily say you have all played a role in guiding this decision for me.
Let’s be proud of what we accomplished and have a great summer!
Great post Brittany. I love the positive energy you always bring to class, and that you brought to this post. You mentioned that your focus shifted away from theatre this semester, and I think it’s great that you allowed yourself to be so open-minded through this process. More importantly, I’m glad this approach allowed you to not only find organizations that not only reflected this shift in your mindset, but that were ultimately chosen. While, having your choices selected is not the fundamental purpose of the class, it certainly must have felt great. Professor Campbell pushes us to grow, and it’s great that you can recognize your own personal growth that came from this class. As Rena said, the biggest idea of the class should not be focused on the final outcomes, but the tools we have learned to use this semester to bring us there. I’m glad that this semester, you were able to have a positive experience with both the process and final outcomes.
ReplyDeleteIt’s great to hear that Jen also recognizes a huge change this has made for her, as she prepares for her MPA journey. While I don’t think this class has changed my career path, I think it will definitely change my approach to philanthropy in my personal life. I think exposure to so many areas of philanthropy was beneficial, as was hearing so many perspectives both through students in our class and from the readings. All of these perspectives make it easier to be open-minded, because you are forced to hear the benefits of organizations you may not have been interested in exploring further. I think the open-minded approach also allows for both heart and head to play a more significant role.
I found this “philanthropy roadmap” http://roadmap.rockpa.org/philanthropy-roadmap/. It is a cool webpage that covers everything from sharing the stories of others (like why the founder of Grey Goose donates generously to Brown University), to questions to ask yourself, and even provides some aspects of life that frequently change philanthropic choices. I recommend taking a look to reflect more on your personal growth and the growth of others’ through philanthropic choices (and vice versa!)
I really enjoyed reading your post, Brittany! I remember coming in to this class in January and I did not know anyone. However, this did not dampen my excitement for the class as a whole. Looking back, I am so glad I took this class and met the people that I did. It is so interesting to see how a class of 25 can bond and grow closer like we did over the semester. I think that coming together was necessary for making our decision. While we all stuck to our personal values that we spoke about in our values papers, we learned to be flexible and move towards the “head” decision making of philanthropy rather than the “heart”.
ReplyDeleteI think that the decision making on Tuesday went fairly well. While I am a bit disappointed the Rescue Mission, I am happy that we gave the money to who we did. I know that our grant will be used effectively and we all helped make a difference in the end. Like Brittany said, we could not really go wrong with our decision. I think that all of the organizations were deserving of the grant and they would make good use of the money they were given. While I have often said that the process may have been rushed, I still think that we picked good finalists. Even though we chose Family Planning, which was the first finalist we agreed not to fund, we still learned from them. There was no way that we could have picked five perfect finalists given the information we had at the time. The point of the site visit and additional research was to see how effective of an organization they are and how the grant would be used. I think we learned the most that we could about evaluation organizations because of that.
I am glad that you brought this all back around with the “I am a philanthropist” video. It is funny how some of us felt uncomfortable saying that we were philanthropists given its definition. But now, we can proudly say that we are because of the difference we made. Thank you everyone for making this class as effective and memorable as it could have been.
Brittany, thank you for this post. I honestly think this is one of my favorites. You definitely helped us end this class on a really positive note, and you made me fully realize the purpose of this class.
ReplyDeleteWe were very worried about making the greatest impact with the $10,000. We focused on that goal completely, because we thought that it was the most important outcome. Along the lines of your post and the other comments, the epiphany I just had was that the $10,000 was just about the least significant outcome of this class and was simply a long-term philanthropic investment by The Learning By Giving Foundation. The perspectives and knowledge we all gained are vastly more valuable than $10,000, $100,000, and probably even $1,000,000.
We truly are philanthropists, and, for the rest of our lives, the amount of money and time we'll individually donate has increased drastically because of the inspiration we gained. At the beginning of the class, most of us would have said that the average person couldn’t make a significant difference with their money. Now we realize that we absolutely can make a difference no matter how small the contribution. Every little bit matters. I would have said that $500 would make such a small impact that it’s probably not even worth it to donate it. Globally, that may be true, but now I know that on a smaller scale it can improve the lives of many.
It’s finally obvious to me how smart the $10,000 invest was. I believe that The Learning By Giving Foundation has found the absolute most effective way to give back to the world. This truly is the most effective altruism.
Hi Brittany! I really enjoyed your post, it reflected on the class as a whole very well and captured many feelings that I have as well. I am happy that I came out of this class a philanthropist. I now know my core values, how to determine community needs, and how to decide whether a nonprofit organization is a good donation or not. This class taught me a lot about who I am as a person and what is important to me. It also taught me a lot about important life skills, such as judging different organizations, talking to people in charge in a professional manner, and learning how to present effectively.
ReplyDeleteEven though I am coming out of this class happy and with the feeling that I matured, what I did not learn was to separate my heart and my head. However, I don't think that is something that can be taught. It is very hard to leave your emotions out of your decisions, especially philanthropic decisions. Emotion drives your core values which leads you to decide who to donate your money or time too. My goal is to try to separate my emotions and make decisions more based on logic. I don't know if thinking emotionally is a flaw or a benefit of mankind.
I think using your heart to make a decision is evident in our class decision to fund STATS. STATS doesn't fulfill a huge community need, doesn't help that many people, and in my opinion isn't run efficiently or effectively. However, they do provide an incredible good. As a class how could we say no to giving a child a voice for $600? I don't regret our decision to fund STATS because I think we are making a big difference with the money we are giving them. I am happy with our class decision and I fully support funding Mom's House, Kopernik, and STATS. My only regret is that Kopernik and STATS fulfilled greater community needs. We may not have been able to effectively separate heart and mind but does it matter? We are funding three great organizations and making a beneficial impact to the Binghamton community.
Brittany, I love your post. This is something I was thinking about as we made our decisions this past class. While this class has sometimes tested my logic and thinking about how to help the best way I can, I've always told myself that whatever happened, it would be okay. No matter what, I would be a philanthropist. I would get to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteAs the class has gone on, that has always been at the forefront. As we debated head over heart, money over output, and fundraising efficiency, I sometimes found myself lost. I have no idea when it comes to money, other than when people tell me they need it. I didn't quite understand fundraising efficiency until honestly a week ago. And to be honest, my head and my heart are constantly yelling at each other inside myself. But there are some things this class reminded me of.
I remember sitting in class for the first time, completely terrified. I was positive everyone here was a senior and I was a freshman sticking out like a sore thumb. As people went around introducing themselves, I found myself incredibly intimidated. Everyone seemed so accomplished. I listened to a few people talk about their volunteering at a local homeless shelter whose name I hadn't heard yet. I listened to a passionate young woman talk about interning with Family Planning, the first I learned of her passion for helping battered women. (To Shanna, Eddie, Jason and Ashley, I was as impressed as I was intimidated.) I heard stories of traveling to other countries, of working close to home, and everything in between.
In hindsight, I should have held my head higher. I had done some pretty amazing things before I found my way to Binghamton. And with this diverse and selfless group of people, we did a lot more good. So, Brittany, I find I have to agree with you. Even if we didn't see it before, we are ALL philanthropists. And that's pretty incredible.