THE SPIRIT
working to give
I’m blessed to have parents who provided me with so many gifts. The biggest of which was that they came from such different backgrounds that their individual approaches to life coupled with their individual life experience made me the recipient of a well-balanced life view.
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My mum taught me that charity begins at home and continues to this day to drive that point home. My dad, he led by example that he was generous to a fault and even to his detriment would give the shirt off his back. He took charity outside of the home and into the community.
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I can look back and see how my motivation to work has always been strongly linked to my desire to give. It’s in writing this that I am able to answer a question posed to me time and again: “What motivates you?”
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Simply put, if I can accomplish “X”, I can make “Y” happen for someone else.
The answer is that I work to give. I enjoy my chosen career, but the thing that drives me is the thought that I can use my voice to help people. Every project I take on is a means to nurture the philanthropic spirit that has been ingrained in me since childhood.
Between 2013 and 2017 I had two people come into my life who taught me that wealth is not a prerequisite to charity… giving back to your community in a meaningful way is not limited to millionaires and billionaires. I took these lessons to heart, and have run with them ever since.
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Through my affiliation with 100+ Women Who Care of Greater Rochester in Michigan I learned the win/win of collective giving and giving circles. The idea that small donations by many are just as powerful (if not more so) as large donations by few is something we have seen more and more as our world moves with the speed of wifi. Philanthropy Together and Grapevine.org have furthered this education.
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In 2017 I co-founded 100 Women Who Care of the Treasure Coast in Florida with my sister, Pippa Dinsdale. This year (2022) I will launch a global group, 100 Voices Who Care. The premise of these giving groups is that a small number of interested people join together to impact a charity of their choosing. You can read more about this project here:
I hope by that sharing my story here, and my own personal motivation for giving, it helps to inspire someone else to also give. I truly believe that small steps lead to great gains, and that by banding together, we can connect to make a difference in the lives of others.
