Photo courtesy of Pendleton Imaging & Photography
In this special series, we’ll take a brief look at various different fearless inspirations from the past week or so. Whether it’s a fearless young changemaker who is taking risks, a new publication that expresses bold and innovative ideas, or an organization that is promoting change and that is not afraid to fail forward—we want to shine a spotlight on them and their work in the hope that it will spark a new movement to Be Fearless.
As Jean Case, CEO of the Case Foundation says, “The old way of doing things is simply no longer effective in this new world. It’s time for us all to take risks on new ideas, approaches, and initiatives. It’s time for us to be bold, to act with urgency, and to resist the tendency to let caution be our guide. It’s time for us to Be Fearless.” Will you join us?
Adventures in New Giving
Nathaniel James is a Seattle-based consultant, social entrepreneur, and strategist working at the intersection of philanthropy, community engagement, and 21st century communications. He currently sits on the boards of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture and The Prometheus Radio Project.
Nathaniel is currently traveling the country for his new project, Adventures in New Giving, which he crowdfunded in April 2012. We took the opportunity to ask him a few questions.
1) What drove you to start Adventures in New Giving? How did this idea come about?
Young leaders, in my own city of Seattle, were stepping up to create at least eight collective giving projects (such as the Awesome Foundation and Sprout Seattle), but these efforts weren't coordinated or connected for mutual support. The further I looked around the country, the more I saw of the same thing - the rise of hundreds of collective giving efforts such as giving circles and crowdfunding projects, but virtually no connective tissue between those efforts. I wanted to address that by starting to provide a process for these folks to develop a shared purpose and story, build trust, and create some infrastructure to enhance all of these efforts collectively.
I also saw a major opportunity for traditional philanthropy to learn from, adopt and leverage some of these methods of "new giving." But before I could make a case for traditional philanthropists to take these ideas seriously, I knew I needed to document and synthesize what's happening in this growing field.
2) How does Adventures in New Giving tie in with the Awesome Foundation?
Founding the Seattle chapter of the Awesome Foundation was the first major step for me to explore what I'm now calling new giving. I really wanted to see if $1,000 micro-grants could make an impact.
Awesome Foundation is also an amazing brand, a very sleek and powerful meme that has motivated hundreds of people around the world to give thousands of dollars collectively. Ultimately for me, the Awesome Foundation is just one (very cool) instance of a bigger trend, which I want to explore in its full diversity.
3) What are some important new trends in micro finance? How does “new giving” differ from more traditional models of micro finance?
The most important distinction is that the practices I call "new giving" do not entail a financial return on the investment, as they do in micro finance. They have more in common with what we consider philanthropy. Of course, some of the motivations are the same - building a positive personal identity, community development, and "giving back."
4) How did these trends appear? Are they sustainable (will they last)?
It seems like a spontaneous, organic response to a number of major trends - continued economic uncertainty and distrust in large institutions, as well as the culture of sharing that is often powered by the web, especially.
The millennial sensibility plays a role, too. Younger people want a very direct, tangible experience in exchange for their charitable dollars, and collective giving delivers. A lot of older people are also getting involved, because they also want a refreshing experience after a lifetime of dealing with large bureaucracies.
Sustainability is a huge issue coming out of the work. Globally, there are now over 450 crowdfunding platforms and some reports show 400 giving circles in the US alone, but I think that's a low estimate. We're probably going to lose a big chunk of those platforms as we do with any start up category, and I can already see that giving circles come and go, depending on volunteer effort and susceptibility to volunteer burnout.
5) What’s next? How do you see Adventures in New Giving playing out?
I've committed to sharing web videos of the new givers' stories and insights and creating some written documentation. With some luck and a little time, we should have a wiki up soon where people can share key information - a place to collect the best "how to crowdfund" and "finding or starting a giving circle" pieces already on the web or created through the project.
Ultimately, I will be reaching back out to the people who got involved to ask them what they need and would like to see. I think we need some infrastucture, but whether that develops as a conference or online group, etc. will be largely informed by their input.
6) How can people get involved in new giving?
The easiest first step is to give $5 - or $500 - to a crowdfunding campaign that is meaningful to you. But then go one step further and inspire others in your network to also give to those campaigns. Watch your collective dollars add up and see how it feels for you.
I hope the resources the New Giving project develops can be a service for people who want to get involved, but those will take some time to come online. The Adventures project isn't even a month old now. If anyone wants to help with the development of those resources, I am always and actively seeking collaborators.
You can read more about Adventures in New Giving on Nathaniel’s blog at this address.