Middle-school philanthropists in Pitt County, 8.1 billion volunteer hours, and a new generation of black donors...Here's some of the latest giving news from our friends at the Philanthropy Journal and Black Gives Back:
GREENVILLE, N.C. - On a recent Thursday afternoon after school, a group of about 15 middle-school kids in Pitt County gathered to begin an extended conversation about how they can help their peers.
The session, which centered on understanding grants, was the first step in preparing these sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, to write a request-for-proposal, evaluate applications and award grants totaling $3,000 to improve the lives of kids in their community.
Sponsored by the Greater Greenville Community Foundation and Pitt County Communities in Schools, this is the first such effort among middle-school kids in North Carolina, says Eric Rowles, president and CEO of Leading To Change, a consultancy that works to promote youth philanthropy.
"The lessons are the same," he says. "That anyone and everyone has the ability to create change through their time, talent and treasure."
The first session focused on grants versus loans, and what it's like to be a grantmaker and a grantseeker, and next month's meeting will focus on "paying it forward." But for 12-year-old member Conrad Hunter, the concepts surrounding philanthropy take a back seat to what he hopes to achieve
"I want to make a difference in people's lives," says Hunter, a sixth-grader at Hope Middle School in Greenville. "I see a lot of poor people looking for money and food. I want to help their lives be better"...
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More Americans are volunteering, despite the challenges stemming from the recession, and volunteers are more likely than other Americans to get involved in civic life in other ways, a new
report says.
People who are more socially connected are more likely to get involved in service activities like volunteering, and those who use the internet are more likely to volunteer, says the Civic Life in America, an issue brief by the Corporation for National & Community Service, and the National Conference on Citizenship. "Americans are coming together to solve challenges," the report says. "They are tilting towards the issues and not running away from them.
The report also says veterans are more generally involved in their communities than non-veterans. In 2009, 63.4 million adults, or 26.5 percent of Americans age 16 and older, volunteered 8.1 billion hours, an increase of 1.6 million volunteers from 2008. Those represented the biggest increase in volunteers since 2003 and the highest volunteer rate since 2005...
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Plus, the national African American philanthropy blog Black Gives Back recently featured one of the local giving circles that NCGives helped launch, New Generation of African American Philanthropists in Charlotte --
New on BlackEnterprise.com is the article ‘How to Start A Giving Circle’ written by yours truly! I was delighted to write this article for the ‘Nonprofit Insider’ column because I am a founder of a giving circle, the Black Benefactors, and it allowed me to feature Darryl Lester, who is leading the charge in today’s African American giving circle movement. A giving circle is comprised of individuals who pool their money and resources, and then decide collectively how to give it away.
My article highlights this growing movement, and how Lester began his work to help create 11 African American giving circles across the country. Among them are the Birmingham Change Fund, a giving circle in Birmingham, Alabama (in photo), and the New Generation of African American Philanthropists in Charlotte, NC. Read my article HERE to learn more, and below, read why our next generation of philanthropists became involved in this movement.
“I was attracted to the idea of forming a black giving circle because together we could weave in our shared cultural values around how we wanted to engage as philanthropists, as a group on a mission and with our community. It’s also satisfying to bring to the surface and expand what too many people wrongly believe are rare: black donors.”--- Valaida Fullwood, founding member, New Generation of African American Philanthropists, Charlotte, NC...Read the full article
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