Giving this holiday season

Struggling with how to pick a charity this holiday season? Here is some help -

Mint presents data on charitable giving in the US and provides advice on how to give.

Tim Ogden from Philanthropy in Action discusses why Mint's advice is dead wrong , and presents his own take on the best and worst ways to pick a charity.

Online giving - keeping it honest

A recent New York Times article highlights an important challenge that online giving and lending sites face. How do you make your model appealing but maintain transparency and efficiency?

Kiva.org, the most popular online lending site, allows users to lend small amounts of money to microentrepreneurs in developing countries - at least that is how Kiva presented it. In reality, the funds that users donate go into a pool of money for microfinance institutions. Typically, these institutions lend money to the individual entrepreneurs before the loans are made on Kiva. A person-to-person model is appealing, but not efficient. If individual borrowers had to wait to get their money from a group of lenders, it's likely that many of them would end up waiting for weeks. So, it's understandable (and acceptable) that Kiva operates the way it does.

Kiva modified how they explain their model on their website due to the latest scrutiny. Whether this affects their popularity remains to be seen.

The gift of giving?

How many of you agree that wonderful things happen to you later on in life after experiencing incredible giving experiences at a tender age?

Do I agree? Yes, I do. Let us take for instance my writing this blog and feeling at ease with what I choose to write about. Thinking back there has been one incredible experience that i would like to share with you. It was spending quality time with my grandfather who was developing a disease called Parkinson's. My grandfather was a grand old man with a deep voice and a sharp temper. He had done most of his schooling in England and returned to India to be a District Judge and start a family of his own. Little did I know that he would be more British than Indian as he smoked a pipe, wore classy shirts and trousers and insisted on good manners and discipline, always!

Just the thought of grandpa made me nervous and scared but I always had a soft corner for him as he rewarded me with chocolates for good behavior. Now, to relate my incredible experience with grandpa. Well, little did I know that he loved my hand writing and my writing style until he insisted that I spend my weekends helping him write letters to his good old friends as he had developed a debilitating disease called Parkinson's and his fingers always trembled. My poor darling grandpa I thought and willingly offered to help him whenever he needed help.

Little did I realize at that time that I was learning every step of the way. I did what I was told as I had just offered to be his hands and not HIM! He loved me for just being ME. As I listened I learned, as I wrote I learned and as I interacted with him I learned. The experience was INCREDIBLE! It had a lasting effect on me as it improved my grammar, writing style, confidence and personality. And what I find most fascinating is that everytime I write, it brings back fond memories of quality time with my grandfather.

Surely, many of you have an incredible experience to share. Do publish your posts for all to see. Thank you!

What do we have to give?

I just think that we all have so much to give and so little time. What do we have to give? Well, there is a certain magic in the positive qualities that we all possess that we can share for free. Some of us are affectionate, loving, nurturing, kind, talented, brilliant, patient, sincere, trustworthy, faithful to name a few. What if we went around finding time to use our qualities to comfort and support someone else. How would this make them feel? How would this make us feel? I cannot explain my satisfaction with this experience. You will have to try it to understand......

The most satisfaction I have gotten in my life is giving of my free will. I do not possess a whole lot of money to give away but I find immense pleasure in giving of myself and my talents out of my free will. What comes naturally to me adds a special meaning to my life and helps someone else. We all need a sense of belonging and unconditional love and also have that special ability to make others feel that sense of belonging and unconditional love as well. And when we are already experiencing that sense of belonging and know how it makes us feel we understand the desperate emotional needs of someone else. Don't we?

What do I consider a sense of belonging? A sense of belonging is gotten when we respect the closeness of family and friends in connection to ourselves. How does it make us feel when we say "My son", My daughter", My mother", My good friend"? What happens when we don't have a daughter, a son, a mother or a good friend? I suggest that you can get out into the world and be that son, daughter, mother or good friend to someone else. Just give it a try and let me know how that makes you feel?

We Flap Butterflies ROCK!

So much has gone on these past few years, when the thought of "We Flap" and the ideas behind it began to blossom. Priyanka (Mandira's sister) had reached out to her dear friends in the neighborhood to help as volunteer coordinators for We Flap Outreach. They were a super energetic team of teenagers (Beverly, Joanne, Julien) who got together to do their homework projects around my dining table, raid my pantry for cool snacks and just chat up.

