Robyn Schein, a Client Services Officer at The Minneapolis Foundation, recently wrote an inspiring blog post on personal philanthropy for Fourth Generation — the foundation’s young professionals group.
The piece, entitled, “Beyond Diets and Gym Memberships — Your 2011 New Year’s Resolutions for Giving,” is an invitation for young people to converse about their goals for giving in 2011.
Personal philanthrophy can be a struggle to initiate and to maintain — young professionals often need advice and assistance with tasks like choosing the right organizations to support, deciding how much to give annually, and staying motivated to funnel a portion of their resources back into community programs.
Here’s an excerpt from Schein’s post:
“Every year I set new year’s resolutions. They usually go something like this: go the gym more, buy organic and watch less reality television. My commitment to these resolutions always starts strong, but — you know the drill — it slowly wanes. Maybe it’s me or maybe I am just setting the wrong kind of resolutions….When the stress of work, kids, and life increases, so does the appeal of “American Idol,” “So You Think You Can Dance” and other mind-numbing reality TV gems ….
“For 2011 I am going to shake up my tried and true resolutions and change my approach. [A colleague] challenged me to use this time of year to set resolutions that relate to my goals for giving — giving my time, my energy, my effort and my dollars. I am going to set a vision for the world I want to live in and what I can contribute to achieving that vision.”
To read Schein’s entire post, visit the Fourth Generation blog.
Schein will be facilitating a workshop for Fourth Generation on Thursday, Dec. 16, designed to help individuals set goals for giving in 2011. For more information, visit The Minneapolis Foundation’s events page.
