Black Philanthropy Journal Blog

Meet NGAAP - Next Generation of African American Philanthropists

2007-02-02T09:44:00.000-05:00

by AMED
I am back. I know I've been gone for a minute but again, I am back!

I wanted to introduce you all to a new group in Raleigh, NC. Well, honestly they aren't new but they are doing great things. The group is called NGAAP - Next Generation of African American Philanthropist. I am very familiar with the group. Some of my friends are the founders of the group. Darryl Lester and Athan Lindsay are two very inspiring brothers. They both have worked in main stream philanthropy and they both now have visions of giving the everyday African American community an avenue to give. Over the last 3 years Darryl and Athan have helped several groups form Giving Circles. Giving Circles are groups of people that come together with their Time, Talents, and Treasures to fund and assist grass roots African American organizations. Check out this Video.

Link: www.ngaapfund.org

Dr. Emmett Carson visits Winston-Salem, NC

2006-09-14T06:43:00.000-05:00

Today I am going to Winston-Salem State University to attend a conference. The keynote speaker for the conference will be Emmett Carson. I hope to gain alot of knowledge and insite on how he sees the state of black philanthropy in the US and in the world. The event is being sponsored by the Black Philanthropy Initiative of the Winston-Salem Foundation. One of the goals of this initiative is to increase the involvement of the Black community in the distribution of charitable funds. ( http://www.wsfoundation.org/index.php?id=36 )

I am looking forward to hearing Emmett Carsons thoughts.

I will be back later to post my follow up notes and thoughts.

The Making of "A Legacy of Tradition" (ALOT)..an All African American Male Giving Circle

2006-09-05T07:05:00.000-05:00

I really consider myself an educated person, but if you had asked me four years ago "What is Black Philanthropy?" or "What is a Giving Circle?" I would not have had an answer for you. I knew what a philanthropist was but I always thought of folks like Bill Gates, Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, and other MILLIONAIRE people. I never saw or thought about philanthropists like Thomas Cannon. (Who is Thomas Cannon? I'll tell you later.) We all tend to think that if we aren't giving Millions$$ that we aren't philanthropist. I have learned that philanthropy is not all about money, its about giving of what you have to better your situation or the situation of others.

I was fortunate enough to meet a group of folks that eat, live, and breath "Helping Others". These friends of mine work very hard to make this world a better place. The things they do might not be on a WORLD scale but its the small things that get done that propel us to bigger things. The mechanism that I am seeing them use is called a Giving Circle. Giving Circles are organized groups of people that come together to pool their time, talents, and treasures. By pooling their time, talent, and treasure, they find ways to support different causes that may need help in working on those causes.

Once I found out what Giving Circles (http://www.givingforum.org/givingcircles/index.html) were, I really wanted to learn more about them. I wanted to get involved and learn about the supply side of philanthropy. Giving Circles fund other groups and organizations. In a way I see them as Foundations for the ordinary man. It gives ordinary people the chance to learn and act as funders for different nonprofit organizations. The group that spurred my interest was a group started by a couple of my friends, Darrly Lester and Athan Lindsay. The group is Next Generation of African American Philanthropist or NGAAP (http://www.ngaapfund.org) . This group is located in Raleigh, NC and they are really doing good things. Last year they completed their first round of grants. They awarded $11,000 to local grassroots non-profit organization in the Raleigh-Durham area.

I really wanted to join NGAAP but felt that they were really deep into their learning and process. Fortunately, my friend Darryl Lester had a desire to start an all African American Male Giving Circle, one of the first of its kind. I jumped in with both feet. Our group is called "A Legacy of Tradition" (ALOT). Right now we are composed of about 20 brothers who have the desire to learn and to give. We are very early in our process and I am very excited about getting more and more educated on the supply side of philanthropy.

My goal is to use this blog thread to keep everyone informed while we are on our journey to help others. I guess through my learning, my own definition of philanthropy had changed somewhat. I see it as being organized in your giving of your time, talent, and treasure but also being open to leverage relationships to create a greater good for your community and for the world. Its the small things!

I almost forgot. Who was Thomas Cannon? Well, he was a self-described "poor man's philanthropist." One of his quotes touched me more than anything when he said " We're supposed to love God and to love like God and we choose every day how we'll do that." I take that quote to heart. I ask you, how do you love like God? It's not all about money. Do you give your time? Do you give your god given talents to help others? Go check out his life story. (Click the image!)

Welcome to BlackPhilanthropyJournal.com Blog

2006-09-04T10:10:00.000-05:00

Black Philanthropy Journal thanks you for visiting our Blog dedicated to Philanthropy in the African American community. BlackPhilanthropyJournal.com is a new ezine that launched in Oct. 2006. The ezine is completely dedicated to the promotion and upliftment of philanthropy in the African American community.

Please visit each day and give us your thoughts and notes on events happening in Black Philanthropy or visit our website www.BlackPhilanthropyJournal.com.

Antoine Medley
Editor in Chief