How Do You Give Back?

Different perspectives on how to give back

In the last two weeks, I’ve posted several articles digging into the many different ways individuals and organizations give back to their communities.  Leading up to the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I asked two philanthropic leaders for their views on service and their work for the greater good:

• Tim McClimon, President of the American Express Foundation , told me about how he and his 13 year old daughter would spend the day volunteering through the National Day of Service , which American Express served as the lead sponsor on. He also described how his company leveraged their strengths for that day, including creating a Facebook app to help individuals connect with volunteer opportunities. Read more…
  In an interview with Simon Greer, he discussed how 9/11 was a turning point, both globally and professionally. Seeing the world aligning around two new polls, rising fundamentalist Christianity and extreme Islam, he asked the question ‘What’s a Jew to do?’ Since then, his faith identity has been an integral part of his work for positive change. As the newly named President of the Nathan Cummings Foundation , he’ll continue this journey – the Foundation describes itself as grounded in Jewish values, committed to social justice. Read more…
• The following week, I profiled a new organization that allows any Realtor or home buyer to give back to their community. Called My Broker Donates , it’s a platform that enables philanthropically minded people to connect with real estate agents who agree to donate part of their commission to a charity of the client’s choice. Highlighting how it can make a real difference, I used a case study from the early days at Taproot – we got $20,000 through a similar method! Read more…
• And this week on Stanford Social Innovation Review , I discussed results from a study on nonprofit boards in our five cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Washington, DC – completed pro bono by Financial Dynamics . Board service can be an incredibly valuable way to give back to the community, but we also found substantive differences across the cities in board involvement, turnover and more. We hope we can use these results to think more seriously about building strong board cultures and how a healthy board operates.

There are so many ways to give back to our communities – from services like My Broker Donates to being on a board to living a commitment to social justice. And they’re not exclusive!

Give back using your professional skills and make a difference in your community.