Domestic Partnership Raises Legal Issues
Health Watch: It’s Not Your Father’s Cancer
Women Refine Their Charitable Giving
Corrections or additions?
This articles were prepared for the October 6, 2004
issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Survival Guide: Website as a First Date
The American viewer has an itchy trigger finger. Television producers
claim they must capture the average viewer’s attention within four
seconds or he will switch channels. Web designers are finding an even
smaller window for capturing today’s fast-paced browsers. And this
despite the fact that the web has become the primary in-depth resource
for everything from physical to fiscal health advice.
How to design for quick capture and long term content — and still keep
an eye on profit — is the subject of “Creating a Website That Gets You
Noticed,” a free seminar taking place on Thursday, October 7, at 10
a.m. at the College of New Jersey. Call 609-989-5232 for more
information.
This program features David Krumholz, founder and president of
Princeton Junction-based Strand Management Solutions, a computer and
Internet consulting firm. Aimed at startups to mid-size firms, this
talk is part of Trenton Small Business Week and is sponsored by the
Small Business Development Center at the College of New Jersey
A true cyber veteran, Krumholz has witnessed and help guide a quarter
century of rapid developments in both data systems and online
communications. A native of the Bronx, Krumholz began his college
career as an aspiring engineer and ended up graduating from Pace
University with a major in accounting and information studies. Working
his way to the rank of comptroller of a large engineering firm, he
soon discovered that “I could find nothing enjoyable at all about
accounting. So I left.”
Fortunately, the young unemployed accountant had always kept his hand
in the burgeoning field of computers. After helping out a few local
firms, he took the entrepreneurial plunge and founded Princeton
Junction-based Strand Management Solutions in l978. His firm designed
websites, wrote software systems, and installed custom hardware. Back
then, the Strand expertise was sought out mainly by large firms, such
as Citi Group and PSE&G. But now Krumholz notes a change: “As machines
get 100 times more powerful every five years and increasingly smaller
businesses see technology’s opportunities, we add smaller and smaller
clients to our list.”
The website is like a first blind date; a fact which tends to petrify
most designers. The site makes the initial impression on a person with
whom you desperately seek a relationship, but about whom you know
absolutely nothing. Should I dress my site with these flashy product
pictures? Will my potential customer think I’m too glitzy? For
Krumholz, the answers lie in considering a few underlying themes
before worrying about catchy stylistic techniques.
Forget art. Behind every website lurks a website designer. It is only
natural for this individual or team to feel proprietary about their
creation. But when the designers begin seeing themselves as artists
and their product as “my baby,” Krumholz warns, you are going to have
trouble. Changes will become impossible to achieve.
While your website may have artistic qualities, remember that it is
foremost a profitability tool that needs constant sharpening. For this
reason, Krumholz refuses to list clever, eye-catching techniques for
luring customers onto the screen. “Being noticed is not necessarily
the same as being pretty,” he explains. “The sites that win the design
awards seldom give the viewer the most solid content.” And it is
content that turns a reader into a buyer.
Watch and learn. Probably the most frequent website error Krumholz
sees is the failure of business owners to learn from their sites.
While most companies now are avidly analyzing marketing data from
their websites, they fail to study the web-traffic patterns. The same
measuring techniques that profile what kind of clients are buying —
and not buying can just as precisely show why they are entering and
using your site.
Comparing your site with competitors’ may provide an overall picture
of what outside links and word placements are the most enticing to
your customer base. Analysis of traffic within your site shows what
specific information people are seeking and at what point they are
leaving.
Tailor to the sale. Should you really be leaping into e-commerce at
all? Krumholz says maybe not. Certainly a website holds endless
potential. It can inform browsers of the need, instruct about your
product, offer encyclopedic links, aid old customers, take new orders,
complete sales, and besiege its owner with more marketing data than he
could ever dream of — or desire. But does this scatter-shot,
all-in-one website suit most firms? Does it aid sales? Build client
loyalty?