Mandira would reserve special days to do "We Flap" work and plan their snacks and rewards for a job well done. Priyanka was responsible for their presence and getting the task done. All that I did was to set the goals for the day and suggest how best to manage their time to accomplish the specific task. I could be reached at any time they needed help as well. It turned out to be so "FUN"! As "We Flap" volunteers, our team of best friends really enjoyed their space and were so much at ease working aggressively while being themselves...... just joking, helping and making fun of each other. And for the reward, they mostly wanted the banana split ice cream at "Amy's". With their super appetites this felt like a huge treat after a day of hard work. We even made trips to "Kerbey Lane Cafe" for brunch. Well, if you ever travel to Austin, you've got to check out these two places. They totally ROCK!

Now, for the funnest experience they ever had....our volunteers were assistant facilitators for the "We Flap" Enrichment Slot at an elementary school here in Austin where I was facilitating the E-Slot. Full of ideas on how they would manage their time at the E-slot and take leadership roles they started interacting with the 4th and 5th graders at ease. Kids were super excited to be split into groups and have our volunteers guide them and help them understand what "We Flap" was all about and introduce them into the incredible world of "Giving".

Our enrichment slot sessions were a huge success and the school has allowed us to continue by facilitating both the enrichment cluster and the enrichment slot during the school year. To top it all, there was also an amazing response from our students who attended the sessions last year wanting to take on leadership roles and be assistant facilitators this year. Also, we needed to come up with a creative name and as "We Flappers" we could not think of nothing better than being "Future Change Makers".

What was my inspiration for "We Flap"?

As you all know, I started We Flap as a result of the inspiration from my daughter, Mandira and Sravish Sridhar. Since then many of you have wanted to know more about my daughter and Sravish and what they did to inspire me.

Mandira had always amazed me with her clever ideas since she was 4 years old and as she grew older there was a generosity and a sense of responsibility in her that I admired very much. To me, it was remarkable that she had these qualities at such a young age.

Mandira cared for the homeless, the orphaned and abused children, the poor, the tsunami victims and the children in Africa and India. Every time she cared, she gave money off her cash box, her books, her clothes, her shoes and encouraged everyone else to give of themselves. She had even convinced our bank manager to issue her a debit card to manage her bank account and keep track of expenses. I grew ecstatic listening to her interest in requesting information from homeless shelters, orphanages and other causes that she cared about. She only wanted to help the ones that were in dire need of help and had made out a list of questions to find out who needed the most help. She then asked me to contact the organizations and would follow up with me eager to understand the progress and feedback from these organizations. Once she had all the information on the needs of these organizations, she would check her cash box, her closet, the attic and the garage to see if she had the right things to give them. She would also interact with close family and friends and encourage them to pool in as well. She thoroughly enjoyed buying groceries, diapers and milk powder for the homeless and orphaned children with her debit card and kept accounts, always!

Mandira had initially proposed to go to visit children in Uganda as she was totally fascinated by Mrs. Trudy Marshall's philanthropic work in Uganda. Mrs. Marshall was her childhood hero and one incredible person. As I got to know Mrs. Marshall, she was my hero, too. For more information on Mrs. Marshall's work, please visit:

http://www.librariesoflove.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=9&Itemid=9


The impact of Mrs. Marshall's work on Mandira's thoughts knew no bounds. She spent days trying to convince her dad and me to take her to Uganda. We had to sit her down and explain that it will be difficult for us to follow through on her trip to Uganda as we needed time to put together a team and come up with a plan. She pondered for a while and then came back to me requesting that I take her on a philanthropic mission to India. Her dad was pleased and offered to sponsor our entire trip to Chennai, India in February' 2006. Mandira was 9 years old at that time.

Our mission to India was phenomenal; we visited with orphan children, tsunami victims, the poor and the homeless. Mandira convinced her grandmother to have large containers of food to be made at home and insisted on spending hours giving bowls of food away to the poor on the streets, in Chennai, India. It was a totally new and enlightening experience for me. I felt I had done and understood more during that time than I ever did growing up in India. I was soon motivated to be involved in a mission larger than myself and could not wait to share my experiences with the larger community around me. The communication that transpired in these conversations somehow got me to understand the bigger picture and realize the needs of Non Governmental Organizations.

It was at this time, that I found yet another very inspiring person, Sravish Sridhar, who not only shared our passion but had innovative thoughts in this area. Sravish had helped NGOs over the years and was also successfully growing a high-tech company the same time. Sravish and I spent tireless days and nights, thinking of ways to create a new non-profit social enterprise that could help non governmental organizations, increase their capacity and get access to resources they need to grow. It impressed me immensely that he had very interesting ideas on leveraging emerging technologies to address issues facing the NGOs. Slowly, all the pieces started falling into place and we decided to get the ball rolling on a new venture to help them -http://www.weflap.org/. That's how we got started!

