Tuesday, January 01, 2008Philanthropy 101

Eugenia O�NealPhilanthropy is hot! Philanthropy is sexy! All the cool people are doing it!

Philanthropy is hot! Philanthropy is sexy! All the cool people are doing it! Iman. Bono. Angelina Jolie. Brad Pitt. Oprah. Scarlett Johansson. Beyonce Knowles. Posh magazines are running feature stories on it and Bill Clinton’s just written a book on it (Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World)).

Donating to charity, getting involved with the environment, with young people, with the hungry, with the sick, has caught on among celebrities like a virus but they’re not the only ones giving and getting involved. Warren Buffet stunned the world when he announced his decision to donate about $37 billion dollars worth of shares in Berkshire Hathaway, the firm he grew into a powerhouse from its fairly modest beginnings as a manufacturing company. More than eight percent of his largess went to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, itself initially created in 2000 with an endowment of $106 m. from the Gates’s. The Foundation aims to reduce extreme poverty and improve healthcare around the world and is working closely with the United Nations in the implementation of various programmes. Buffet’s gift made the Foundation the biggest charitable organization in the world.

Here in the Virgin Islands, the late Laurance Rockefeller was probably the greatest philanthropist in terms of his generosity. Over a period of years beginning in the early 1960s, Mr. Rockefeller donated more than two hundred acres to the National Parks Trust, not including his foundation’s most recent gift of the six-acre Sandy Cay. The land is supposed to be worth millions in today’s real estate market.

Groups like Rotary of Tortola, Rotary of Road Town and the Lions regularly donate money to the Adina Donovan Home for the Elderly, the Rainbow Children’s Home, the Kids and the Sea Programme (KATS), Peeble’s Hospital and other agencies and institutions. Similarly, companies like Harney’s, Cable and Wireless, and CCT Global Communications regularly contribute to many of those same charities and institutions. On its website, Harney’s also lists the BVI Red Cross, the BVI Cycling Federation, and Virgin Islands Search and Rescue (VISAR) among its recipients. Finding out exactly how much a company donates per year and to whom is as difficult as finding out how much it makes, however.

In addition to those above, several individuals also support local sports teams with the purchase of equipment and uniforms and contribute to special drives. A few churches also donate monies to certain organizations and have also implemented such initiatives as lunch programmes for the elderly and the sick. Charitable organizations such as the Red Cross, the Humane Society, the Diabetes Association, the Animal Rescue and Control of Virgin Gorda, the Family Support Network, the Youth Empowerment Programme, the Virgin Gorda Youth Initiative, the BVI Reading Council, all require money to run their various programmes and lots of it. According to its website, VISAR requires more than $100,000 per year just to carry out its basic operation. Purpose-built boats and a boat-house on Virgin Gorda have to wait until the funds accumulate. Similarly, the Rotary Club’s Henry O. Creque Scholarship Fund has yet to get off the ground because it hasn’t met the $100,000 minimum it needs to start. And we haven’t even listed the public and private schools, the environmental groups, the cultural and historical organizations which can always do with an infusion of funds.

So how can you make a difference?

If you don’t want to give while you live, make sure to write a legacy or two into your will and let those closest to you know your wishes so there won’t be any debate in the future. And if you don’t have much money, remember that volunteering your time is just as important as giving money.

Identify the cause or causes that are dearest to you – organizations exist in the Territory to help everyone, from victims of abuse to people with HIV to abandoned animals. Go talk to the people who run them, volunteer your time, and see which issue will probably hold your interest over the long-run. That last is important – too often, donors give a one-time donation and don’t look back to make sure that the equipment they bought is being properly used and maintained, that the playground equipment doesn’t need repairing, that the money they donated has been put to good use.If no existing charity appeals to you and you have the time, the money and the interest, then start one of your own. Talk to as many people who are already involved in causes to find out the do’s and don’ts. Commit two or three years to getting it off the ground and to getting assistance from the kind of people you’ll need around you to make your organization effective.Get your children involved. Donating the kids old books to the Rainbow Children’s Home? Take them along with you. Contributed to the Humane Society? Give your child a tour of the Animal Shelter. Get them involved. Have them set aside their pennies to give to the Red Cross or let them take a percentage out of their allowance to give to the charity of their choice. (If they only give at church, then they won’t learn to broaden their horizons).

And, last but by no means least, once you’ve given of your time and/or money, demand accountability. You have a right to know that your gift is being used wisely. Find out how the charity you’re involved in is spending its money. Find out who is on their board and how it functions. Make sure that the organization is spending at least three quarters of its annual budget on its programmes, and not on administrative costs.

Living feels good but, more than that, it’s good for the development of the community in which you live.

Oyster Publications Inc, PO box 3369, Road Town Tortola, British Virgin Islands, VG1110