“Even the biggest retailers — Macys, Home Depot, Bloomingdales — with
limitless funds to invest in their sites, make less than 10 percent of
their sales on line,” says Krumholz. Keep new product listings and
order forms on your site. But placing a greater emphasis on swift
trouble-shooting solutions will help retain that all-important
existing customer; and providing thorough product instruction will
help draw new clients into the shop. These pre-technology tactics may
net more business than an aggressive presence on the ‘Net.
It’s a matter of vision. Facing the prospect of limited online return,
it may be best to design your site as an integral part of your in-shop
sales, rather than making it merely an electronic, redundant method of
taking orders. For example, the busy sales person in-house has only a
few minutes at most to explain a new product. Yet the company website
can arm potential clients with reams of information so that he enters
the store ready to purchase.
Tailor to the customer. Technology now has made individually-targeted
advertising affordable in several media. With the natural interface
between rapid market demographic analysis and digital printing,
businesses can now send out ads by E-mail that target each’s
customer’s personal taste. Car dealers are informing specific patrons
that they have a good stock of late model, red station wagons, with
mileage between 1,000 and 25,000 miles. That exact ad may go to only
one individual, who can now check into the dealership’s website and
record his change in preferences, or gain more information.
This precise targeting represents a larger initial outlay, but a great
overall savings in the ad budget. For the patron, it cuts down on the
ad-annoyance factor that develops when he’s blanketed with
non-applicable advertising.
Yet while Krumholz has witnessed a great deal of technological
development for business in the last 25 years, he does not see any
plateaus on the horizon. “I don’t see the computer change pace slowing
down in the future,” he says, “because the product is information and
unlike the telephone or airplane, information is a much more dynamic
thing that can be processed in ways of which we have not yet dreamed.”
— Bart Jackson
Top Of Page
Dealers in Hope
Ask any CEO what he seeks in young executives and he will invariably
answer “leaders.” In most cases, this is a lie. What most CEOs really
want is managers. President Nixon defined this profound difference by
noting that management is prose and process. Leadership is poetry and
direction. One envisions today; the other, the day after tomorrow.
Both are crucial.
Yet however much sought after and analyzed, leadership retains a
mystical quality. There lurks some elusive essence which circumstance
and character bring to the surface. The process of luring this essence
forward is the goal of “Leadership and the Executive Mind,” a two-day
course held on Friday, October 8 and Friday, October 15 at 9 a.m. at
Mercer County Community College. Cost: $175. Call 609-586-9446. Bena
Long, founder of Mind Movement, instructs the course, which, she
notes, is designed for people in all levels of business.
From her girlhood in Bridgewater, Long was well steeped in business
and competition. Her father owned several retail stores and employed
his daughter regularly behind the counter. When not at the shop, she
as a competitive gymnast, learning, as she puts it “the real value of
a focused mind.” She holds a bachelor’s degree in international
politics from Rutgers (Class of 1991) and a master’s inmanagement and
intercultural relations.
Long put her intercultural training to work for Fed-Ex, Canon, and
other large firms by training executives who had been recently
transferred to the United States. She developed programs to help them
and their families adjust both on and off the job. “It was here that I
learned that most business decisions are easy,” she says. “It’s trying
to employ them without any conflict that takes skill.” Three years
ago, Long started Mind Movement, a consulting that specializes in
helping executives to find that skill. Her approach embodies a blend
of several Asian philosophies, the teachings of Yoga masters, and the
more Western Dr. Phil Nuernberger, developer of strategic intelligence
skills.
Americans love action. “If you don’t know what else to do — throw a
fit. “Do something!” hollered our much lauded General George Patton.
And such is the atmosphere that fills our plants and board rooms. We
want the decisions made now. We want a plan — any plan — just so long
as it’s in place by Tuesday. In such situational environments, it is
all most of us can do to manage — to put out today’s fires. Leadership
— that art of encouraging both resources and an enthusiastic staff
toward — well, that is left to those few, gifted souls in less chaotic
situations.
But Long insists that each of us has that capability to go beyond — to
become a leader. It is a process that begins not with action, but with
a mental, psychological, even spiritual, delving to bring forth inner
resources. You need not wait for circumstance to call it forth, you
can mine your capabilities with personal training.
