Why NOT Invest in Women?

I have recently begun to dig deeper into statistics about women in business, technology, startups and investing (http://pilarstella.blogspot.com/2011/11/why-invest-in-women-in-biz-tech-and.html and www.illuminate.com/whitepaper/) and every time it leaves me with one response – JAW DROPPING!

I feel this way more and more every day given my own experiences seeking capital for my technology start up OneGiving® (www.onegiving.com) (however successful or unsuccessful). Whatever the case, several things have really struck me about the process and how the dynamics have to shift for women in business, and particularly in technology, startups and investing. I am not saying, invest in women just to invest in women – a.k.a. through a gender lens, per se, but just not allowing gender be a barrier to investment. I am saying something has to change because the status quo is just not working--for women, but also for investors and the global economy at large!

I have been told more than once during my process seeking capital that I am too nice, hence I am not likely to succeed. I have had people tell me “if you are going to swim with sharks, you have to be a shark,” (or at least you have to play their game). Perhaps this is true, but I am not convinced!

I have also been asked, more than once, “Don’t you think if you dressed more conservatively or had more conservative hair, you’d have more investors by now?” My response to that is, “I’m sure I would, but I don’t want those investors, even if it takes me twice as long.” That may be stubborn but that is my reality. Why is it, that when men like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg come dressed in jeans and disheveled hair or otherwise, it is business as usual and they are a maverick or pioneer, so it is ok. Yet when a women shows up dressed in a way that is “unprofessional,” it is inexcusable or an indicator that she is not proficient in business.

Then I read a quote by Amy Millman, co-founder and president of SpringBoard Enterprises that connects women entrepreneurs to investors, who said, "Investors, like bankers, pretty much invest in what they know, something that they understand or that is clear to them." (http://www.astia.org/content/view/2222/856/)

I started thinking...there is something inherently wrong with this picture and something has to change. That is, women are not men. We do things differently-in business and in relationship (as many of us have experienced personally ;). So if men are the largest share of investors, and they won't invest in what they don't understand or know, then they are not likely to invest in women. We are unfamiliar and "un-understandable" territory. It is no wonder that the statistics are what they are...less than 10% of women in CEO positions in technology startups - and that just scratches the surface. (http://www.fastcompany.com/1730909/why-arent-women-leading-high-tech-start-ups)

I am not trying to be skeptical, but the proposition is all wrong. They have their checklists of what to invest in—and women don't, and the way we do business often doesn't, fit into their checklist. We may learn to do the tap dance, or bend over backwards as we have for centuries to make things fit and work, but it is inauthentic and disingenuous in order to just to close a deal. Now I'm not saying that we both don't have to meet somewhere in the middle, but there is an inherent conflict in all of this.

It reminds me of my experience consulting for many years with large foundations. When I started working with many of them, they had (and continue to have) strict criteria and checklists of expectations that nonprofits submit to seek funding. When those funders reviewed the proposals, if the nonprofit didn’t "dot their i’s" or "cross their t’s," they often times wouldn’t get the grant. As I reviewed more and more proposals with funders, the pattern repeated. Nonprofits that had good grantwriters (and could afford one) would invariably get funding and the others wouldn’t.

Yet, many of the really good ideas were getting lost and dropped away because they didn’t put their explanation in the right place or capture the data in the way that the funder could fully grasp. This ultimately often damaged the caliber and quality of ideas and grantees that got funded and often the “less professionalized” and even "more marginalized" communities lost out because they didn’t “speak the same language.” My work with these funders was often in looking past the well-formatted applicants, to see beyond the "well-pitched exterior" to find the good idea in a haystack and then to provide the proper supports to help that organization make that needed gap being addressed succeed.

This is not much different than the investment world and companies that are pitching to investors. If they "pitch well," they get funded. If they don’t fit into the boxes that investors have, then they don’t get funded. If they don’t speak the same language – one that is understood by investors – then they don’t get funded. If they don’t look the same as, or in a way that is familiar or comfortable to, investors, then they don’t get funded. And an inherent flaw keeps getting regenerated and perpetuated—because we don’t look or act or are "un-understandable" to investors, then we don’t get funded.

Now the even bigger disservice is what this is doing for the economy. We are in a recession on par with the Great Depression (though few will say that publicly). Yet we continue do the same thing over and over again and expect different results – Insanity (as Einstein and others might say)!

