🌎 How We Think About Charitable Donations (2024 Edition)
Clarifying what we value in the world through our charitable giving
October is Give month at Microsoft, where employees share ideas for ways to give back time and money to charitable causes important to them. There are events and auctions throughout the month, hosted by passionate employees.
This tradition has helped us as a family define our approach to giving, which in turn clarifies what we value - and that’s the topic for today’s post.
Our Approach to Giving
When we graduated from college, we were both adrift when it came to donating money or time to charitable causes. It was supposed to feel good giving money to charity – but exactly how good should it feel? Where should the ideas on where to give come from? How accountable should we feel for ensuring the investment achieved concrete outcomes?
If you feel something similar, that’s perfectly natural. Just like learning a trade, it takes time, experience, and a network to develop a philosophy and intuition. Here are a few important things our family has learned about our charity as we intuit our way through this:
🤗 Our donations say a lot about who we care about. Often our giving is about supporting a friend or colleague. It takes time to go through enough life to build a network and deal together with crises, but it’ll happen naturally if you are curious and open and care about your community.
🧠 + 💖 We use charity to define what we value. Giving reflects what we value in this world. It’s a cerebral and emotional exercise that helps us make simple statements about the world as we wish it to be. We’ve found it helpful to separate the assessment of impact (will this gift make a difference? Is it enough?) from just the simple desired-world state (does this cause reflect the change we wish to see?). Like the famous parable of the beach full of starfish, change starts with clarity of conviction.
📢 We talk about why we give. We used to find it hard to talk about donations, as there is a bit of a taboo when it comes to talking about things related to money. But it doesn’t matter if you donate $5 or $5 million, 5 hours or 500. Because our giving is a statement of what we value, when we talk about it, we do so with passion – why should we hide that? Hearing about people’s own giving stories over the years is how we’ve forged some deep connections.
💼 Non-profit boards teach valuable skills. In the past couple of years, we’ve started to experiment with donating time and energy by joining non-profit boards (Adam in the arts, Helen in Girl Scouts). It’s a way of meeting fantastic people outside our tech bubble, and it teaches valuable skills on balancing governance with board activism. We are early in our journey - our goal is for each of us to maintain one board membership at a time.
Our Biggest Causes
There is no better way to get to know our family than to learn about the causes we’ve supported this year. The framework used here to describe this might be a useful model for your own thoughts on giving:
Define the area of giving
Pick a tentpole charity for the area based on both personal connection and what it says about the world you want
You’ll probably end up with a few other charities along the same theme
🩺 Health: ALS
What is it: ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that slowly robs the body of its ability to walk, speak, swallow, and breathe. Every 90 minutes, another person in this country is diagnosed with the disease.
What it says about the world we want: In just the past year, two treatments for ALS have been approved – that’s three in the past six years! We want to live in a world where science is supported and medical breakthroughs and research is funded to support cures.
Why it’s personal: Earlier this month Helen participated in a walk to defeat ALS alongside with 30+ other moms in my neighborhood because one of our own has been afflicted with this awful disease.
Learn more: Walk to Defeat ALS
Other charities in this category:
Kick Childhood Cancer Guild at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Childhood cancer has touched the lives of some of the people we are closest to and we continue to prioritize supporting groundbreaking research in this area as Research Champions for Seattle Children’s Hospital. We are dear friends with a family who recently achieved a 4-year goal to raise over $1M to this guild.
Pink Boat Regatta - This charity raises money to beat Women’s Breast Cancer - a cause near and dear to our hearts this year as a close friend has been re-diagnosed with breast cancer.
Alzheimer’s, MS and Diabetes have touched the lives of some of the people we are closest to and we prioritize supporting groundbreaking research in these areas.
Make a Wish is one of the coolest ideas for a charity ever known and even more so now that we know people who personally have been recipients of the charity
Be the Match is a fantastic organization helping cancer patients find bone marrow donors. We not only support the cause but also ensure we renewed ourselves on their match database.
🆘 Local Safety Net: Community Loaves
What is it: After training and ingredient controls to ensure proper food safety, our family bakes bread and cookies at home that can be donated to local food banks.
