It's All Coming Together

Our session for Week 6 was amazingly simple and simply amazing.  The students reported on their interviews with a family member or mentor who is involved in community service and charitable giving; and then they reported on their choices of organizations to receive their donations.

One of the common themes in the reports of the interviews was "I saw this person in a whole new light," or "I never knew about this side of them."  It is a good trait in our society, I think, that much giving and serving is done quietly, without fanfare, and often hardly noticed.  The only downside of that trait is that the opportunity to inspire or motivate or encourage others is lost when the stories of service and generosity are not shared.  One of our objectives in including these interviews in the Main Street Philanthropy program is to increase our students' awareness of how much good is being done all around them that they may not have noticed.  We certainly don't want our students to think that giving and serving are rare or unusual patterns of behavior.

In each case, the interviews served to strengthen the bonds between the student and the person they interviewed.  I've found in all my work with story (which is what these interviews are--a chance to share and hear important stories from the interviewee's life) I've learned that when we listen generously to another's stories, it connects us in a deep and heart-felt way.  That's what happened with these students.  Whether it was a sibling, parent, grandparent, or mentor, loving ties were strengthened as a result of these interview experiences.

From the reports of the students' choices of organizations to receive their checks, one very strong lesson came through loud and clear: once a charitable organization passes the threshold analytical or "numbers" test, it's then all about the sense of connection with the group.  All the local organizations chosen to be honored with a donation had excellent analytical scores, because if an organization didn't, it had been weeded out weeks before.  That was loudly expressed back in weeks three and four.

But these reports in Week Six focused mostly on qualitative issues.  The students' decisions turned on how they were treated when they called the charity for information; on their sense of how committed to the cause they felt the people they talked to were; on the ability of the organizations' representatives to connect the students' concerns with the charities' mission.  It was clear that those organizations that went to the trouble to send someone to speak to the class face-to-face fared much better than those who--for whatever reason--were unable or unwilling to do so. 

So here's a powerful lesson for charitable organizations:  keep your numbers clean, but after that, the most important thing you can do is treat potential donors and volunteers with respect, kindness, and appreciation.  Develop strong relationships with them because in the end, most people give because of relationships and the way the people in the charitable organization made them feel.