Are You A Philanthropist

Why Philanthropy?

This is a question I have often asked myself. I was a school teacher for more than 25 years. I didn’t realize until years later that I had been engaged in philanthropy of some sort the entire time I was in the classroom. I bought snacks with my own resources to give to students who often came to school hungry. I wrote grants to to get computers in our classrooms way back when the great digital divide was encroaching upon inner city schools. I coordinated, booked and took challenging students who fell way below the poverty line on field trips to San Francisco Exploratorium, Oakland Museum, and more while riding BART because our school did not have resources for Buses for Field Trips. When I was not able to finance trips myself each year I learned to partner with larger corporations such as PG&E. As I began teaching upper grades I developed a Speaker’s Bureau at our School Site. This gave our students the ability to be mentored by Professional‘s in the Community. Science Camp became a huge year end event for my 5th graders and an opportunity for them to receive Science Education away from home at camp for a week. Of course cost was a concern and behavior as well. We formed community early on with families and came together to fundraise as well as created mentorship and support for students with potential behavior concerns. This was successful year after year. These are just a few practices used to help support children who needed support. Each of us have a different journey.

The most important thing is for you to personally reflect on what you have done and then build on that and scale it in this new season. You can do it! Some one somewhere is waiting to receive the blessing you have to share!