🌎 Our Donations and Most Meaningful Causes: 2022 Edition
Clarifying what we value in the world through our charitable giving
When I graduated from college, I remember being 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 I 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 big things my family has learned about our charity as we intuit our way through this:
🤗 Ideas come from personal connections. Our donations say a lot about who we care about, as often it’s 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 I 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. I used to find it hard to talk about donations, as there is a bit of 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.
The month of October is GIVE month at Microsoft, a time to encourage everyone to use their matching gift benefits and share stories about giving with one another. In that spirit, here are a few causes that we give to and the Why and Who behind them.
Our Biggest Causes
I can’t think of a 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: Immunomomentum
What is it: Immunomomentum funds immunotherapy research at Seattle Children’s Hospital as an alternative to chemotherapy to treat childhood cancers. Chemotherapy in children can be effective against cancer but it leaves lasting negative outcomes and shortens lifespans when used on young children.
What it says about the world we want: Technology can still have an extremely positive role to play in our society and a world without childhood cancer is a world worth fighting for. There is something uniquely inspiring about championing the needs of the most vulnerable youth and families.
Why it’s personal: This week, shortly before I wrote this, our oldest daughter went to a parkour class with one of her best friends, who is an eight-year-old cancer survivor. She’s healthy and has been in remission for four years now (yay!) but the lasting impact of chemotherapy on her body will take a toll as she ages. Her mother is the founder and sponsor of Immunomomentum and it is supporting tireless warriors like her that have given us a deeper meaning in our giving.
Learn more: https:///www.immunomomentum.com
Other charities in this category:
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.
🎓 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 Helen and I 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.
I was also inspired by someone on my team to contribute to a basket of charities that support fostering digital skills, including the National Center for Women and IT, the Computer Science Teacher’s Association, the National 4-H Council, and Code.org.
Another discovery from members of my team is Pencils of Promise, supporting global 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.
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.
Our oldest daughter made her first donation of her life from her allowance to Sierra Club. She was inspired to support “trees.”
📰 Free Press: KUOW
What is it: Our local public radio
What it says about the world we want: Living in a society with the free flow of high-quality news and information is a privilege. Most people in the world today do not enjoy this privilege and it’s worth fighting and protecting. Recent events have made this all the more important.
Why it’s personal: KUOW was one of our first charities that had such a clear cause and effect to the giving. We experienced the collective benefit of giving every morning and afternoon on our commute (back when that was a thing!). KUOW makes us smarter and so it’s a gift of gratitude most of all.
Learn more: KUOW
Other charities in the category:
We also contributed to a scholarship for aspiring journalists that work on the Daily Bruin newspaper at UCLA (Helen was a staff member on the Daily Bruin and I was involved in student politics while on campus).
We also support the Wikimedia Foundation, which helps run Wikipedia.
I talked about my entire reading habits and approach to quality journalism in My Information Diet.
🎭 Culture: 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 youngest 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:
We are personal friends with board members of the Bellevue Arts Museum (BAM) and attend their gala every Summer.
Helen was involved with the board of the Seattle Rep Theater back in business school and we continue to support their theater even as we don’t have time to be season ticket holders any longer.
My dad has always been interested in the performing arts and he and my mom are connected to local San Diego theater giving. Some have close associations with the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle, so we support that theater’s community programs.
Someone on my team sponsored a Giving event this year for the Little Masters Club, which supports local Chinese Culture in the Eastside of Puget Sound. Exploring donations to local cultural communities is something we want to investigate more for 2023 as well.
⚖ 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 work colleague of mine was taking a civic leave of absence to work with this organization and a few others. I thought it was so cool to see someone in my 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.
Someone on my team helped me discover the charity Operation Underground Railroad, which specializes in rescuing children from human trafficking.
🆘 Safety Net: Mary’s Place
What is it: Mary’s Place provides shelters and services to help women, children, and families on their journey out of homelessness.
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: Mary’s Place has long been a favorite charity in many Microsoft Giving campaign events during October and it was via those events that Helen and I were both exposed to the organization.
Learn more: Mary's Place
Other charities in this category:
Hopelink and The Sophia Way are two other similar medium-sized charities in this space that we support.
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.
🚨 Crisis Response: Ukraine 1K Project
What is it: The 1K project is a novel new form of charitable giving that prioritizes direct cash transfer to those in need. Donors are matched with vetted recipients and money is transferred through Zelle or other financial systems directly. This year, the focus was on providing relief to Ukrainians, especially women with children, who were displaced by the war.
What it says about the world we want: Imagine a world where capital can flow extremely efficiently to those in need from the current crisis of the day. Direct transfer giving is a novel and new form of charity that shows promise for efficiency and speed.
Why it’s personal: The war in Ukraine affected us deeply this year, with many of Helen’s friends and family directly impacted and from Ukraine.
Learn more: https://www.1kproject.org/
Other charities in this category: Rural emergency services play an especially critical role in a large part of the United States, outside major cities. Lake Wenatchee Fire & Rescue is one that we support given our connection to the area.
👩 Women Empowerment: Society of Women Engineers
What is it: SWE is a famous organization, especially on college campuses, for giving a voice to women engineers and a conduit for leadership opportunities.
What it says about the world we want: Continued progress on workplace equality for women will be one of the top defining legacies that our time in history leaves upon the world. Not only is it a critical form of equality, but the empowered perspectives of women are sorely needed to navigate tech’s impact on the world.
Why we give: I remember vividly a conversation with my mom about how she wished that more opportunities than nursing and teaching were available to her when she started her career. It wasn’t fair then and even with major progress, it still isn’t. For SWE in particular, I have an awesome member of my team who has long been a leader in the SWE organization.
Learn more: Society of Women Engineers (swe.org)
Other charities in this category:
Girls Who Code is building a pipeline of future female engineers.
We discovered a great project called Vital Voices this year that champions the unique impact and role that women leaders can have on global problems.
We also had a chance to support a specific project that helps educate girls in Turkey thanks to a team member who highlighted 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
I hope you got 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.