As Jensine Larsen posited in her post in World Pulse, “Women manage money differently, and had there been more women at the helm of investment decisions all along, the worst of the global financial meltdown might have been averted.” (http://www.worldpulse.com/magazine/columns/founders-pulse/the-new-silk-road)

It leads me to ponder a similar scenario, if the current investment marketplace isn’t working and the economy is spattering and sputtering trying to make a "recovery," then why not try something different? Why not, change your criteria a little, not accept less than, just accept different?

Look for things that might be out of the box. Be ok if you don’t fully understand it. And recognize that if a woman is standing in front of you and she looks different, speaks different, and highlights and does things a little differently than you would, don’t give her a demerit and check out, sit up and really listen. There might just be something in what she’s saying that could not only make you MORE money, but she might value the money you give her more, leverage it more wisely, and she might even make a difference on the planet at the same time. You might have to provide supports in some more “traditional” or "male" ways, but the perspective she brings, might transform it from an investment to a game changer. There is plenty of evidence and data that makes the case for it. (http://pilarstella.blogspot.com/2011/11/why-invest-in-women-in-biz-tech-and.html)

So the question isn’t “Why Invest in Women?”…it is “Why NOT Invest in Women?”

You can find me at www.facebook.com/pilarstella and www.facebook.com/pilarstella1 and twitter @pilarstella.

Why Invest in Women in Biz, Tech and Startups?

I have recently been asked increasingly to speak to groups about my experience as a women in business and particularly in a technology startup seeking capital. While my personal story and experience is compelling, I am finding that the data is often staggering and irrefutable. In fact, it totally begs the question, not why invest in women in business, technology and startups, but rather why not? Below is some of the data for you data geeks...Happy Reading! ;) p

Women in Investing/Start Ups

· Women manage money differently, and had there been more women at the helm of investment decisions all along, the worst of the global financial meltdown might have been averted.

(http://www.worldpulse.com/magazine/columns/founders-pulse/the-new-silk-road)

Women-owned funds are more stable and consistently outperform general funds with higher returns.

· Women—in charge of just 3% of hedge funds and 10% of mutual funds—are more patient and consistent with their investments, are less apt to take overconfident risks and more likely to integrate detailed and conflicting data into their decisions.

· Average return on funds from 2000 to 2009 was 9% for women-managed funds compared to 6% index average.

(National council for research on women, 2010)

· Less than 2% of retirement assets are managed by women- & minority fund managers, yet account for >40% of the top quartile of performing funds.

(Diversity best practices, http://www.diversitybestpractices.com/publications/creating-inclusion-financial-industry)

· Only 5 VC funds in the country with over 50% women ownership.

· 1 of 25 women CEOs who had successfully taken 1 (or more) companies from startup through exit and also been on the VC side.

· Women now represent just over 15 percent of angel investors, but just 5%-7% of partner-level high-tech venture capital investors in the U.S. Firms with women investment partners are 70 percent more likely to lead an investment in a woman entrepreneur than those with only male partners.

· In 2008 woman co-founded tech businesses gained less than 10% of venture investment while representing over 30% of the workforce.

· In 2010, women gained 11% of angel financing and made up 46% of the workforce.

(Cindy Padnos, Managing Director, Illuminate Ventures and www.illuminate.com/whitepaper/)

· The percentage of women among start up capital seekers grew to about 20 percent last year, up from 12.6 percent in 2000, according to New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research. Of those women, the number who received funding grew to 13 percent in 2010, up from 9.5 percent in 2008.

· Research suggests that women's access to, and use of, capital to fund their business dreams lag in comparison to men. Of the U.S.-based companies that received a round of venture capital financing in 2010, only 6 percent had a female CEO, 7 percent had a female founder and 10 percent had a female founder or CEO at some point, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

· There were 265,400 angel investors in 2010, and they put $20.1 billion in 61,900 entrepreneurial ventures in the U.S., the Center for Venture Research said. Women represented about 13 percent of angel investors, and female entrepreneurs accounted for 21 percent of those seeking angel capital.

· Historically, venture capital has been a much-acclaimed boys' club," says Mark G. Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association. "That network is something women have to permeate. It's harder for women to break into that arena."

(http://www.astia.org/content/view/2222/856/)

Women in Business

Women entrepreneurs are poised to lead the next wave of growth in global business.

· Companies most inclusive of women in top management achieve 35% higher ROE and 34% better total return to shareholders versus their peers.

