Inspiring Tomorrow’s Philanthropists

The Atlantic Philanthropies Hosts ‘Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work’ Day 24 Apr 2008.

April 24, 2008 — New York.  The sons and daughters of Atlantic Philanthropies’ staff convened in the New York office today to learn about the organization and the various professional roles that exist within it.

The kids learned about the organizations supported by the Foundation and spent time talking to the different functions that make the office run and provide funding to grantees who are making changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people.  Visiting sons and daughters sat down with the Ageing Programme early in the day to learn about what motivates the programme’s grantmaking.

Chloe Cohen recalled one tenet of the programme’s civic engagement strategy: “Older people have wisdom and are good to learn from,” she said.

The Ageing Programme’s civic engagement strategy aims to expand the number, visibility, diversity and range of opportunities for older adults in volunteerism, employment and lifelong learning. The kids discussed the value of philanthropy and learned about Atlantic’s belief in “giving while living,” which has motivated the Foundation to spend out its remaining $4 billion endowment by 2016.

Learning about The Atlantic Philanthropies, its grantees and the people who work for the organization inspired the kids to think about how they themselves would invest in social change. Eyal Yerushalmi, an associate with the Disadvantaged Children & Youth Programme, asked what each of the kids would do with $1 million. Bryce Cohen was interested in giving charitable aid to disadvantaged youth, while his sister Chloe said she would invest in environmentalism and animal rights. Their brother Devon expressed an interest in funding cancer research “since we haven’t found a cure yet.” Sarah Rittgers would like to fund the provision of mosquito nets to prevent malaria in Africa, and Marquis Hughes said he would invest in rebuilding New Orleans “to make their world much happier than before.”

Participating in ‘Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work’ Day is a valuable way to expose youth to the variety of professions available and also gives them an opportunity to ask real questions to people in different professional roles. For Atlantic, it is valuable to expose our sons and daughters to the motivation, process and functions that enable the Foundation to identify and provide funding to grantees. With this knowledge and following their own inspiration, our sons and daughters might come to be tomorrow’s philanthropists.