• ”Within the journey of becoming a donor is a philanthropic curve – here is what it looks like:
    • Level One – you become a donor: A complex combination of personal and religious values, family background, business and social pressures, ego, and heart-felt response to the world around you motivates you to become a donor. Giving becomes part of your way of life, your position in the community, your yearning to be a good person. Over time, giving becomes somewhat automatic, demands on you increase, and you are on many lists. Your gifts, with few exceptions, are distributed in small amounts to an increasing number of organizations. Sound familiar?
    • Level Two – you decide to get organized:The goal is to get control of the giving process, instead of the process controlling you. You review what you have done over the last several years, and think about what gifts have given you the most satisfaction, and what really interests you. You decide to be less reactive to requests, learn how to say no, begin to determine priorities, develop criteria, and make fewer but larger gifts.
    • Level Three – you become a learner:You realize that you don?t really know enough about the issues that interest you. You roll up your sleeves, do some research, visit your community foundation, talk to experts in the field and with other donors, make site visits to relevant organizations, and survey the literature. If you cannot do all this, you hire someone to do it. Out of that process comes a clearer focus, a clearer understanding of the issue, and the organizations you support reflect that focus. You have now made a distinction between the gifts you must make, and your real philanthropy.
    • Level Four – you become an issue and results-oriented: You want to maximize giving, and increase the chances of making a difference. You are more concerned with results and evaluation. You look harder at the underlying issues, and the ways your available resources can be best applied. You invest in the most talented non-profit entrepreneurs. Gifts to organizations focus on building their capacity. You have become increasingly pro-active and rather than simply responding to requests, you go out, or have someone go out, search for and fund the best people and organizations.
    • Level Five – your philanthropy is leveraged: You develop and fund custom-designed programs that meet specific programmatic objectives. You collaborate with other donors, you establish networks that cross domains and include public-private partnerships, and collaborations with business. You attempt to create models that can be adapted, and that will attract other private and public resources. You have become increasingly competent about the issues, about what works, and about what can really make a difference.
    • Level Six – alignment: Your values, your passions, and your interests are aligned. Philanthropy is among the most exciting and satisfying things you do.”  Reflections on Two Decades of the Poetry and Practice of Philanthropy by Peter Karoff. Page 7.
  • “Participation in the grant-making process offers families the distinct privilege of learning about needs and issues from those most impassioned and most involved – the community leaders they fund. They build nonprofit skills and experiences they likely would not have otherwise; among them, experience with volunteers, board and staff relationships, financial management, development, and evaluation. And, it has given them the chance to return those gifts to society – as more enlightened, engaged nonprofit volunteers.”  NCFP, “The Value of Family in Philanthropy
  • “One of the great lessons of the 19th and 20th centuries was the recognition of this big space that exists between what is the public sector (government) and what is the private sector (business), and led to the development of our nonprofit sector. It is not a luxury, it is a necessity. It is essential to the healthy balance of society. And, if it withers, the quality of society degrades in a democracy…We don’t yet have a rational way of funding this vitally important sector of society. That is the challenge that philanthropy needs to face up to in the United States and globally in the 21st century.”  —Richard Rockefeller, Chairman, Rockefeller Brothers Fundat the Opening Session of the Value of Family Philanthropy National Symposium
  • “Below, drawing on the work of The Philanthropic Initiative, are three levels (above ground level). 1. Dormant but receptive: Gives when asked but passively. 2. Engaged, Getting Organized: May have a transactional vehicle like a foundation or donor-advised fund; getting engaged in causes; beginning to think strategically about philanthropic impact. 3. Committed to Philanthropy, Passionate about a Cause, Committed to Lifelong Learning about How to Achieve Impact”  A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING WITH PHILANTHROPIC TOOLS.  Phil Cubeta, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CAP, The Sallie B. and William B. Wallace Chair in Philanthropy at The American College
  • “Traditional philanthropy entails giving money to a nonprofit. It is the nonprofit’s obligation to then get social results in line with donor intentions. A new view of philanthropy, termed “catalytic” by Mark Kramer, a former venture capitalist, now head of FSG Social Impact Advisors, holds that what matters are results and that the donor—if the donor has the vision, creativity, and wealth—is responsible for getting the social result. To get those results, the donor, social investor, or activist citizen may or may not give money to a nonprofit. Tax benefits are secondary to total social impact achieved measured against total resources expended. An example of a catalytic philanthropist is Thomas Siebel, founder of Siebel Software Systems, Inc. He owned a home in Montana and was concerned about rampant methamphetamine (“meth”) addiction. His research showed that potential users were ignorant of the consequences. Rather than writing a check to a nonprofit, Seibel simply did what needed doing himself. He hired an advertising firm and saturated television and radio with ads dramatizing the brutal effects of meth addiction. His Meth project, from 2005 to 2007, led to a 45 percent reduction in meth addiction among teens and 72 percent reduction among adults. Meth-related crime fell 62 percent.” A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING WITH PHILANTHROPIC TOOLS.Phil Cubeta, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CAP, The Sallie B. and William B. Wallace Chair in Philanthropy at The American College