Bold Conversation

December 12th, 2013

Bold Givers Share Tips For Holiday Giving

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The Women Donors Network

Changemakers Foundation

Inspired Legacies

I’m an evangelist for inspired philanthropy: inspired living and inspired giving!

Over the past 30 years, I have spent an average of 200 days a year on the road – giving keynotes and workshops at donor conferences, meeting with wealthy families, and supporting individual donors to take charge of their giving. I’ve started 19 nonprofit organizations, including the Women Donors Network and Changemakers Foundation, and given over $2 million away: 100% of my inheritance by the time I was 35, and least 40% of my net earnings each year since.

What moves me now is the intergenerational transfer of leadership. That’s why I’m building Inspired Legacies, a nonprofit helping donors, financial professionals, and nonprofits collaborate on creating inspired legacies (estate, giving and living plans) that reflect people’s greatest visions. Currently, only 18% of Americans in the wealthiest 1% bequeath anything at all to charity. We’re out to change that, and catalyze billions of dollars for the public good.

Yes, there are times I despair: I have dedicated my life to supporting those of us with wealth to give more and give better – and still we sit on our resources while the worlds of the rich and poor grow further apart! Yet I have witnessed so much positive change through my work, I remain hopeful. My early upbringing can look to others like a cartoon of wealth: poor little rich girl, left alone with the servants in her parents’ giant mansions while her civic-minded parents trot around the globe. (My great-grandfather had invented the dial telephone, so great wealth was long-standing.) No wonder I always longed for connection. I finally found it in my 20’s, through the women’s movement and the world of social activism, and I’ve been building community ever since, organization by organization, person by person, dollar by dollar.