Banish distraction. We have all felt that still, calm spot in our
minds that reflects all issues clearly and allows decisions to be made
simply. Ironically, it usually comes to light after the decision is
made. We finally know we have chosen the right bride, career, or car
and then we feel great. Worries are relieved and we are ready for
action, assured that our next choices will also be correct.
Alas in most of us, this brief glimpse of our leadership spot all too
quickly clouds over with daily distractions and our incisive
capabilities are skewed by other factors. Long invites us to reclaim
that leadership mentality by first analyzing our motivating
distractions.
“If you are constantly scared of being fired all the time, of being
humiliated, or outcast,” she says, “these emotions will govern your
choices.” The same with personal needs and greeds. Once you find these
distracting motivators, you can begin to remove their layers, and
access that clear, uncluttered part of your mind. It’s not
particularly esoteric, just analytical. Attack it as you would any
business problem.
Is it really instinct? Once you have found your own motivators, it
will become easier to discover them in others. It was said of John D.
Rockefeller that he could just stare at a man and know exactly how
much he would pay for a barrel of oil. Long says that these leadership
and negotiating gifts, which we so often chalk up to “instinct,” are
frequently nothing more than powerful listening and interpreting.
“The same process that allows you to access your own clear decision
spot can help you see the motivations in others,” says Long. “Once we
stop talking to ourselves, and truly put our attention on the
individual with whom we are dealing, he will usually make himself
plain.” Often people reveal themselves by things left unspoken. But
you can pick up on such signals if you have rid your own mind of its
own inner chatter.
Lead yourself. The very term “leadership” conjures images of armies of
willing souls following you in the direction of your pointed sword. We
see it basically as getting others to do what we want. But the human
is a very clever animal. To follow, he must make sure that the leader
truly knows precisely what he himself wants, and that this person will
lead him on a path of his own best interest.
In the world of business, a worker’s own best interest usually entails
the fulfillment of his varied capabilities. Employees want to do what
they do best, and they want to succeed. Long sees a business leader,
therefore, as the hub of a wheel. He provides the vision and
opportunity for each individual to fulfill himself. And if he does it
well, the employee never feels managed or led. The vision provided is
exemplified in the leader’s own daily dealings. Simply, a good
business leader lives his own creative vision. It is plainly
understood and he need not convey it by clever techniques.
Shoot from the hip. Despite a continuos deep-thought process, Long’s
leader is not some aloof, contemplative character, who slowly ingests
data and finally reacts. Instead, she sees the leader as a practiced
gunfighter. Amid incredible frenzy, he is able to get off six quick,
accurate shots that get the job done while everyone around him is
paralyzed by angst. While managers are doing things right, the leader
is doing the right thing.
“Think about that gunfighter,” says Long. “How did he get to the point
where he could make the right choice so quickly and with such
certainty?” This is an ability which we all have, she insists. It just
needs to be dusted off and developed.
Yet for those who still crave the advantage of certain techniques to
make the subtle fist of leadership felt within their company, it’s
helpful to learn from the past.
Napoleon defined leaders as dealers in hope. He said that a good
leader possessed the art of making others work to their fulfillment,
rather than wearing oneself out. And finally, he suggested; “Work with
your ministers twice a week — once with each of them separately, once
with them altogether in council.” Not a bad business plan.
— Bart Jackson
Top Of Page
Domestic Partnership Raises Legal Issues
The Domestic Partnership Act that was signed into law earlier this
year gave legal status to many couples who had eagerly awaited it for
many years. The bill, however, as is the case with many laws, has
opened up as many questions and legal issues as it has solved. “The
(domestic partnership) situation in the United States is in a state of
flux,” says Stephen Hyland, a Pennington attorney who specializes in
helping same-sex couples make their way through the murky waters of
the new law.
Hyland partners with Merrill-Lynch to hold a free seminar, “Financial
and Legal Planning for Domestic Partners,” at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday,
October 12 at the Triumph Brewing Company in Princeton. Assisting
Hyland at the seminar are Stephen Woods, Neil McKeon, and Nancy
Herlihy of Merrill-Lynch. The investment company is “one of the few I
know about who have put together a financial package specifically for
domestic partners,” says Hyland.
