Interesting follow-up to our post earlier this week on the overlooked dimension of giving as a statement of affiliation, not just an investment.
Seems that I’m thinking like a billionaire these days.
Check out this quote from BusinessWire founder Lorry I. Lokey, one of the 40+ billionaires who are pledging to give away half their wealth in response to The Giving Pledge, from Peter Panepento’s Chronicle of Philanthropy post:
I like gift officers who approach me on a peer level and truly are friendly whether or not I say yes. And if I become a donor, I, in effect, am adopting that organization as if I worked there or owned it or had close ties with it. It becomes an investment that I want to follow and see success. My grants are not gifts. They are investments.
“Adopting the organization as if I worked there or owned it or had close ties with it”–one would be hard pressed to find a better definition of affiliation.
It’s worth checking out the rest of Lokey’s remarks to Panepento at Inside the Mind of a Top Donor.
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