Living Philanthropically

Recently, I pulled out an old tried and true “ice breaker” for a group with which I was working.  I am not a big fan of ice breakers, as I am a very private person and not the touchy-feely type.   I don’t want to pull something personal out of my bag and tell you its significance or tell you three things that no one in the room—a room full of either total strangers or vague acquaintances—knows about me, or play some cute game, etc.  You get my point.  So, I have carefully collected about a handful of icebreakers that if asked to “perform” them myself, I’d be very comfortable doing.

This icebreaker is the $6 million dollar question.  Everyone in the room has won $6 million dollars in the lottery.  Two million of that money must go to the nonprofit they are representing that day; how will they use the remaining $4 million.  The answer always reveals something about the respondents.  Inevitably, everyone spends a certain amount of money on ensuring the financial security and future of loved ones.  What comes after that, however, is the telling part.

The revelation I got from this group has profoundly recast my thinking about a key aspect of board recruitment—how you judge the fit of a board candidate.

Contrary to any of the dozens of times I have asked this question, this time, not a single board member spent any of her/his $4 million dollars on a charitable cause.  Not even a penny!  I was struck by this factor at the time, and waited to see if anyone noticed it.  No one did—not at the moment, not later in the day.  To me, this was such a striking outcome that if someone had paid attention and realized it, s/he would have had to say something.  After all, this was the icebreaker for a day focused on improving the board’s performance in fundraising. Giving was on everyone’s mind.  And yet, no one—not publicly or in private—said a word.

The reality is that in every previous use of this exercise, someone not using some of her/his $4 million for philanthropic purposes was always the very small exception rather than the rule.  Naturally, I began thinking about what made this group different.  They were clearly philanthropic with their time, serving on this board, several for many years.   A good number had either previously volunteered with the organization or had/have family members who did.  Several served or had served on other boards.  So, the question kept thundering through my head, what was so different with this group?

Ultimately, I could find only one answer—and it is not the current economic times in which we live.  This wasn’t real money we were talking about; this was play money.  We can all afford to be generous with play money—if doing so is part of our world!  And therein lays the only answer I can fathom:  these particular board members must not come from a culture of philanthropy!

I was talking about this with my family one night at dinner, after sharing an Alexander Soros (son of the George Soros) quote I’d recently read about his own philosophy of philanthropy.  He said, “[m]y Jewish identity is intrinsically linked to philanthropy, whether to Jewish organizations or not.  We have an affinity with other minorities. That means a sense of responsibility, especially in light of the Holocaust.”

My husband said that two of the most philanthropic people he knows are my sister and her husband.  My son, however, noted that his uncle/my brother-in-law is not Jewish, to which my husband said (as a Catholic married to a Jew), “When you are married to a Jew, you are Jewish!”  He was not contradicting Jewish law, but merely noting that in the context of philanthropy, the Jewish culture of philanthropy is so strong that a non-Jew cannot help but be caught up in that tidal wave!

My point is not to suggest that you seek out Jewish board members but rather that you seek out board members who have been raised in and continue to participate in a culture of philanthropy.  Who understand that sense of responsibility to help those less fortunate, to give back, to make the world a better place.  And who understand that philanthropy is a complex weave of giving not just of time, energy and good will, but also of money.

Several years ago, Detroit was ranked the most philanthropic city in the United States.  Why? Because its majority African American population has grown up in a culture of philanthropy taught by the church and reinforced in the home.  A recent phone survey by Opinion Research Corporation of just over 1,000 Americans found that people who give to religious organizations are three times more likely than those who don’t give to religious causes to support other nonprofits as well.

But that doesn’t mean that those who don’t give to religious organizations aren’t philanthropic:  seven out of 10 who don’t support a religious group give to other kinds of charities, slightly lower than the nine out of 10 of those who give to a religious group and also give to other charities.

But, just to be crystal clear:  religion in and of itself doesn’t make the kind of philanthropic people who give money.  What does seem to make philanthropic people who give money, as well as time, is  being raised in a philanthropic culture, where giving money, regardless of the amount, to help others gain access to things such as health care, food, shelter, art and culture, education, etc., is understood as a responsibility of everyone.  These are the people, regardless of how they learned it, who understand that giving of our time, energy, expertise, advise, etc., to help a good cause makes is only part of philanthropy, and that without money, all the time and energy in the world won’t matter to that good cause.  These are the people we want on our boards!

But you can’t simply ask on a questionnaire or in an interview, “Are you philanthropic?” No, this requires a conversation that truly explores a person’s take on philanthropy, not as an abstract concept but in living one’s life.  This is something that is not measured in numbers–how many boards a person has been on or how many causes  they support—but in the total package of living life philanthropically.