National Conference on Volunteering and Service

I’m not suggesting that service hasn’t always played a deep and intrinsic role in our history– because it has, and it will continue to. The needs are too great, and the resources from government, the private sector and philanthropy are too stretched.  

 

On Wednesday I’m moderating a panel that includes some forward thinkers: Ben Rattray founder and CEO of Change.org; Jacob Harold Program Officer at the Hewlett Foundation; and Perla Ni founder and CEO of Great Nonprofits. In preparing for the panel, I’ve had several exchanges where people have been surprised when I talk of philanthropy and civic engagement as being so deeply connected. In my mind, this was never a question.

 

Giving or philanthropy is something that I have always felt has the potential to lead to deeper levels of civic engagement. It's true that increasing one’s civic engagement is not limited to philanthropic behavior, but it does include it. Volunteering, participating in community initiatives, and making donations are all part of building social capital.

 

There’s no question, philanthropy has traditionally been seen as a top-down, hierarchical practice – but there’s a movement afoot to delegate that process to a wider circle of decision makers, and in some cases to the general public. This is the idea that will tip off our panel on Wednesday - but it's also the same kind of movement I think we're seeing in the volunteering community.  Self directed service programs seem to be growing in popularity -- and that's important because nonprofits don't have the bandwidth to be able to absorb all of these new volunteers.

 

But, getting back to the topic at hand.  I’d love to pull from your thoughts on the subject to help inform our conversation. How are philanthropy and civic engament/volunteering related? Do you believe that one leads to the other? What happens when you democratize philanthropy and give the public a voice in how to direct funding? Does this lead to deeper engagement?