When Hyland entered law school he had no idea that he would end up
specializing in domestic partnership laws. He has only practiced law
for the past eight years, since graduating from Southern Texas College
of Law in 1996. He entered law school “as a 40th birthday present” to
himself, he says. He had worked as a software engineer and planned to
specialize in Internet law.
He keeps up with his computer skills by working on his website,
www.NJdomesticpartnership.com. But after opening his practice in
Pennington he found that “the dotcom boom was ending” and focused on
other areas of law, including work with several area schools. He has a
personal interest in the Domestic Partnership Act. He is currently in
a long-term relationship.
Hyland has written a book, “A Legal Guide for New Jersey Domestic
Partners,” that aims to help same sex couples understand the new law.
“I thought it would be fairly simple when I started,” he says, “but it
is over 200 pages.” The book, as well as a number of articles he has
written on the issue, is available on his website.
There are four main areas of concern for domestic partners, says
Hyland: health and insurance, inheritance laws, financial planning,
and separation.
“There are still significant protections in a marriage that are not
available even to registered domestic partners,” says Hyland.
“Domestic partners still only get protection in a few areas.” Most of
these rights and obligations depend upon the couple becoming
registered, he addds. Upon registrering, the partners are given copies
of an official Certificate of Domestic Partnership, with a New Jersey
state seal. The act also recognizes partners who have registered under
other states’ domestic partnership laws, so that couples do not need
to re-register in New Jersey if they have proof of registration in
another state.
One of the most important issues to many long-term couples is the area
of health insurance and healthcare decisions. While the new law does
require the State of New Jersey to offer health insurance to same-sex
domestic partners, private companies are only encouraged to do so,
Hyland explains.
Hospital visitation, another area of special concern to many couples,
is also addressed by the act. “Domestic partners now have the same
visitation rights the hospital gives married spouses,” he says.
Hyland advices same sex couples that health issues, including hospital
visitation rights and the right to make medical decisions for an
incapacitated partner, need to be spelled out with additional
documents.
“Most couples should have agreements drawn up and available, such as a
health proxy, a visitation document, and a medical power of attorney,”
he says. If a couple is traveling out-of-state “they should take the
whole lot with them in case something happens,” he says.
Even with the documents, it may be difficult for same sex couples who
need hospital care in another state. “Some states are more open to
reciprocation than others. Some states are openly hostile,” he says.
The State of Virginia, for example, “prohibits recognizing civil
unions and domestic partnerships.”
Inheritance laws are an area where the Domestic Partnership Act is
particularly tricky, says Hyland. The new act grants domestic partners
some, but not all, of the benefits married spouses receive.
“Certain taxes apply to domestic partners, while others do not,” he
says. The New Jersey Inheritance Transfer Tax, a tax on gifts made
between individuals as a result of death, does not apply to registered
domestic partners. In other words, they will no longer be required to
pay that tax. However, unlike married spouses, domestic partners will
be required to pay New Jersey estate taxes. This is often particularly
important in the case of jointly owned property such as a home. A
married spouse is not required to pay tax on the deceased partner’s
half of the jointly owned property. A domestic partner is required to
pay the tax.
Even with the Domestic Partner Act it is still very important to have
a will. “Without a will the probate judge must follow the state’s laws
regarding determination of heirship and disposition of the person’s
property,” he says. With the exception of the state of Vermont, Hyland
notes, same sex partners are not considered heirs in any state unless
they are specifically designated in a will.
Good financial planning is essential for everyone, but it is
particularly necessary for domestic partners, Hyland says. Getting a
financial power of attorney is one of the first steps domestic
partners should take. A financial power of attorney designates someone
who will manage some or all of your financial affairs if you should
become unable to do so yourself. The document does not allow that
person to make medical decisions, which is why both types of documents
are needed. Since federal income taxes are not affected by the New
Jersey law, financial planning is “a must” for domestic partners “with
fairly substantial assets,” Hyland says, “because domestic partners
can’t file jointly on their income taxes, there can be considerable
complications.”