What it says about the world we want: Homelessness is both a local and national issue and solutions require a mix of public and private partnership. It is not enough to just say that our tax dollars will solve this problem. This is less about changing the world and more about every generation finding the humanity to invest in the safety net.
Why it’s personal: This is a hands-on way of contributing to food security in our community that integrates our family’s love of cooking with our charity plans.
Learn more: Community Loaves
Other charities in this category:
Mary’s Place, Hopelink and The Sophia Way are three medium-sized charities in this space that we support. All have a lasting impact on helping with homelessness and helping women, children, and families on their journey out of it.
The United Way – King County has long been a strong regional partner on this problem. We are leery often of the high overhead costs of the larger mega-charities, but this is one of our exceptions given the need for big-picture leadership and regional solutions.
👩 Women Empowerment: Girl Scouts
What is it: The Girl Scouts organization prepares girls to empower themselves and promotes compassion, courage, confidence, character, leadership, entrepreneurship, and active citizenship through activities involving camping, community service, learning first aid, and earning badges by acquiring practical skills.
What it says about the world we want: A lot of progress has been made (especially in the United States), but the work continues. As we raise two strong women in our household, we want them to help build a world where they can be anything they put their minds to and create this reality for themselves.
Why we give: Our youngest daughter got involved in Daisies a few years and we can really see how this is becoming to be a formative experience for her. This year, Helen has also stepped up to be on the board of the regional office of the Girl Scouts.
Learn more: Girls Scouts of Western Washington
Other charities in this category:
Society of Women Engineers (swe.org) - A famous organization, especially on college campuses, for giving a voice to women engineers and a conduit for leadership opportunities.
Girls Who Code is building a pipeline of future female engineers.
🎓 Economic Opportunity: UCLA
What is it: A large public university that is the engine of economic opportunity for tens of thousands of people every year.
What it says about the world we want: Public universities are one of the biggest crown jewels of the United States and their unique role in at-scale impact of economic opportunity is unparalleled. Their function as an epicenter of culture, research, and learning only happens with continued investment and support.
Why it’s personal: UCLA was foundational for us. Not only is it where we met each other and some of our closest friends, but it is also where we both came of age and developed our worldviews. It was a step-function experience for both of us. Our giving is focused on scholarships and particular programs that we benefited from when we were students, like the Engineering Student Projects fund. This is the most “Pay it Forward” aspect of our giving.
Learn more: Give to UCLA
Other charities in this category:
Lake Washington School District Foundation/Local public school PTAs and Foster School of Business all have had an impact on our families. We are byproducts of strong public education.
⛰Conservation: Chelan County Land Trust
What is it: This land trust champions conservation and community forests in Eastern Washington – helping protect rivers for salmon restoration or forests for hiking and recreational use.
What it says about the world we want: As Global Warming becomes one of the defining issues of our time and more people live in the state of Washington, our forests and natural spaces will need people to stand up for them. Local and contextual action will be key.
Why it’s personal: This land trust was involved in purchasing a piece of forest near one of our favorite State Parks (Lake Wenatchee). The forest was about to be clear-cut and then sold. The land trust was able to put together a local and national coalition to purchase it at a fair market value from the logging company. While we’ve donated to more global conservation groups in the past, we’ve found a lot more meaning by going local.
Learn more: Our Land, Our Water, Our Future | Chelan-Douglas Land Trust (cdlandtrust.org)
Other charities in the category:
Washington Trails Association has done more to create accessibility to nature in this state than any other organization.
Washington State Parks Foundation is a nonprofit that augments the government support for our state parks.
The Arboretum Foundation stewards the park where we went on hundreds of walks when our kids were infants, creating a deep connection to the park.
🎭 Culture and Sports: Studio East Training for the Performing Arts
What is it: Since 1992, Studio East inspires young people to become confident, compassionate, and responsible through training in the art and craft of theater.
What it says about the world we want: Every generation needs to set the tone between art and science. As we both get older, we’ve appreciated art as a balancing force to some of today’s biggest technological ills and an aspect of our lives that engenders introspection.
Why it’s personal: Our oldest daughter aspires to be an actress and Studio East has been an avenue for her to explore that passion.
Learn more: Studio East Training for the Performing Arts.
