When I became an Independent Nikken distributor in 1995, one of my dreams was to become a philanthropist. Sure, I wanted to have independent financial freedom like most everyone else, but the vision of being a philanthropist on top of all that was pretty satisfying.
I recently came across an article written about MacKenzie Scott.¹ This inspired me all over again. She is the first Amazon employee and is now worth $60B. Her very thoughtful and insightful way of giving her money away had me visualizing what it would be like to influence that many lives without having to create all those programs myself. Then I thought, “Why wait”?
Most people believe you need to have millions of dollars to be a philanthropist and donate large portions of that money to a good cause. However, that is not the case. Merriam Webster defines philanthropy in part as “goodwill to fellow members of the human race, especially an active effort to promote human welfare”.² It may also be an act or a gift made for humanitarian purposes. That means anyone, no matter how old or how young, no matter how rich or how poor, can be a philanthropist in many different ways.
There are individuals and organizations in large and small communities who are creating goodwill on their own terms.³ Random Acts of Kindness,⁴ and Pay It Forward⁵ are phrases we hear often. We embrace their meaning but sometimes forget to act. I was brought to tears more than once in my research seeing the joy and appreciation on the faces of people both giving and receiving.
What did these people do? For those who use their financial resources, it may be as simple as paying for the groceries of the person behind you in the checkout line. It may be anonymously picking up the check for a young couple’s dinner. One person I met was purchasing gift cards from local restaurants and giving them as gifts – supporting the local business and giving a hand-up to the people who received them. I know of some people who do not have the financial resources to do big things, but have the skills to create a Go Fund Me page for victims of a fire or a tragic accident.
What about donating blood on a regular bases? In other cases it was giving compliments to strangers or people in their everyday life (instead of a critique). How would your day go if you had a quota of giving 5 authentic compliments in a day to 5 different people? How would you feel if you received one of those compliments?
People who have special talents gift them to others as mentors. I once saw a news report of a woman who opened her home to children. Some were in the foster system and others she chose to adopt. Amazing.
I found a great website with ideas and worksheets to help people get organized for action. Fidelitycharitable.org speaks to everything I just talked about. It also has some research and summaries of what they found on the subject of philanthropy.
My next move is to make a list of possibilities. These would be things I can do to think of myself as a philanthropist. I can speak kindly and think openly more often in order to bring more joy to the people I see in my daily life. I can leave the change at the checkout counter for the next person who needs it more than I would. Start small and think BIG!
- https://bit.ly/31RX7bf
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/philanthropy
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-4Rhd0HZjo
- https://www.naturalbeachliving.com/acts-of-kindness/
- https://charterforcompassion.org/practicing-peace/60-selfless-ways-to-pay-it-forward
- https://www.fidelitycharitable.org/guidance/philanthropy/what-is-a-philanthropist.html
