A Heart For A Child

Just completed my first course at Philanthropy University, an initiative of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. I started with Leadership: Ten Rules for Impact & Meaning.

The assignments for this course were especially thoughtful & thought-provoking. For my final assignment, I developed one of my ideas around identity as a fundraising strategy. It turns out that asking an identity question (Are you a donor?) is far more effective than asking if someone plans to take a related action (Are you going to donate to charity on #GivingTuesday?)

In the US, our primary identity is our occupation, which ties to our social class, education & income. Most Americans have misconceptions about philanthropy. I wanted to show that anyone, of any age, gender, race, ethnicity or occupation, can be a sustainer donor. I also wanted to show the human connection of my cause. And I wanted simple captions & a soundtrack that built suspense slowly.

Specifically, I wanted the music to remind the audience of childhood, to support the theme of many diverse people & to ending in a perfect harmonic cadence. Thank you, Mr. Bach; thank you piano lessons.

I created an imaginary INGO, working with children around the world. This is a rough cut, using stock photos, but I hope you enjoy it.