Our Values

Good giving starts at home. When you look out into your community, who are the people and organizations doing incredible work? What are the issues that most need attention? Where are the places that have meant the most to you? Consider adding these issues and groups to your Giving Portfolio. Your philanthropic journey may eventually take you in other directions, but we recommend saving a portion of your budget each year for your local community. Whether it’s the local library system, the up-and-coming arts community, the small coding-for-kids startup, the food bank, the new urban farm, or the afterschool program for kids of single mothers—there is an amazing, vibrant part of your community that is really hoping for a supporter like you.

When you think back, who are the people that helped you get to where you are today? What were the institutions that shaped you? What were the opportunities that really stretched and defined you? Do these groups need your support? If not, who are the people and organizations that have now picked up where they left off? Giving back out of gratitude is a wonderful way to pay it forward and pave the way for others to follow in your footsteps.

Sometimes the simplest rules are the most important: have compassion for those who are struggling. We all walk different paths, and we often start from different points. When it’s hard to relate to someone else’s experience, seek out their story. Seeing the world through another’s eyes can be difficult, but when we can manage it, it can broaden our perspective, expand our hearts, and show us solutions we wouldn’t otherwise see.

Listening deeply is a skill that we can all develop—and the better we are at it, the better our philanthropy will be. Our knowledge is inherently limited to what we have learned from our own singular life, but listening deeply allows us to extend our expertise beyond that of our own experience. Achieving social good can be remarkably simple or deceptively difficult; when it’s the latter, listening deeply allows us to understand the myriad complexities that must be addressed to achieve social good.  

Our Holistic Philanthropy framework views philanthropic giving as an important part of a larger social good ecosystem. Donors and nonprofits are in this together. To achieve our shared goals, we must work collaboratively with each other to co-create social good. Seeing the interconnected and interdependent nature of our relationship should lead us to feel a deep respect for the part that each of us plays in the social good ecosystem. Funders will respect the real-time knowledge that nonprofits have of the issues, born out of the experience they have gained from years of service, and their ability to craft effective programs to address the issues. Nonprofits will respect the field-level perspective that funders have, developed from funding across many organizations, and their ability to see opportunities for nonprofits to grow and develop. When funders and nonprofits recognize and value each other’s strengths, we all benefit; our social good ecosystem becomes more strategically organized, healthier, and ultimately more effective.

The funds in your foundation are incredibly important. When the funds are distributed to nonprofits, they will serve as an essential source of revenue to sustain the nonprofits as they pursue social good. Knowing the importance of these funds, it is essential that you prioritize their care. Are internal systems in place to prevent fraud? Are expenses within industry norms? Does your board conduct regular financial reviews? Are any of your investments inadvertently counteracting your philanthropic goals? These questions and more will ensure that your philanthropy operates at the highest level and serves as an example for your peers.

Nonprofits work hard to share their work with the public—and with you. Whether the news comes from funder briefings, social media posts, email updates, or media coverage, take the time to share their best work with others. This may entail sharing a grantee’s social media post, or it could mean forwarding an email to a friend who could become a funder. Philanthropists who take the time to support their grantees in this way will earn the undying appreciation of their grantees, as they will see that you all are working together to achieve the same goal. Even more important, you will be furthering your shared philanthropic goals as you help them expand and deepen their impact.

Once you have mastered the basics, which will most likely take several years, you can start to think creatively. You will have already earned the trust of your grantees, and together you will be co-creating social good. Now you can begin to ask additional, deeper questions of your grantees. What are their biggest pain points? What important but non-urgent work has yet to be done? If you have fully earned their trust, they may feel secure enough to share the real truth—about unsexy but essential projects like moving their files to the cloud, implementing a task management system, documenting their processes, retaining their best employees, preventing burnout, improving their benefits, and more. Typically, these are important projects that either no one has time to implement (like tech improvements), or that cost more than they think they should spend (like better employee benefits). Once you learn their needs, you can work collaboratively to think about creative ways you can support them to make these projects come to life.

True humility is seeing yourself and your place in the world with objective clarity. This is not easily done—it can take a lifetime of questioning and courage—but the payoff is a deep sense of peace and understanding. Most of us can attribute a portion of our success to the support we have received from others along the way. These supports may even extend back generations—we all stand upon the shoulders of our ancestors. Truly seeing the gifts we have received can help us feel a deep sense of gratitude for those who have come before us, feel true compassion for others who have walked a different path, and deeply inspire us in our philanthropic journey.

Let your heart and mind direct you in equal measure as you go out into the world to give. Share the love. Spread the wealth. And always remember that you are a member of a team of amazing collaborators on this social good journey you are on. You—hand in hand with the nonprofits, community groups, organizers, academics, journalists, and individuals working to change their lives—will co-create a better world for all of us. From all of us in our society, we say a very heartfelt, “Thank you!”