Can You Be A Philanthropist?
Can You Be A Philanthropist?
Many of us may think of philanthropy as something done by billionaires like John D Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Warren Buffet or Bill Gates who may have initially, set up foundations to outlast themselves. That certainly is philanthropy working on a large scale and very helpful. But in reality, philanthropy is practiced every day by thousands of people. People giving their excess to a needy situation that will help right now and is very satisfying to them and their recipient today.
Some of the very large foundations being created or in existence today have a new business model, one where the foundation may not outlast its founder; one that more closely follows an individual’s day-to-day model. They want to be in control of how their excess gets re-distributed, not leave it to someone to do it later. The Lord blessed them with excess and with that comes a certain level of stewardship and responsibility to help those in need (Note: not those with less, but those in need) (Read, “An Unconventional Billionaire is Revolutionizing Philanthropy by Closing His Foundation) Many people like to give and many more people would like to have a say in where that gift gets placed or maybe even how it is used, right away. Understanding where the donation went, who it helped and what impact on the needy did it have is a large key to attracting donations.