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Community Foundation of South Jersey

No House, No Car, One Pair of Shoes. Listen To Why He Gave It All Away.

By SIdney Hargro
October 31, 2015
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Charles Feeney says, “I don’t need another million dollars. It doesn’t add anything to your life. It may make life a bit more comfortable for you. But, I’m not uncomfortable today.”  In 1982 he gifted his entire multi-billion dollar fortune to his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, with the intent to spend it all by 2016. Feeney made his fortune as a co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers Group which offered high-end retail products to travelers free of import taxes.  Atlantic Philanthropies has granted over $6 billion to support ideas to solve the world’s most complex and urgent problems.

Today, the Inyathelo South African Institute For Advancement honored Feeney with its 2014 Lifetime Philanthropy Award for Giving while Living. Inyathelo seeks to create social impact in three areas: strengthening civil society; building the capacity of higher education to raise private resources; and developing a philanthropic movement in South Africa.

ABOUT:
Original video found on the Inyathelo YouTube page. You can follow The Atlantic Philanthropies on Twitter @atlantic and Facebook. For resources and spend-down or “giving while living” strategies check out the their report, Turning Passion Into Action: Giving While Living Pathways to Enduring Results: Lessons from Spend-Down Foundations.  CFSJ can help you maximize the results of your giving during your lifetime.

What Does Entrepreneurship Have to Do with Social Problem Solving?

By SIdney Hargro
October 7, 2015
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Jeffrey A. Robinson, Ph.D. , faculty member at Rutgers Business School and founding Assistant Director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development, believes social entrepreneurship can significantly advance the solving of social challenges faced in New Jersey and beyond.  Based on his efforts with the New Jersey Social Innovation Institute, he offers examples of how entrepreneurship is disrupting conventional approaches to social change.

ABOUT:
Original video found on TEDx Broadstreet, Newark NJ Facebook Page. You can follow Jeffrey Robinson, Ph.D on Twitter. For resources and info on Social Entrepreneurship, check out www.skollfoundation.org.

Why Are Millennials Using Community Foundations To Give?

By SIdney Hargro
July 14, 2015
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In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg joined a group of other U.S. billionaires in a pledge to give away half of their funds Led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, The Giving Pledge (as it is known) is a call to the world’s wealthiest individuals  and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. After the pledge what was his next move? In 2011, he gave almost $500 million in stock to create a fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, currently the nation’s largest community foundation.  In 2013, he followed this up with a gift of 18 million shares of Facebook stock (almost $1 billion).  However, it’s not just Zuckerberg who is opting to work with a community foundation. Last month, GoPro camera company founders, Nicholas and Jill Woodman, gifted $500-million to start a fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. No specific details have emerged detailing why the community foundation was chosen as their philanthropic partner. However, the following benefits were possibly among the deciding factors.

  1. Gifting to a fund at the community foundation is not giving “to” the community foundation. Givers get an immediate public charity tax deduction but have the freedom to recommend grants to a confirmed charity of their choice.
  2. Community Foundations understand that local donors have global interests. Whether the “community” a donor wishes to support is local or global their community foundation is available to assist them in making a difference.
  3. Community Foundations are social enterprises. Fee revenue received supports the greater work of the Foundation and fuels a business model designed to be permanently self-sustaining.
  4. Community Foundations are in the business of social impact results (not transactions).  Givers will find that the greatest value of an effective community foundation is a laser-like focus on flexibility and the results of their generosity (not simply the giving transaction).
  5. Community Foundations understand that giving is personal.  The main reason that we may never know Mark Zuckerberg’s motivation is because handling your philanthropy through a community foundation can be as anonymous as you wish for it to be.

(Photo credit: Andrew Feinberg via photopin cc)