My Life Changing Moment on GEE

By: Analise
Analise was a youth traveler on Allowance for Good's 2015 Global Engagement Expedition to Bucerias, Mexico to visit Human Connections, a social enterprise designed to foster cross-cultural understanding and empower local entrepreneurs. 

Coming back from GEE, my view on my own daily life and the lives of the people I surround myself with has significantly changed. I now have a greater understanding of how much I have and how I can use all the blessings I received for better. There were several moments on the trip that caused this change, but there is one moment that stands out from the rest. On Friday, the fourth day of our trip, we visited Lomas del Valle and worked with Fundación ATD helping build the new school and playing with the little kids. After we finished playing with the kids I got to get a better look at the old school. It was astonishing to see this "school" with walls made out of wire and a roof made out of tin and then to think about my own school, Saint Ignatius.

As I walked next to one of the four outer walls of the school there was a list, as there are on many schools in Mexico. In the Mexican school system, the government sets up a school, but that is it. The children must pay for supplies, books, and repairs of their classrooms. As it is not uncommon for families to be unable to pay for all that is needed for school, each list schools' lists have the names of children who owe money to the school and how much they owe. I read the list outside of the school in Lomas del Valle and I added up the money that was owed by the ten names on the list. All together it was $435 and I thought for a low income community 435 U.S. dollars was a lot so it made sense to me. Then, it hit me. It wasn't U.S. dollars, it was in pesos. which meant it was only about $35 U.S. dollars. I knew right there that I had 3 times that amount of money sitting in my wallet on the bus.

I will forever remember that moment. It put my life in a whole new perspective I had never thought of before. I realized just how incredibly blessed I am to be born where I was, to have the family I have, to be the person I am, and to have so many opportunities in front of me that I must not waste.

Analise dancing with the kids at Entreamigos in San Pancho, Mexico.

List outside of the school in Lomas del Valle outlining how much each family owes.

Philanthropy = Love of Humans

By: Nia
Nia participated in Allowance for Good's 2015 Global Philanthropy Summit in June, which focused on Global Engagement.

This summer of 2015, I have done a lot of programs but one I will never fail to remember is the Global Philanthropy Summit I did late June. For starters, the majority of kids my age are not even familiar with the word philanthropy. Right on day one the camp taught us what philanthropy truly is. It’s not just for rich people, and it’s a long term commitment and service to groups and organizations. It’s like community service but a full time and forever impact on the group. That idea made me smile because there is such a great joy that comes from giving back to the world and to do it long term seemed like an impact I know I wanted to give.

Nia, center, discussing with other GPS students.

For some, you might not know that philanthropy means the love of humans. Just the thought to being a part of something that can bring love to humans was something that compelled me in immediately. I truly want to thank GPS for the commitment and ideas they gave to me from this camp.

Not to mention, from this wonderful, and inspiring camp lead me to get my backpack for this upcoming school year. One of the speakers was from CAUSEGEAR which is a low-profit group that helps people with economic problems of their low pay in India. I loved their idea and I loved their backpacks and I went home immediately and bought it so now I have it for this school year.

An organization like that, that was helping people in India really made me think about global engagement. During this camp we talked a lot about how to globally change the world, I mean why be small and change only your neighborhood. Go big or go home! At camp we learned about how to be globally engaged and know that the blessed area we live in, is not at all the norm for the rest of the world. We have a lot, and great resources as well. So we should make a change as big as we can and really help the world.

Any student who wants to come to a camp to learn about how they can make a change and get inspiration from leaders should no doubt sign up as soon as they can. This summit was a great impact on me and I can’t wait to grow up and join the world of philanthropy.

Remembering to Look Up -- Lessons from GPS

By: Ross

Ross participated in Allowance for Good's 2015 Global Philanthropy Summit in June, which focused on Global Engagement.

My time at the Allowance for Good Global Philanthropy Summit (GPS) was really eye-opening. One of my goals this summer was expanding my horizons in regards to philanthropy and service. Not only did GPS introduce me to incredibly inspiring organizations and individuals, it also gave me new and interesting tools and perspectives on philanthropy. I think much of the general population views philanthropy as monetary contribution. In reality, it’s so much more. As we learned on day one of GPS, philanthropy is giving your time, talent, treasure, and/or ties.

For example, Harvey Newcomb from Rotary International and Claire Dillon of Art Works Projects taught us about the large role marketing plays in a strong philanthropic campaign. The founder of World Bicycle Relief showed us how giving children bicycles not only allows access to education, but the responsibility of managing of contracts and who is given bikes builds a structured community that is strong and savvy. Lorraine Dillon of Right to be Free showed us how the efforts of one man have changed so many lives.