· The average venture-backed company run by a woman had achieved comparable early-year revenues, using an average of 1/3 less committed capital.

· Despite often being capital-constrained, women-owned businesses are more likely to survive transition from start-up to established company than traditional companies.

(Illuminate Ventures – www.illuminate.com/whitepaper/)

· A recent report called Women Matter 2010 found that companies with a higher proportion of women in their executive committees are also the companies that have the best performance.

· Women currently hold 2.8 percent of Fortune 500 CEO roles and 3.3 percent of Fortune 1000 CEO roles

(Gillibrand, Kirsten, Women’s Economic Empowerment, 2011)

Women in Technology

The internet is an inherently feminine entity—it is based on connecting, leveraging, networking, relationship building—all female characteristics. Yet, women’s leadership in technology firms continues to lag.

· According to research from Stanford GSB Project on Emerging Businesses, fewer than 10% of high-tech start-ups have a female CEO, Founder or President. Technology driven start-ups continue to be largely male dominated.

(http://www.fastcompany.com/1730909/why-arent-women-leading-high-tech-start-ups)

· Yet, high tech companies that women build are more capital-efficient than the norm.

· In the past 10 years more than 125 companies with over 200 women co-founders or officers have achieved IPOs or >$50M M&A exits in the U.S. high-tech sector alone.

(Illuminate, 2011)

· The low number of women founders in the high-tech industry could be related the lack of access to equity capital. Women-owned startup companies tend to start with less capital than their male-owned counterparts, according to a study released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

· Only a small percentage of women-owned firms attract venture capital, yet technology driven companies typically need millions. Generally speaking, women aren't comfortable raising venture capital in part because of a lack of education regarding the process. Plus, the venture capital world continues to be male dominated.

(http://www.fastcompany.com/1730909/why-arent-women-leading-high-tech-start-ups

· Of the over 100 giving technology platforms, approximately 5% are women owned or led.

(Pilar Stella, 2011)

· This all while, women are the majority of users of social networking sites and spend 30% more time on these sites than men; mobile social network usage is 55% female according to Nielsen.

· Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, has talked about how women are not only the majority of its users, but drive 62% of activity in terms of messages, updates and comments, and 71% of the daily fan activity. Women have 8% more Facebook friends on average than men, and spend more time on the site.

· More women use Twitter, which has a reputation for being a techie insider’s (i.e., male) product. Women follow more people, tweet more, and have more followers on average than men, according to bloggers Dan Zarella and Darmesh Shaw’s analyses.

(http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/20/why-women-rule-the-internet/)

Welcome to the Aquarian Age

11.11.11 marked the entrance into the Aquarian Age.

I'm sure some of you remember the song from Hair...This is the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhbxI5eVnM4)! I know that dates me a little...but I can just barely remember it ;)!

Anyway, being a yogini, and a Kundalini yogini at that, this date has special significance of the era we have entered into. Many question it and doubt there is really any truth to it all. Yet, I imagine that was the case when people questioned pioneers like Galileo, Einstein, Edison, the Wright Brothers...and so on and so forth...who proclaimed a different time, era and paradigm.

The Aquarian Age has been forecast by many for generations. Dating back to the Mayans and the Mayan calendar ending life as we know it on December 12, 2012, foretelling of a new golden age, not necessarily the end of life, but life as we know it.

The yogis have told that this time is a transition from the Piscean Age, or the age of information, the age of masculine energy and the age of seeking out, manipulating, and dominating. Rather the Aquarian Age is a more feminine energy, or an energy in balance between male and female, in which we receive and allow information and opportunities to come to us. By doing more meditation and yoga, balancing more between work and fun, between body, mind and spirit, by nurturing our soul, we are raising our consciousness, energy and vibration to attract in more of what we want and need while doing less to get it.

Eric Rankin, the author of The Aquarians - 2012 The New Age described it well, "This period represents nothing less than the second great divide in human history, comparable in magnitude with the shift from barbarism to civilization... To put it simply, we are shifting away from old, fear-based habits and imagining a whole new reality for ourselves - a reality based on hope rather than despair, of abundance rather than lack, of peace rather than war, of contentedness rather than yearning, and of connectedness rather than separation. We are awakening to the fact that a new era is upon us, and that we have the ability to co-create the hopeful future we desire for ourselves and our planet."

