My giving goal is to give $200,000 to nonprofit organizations by the time I’m 40. While having this monetary goal, I hope to remain active in my community by volunteering with various organizations and potentially take advantage of my work expertise in order to provide support in tackling the roots of systemic issues that plague our society.

I hope that our giving for this class will make a measurable impact on the people that our chosen organizations support in addition to the city of Atlanta. I think that through reading applications, meeting with organization leaders, and discussing the organizations within our teams we will be able to ensure that our allotted funds make the greatest possible impact and work towards improving the city of Atlanta. I hope that in the future I will be able to deploy the skills I have learned from this class in my future giving and be able to think more critically about philanthropy as a whole.

I want to reengage with my past non-profits. I hope to volunteer more regularly at Feed My Starving Children and participate in the logistical setup of the meal-packing events at my church. With commitment, I will remain strong in my support both with my volunteer hours but also with my money. Similarly, I plan to reengage with Camp Sonshine this summer in a leadership role. Camp Sonshine is the summer outlet of the Briarcliff Elementary School special education program. I plan on reaching out to the director to see if there is a way for me to help out during the school year. Similarly, I plan on researching how I can help Habitat for Humanity. I mentioned above how I want to model my philanthropy off of my dad. He moves refugees into homes but those homes have to be built first. My high school had opportunities to get involved with Habitat but I never took them up on it. That is a regret that I have but it is not too late to remedy that. I also plan on using my voice and platform to better support the causes that I care about. I can sign petitions and promote awareness of issues that affect people in my community. In all honesty, I do not have any in my head right now while writing this but will educate myself tonight. I also have goals to strive for in the long term. Hopefully, I will be able to be more financially liberal with my charitable giving as I start making more money, however, I still hope to make a yearly giving goal. I think that 5% of my total income a year should be given to the causes mentioned above – hopefully the percentage will rise over time. Additionally, I hope to commit at minimum 2 hours of my time each week towards helping others. Although not a ton of time in the grand scheme of things, 2 hours is a good place to start and will hopefully grow as time goes on.