While we learned so many definitions and facts about philanthropy and ways to give, we learned a lot more by meeting people, and having conversations. I personally prefer a phone call to text or email, and I much prefer a face-to-face conversation to a phone call! At GPS, we not only listened to speakers, but we asked questions. We entered a dialogue about philanthropy. The speakers Allowance for Good chose not only did interesting things, but told interesting stories. They shared with us their experiences, and encouraged us to get out there and make experiences of our own. Experiences that will someday make really interesting stories.

I think my largest takeaway from GPS was this: Philanthropy comes in all shapes and sizes, and the biggest impact we can make is opening our eyes. Looking up from screens and schedules, taking a break from the daily grind to look out that window we sit by every day and noticing something new. Whether it be a birds nest, a squirrel on your neighbor’s roof, or even the way the sunlight shines. The more we look up, the more we SEE. We miss so much by not taking time to experience. Allowance for Good made me realize the importance of looking up. When I look up, I can appreciate my world. I can see what needs fixing and I can do something about it. The Global Philanthropy Summit is surely a week well spent, and taught me lessons that are sure to keep paying off. I encourage everyone who hasn’t yet taken part in a GPS (no matter how involved with Allowance for Good you already are) to spend a week engaging, learning, and experiencing life with your eyes open. Hopefully it will be as rewarding for you as it was for me.

Ross presenting his ideas at the workshop with Chapín Coffee and Right to be Free.

Giving for Greater Impact

By: Bella
Bella is a participant in the Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy: Changemakers class. 

A giving circle in technical terms is a form of participatory philanthropy where groups of individuals donate their own money or time to a pooled fund, decide where to give the funds away to charity or community projects and, in doing so, seek to increase their awareness of and engagement in the issues covered by the charity or community project. But a giving circle to me is a groups where you donate time, talent and money to a passion of you and your group. Giving circles can also have a greater impact on an organization, where as an individuals donation can only go so far. 

A giving circle has many benefits, the major on is a greater impact. Another benefit is having engagement with the community, friends, family and neighbors. In a giving circle engagement is key, because it is is participation. My group of AFG participants worked together and engaged together to raise money and talk about the most eye opening issues to ourselves and our passionate issues. This way we could make a difference in not only our lives but in others. 

Some of the challenges that I faced was deciding the organization that needs that most help, because one issue is not better that the other, it is where u are passionate about helping make a difference in that issue to support the solution not the problem. Another issue I faced was making my voice herd, because in a giving circle it is hard to all say an equal amount of ideas, but I found that listen is just as important as speaking and even then listen to some on can inspire even greater thoughts than u imagined. 

I am most proud of reaching our goal of 100 dollars which was matched by AFG. We raised 106 dollars and ended up to by 212 dollars, by the end. I am also proud, because I now realize how much more of a impact you/we can have on some one. With this money we decided to complete a project and donate the rest to working towards completing a project. 

Philanthropy in Depth

By: Moira
Moira is a participant in our Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy: Changemakers class. 

In Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy: Changemakers, we have the ability to delve deeper into philanthropy. At our last meeting, we went into more detail about the grant-making process, an extremely important part of the health of nonprofit organizations. The grant-making process starts with a healthy grantor-grantee relationship which must be mutually beneficial. Secondly, we learned about the mechanics of the grant-making process. Specifically, we learned about Request for Proposals which are documents created by grantors that describe the possible funding opportunities. After this, grantees are able to submit their proposals about what they intend to do with the funds and then the grantor will decide which grantee to allocate their funds to. One interesting fact that we learned about the grantmaking process is that there is no singular correct way to go about it: each different grantor/grantee will do it differently. 

A second topic of our class was exploring and learning more about nonprofit governance and accountability. A nonprofit is accountable to the public since their goals have to do with improving quality of life for some sector of the public. Within individual non-profits, there are many people that help the organization stay on the right track. For example, the Board of Directors is a group of people that oversee the actions of the non-profit in order to ensure that they are staying true to their mission and values. Without these people, there would be no third person perspective that has the organization's best interests in mind which would have a detrimental effect on the organization. 

In class, we did an activity in which, as a group, we had to decide where to allocate funds to as if we were grantors. Some of the most important factors we looked for in organizations were transparency, accountability, financial health, and efficiency. It is important to consider these criteria because they will ensure that a grantor is giving to a non-profit organization that will be responsible with the treasure given to them. The idea of criteria for organizations to give to ties into being an educated philanthropist in order to effectively give your time, talent, and treasure.