Grace Nicolette
speaker
46 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Grace Nicolette’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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I don't have specific data on that. I mean, my sense is that what you're alluding to is that individual giving did go down for, I would say, donors who are giving smaller amounts. I think that for donors who already were giving a large proportion of their incomes or wealth that the itemizing actually still continues.
I think that especially with COVID, we saw just tremendous needs in our community. And so I think that there's sort of a challenge for those of us who might be giving on the cusp around of that 14K mark to really not be swayed by that and actually just to be as generous as we can, because it really does make a difference in the areas that we care about.
Exactly. We're one of the only countries in the world that offers that.
With the GoFundMes, I really do think a good rule of thumb is, do I know this person, right? Is there a level of trust? Trust really is the theme across both informal giving networks like GoFundMe, as well as giving to nonprofits. No one is saying you should go out and give to an untried and untested or someone you don't know or an organization that you're unfamiliar with.
We do say, do your homework. Definitely ask for the information. Ask the good questions and then give as generously as you can. And that trust piece really undergirds all of it.
maybe you set aside a small amount to do that. And that itself could be a whole strategy itself, where it's like, I would like to give to disasters in other places. I think that for me, and I think for many people, having a relationship with the communities and the causes that you care about can be a really important part of being an effective donor.
And so I would say maybe also have a giving that really connects you to your own community and causes that are close to your heart.
Exactly.
Yeah, I mean, this is geared a little bit more towards large institutional funders. Funders who are giving large amounts of money into different communities or nonprofits, it's actually really important that they listen well to what those folks need. And I think this is somewhat true also for smaller donors.
Like sometimes donors have a really clear idea of what they want to do, but there might be a disconnect between what they want to do and what is actually needed.
getting that feedback and what's so tricky about it is that communities and causes recognize that there's a power dynamic you're the one with the money and so they don't want to jeopardize the funding it might be really hard to say like actually what you're doing is not really what we need and so being the kind of donor who can be approached again that trust that we talked about earlier to say like actually i know you want to do this but can i also share about this need with you
And really learning and expanding your view of what is needed and what communities say is most important to them, I think is really key part of the journey.
And I think that the root of this is often that we see financial wealth as being the sum total of wealth generally. Actually, there's like many dimensions of wealth. So like poor communities, communities on the margins, they actually have a lot of wealth and assets, perhaps that are non-financial that we with the funds may actually lack.
And so I think we have to have a deep measure of humility when we go into communities or causes that we're somewhat distanced from and to say, actually, I have a lot to learn. I have money to give, but maybe I have something to gain too from the way they live their lives, what's important to them. It really is like a mutual kind of exchange and not just a one-way thing.
This is really the day-to-day experience of donors. I have a family member that has a rare genetic disease, and the only way that there's going to be treatment for that disease is that all the families have banded together to basically fund the research that it will take to bring about a cure. And that is true for any range of common diseases as well as rare ones.
So that's just like one small piece of it. In every community in the United States, there's community foundations. These are places where donors can come together and say, hey, actually, here are some of the needs in our community. How can we band together and address them?
That's a really powerful place that folks who might want to look more into, oh, what's going on with other people in our community? How can I join others? They should really look into that because, you know, like in business, you want to keep your business strategy to yourself because it's a competitive dynamic. In giving, you actually want to do the reverse.
If you're just doing it in a silo, you're probably not being very effective. You want to go out and see what are other people doing? Who can I join? What's my lane? I would really encourage donors to consider that.
It's so funny because this is an area that I'm actually personally trying to challenge myself with right now. And this is my job is that I have always waited until the end of the year to do my giving. And partially that's driven by tax reasons. But really, it's also there's no real reason why that's true. It's a habit. Maybe some of us, we have bonuses at the end of the year, that kind of thing.
You're right. Nonprofits are so reliant on that end of December opportunity. at least in the United States, kind of giving that it really is kind of feast or famine compared to the rest of the year. One of the things I'm trying to do is actually challenge myself not to wait until December.
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