In my reflection paper related to a wonderful visit to Slovakia I wrote about hope and about more philanthropy. See the quote:
“The hope for sustainability, the hope for larger impact and the hope for a better future is called: more philanthropy.
I can hear some critics saying – not enough of it is happening and it is not happening fast enough. To those reasonable voices I would respond – let’s begin exploring what we need to do to change our own behavior, approach and practice so that we build and nurture more philanthropy in our community.”
I wonder, is there more hope and more philanthropy in the CEE region now? If yes, what has changed since summer 2014? If not, how can we change what we do so that we contribute to more philanthropy?
Any ideas? I am really curious.
Jiri Barta
(43)
Loading...
I’m curious if “more philanthropy” is the right term? Is it ‘more’ that we need or is it ‘better’. Probably we need a critical mass of ‘more’ to be able afterwords to have ‘better’ as a goal. And also that might spark other questions, because more is quantitative and easier to define and measure, but ‘better’…, well what might be ‘better’ for some might be worst for others.
The former Association of Small Foundations (now Exponent Philanthropy) CEO used to talk about “more, better philanthropy.” In what Jiri describes above seems to me that both are applicable. But I love the idea of starting with selves. And also the idea that philanthropy is about more than just a transaction of money.
Well, I think that we need “more philanthropy in general” as a prerequisite for “more better philanthropy”. And one way how to achieve that is to focus on building and cultivating “more quality relationships with our donors & prospect donors” – i.e. relationships that are based on deeper understanding of values, dreams and interests of those donors. And the best way to accomplish that is to begin meeting them face-to-face, listen to them, sharing with them, being open with them, engaging them.
Jiri