You Don't Have to Be a Zillionaire to be a Philanthropist
"Giving Circles" are a great way to have a positive impact on your community.
Leah Dobkin
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Small Donations, Big Returns
Maybe you are interested in contributing to charitable organizations, but you're hesitant about who to trust with your donation. Here, we've listed nine organizations that will handle your funds with care.
My Life with Kathy Griffin
No longer shocked by her comedian daughter's antics, Maggie Griffin is comfortable in her role as a Hollywood mom.
Denise Wheeler does not have a charmed life. She's a single parent with a fifteen-year-old daughter and a sixteen-year-old son, and a dual diagnosis of breast cancer and HIV. She gets chemo every three weeks, and is on disability for a recent hip operation. “I didn’t have money for food, or for my phone, electric and gas bill to keep my service on,” said Wheeler.
She has no credit, no relatives and no friends to turn to for financial help, except one: Womenade.
Washington Womenade is a group of women friends in Washington, DC, who get together once or twice a year for a large potluck dinner to raise money for others in need in their community.
“Womenade has literally kept us from sitting in the dark. They have been our blessing, our answer to the question: 'Oh my God, what am I going to do now?'” Wheelers says.
Washington Womenade was born in January, 2001, when six friends got together for dinner on a wintry night in a deserted restaurant.
Amy Kossoff, a doctor for the poor and the homeless, was venting to her friends that her patients often spoke with her about critical needs they could not meet, which required relatively small amounts of money. Kossoff said she was providing $10,000 of her own money each year to pay for patients’ groceries, medicines, security deposits and even metro cards to help recently unemployed people get to their new jobs, but she needed more support.
Kossoff’s girlfriend, Lisa Herrick, a clinical psychologist, had been hosting large potlucks for her girlfriends for years. With a smile of mutual understanding between six women around a table in a Washington, DC, restaurant, Womenade was started. Herrick’s potlucks would help women raise money for women. She even came up with a name and a motto in a dream: “With Lemons Make Lemonade―With Women Make Womenade.”
Growing Philanthropists
There is a new and exciting movement to grow the number of philanthropists and you don't have to be a zillionaire to do it, thanks to a new a philanthropic trend called giving circles. Giving circles, like Womenade, are similar to investment circles, but with a social bent. People get together to pool their individual donations for charities in order to have a greater impact on community problems. Giving circles enable participants to learn more about issues like education and mental health, and make collective funding decisions based on what they learn and the priorities they choose. Members become more involved in the giving process than just writing a check to a favorite charity, and they have fun in the process. Many members volunteer at nonprofits that receive their donations.
An Old Biologist Who Never Quits
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