Learning by Giving at Binghamton University 2019 edition

Education, soccer, and now technology have always been my main passions in life. I did Girls Who Code a program that wasn't given to minority girls like me in high school when my dad and I first had the talk about the problem. There was no representation of minority men/women in these tech places. We wanted to close this gap? But how. InnerCity Soccer Tech. Started in June 2017, InnerCity SoccerTech was started with a mission to increase the number of students interested in technology through playing soccer, and also helping them with their education. Through practices every Saturday, extra tutoring help during the week, and visiting technology companies, InnerCity Soccer Tech encompasses the variety of opportunities available to young minority students through these activities. However, as such a new non profit we struggle a lot with funding, getting resources, finding places to start our technology lab for the students in such low socioeconomic area. Although we do not hav...

In class today we talked a lot about Jeff Bezos’ donation (or lack thereof) to a philanthropic cause. The New York Times article we had to read today provided many other suggestions of ways Bezos could use his money, ranging from purchasing mosquito nets to permanently doubling the National Cancer Institute’s budget. This had me asking a few questions. The first question is, do the wealthy have an obligation to be philanthropic and donate their wealth? If so, how much is the appropriate amount of their wealth to allocate to charities? I personally do not believe that there is an “appropriate amount” of money one should donate, but I do believe it is important that those with influence use it for good. In the discussion today many students, including myself, expressed their disappointment in Bezos as he has a massive amount of money and is only sharing a trivial fraction of it (it was mentioned that his $2B donation is the equivalent to an average American family/h...

            One weekend night I was in my dorm room with nothing to do; so, I decided to hop on to my Amazon Prime account and watch something. I scrolled through Amazon’s library of media, until I found the documentary Super Size Me, a film that follows a man who embarks on a 30-day McDonald, fast-food only diet. It aimed to bring attention to the obesity and malnutrition problems faced across the U.S. The film, especially it’s section on children and how they are leading unhealthy lifestyles, reminded me of two things: the nutritional problems faced by children in the Broome County area outlined by the needs assessment we read for class and my own experience with childhood obesity. Thus, I was inspired to find a nonprofit that would combat the less than ideal eating behaviors of children in the U.S. and found the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.             The Allia...

For my charity pitch, I am asking that you support Long Island Cares, a food bank located on--you guessed it--Long Island. The mission of Long Island Cares is to benefit the hungry on Long Island by providing them with the food they need, and providing for the humanitarian needs of the community. They envision a hunger-free Long Island, and work towards this by distributing more than six million pounds of food each year to 316,000 people (about 11% of the population of Nassau and Suffolk Counties). In 2017, they served over 500 food pantries, soup kitchens, day care centers, senior citizen centers, congregations, and veterans centers. While LI Cares is a food bank at its core, it actually does much more than that by supporting veterans’ needs, helping people enter/reenter the workforce, and promoting a healthy lifestyle for everyone. More specifically, they work to educate the public about the causes and consequences of hunger and how to eat healthier, and help those ...

Up to this point in Philanthropy, we have been plagued by several difficult questions: ranging from what is the best approach to giving, to who should the finalists for the grants be, these questions have tested our morals and values, promoted discussion, and challenged us. However, I do want to pose another difficult question that I feel underlies the concepts of philanthropy and of this class: what does it mean to be good? Or in other words, what does it mean to be a good person? This is a question I always reflect on, as understanding my concept of “good” allows me to be a better philanthropist and a better person. How I define this idea of “good” can be and most likely is different from other’s definitions; but no matter how it is defined, it is important to be able to define it. I read an article published on Huffington Post entitled “Here’s What It Means to Be a Good Person, Gosh Darnit.” I found this article while I was doing some research on this idea of “goodness.” The pu...

How does budget affect where you donate? When I was younger, I always thought that the only way to help people and consider yourself a philanthropist was to donate hundreds or thousands of dollars. I thought people like Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey were considered philanthropists, but I never considered myself a philanthropist. I had a jar full of coins when I was younger, similar to a piggy bank. Whenever the jar would get full (or close to it), I would go and donate that money somewhere. I was never sure where to donate to, so I put it in the trust of my parents to donate it to a cause they supported on my behalf. It wasn’t much I was donating (probably wasn’t even more than five dollars), but I always felt good when I would give the coin jar to my parents and they would come back with an empty jar and smiles on their faces.              As I grew up, I began to think more about where I wanted to donate the money,...