I will give at least 10% of my financial income and I will compromise the amount that I save and spend in order to do so. I will give my time and talent to disciple the generations after me and I will do so in a way that requires faithful sacrifice.

I want to give intentionally, holistically, and sustainably now and through the rest of my life. I want to give my time, talents, and treasures back to my local community in measurable ways. My goal is to give at 5% of my income to non-profits that I have done my due diligence on and that I am passionate about their mission. I want to give a minimum of 10% of my time (36.5 hours a year) through volunteering with non-profits. With the non-profits I volunteer with, I want to spend time with at least two new non-profits a year. I want to use my talents and knowledge I have learned in college to teach others about the attainability of giving and the different strategies behind giving well. I understand that I might not always be able to fully give a certain percentage of one on the categories, but I want to make sure I increase my giving in the other two ways in response. I want to reevaluate my giving goal every two years to make sure it is still relevant to my life situation, amounts given increase when possible, and that I hold myself to a high standard of giving.

I want to commit to giving 5-10% off the top of my salary to causes that are important to me, including my church, women’s health, education equity, and sex-trafficking. I will allow these organizations and beliefs to be flexible as my life circumstances and passions evolve. When I am in tougher financial situations, I will look to pull the levers of time and talent to support my community; whether through pro-bono case work as a consultant or offering my expertise to organizations by serving on a board, I want to value my time, talent, and treasure equally. I will work over time to increase the percentage of my giving as my capacity to give increases, and will look to reinvest any tax benefits as future giving. Finally, I will utilize a separate bank account and giving circles amongst my peers to keep me accountable in giving and prevent me from sliding in giving.

I pledge to research, volunteer, and intentionally invest into local organizations throughout my life. I pledge to do so through meaningful outreach and donation of my skills and talents. When capable and able, I pledge to consistently give financially to these organizations on a quarterly basis and separate my personal savings from my philanthropic endeavors to provide better transparency within my finances. I will continue to educate and engage in local philanthropic efforts to bolster my knowledge of local efforts, and always maintain an open mind when thinking about new philanthropic avenues and missions.

I pledge to give my time, talents, and resources to nonprofits whose values and missions align with my own ideals on how to help those in our society that are struggling. I wish to leave a meaningful impact on the lives of those in my community through intentional, substantive support that will take the form of donating a percentage of my income each year (ideally 5-10%, depending on my financial situation), my free time to volunteer services (ideally a 4 hour/month minimum), and my skills attained from undergrad/law school to assist in coordinating, attending, or launching initiatives (ideally a minimum of 1 large annual event per year). I plan on leading others around me in transforming our local landscape of philanthropy in hopes of starting a larger change for the benefit of society, while constantly reminding ourselves the core of why we are doing this: to enhance and protect the lives of our fellow people.

I pledge to give a minimum of 5% of my salary and a substantial amount of my time. I will do this once I am out of college and have a steady income. I pledge to pay it forward in all ways that are suitable and make the most positive change in comparison to my life. That saying, as my life increases in wealth, the more money I will donate, the more flexible my time gets, the more time I will donate, and the more influential my word gets, the more I will persuade others around me to give back. I pledge to not plateau in my giving. It is not fair to those less fortunate that my life can get better and theirs not. As my life gets happier, the happier I want to make those that are less fortunate. In doing all of this it is important that I do my own personal research so I my dollars and hours can go farther. I want to see change with my own eyes. If I pledge to see change then it will force me to go that extra step to put myself in the field of giving. I want to feel the time I give is just as impactful as the money I give.