The final legal area new domestic partners need to consider is
separation. While no one wants to think about the possibility that a
relationship will fail, particularly just as it is beginning, it must
still be considered. “Domestic partnership now has a legal status and
it must be terminated in court, just like a divorce is,” Hyland says.
But just as in inheritance laws, the laws of divorce do not
necessarily apply to domestic partners. “In marriage, the rules of
equitable distribution apply, in domestic partnership what happens is
up to the judge,” he says. Distribution can be particularly
complicated for couples who have been together for a long time, says
Hyland. “It is pretty hard to determine who owns what when everything
is mingled together.” Often, couples will designate that assets they
owned before the relationship will remain the property of the original
owner, but it is best, he adds, to think carefully about just how
these issues will be determined if the relationship ends.
It is obvious that for many same sex couples the New Jersey Domestic
Partnership Act isn’t perfect. Some will claim it doesn’t go far
enough, while others believe it goes too far. The one fact everyone
can agree on is it that in many ways it has complicated many already
complex laws.
— Karen Miller
Top Of Page
Health Watch: It’s Not Your Father’s Cancer
Cancer will strike one out of three Americans, and, for reasons not
yet fully understood, that rate will be slightly higher for people
living in central New Jersey. “Cancer is not going to ignore us,” says
Dr. John Baumann, “so we had better not ignore it.”
Baumann, head radiation oncologist at the University Medical Center at
Princeton and principal in Radiation Oncology Consultants of New
Jersey, moderates a panel on colorectal cancer on Wednesday, October
13, at 7:30 p.m. at the Merrill Lynch Conference Center. The event is
part of a series of lectures on common cancers, underwritten by the J.
Seward Johnson Charitable Trust. It is held for the benefit of those
who are dealing with the disease, those who have survived the disease,
and those who want to know how to reduce their risk of developing the
disease — or of catching it at its earliest stages.
Baumann talks about the terror often associated with the very word
“cancer.” It’s not as bad now as it was a generation ago, when
doctors, patients, and their families were loathe to even speak the
word, and when many thought it best to keep the diagnosis a secret —
even from the patient himself. There is more openness now, but fear is
still present, and is often out of proportion to the prognosis, and to
the treatment experience.
Baumann points out that there is little panic when the diagnosis is
any one of a number of other diseases. “I know people who are
miserable from arthritis,” he says, “yet it doesn’t strike terror.”
Certainly cancer is to be respected, but some of the fear that it
inspires is often way overblown. “The feeling of terror reflects a
general lack of understanding,” he says. In addition to causing
needless anguish, the fear is dangerous because it can keep those who
suspect that they have symptoms from seeking treatment — treatment
that may well be far more mild than their runaway imaginations
envision.
Bottom line, says Baumann, “this is not your father’s cancer.” The
science of detecting, treating, and curing cancer has advanced
tremendously, and continues to do so all the time. Furthermore,
treatment is generally not as arduous as it once was, thanks in large
part to new ways to significantly decrease side effects. Nausea, for
example, was once one of the most miserable side effects of some
chemotherapy treatments. In the beginning of his career Baumann saw
“strong Marines” cry as they battled through chemo-related nausea. But
now, he points out, “our ability to control nausea is remarkable. You
may be mighty tired, but you may not have the constellation of
symptoms.
“I have a 90-year-old aunt who has been receiving chemo for 10 years,”
says Baumann, “and it doesn’t interfere with her life.” Many people,
whether treated with chemo, radiation, surgery, or some combination of
the three, continue to work and play pretty much as before. Others
have a harder time of it, but in most cases, cancer treatment is
easier to take than it was a decade ago. Because that is the case,
treatment can also be more aggressive. Larger doses of chemo are often
better tolerated because of pharmaceutical advances that blunt side
effects. Larger doses of radiation are possible because of
technological advances that allow for precise targeting of a tumor.