It is a good reminder that we all have a choice. We can choose to fret and scurry from here to there seeking and searching frantically, frenetically. Or we can choose to take deep breaths, relax a little more, have a little more fun, integrate our spiritual self and practice into our human lifestyle and elevate our vibration. We may choose to slow down which can help speed up our manifestation.

I know for many this sounds like airy fairy voodoo. And so it may be. Yet, this age is about manifestation. So if we choose negativity, fear, resentment and anger, that will come. If we believe in love, peace, positivity and gratitude, that will manifest very quickly.

I am seeing it with people's health, when they heal their mind, their body follows quickly. I am seeing it with people's financial and emotional well-being. I am witnessing it all around me. If you don't believe it, try it on for size...take more breaths, pauses in your steps, stretches and moments of gratitude in your day and see what happens.

After all, 11.11.11 marks the dawning of the Age of Aquarius to come into full fruition leading up and through 12.21.2012. Happy 11.11.11 all! Just like the saying goes, you are what you eat...you are what you believe! Try that on for size!

You Are What You Eat!

I recently keep being reminded that we are what we eat! Over the last few years, I have been on a journey of purifying my body, mind and spirit. It has not always been the easiest of journeys! But I have increased my Kundalini yoga and meditation practice to elevate my spirit, have gone through various cleanses and dietary shifts to purify my intestines, organs and body, and working on something that I love that feeds my heart, soul and intellect! The transformation has been mind blowing and let me tell you, there have been some dark moments as I have had to clear out the old, fear, negativity, anger, and resentments that were stored in my body through the process. The result is nothing less than staggering. I feel like a new me.

Then I remembered reading something that Deepak Chopra wrote that every atom in the human body is replaced somewhere between every year and seven years. The stomach lining is replaced every 4 days, new skin every 30 days, a new liver in 6 weeks, blood is replaced in 90 days, the bones and skeleton can take longer.

Our bodies are also 60% water. Studies by Masaru Emoto on water molecules found that positive changes to water molecules can be achieved through prayer, positive thoughts or words attached to containers of water. If this is true about water, imagine what our thoughts do to our bodies? Our thoughts are energy, our emotions are energy, our spirit or soul is energy. Our thoughts have the powerful potential of healing ourselves and moving energy to help ourselves and others. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAvzsjcBtx8)

I recently watched the movie Food Matters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4DOQ6Xhqss) which was one of the most powerful documentaries about the impact that food has on our bodies and reminded me that you are what you eat. The way we eat, taking supplements, and making a lifestyle change and commitment can transform your health and life. Instead today chronic malnutrition is massively impacting our health. Over 100,000 people die every year from taking pharmaceuticals as directed. Yet doctors, the FDA and others claim that natural supplements cause harm, what is our “health” care system doing for our health? It is treating sickness rather than promoting health.

As you think about your health and seek to improve it, remember that your thoughts create your reality. I have a trick when I am starting to feel sick, I begin to chant the mantra, “I am healthy, I am healthy, I am healthy” over and over again and every time I am well within 24 hours. I am also starting to recognize that what you eat literally replenishes and revitalizes or drains and destroys your body.

The choice is yours? What will you choose? Give it a try…transform your thinking and eating and watch you health and wellbeing turn around for the positive. Miracles can happen and you have the power to make them happen.

The Keys to the Castle

I was recently sitting with two of my women friends talking about men, women and relationships. I mentioned an article by Arjuna Ardagh that creates the analogy between a woman and a temple with concentric circles. The more you are devoted to the temple, the deeper into the center of the concentric circles you may go. That is, if you are just visiting the temple once, you are allowed to enter the outer circle/room only. But as you spend more time devoted to the practice and worship, little by little, access to the inner most circles become granted.

Arjuna talked about how this is no different for women. The more you worship and honor a woman, little by little, more access to her inner most secrets, beauty, grace and intimacy is granted, sometimes, most of the time even, she doesn’t even consciously know what will unlock those doors. (I also wrote a blog further on the subject as I was so moved, Hopefully Romantic).

This got us talking about the keys to the castle. So what are the keys that open up the door to the castle of a woman’s heart, trust, love and beyond? We got down to something that is so simple and yet it is so elusive. Finding a partner who studies us, who watches when and how we shut down and learns to see the signals and see the warning signs and embraces us any way. Someone who doesn’t shut down or walk away when we shut down. Someone who doesn’t drive off when we are frustrated and throwing oranges at them. But rather someone who embraces ALL of us – our flaws and our imperfections as much as our strengths and our glory.

