Friday, April 24, 2009

Tough Questions about Giving

On Thursday, Valerie and I joined Chad (the Library's Director of Development), Linda Anthony (Library Board Member) and about 200 others to see Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Women for OSU, Leadership and Philanthropy hosted the event. So, giving back was obviously a big theme. Over lunch every table was given a list of discussion questions. I was pleasantly surprised that the list actually resulted in some interesting lunch chat. Here what they asked us:

What people, experiences, and institutions have had the most impact on your life and in what ways have they influenced you?
At our table, there was definitely a theme of family and mentors.

Please think about your personal values. Would you say your giving (time, treasure, and talent) matches up with your values?
I, personally, hadn't thought of it this way. Everyone seemed to be able to draw a connection to values and giving. Everyone seemed to give back to the "community" that had impacted them, the city community, a school or a program or an organization that supports an issue impacting their family.

Have you considered what you desire your philanthropic legacy to be? What steps led you to this vision of your legacy?
I had never really thought about my "giving legacy" until this question. Surprisingly, everyone a the table admitted they had never thought about legacy either, but we had a great talk about it. The basic theme I heard from everyone was that they wanted to impact people. They wanted to help the community that had helped them. They wanted to inspire others in the ways they had been inspired.

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