Baumann argues that the full arsenal of the most advanced cancer
treatments is available close to home for central New Jersey
residents. A reason for the cancer seminars, in fact, is to showcase
that expertise. He says that he is fully aware that many Garden
Staters, often transplants from New York or Philadelphia, tilt toward
the big cities when they need care. But, he points out, any number of
first rate doctors have also migrated to central New Jersey from the
big city cancer centers, and are providing care close to home.
Baumann himself came to his Princeton practice by way of training in
Boston and in Washington, D.C. A Princeton University graduate (class
of 1973), he attended Harvard Medical School and did all of his
medical training in Boston. He went on to become chief of radiation
oncology at Walter Reed in Washington, D.C., where he also served as
the Surgeon General’s consultant for that specialty. In 1985 he took
on the challenge of helping to design the J. Seward Johnson Cancer
Center at Princeton Hospital.
A resident of Hopewell, Baumann is married to Marcelline Baumann, an
active volunteer who has served as president of the hospital
auxiliary, and as a trustee of the hospital. Their son, Brian, is a
graduate of Princeton University, where their daughter, Marcelline, is
now a student. Baumann’s father was a builder in the Maryland area and
his mother is a dietitian.
The cancer education lecture in which Baumann is set to participate is
the 20th in a series that has been going on for 10 years. The topic of
this lecture, colorectal cancer, is especially important for the whole
community because this is a slow-growing cancer that is generally
easier to detect in its earliest stages than are many other cancers.
With this cancer, screening is especially important. The Harvard
Center for Cancer Prevention states that up to 75 percent of new cases
could be avoided with a healthy lifestyle and regular screening.
The screen most often associated with this cancer is a colonoscopy, a
scan that begins at the end of the large intestine and goes up to the
lower end of the small intestine. Done with an internal scope, it
strikes fear into strong men. “I was scared to death before I had my
colonoscopy,” says Baumann. While it is generally possible to be
sedated during the test, and to sleep peacefully through the whole
thing, he chose to be wide awake, and was amazed at the experience. He
recalls that the test was over before he knew it. “‘If that’s all
there is to it,’” he exclaimed, “‘do it again!’”
Anyone who still fears the test has a relatively new option. A virtual
coloscopy, performed externally, is completely painless and requires
no sedation. Baumann quotes recent studies that have found the
procedure to be as good at detecting cancer and pre-cancerous polyps
as the standard colonoscopy. One advantage of the older test is that
polyps generally are removed as it is performed. If they are found
during a virtual colonoscopy, a standard one will be performed to
remove them.
Because colon cancer proceeds slowly, a colonoscopy generally is
performed only once every five years. In addition to screening, anyone
who wants to up his chances of avoiding the disease should adopt a
lifestyle of “moderation in all things,” says Baumann, who advocates
moderate exercise, a sensible diet — and an end to cigarette smoking.
Prevention is a big topic at the upcoming seminar. Anyone with a
question, whether on keeping the disease at bay, or on the best
treatment options, is encouraged to come prepared to ask it.
Participants write their queries down during the lecture and the
doctors on the panel gather them up and then provide answers.
“The questions are wonderful,” says Baumann. “We get the most
challenging questions.” The Q & A segment comprises about half of the
evening, and in his opinion is “the best part of the whole thing.”
It sure beats ignorance.
— Kathleen McGinn Spring
Top Of Page
Women Refine Their Charitable Giving
“Women have historically had an impact on volunteerism and giving, but
not necessarily in their own name,” says Nancy Becker, chairperson for
the Second Annual Women and Philanthropy Conference. Becker is a part
of a group of New Jersey women who want to make other women more aware
of their importance and influence in contributing to charities.
“Making a Difference in Your Community” is the theme of the
conference, which is “designed to encourage and educate women on the
issues of philanthropy.” It takes place on Wednesday, October 13, 4
p.m. at the Merrill Lynch Hopewell Corporate Campus. Cost: $95. To
register call 732-939-8102.