The power of Inspiration!

Isn't it true that in all our lives, we have all at one time or another been truly fascinated by the power of inspiration. To some of us, it has kept us going through the darkest of times with a strength and courage to face the situations that we once deemed impossible.

Isn't it remarkable that if we all began to relate stories of inspiration since we were kids, we can easily find so many. Just thinking about it, can make us wonder how every story had an effect on us one way or another. And how somehow each one of them had created an effervescence that was there to stay. I had experienced one such incident when I was a child, I remember my great grandfather telling me about the time of India's freedom struggle, when there was so much uncertainty in the air, it was his inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi that chilled his soul. Inspired I was at that age about non-violence, love of humanity, respect for all religions, that "Unity" is strength, and that in togetherness we can solve the worlds problems. It's effect on me was permanent, and today I get to live my life with greater vision and a true understanding of a mission to save our world.

How many of us have found the power of inspiration addicting? Do we thrive on IT? Do we lead inspiring lives because of IT?

Promoting peace through education

Last night I attended a talk by Greg Mortenson author of "Three Cups of Tea" - a book on Greg's experiences building girl's schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The talk, like the man, had a single-minded focus - education, particularly girl's education, is the key to development, the key to fighting terrorism and promoting peace and really, the only , viable,long-term solution to promoting change. He understands the complexity and difficulty in what he is trying to achieve and seems to have the required patience. He is absolutely relentless in his message and vision and while his presentation seemed rehearsed (he speaks round the year), I couldn't help wanting to support and believe him.

Much of Greg's work is funded by an organization he founded called "Pennies for Peace". When he was first trying to raise fund for his work a 4th grade kid told him that he could have his piggy bank - the school ended up raising about $62,000 through donations from kids (and parents) laying the foundation for Pennies for Peace. Since then the program has spread to hundreds of schools and is supposed to expand to thousands this year.

It sounds like a great organization and is another powerful example of how children can help.

Day for giving anyone?

I'm not talking about a giving during a Birthday or Mother's Day, or Father's Day. Nor am I referring to giving during Christmas, Diwali, Id, Hanukkah or any other religious holiday. It isn't gifts for Valentine's Day, a baby shower, a bridal shower or an anniversary.

I went to my friendly neighbourhood search engine and found some interesting, but mostly well-meaning "days":

• World Rat day - April 4th
• World Toilet day - November 19th
• World Laughter day - First Sunday in May
• World Friendship day - First Sunday in August
• And my favorite thus far - International Talk Like a Pirate Day - September 19th

But, typing in World Giving Day didn't give me any results. Hrm!!! Strange, isn't it?

We have holidays (religious, personal, banking, national, commercial, etc.) for every occasion, why not a world giving day? Wouldn't it be nice if every government all over the world decided that the world should collectively set a day for all of its citizens to take the day off from work, and participate in giving, or volunteering, or helping in some way?

It would be a day to give back to your community, your country, your world. Or better still, a week for giving perhaps? Not just writing a check or sending money, but - Giving.

A day for giving anyone?

And on a lighter note, here's a cartoon (rights belong to the original artist) that shows the effects of the current financial crisis on the world of philanthropy -

How wise children with just pennies can make a HUGE difference to our world

Today, we learned about how children with a few resources could make the world a better place. I asked my students if they knew any inspiring stories of children to share with the class. They started to talk about my daughter's philanthropic mission to India and how this was instrumental in inspiring me to join Sravish Sridhar in "We Flap". My daughter graduated from their school last year and it pleased me that they looked to her as inspiration. Then, as they had no more stories to share, I shared one very inspiring story that moved me beyond words. It was the story of a 4 year old Nora Gross who had inspired her father Teddy Gross to start an organization called Commoncents (http://www.commoncents.org/) after she had shown kindness to a homeless man on the street. It had amazed me that this organization had the largest child philanthropy program in the United States called Penny Harvest where children between the ages of 4-14 who have a natural compassion for others have been collecting pennies and converting those pennies into grants for community organizations. I could not wait to show a video of their work to the kids.
http://www.commoncents.org/index.cfm?objectId=F3018731-3048-32DA-18746AC36ED53DA2

It was the longest video they had watched during our sessions but were interested nevertheless. The video was a great resource. It helped the students understand that, as children, they have the ability to look into their communities, see problems, ask questions, participate in decision making and help solve problems. Also, that loose change can make a huge difference in our world!