Other charities in this category:
Adam has been on the board of the Bellevue Arts Museum (BAM), as supporting the arts and local artists in our community makes for a more vibrant Eastside. Unfortunately, BAM hasn’t been able to thrive after the pandemic and we made the tough decision to close the doors to the museum this year.
Theater has been a big part of our lives - both supporting the San Diego arts and Los Angeles arts (where we grew up respectively), we now pass it on and support our local 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle.
Wave Aquatics - A big part of our oldest child’s life is swimming so we support the program that she participates in year-round.
🌍 Global Poverty & Education: Mimis African Charities (MACONA)
What is it: This charity extends a helping hand to youth and children in need, primarily in West Africa.
What it says about the world we want: While much of our giving is local to the PNW, we also look to support friends and colleagues who take a global perspective or have a connection to another part of the world.
Why it’s personal: This charity was featured in the community lounge of a tech conference that Adam was the Co-Lead of this year. A work colleague and his spouse are deeply involved in this charity.
Learn more: Mimi's African Charities
Other charities in this category:
Another discovery from members of Adam’s team is Pencils of Promise, supporting global education.
📰 Free Press & Information: Wikimedia Foundation
What is it: The foundation that supports Wikipedia, the internet’s crowdsourced encyclopedia.
What it says about the world we want: One of the biggest tensions of our time is the benefits vs. harms of technology on our society. Wikipedia is so clearly one of the internet’s greatest triumphs.
Why it’s personal: Out of any of the charities on this list, Wikipedia is the most used by our family.
Learn more: Wikimedia Foundation
Other charities in the category:
We support KUOW, our local public radio
Adam talks about his entire reading habits and approach to quality journalism in My Information Diet.
⚖ Justice: Seattle Holocaust Center for Humanity
What is it: A local organization dedicated to fighting hate in all forms and focused on educating students, teachers, and the public about the dangers of intolerance through the lens of history.
What it says about the world we want: “The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice.” – MLK Jr. encapsulates the side of history we wish to be on. Progress is key to the industry we’ve chosen but it’s equally important we make progress on social justice, tolerance, and civil society in equal step with new tech.
Why it’s personal: A few years ago, a work colleague of ours was taking a civic leave of absence to work with this organization and a few others. We thought it was so cool to see someone in our network lean in deeply to causes, interrupting his busy life in a meaningful way.
Learn more: Holocaust Center for Humanity
Other charities in this category:
This year, we’ve also prioritized the ACLU as we feel the need to ensure important battles being fought in U.S. courts land towards the arc of justice.
The Obama Foundation has a focus on providing support for young changemakers in America.
Trevor Project focuses on suicide prevention for LGBT youth and a coworker of Adam is connected to this cause.
One More Potential Path to Epic: A DAF
For those later in their career who are looking for a more lasting and bigger way of having an impact, we wanted to share one thing that we did as a family a couple years ago: we established the Harmetz Family’s Donor Advised Fund (DAF).
DAF’s can be used for many reasons but our DAF’s purpose is to put money away every year with the goal of being able to make a single, large donation to a charity upon our retirement. We don’t know the organization or cause we wish to support yet, but we were intrigued by the notion of being able to have a singularly large impact vs. ongoing yearly support.
DAF’s can be set up with most financial advisors. Think of it as an investment account where proceeds can only be used for charitable causes. While there is a management fee on the money, there are several advantages to a DAF:
You can transfer unsold stock into them to avoid paying capital gains on profits.
You get to deduct the funds when you put them into the account, not when you spend. So you can add funds during high tax rate years or otherwise arbitrage over the years.
Profits from investments in the account grow tax-free, although can only be used to donate.
For those with matching gift programs via their work, you get matched by your company upon withdrawal/donation, not when you put the money into the DAF.
Wrapping Up
Hopefully this posts helps you get to know us a little better as you learn about what we value and some of the awesome people we’ve met in this world. The point here is to inspire – feel free to leverage this framework for your own plan even if you support different causes or worldviews.
This framework can be used no matter how much you have or want to give and we aren’t nearly so formal as this write-up implies (indeed, the act of writing this post was 10x more organization and synthesis to our giving than we’ve had before). Just get started.
Thank you. Very helpful framework...