Individuals Make Fewer $1-Million Gifts

Charitable gifts of $1-million or more from individual donors fell by 33 percent in the last half of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007, according to a new analysis of big gifts by researchers at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy. C'mon now ... is anyone really surprised by that?

Two Men, Remembered

Eighteen years ago this Thursday, on February 26, 1991, San Francisco State President Robert A. Corrigan stood at a podium and announced that two men who died of AIDS had established grants for gays at three Bay Area universities.

Thomas Markowski died in 1987 at the age of 29. James Leach died in 1989 at the age of 32. Had they lived, they would be 52 and 53 now. Theirs is a typical story of what San Francisco and the world lost to the epidemic of AIDS in the 1980's and beyond.

They met in Houston in 1981. They moved to San Francisco in 1982, seeking career opportunities and a more active gay community. The San Francisco Bay area gave them a chance to succeed financially and to live openly as gay lovers. As both men became ill with AIDS, they decided to give something back after their deaths to the community they loved. They wanted to create a scholarship fund to give other gays and lesbians (and now bisexuals and transgenders) the opportunity to educate themselves.

They felt strongly that it was very hard for gays and lesbians to get ahead in business because you either had to be in the closet or would not get promotions. They wanted to make higher education available so gays and lesbians could get into leadership positions and make sure that being gay or lesbian wasn't an obstacle to getting ahead.

The gift was made possible from the proceeds of life insurance policies and real estate investment. (They owned a small apartment house in San Francisco that they renovated.) The fund started at $200,000 ... but can you imagine how many self-identified gay students have been helped through the years? I'm guessing somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 or so.

In many respects, a classic planned gift:

• a gift of a lifetime,
• a gift where the impact extends far beyond the lifespan of the donors,
• a gift that makes a transformational difference for a cause related to the donors' values
• a gift for which the donors are remembered

And yet, I can't help but think how remarkable it was for them to have had the foresight to do something like that. Now, years and years later, students can still apply for scholarships at San Francisco State, UC Berkeley, or Stanford. This year's deadline is April 15.

I am moved by this story. I did not know either of these men. I wish I had known them. They were contemporaries of mine. I would have been honored to call them friends.

The Possibilities Are Endless

I was with a new friend yesterday. One of the many I've been meeting and networking with over the last weeks, as I've contemplated whether or not to launch my consultant practice.

It wasn't a power-lunch or anything -- just a meet-up at a coffee house in Berkeley. I got to know him; he got to know me. During the conversation, I saw that we were connecting.

He works with destitute unfortunates who are homeless and hungry. He has to raise money to cover costs not met by shrinking government grants. And I was able to answer a couple of questions for him about working with people of means, attracting their attention to his cause. Glad to do it. He was getting excited about his possibilities. I was getting excited about his possibilities, too. Wrapping up, I said: "The possibilities are endless. Let me know if there's anything I can do to make them become real."

As I walked back to my car to return home, I reflected on how good it felt to share with another person working in philanthropy. And I felt as though I'd somehow touched his view of his job and his organization, by awakening possibility.

And then I realized. That's it! That's what I want to be about: awakening possibility in other people. That's what this coaching and consulting business is all about. I don't mean it as a tagline or motto. It's really the reason for being. I've been searching for a way to articulate it. Now I know; now I have the words.

What do we want? Equality! When do we want it? Now!

Yesterday, Tuesday, I attended Equality California’s biggest Lobby Day ever! About 700 marriage supporters went to the Capitol to talk to their legislators about why they should vote for HR 5 and SR 7, dual resolutions in the Assembly and Senate calling for Prop 8 to be overturned.

Timing is everything. Looked grim at first, with drenching downpours. The legislators were in lock-down over their inability to pass a budget. The whole day could have been a bust as pols tried to find their way out of gridlock.

As it turned out, the Assembly Judiciary Committee went forward with a hearing on HR 5 -- and we witnessed this event first-hand. Here's a link to the video. There was testimony from United Farm Workers (co-founder Delores Huerta), National Center on Lesbian Rights (Shannon Minter, whose oral argument in front of the California Supreme Court last year laid the groundwork for the Court's historic decision), and EQCA's exec Geoff Kors who argued that rights should not be decided by “popularity contests.” (Video starts at 09:05 and goes to 14:14)

Then, there was a stream of heart-felt and moving testimony from grassroots citizens. See video here, fast forward to 23:27 and watch through 46:00. And, for a head-shaking-bordering-on-comic-if-they-weren't-so-earnest look at the opponents, watch 47:22 to 1:11:00 to see what we're up against.

We watched as the Committee passed the resolution in a 7 to 3 vote. If approved by the Assembly, it would put the legislature on record as opposing Prop 8.

Democracy in action. And a "not-for-profit" organization doing it's thing to influence public policy.

Happy Valentine's Day: Support equal rights

It would be impossible to guess how many charitable events there will be today. I suppose it's next to impossible to hold a charity event on a Saturday that happens to be Valentine's Day, and NOT theme it around love and caring.

I'm going to one myself at San Francisco's majestic City Hall, a monument to Beaux-Arts. Beautiful ornamentation will abound. And I'm sure the building itself will look nice, too.

The site also happens to be where more than 4,000 same-sex couples were married in 2004. The event I'm attending will evoke that historic moment. Sponsored by Equality California (EQCA), the Equality Awards event isn’t just about glamour and glitz -- though my husband and I will be decked out in our formal dinner jackets. The event is about celebrating community achievement, recognizing selfless leaders, and renewing our engagement in the fight for equality.

To everyone, my hope for you is not that you spend your life with someone you can live with. Rather, I hope you spend it with the one you can't live without.

Doom-Gloom Away! Let's not become beggars.

Today I attended the Development Executives Roundtable session in San Francisco. While the networking was good and the program quite interesting, there was an overall pall in the room. It seemed every other minute, someone was bemoaning the state of the economy, the crisis we are facing, how our donors are feeling the pinch. There was talk of cancelling events, lowering ticket prices, re-focusing strategies for entire campaigns. Yikes!

Now don't get me wrong. I've personally felt the impact of our recession or depression or whatever it is. I'm not one to hide his head in the sand. We ought not pretend it's all well-and-good. But panic is not an appropriate response. The doom-and-gloom mentality was highly contagious in the room. Yes, things are tough. And non-profits are being called on to serve greater numbers while they feel their revenues at risk.

Before we reduce ticket prices, let's be certain that the market won't bear last year's price, rather than reflexively jerk our knees and discount the tickets. Has one person's worried comment been whipped up into a communal decision to slash what we ask for? Sure, people know things are tight -- and many are unemployed or underemployed. But the vast majority of people still have their jobs. While their net worth might have declined, their take-home pay almost certainly has not. And if we're not going to do our gala event this year, let's be honest enough to admit that we probably should have stopped doing that event long ago.

And as we modify campaigns to incorporate the current "realities," let's make sure we don't go overboard. It's too easy to have our "we-know-times-are-tough" direct mail copy become tantamount to saying: "We still need your support, but you probably don't want to give right now, do you?" Worst of all is the very real risk of simply not asking at all. No. Now is the time to get out there, build relationship with our donors. Remind them of the experiences they've had with us in the past. Sit beside them, elbow-to-elbow, and share our story with them in as compelling a way as we can find. Spark in them the same passion for our work that we feel. And then ASK them to invest in our cause.