Think philanthropy is the province of later-in-life multi-millionaires whose major life's work is behind them? Think again. Philanthropy is all the rage on the online social networks, as young Americans wear their causes as important indicators of who they are and who they want to be. Amidst the tycoons and household names at the Wealth & Giving Forum's gathering at the Greenbrier were stories of college students and young entrepreneurs breaking free from the generational stereotypes of materialism and disinterest.
A group of students from three North Carolina colleges took the state the first day, after an introduction from Jeff Flug, the CEO and Executive Director of Millennium Promise Alliance - himself a former high-powered bonds trader at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs who traded in his pinstripes and bonus pool for development work.
"This is a group of 19- and 20-year-olds who are passionate about wanting to help others. They understand at a young age that people are more important than stuff."
Lennon Flowers, a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina, spoke directly about what is generally written about her generation and its attitude toward material gain.
"The reputation of my generation is one of apathy, that we're too numb behind our iPods to care about what's going on in the world. I think there's a lot of passion out there, but passion along isn't what's valued."
UNC, Duke, and Bennett College have joined together to sponsor a Millennium Village, part of an effort to achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The students are raising $1.5 million (including matching pledges) in the first student-led sponsorship of a Millennium Village - essentially, the adoption of a small village in the developing world - as "a tangible way of demonstrating students' commitment to the international effort to eradicate extreme poverty." The group's pledge shows a different side of a young, activist generation:
We the students of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Bennett College, as members of a greater global community, feel a responsibility to dedicate our energy and resources to empower those in extreme poverty, and to demonstrate the role of universities as catalysts for global change.
Furthermore, we see this as a unique opportunity to unite students, faculty, and community members to engage in an academic dialogue to critically assess and improve sustainable development strategies such as the Millennium Village model.
Emily Glenn, senior at Duke University, and Sharrelle Barber, a Bennett grad and UNC graduate student, also spoke passionately about the cause that united students at three very diverse campuses. Said Glenn:
"We don't see ourselves as a group, it's a movement. We all agree that it's fundamentally unacceptable that people die from diseases that are easily preventable."
The students admitted to some frustration as they approached potential supporters with their plan - they learned quickly that ideas alone often don't sell philanthropic contributions.
Another young entrepreneur, former New York nightclub promoter Scott Harrison, told the gathering later in the weekend how he ditched the glitz and early morning hours of Gotham's velvet-roped precincts for a lowly staff photographer's gig on a Mercy ship bringing medicine and services up and down the west coast of Africa. The experience stirred his interest in clean water, which led to the creation of charity: water - which charges $20 a bottle for spring water with 100% of the price going to dig wells for clean water in Africa. He showed this video, created at Sundance, before his talk the Greenbrier:
charity: water @ Sundance - Current TV pod
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At another plenary session, Jean Case, CEO of the Case Foundation, spoke passionately about her involvement with PlayPumps International and the battle to bring clean water to African, but she also touched on the optimism she feels about the younger generation of activists and philanthropists. Almost half the world's population is under 25, she noted, and many are getting deeply and personally involved in causes in way that hasn't happened before:
“We are seeing such a huge opportunity to engage individuals at all levels. And this space has not yet been fully tapped. Social networking opens up exciting opportunities to bring people together and to define themselves by what they care about...
“I think we’ll look back at philanthropy as this quaint time when rich people wrote checks and we’ll be living in a time when philanthropy is part of everyday life.”
At Savoy River, we have created a generational profile that will assess what generation you truly belong to based on traits and tendencies instead of by age group.
Visit us at www.generationalprofiles.com to take your free profile.
Posted by: Tim Harris | July 20, 2007 at 11:44 AM