Sunday, June 1, 2014

2016: A Charitable Odyssey -- One Year Journeyed

Today marks the first day of year number two on my journey of giving (with two years and seven months remaining).  So I thought I would take some time to reflect on my first year and share some insights about my journey so far.  I am writing this in the form of an interview - call it practice for the day when Charlie Rose sends me an invitation ;-)

Which states have you visited so far and what have you donated?

After one year I have visited 13 states in the following order: RI, NH, ME, VT, WV, VA, NC, MI, IN, CA, WA, OR, DE (that leaves me with 24 to visit).

I have made the following in-kind donations (for a total spend of ~$6,000): three digital cameras, paints, paint brushes, palettes, a metronome, a piano bench, six music stands, two bookcases, three guitars, a trumpet, a clarinet, two violins, five cello bows, five violin bows, 10 Suzuki cello CDs, 10 Suzuki violin CDs, 37 song flutes, two drums, a ukulele, a mini keyboard, an electronic tabletop digital drum kit, and 20 different types of Play-Doh sets.
I also commissioned my very own priceless work of art so you can add that to the total too :-)

How do you select the organizations that you visit?

For the most part I sit down in front of my computer and search on Google for music or arts non-profit organizations by state.  Since I plan out each trip in advance (in terms of which states I will visit during the one week period I set aside for each trip), I probably spend about 2-3 hours searching online per trip.  This also includes the time spent writing an introductory e-mail to each candidate (I will come back to this point later).

I also ask for and accept recommendations, and those have led me to four of the organizations that I have visited.  This is where social media has been very useful to me.  I have made so many great and often random connections with different people or organizations through social media.  Those connections have really helped open up doors I would have never found otherwise.  And believe it or not, two of the organizations I visited I happened to find by searching through Amazon.com wishlists (I think I sat down one day and decided to see what I would find by searching on the term "music" in their wishlist section).

What have you learned so far?

I am not even sure where to start with that question.  Let me answer it this way - by telling you what has surprised me.  I never expected how much this journey of giving would change me as a person.  I never expected how much I would learn about myself on this journey of giving.  I did expect to meet some amazing people and visit some great organizations, but I never expected to be so profoundly inspired at the same time.

Yes, these answers all reflect back on me but this has always been a personal journey.  And to that point here is another insight about my journey of giving.  When I reach out to each organization (with one exception), I do not introduce myself as 37 people.  None of the places and people I visit know about 37 people until after my visit when I share my blog posts with them.  I think I will save the reason why I do that for my final post ;-)

Let me end my lessons learned (yes, I am keeping things short so you will have to wait another year for more) by going back to an earlier point.  I mentioned the word "candidate" above.  One of the biggest surprises so far has been how difficult it has been, in some cases, to find an organization to reply to my offer of an in-kind donation!  There have been times where an organization will reply to me, and sometimes I will even talk to them by phone, but then they just disappear.  Other times I never even get that first reply (I always start with an e-mail which is followed up with a phone call).  So this means that sometimes it takes several "candidates" before I finally have a selection.  For this reason, I am now starting my planning at least six months in advance of any trip.  Another reason to start planning so early is that I have learned that some instruments (when that is what is requested) are hard to find (are on backorder) and can take a month or two to be delivered.

Okay, I think I will leave it at this for now so that I have something else to write in my two year update ;-)


In the meantime, if there is a question you really want to ask and have answered now, leave it in the comments below.  I will answer it :-)

Finally, here is a picture I took in Seattle.  I especially liked what Beethoven had to say.