A man recently said to me and a friend as we were discussing this exact subject, “It is about authenticity not perfection.” He said he would rather have an authentic partner than one who is trying to be perfect. That when we are throwing a fit, early on, learns how to shut down or even in the future, prevent it from ever happening. This doesn’t mean being a doormat. It means being observant enough to learn and truly study and know us, or worship as Arjuna says.

The true keys to the castle aren’t lavishing us with things or taking us to fancy places or introducing us to important people or showing off certain skills. Rather, they are taking the time to know who we are, where we came from, why we act and react in certain ways.

You can find me at www.facebook.com/pilarstella and www.facebook.com/pilarstella1 and twitter @pilarstella.

Surfing: A Great Metaphor for Life!

As we enter the fall, and conclude the summer season, we may find some lessons from this summer that may inform us as we move forward. For me, what better place than starting with surfing. Surfing is a great metaphor for life. I have done many different sports. I have been an athlete my whole life - from swimming to lacrosse to gymnastics to soccer to tennis to cycling to triathlons to track and field to skiing to mountaineering to rock climbing and beyond. Yet, none have translated more to my life than surfing.

Many of you know my passion and excitement for surfing. It has been a transformative force in my life since I moved to LA three years ago (can you believe it?)! When I got here, I knew I wanted to learn how to surf. I heard about several surf programs like Youth Mentoring Connection (www.youthmentoring.org) and Stoked (www.stoked.org) that took at risk youth to the beach to learn to surf. That was it - a perfect combination of my passions - giving back, youth, the beach and, hopefully soon, surfing! I attended one event my first summer and decided to come back out the following summer. I "co-taught" the youth to surf and learned in the process - what could be better. It wasn't until fall of last year 2010 that I became hooked and officially bought a board, wetsuit and became a "real surfer."

It has been in these last nine months of surfing that I have learned so much from surfing that has helped me grow in my personal, professional and spiritual life. Here are a few lessons that I have learned from surfing that can be translated to life.

1.Every time you fall down, get back up. There is no other sport I have done that you fall off EVERY time and have to get back up to go again. What an incredible reminder for life. So many of us are trained to be afraid of trying things because we are afraid to fail. Yet with surfing, it is expected that you will fall off over and over again. Very quickly it teaches us to try things and be ok with risk and failure. It becomes second nature and teaches us that failure leads to learning and opportunity which then leads to improvement and success.

2.Patience pays. How many times in life do you want things to happen now and on your time and they don't? The waves are no different. There is nothing like sitting out on the water on a day when the waves and sets have a mind of their own and decide to come on their own time. You can get upset and frustrated that they aren't coming or you can accept it and look around, enjoy the scenery, breathe, feel the wind in your hair, the sunrise or sunset, the people chatting and laughing around you and fully take in the moment. Exercising a little patience goes a long way in life, as well as surfing.

3.Be present. Surfing forces us to be present in the here and now. If you get ahead of yourself and think about the last wave or what you need to do for the upcoming wave, it can throw you off from being able to respond to the changes with each wave because every wave is different. By staying very present in each moment, you are able to adapt and adjust your paddle, pop up, stance or otherwise to make magic happen. This is no different than life. When we are really present to what is right now and not what was or what will be, we begin to enjoy the journey and find the miracles in every moment.

4.Persistence and perseverance pave the way. Taking that extra paddle and making that extra effort paves the way for that pay off of the wave you catch. If you fail once, fail twice, fail thrice, try, try again and keep at it. Your effort will pay off. In life, if you take that extra step and persist and persevere, you can't fail. You may "fail" but what you gain in experience, opportunity and learning will put you ahead of the curve the next time you get out there. So don't give up, keep going until your effort paves the way for more joy, success and excitement.

5.Ego is no amigo. This one I credit to one of my dear surfer sisters. Just like in life, you can come to anything with your heart open or you can come with an ego. In the end, which will make you happier and which will get you where you are going faster? One of the most famous surf quotes is, "The best surfer is the one having the most fun." Then for sure I am the best surfer as I am constantly laughing, giggling, singing and enjoying the waves. Imagine if more people could approach their lives and work with a little more heart and a little less ego? Imagine the world we would live in.

