Philanthropy Archives - Scott's Thinking

Do you do something for charity, your community, people coming up behind you? It’s good to reflect on this. How do you give back?

I am trying to add more of this into my days. I do it sporadically and I would like to do it in a more structured way. It starts with giving my time to people who are building their careers or businesses. Then, Money for charitable causes and effort for good causes.

Getting clear on how to apportion time and money, and setting those aside for good causes, is a useful exercise. It makes you stop and think about what you do now, what might be good and even how it makes you feel. Should you set aside more time and money? To whom and how should that be done?

Some people are very good with structuring their thoughts around this. I’ve known people to set aside x amount of money and y amount of time. Then they gift that away through the year. Other people simply donate a lump sum and that’s that. All requests after that are denied.

Some people will give money freely but not their time. While others do the opposite. There are those that give 1% of their income while others give away most or all of it, like the incredible Chuck Feeney.

How do you give back?

There is always a list we want to get on. It could be Santa’s list or the shortlist for a sports team or promotion. There is always a list to strive for.

On that note, I found a list which I found interesting. It made me think, of all the lists you could be on, this would be a good one. Particularly if you were speaking in terms of wealth and influence.

The list was of the “Greatest philanthropists by amount of USD”. Now you may argue over the term “Greatest” so perhaps the people would be better described as the “Highest donating”.

Anyway, rather than the Sunday Times Rich List or the Forbes Billionaire list, perhaps more attention should be brought to the philanthropist list. We could even use the metric, ’donation as a percentage of assets or income’ to put the whole thing in context and allow less wealthy people to get on it.

Someone with a £200,000 net worth that donates £100,000 (50%) should be valued for their relative donation. This should take nothing away from people that donate several billion USD as those sums are hugely beneficial. Although, few people will amass that level of wealth. However, they may wish to give a disproportionate amount of what they have.

That might be a list to strive for.

Tag: Philanthropy

How Do You Give Back?