Dana Reeve, wife of actor Christopher Reeve and trustee of the
Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, is the keynote speaker for the
conference. She discusses her personal journey through philanthropy
and her experiences with her husband in establishing the paralysis
foundation. Several other New Jersey women also lead workshop sessions
at the conference. Marge Smith, nonprofit consultant, discusses “Time,
Talent & Treasure,” specific ways to better understand and utilize the
important resources that volunteers bring. Ricky Shechtel, executive
director of the Sierra Foundation, discusses how to teach youth about
charity and giving in “Youth & Philanthropy.”
“Tools of the Trade: Giving 101” is the topic of Barbara Rambo,
executive director, Council of the New Jersey Grantmakers. Jennifer
Hauge, deputy director of Pro Bono Partnership talks about finding
“the right fit” when choosing to serve on a nonprofit board. Lynn
Lerardi and Ann Reichelderfer lead a discussion of “Planning Your
Giving.” The closing speaker is Kathleen DiChiara, president and CEO
of the Community Food Bank of New Jersey.
This is the second conference on the topic to be held in New Jersey.
Arlene Stephan, executive director at Capital, has been involved in
both of the conferences, the first, while working for the Rutgers
Foundation, and now through her work with Capital.
This year’s conference has been moved to the evening to attract more
working women, she says, pointing out that “women have become a focus
of philanthropy efforts in recent years because they are not just the
holders of wealth, but the generators of wealth.”
Women who inherited their money are often still influenced by their
fathers and husbands in making their charitable decisions, while women
who have “created their own wealth” are more comfortable making those
choices on their own. But women often still give in the same way their
mothers and grandmothers did; by writing dozens of small checks to a
variety of organizations and charities throughout the year. This
“impulsive giving” does not allow them to have the same impact on a
charity that “more strategic giving” does, say Stephan and Becker.
The conference also has a session on passing on the concepts of
philanthropy to children. Children need to learn at an early age to
“give back to the community,” Becker and Stephan say. Parents and
grandparents are very important in instilling these ideas in children,
and teaching through example is one of the easiest ways to show
children about charity. “We are a wealthy country. Most of us can
afford to give something to help someone less fortunate,” says
Stephan.
Another good approach for helping children learn about giving to the
community is through organizations such as the Girl Scouts. “The focus
of the Girl Scouts has changed,” she says. “It’s not just about
earning that cooking badge. They put a lot of focus on community
service.”
Women have often led the way in charity, but it has been behind the
scenes. There are numerous stories in every state of women stepping up
and creating homes and shelters for children or abused women, or
helping to start food banks. The way women volunteer their time and
donate their money “is often very generational,” says Stephan. “But we
want women today to think more strategically about their money and
what they do with it.” Men, she says, “think more about making an
impact, while women want to see the fruits of their collaboration with
other women by working in groups.”
Philanthropy, adds Becker, “is not just Andrew Carnegie giving away
millions.” It can be at any dollar level. It also involves
volunteering time and talent to church or community. “We want anyone
who ever writes a check to a charity to feel they can come to the
conference,” says Becker, adding that men are also welcome. “If you
want to make a significant impact you have to concentrate your
efforts,” she says. Stephan suggests several strategies women should
use to “turn checkbook philanthropy into something more meaningful.”
First. Educate yourself about your own financial resources. “It is
very empowering to know what you have, to make your own decisions, and
to manage your own money.”
Second. Get good advice. Get in touch with a top quality financial
advisor and communicate with him or her what it is that you want to
achieve through giving, and how best to accomplish your goals. There
are a number of approaches that maximize every dollar earmarked for
charitable giving.
Third. Educate yourself on the charities you are interested in. Come
up with a strategy for your giving. Think about what you have and how
you want to give it away. That will help you to think strategically
and not impulsively about your giving. It will help you make more
meaningful choices.
Fourth. Learn how to give gifts in a better way. If you have $1,000 a
year to give, consider giving it to only one or two charities, not two
dozen.
Finally, Stephan advises, decide what you are passionate about and put
your money there. Is it your church or a local arts program or a food
bank? Determine the program or project that you feel you — or your
community — cannot live without. That is where your money should go.
— Karen Miller
Corrections or additions?
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