6.Your mind creates your reality. Our attitudes shape our reality. If you think you can't, you won't. If you think you can, you will. It is that simple. In surfing, if you get in the water and think you can't handle this or you are not going to have fun or if you are paddling for a wave and think, "I am not going to get this," you won't. It is that simple. In life it is no different. If we act as if and even continually repeat to ourselves, I can do this, I will have fun or whatever positive affirmation can replace a negative, over time it will stick and will become our realities. It just starts with the right positive mental attitude.

7.Choose love over fear. Fear is a state of mind. We all have fears in life and surfing. It is what we do with that fear that is most important. In surfing, if we see a wave or a break or a set that we are afraid of, do we shrink in the face of our fears or do we face them and allow ourselves to stretch, grow and expand beyond. We each have a bubble that makes up our life experience and over time we can expand the bubble (and the fears within it) or we can allow them to contract and constrict, and ultimately imprison ourselves from our own making. Every time we stretch and choose love, we are choosing to overcome our fears. We break the patterning that holds us back and we free ourselves more and more each time. When we lean into love, we reinforce a pattern of trust and faith that further enables us to overcome future fears.

8.One as a part of a whole. The ocean consists of many waves and one wave, while singular, is part of the greater whole. We as human beings are no different. We each have our own unique characteristics, passions and fears. Yet the actions that we each make have an impact, or ripple effect, on others. With surfing you have to be present and stay focused on yourself and your wave, yet you also have to have an awareness of the others in the water. So is the case in life, while we may focus on our own needs, we must also pay attention to the ramifications for others and the planet at large and be considerate and compassionate of the whole.

These are just a few of the lessons from surfing that translate to life. Surfing brings out your true essence and authenticity. It is as though it requires us to rekindle that inner light, that inner child and shine it bright and share it with others to radiate out in the world and remind others to do the same. As I say to many people I know, "Surfing is the new golf." Really surfing is much more than that and has been a gift in my life to rekindle my own inner child, inner giggler and inner guru. How might these lessons translate in your own life?

A Look at Giving in 2011: Part 2 of 3 in a series…Giving Strategically!

As I mentioned in my past blog, Part 1 in the series...
http://pilarstella.blogspot.com/2011/02/look-at-giving-in-2011-everybodys.html
...we still have a long way to go in philanthropy!

It is really exciting that everybody is giving. That is where change begins. But after having worked in strategic philanthropy for nearly 15 years and across sectors for social, economic, education and health reform, the pattern is a familiar one.

When companies, individuals, celebrities, media, foundations or nonprofits get into giving – they start off in what is considered charitable giving. This is more feel good giving. This is a good place to begin – it feels good and it is doing good that wouldn’t have been done otherwise.

However, just as if you were to invest your money, you wouldn’t just hand it off to your friend and say go invest my millions, you’d hand it to a seasoned investment expert (at least most people would). The same needs to happen in giving - donors working with giving experts to create more strategic, impactful and leveraged giving. While giving feels different than investing because we all want to give and it feels good to give, we want to give thoughtfully so that our dollars actually make a significant impact.

Therefore, before starting our own nonprofit or giving to a nonprofit, it is good for us to do our homework. Find out what else is going on in the same giving space. If we are interested in nonprofits serving children in Los Angeles or the environment in Latin America or human trafficking in Asia, we need to learn what else is out there and build upon what is there, not duplicate. It can be helpful to find out what nonprofits are already serving that need, what foundations are funding those target causes and regions, what celebrities and corporations are backing those causes. You get the idea.

You also want to have a sense for what you want to support. For example do you want to support direct services - like education for youth in an orphanage or health services for malaria or HIV/AIDS or for homeless people or do you want to deal with advocacy efforts to raise awareness and address systemic issues underlying those direct services – like changing health policy or economic development issues or education? And then you want to think about do you want to volunteer, do you want to give money for general operating or specific services, programs or wishes of an organization?

Just as you would invest your money for a return on investment with your investment portfolio, with your donations you are investing your money to have an impact, leave a legacy, get the most return on perhaps not profit – but definitely people and the planet. That is, when you donate, you want to consider how your donation to have the most bang for the buck and the most social and/or environmental impact.

What people sometimes don’t realize as they get into the world of giving and become humanitarians and philanthropists themselves, is that how you give can sometimes be as important as what or whom you give to. Finding resources, tools and experts to support you in your efforts is a critical consideration to maximize your impact and the legacy you leave behind!

MORE ON THIS IN FUTURE BLOGS…CHECK BACK… ;) p