Dion McInnis, founder of the Empowered Creativity Institute and Philanthropy Liaison, is a local author, coach, consultant and speaker. His focus is on working with organizations to empower strong teams in order to improve job satisfaction and performance.
I interviewed McInnis to learn more about generosity with context.
How does thoughtful giving influence generosity?
In my 27 years of working with university donors, they often wanted to give to other charities or to university funds, particularly scholarships, because those are what they knew about and understood. Many donors may give to a cancer cause because a relative died of cancer, but that may not reflect what their own lives and values are about.
There is much opportunity for philanthropy between the easy answer of the familiar and the challenging solutions hidden in the information overload of options. This is true for individuals and organizations. Donor introspection and organizational information has helped me lead donors to very creative options that were reflections of their goals, values, life stories, significant experiences and more. Philanthropy can and should be influenced by more than just expediency. Wisdom born in knowledge, introspection and reflection will lead to empowered philanthropy.
Should organizational leaders influence giving?
Leaders must give if they expect others to give because they inspire giving by their actions, providing an influence that cannot be dismissed. I remember a meeting of more than 30 university administrators who believed all alumni should give to a university initiative. I reminded them that less than 10 percent of those at the table were donors. Another time, a university employee sent me a nasty email because I did not support a project he was interested in, the assumption being that I should because I was in charge of fundraising. I challenged him to look at my giving history that was based on the projects that were relevant to personal priorities. The moral of those stories is that leaders should give, but leaders should not be expected to donate to everything. No matter the situation, giving is personal.
We spoke of generosity with context and how it is not just about goals and objectives. How can that context make a difference?
Philanthropic decisions that look at the greater context of influences instead of goals and objectives will be more empowered, effective and meaningful to all concerned. I recall a donor who missed his final exams because he was in the hospital for malnutrition. He had to choose between school expenses and food. He cried when he said no one should ever need to make that decision and endowed a scholarship for $100,000. A company willing to share the reasoning behind their corporate goals was then met with a creative proposal that inspired them to increase their donations by 400 percent over a multiyear period, totaling millions of dollars. Decisions are best made with understanding and context. Goals and objectives are important targets, but context provides critical influences and inspiration for creative, inspired philanthropy.
Deena Carstens Munn is the founder of the Houston Philanthropic Society. She has more than 10 years of experience in corporate philanthropy and more than 20 years of experience working with nonprofit charitable organizations. You can review a list of charities online by visiting the Houston Better Business Bureau at
www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/houston.
