Learning to Give, Philanthropy education resources that teach giving and civic engagement

Objectives:

• To learn the process of information gathering and community assessment by asking questions in the interview process
• To give participants an opportunity to meet a community leader/trustee

Activity Theme:

“My volunteering is a requisite of the heart. With each hand I hold, story I hear, memory I share and smile I offer, I gain a hopeful energy — the Power of the Human Spirit in Action. I have learned that the hope you give others, you also give to yourself.”

~ Celine McNicholas, Champions of Caring ’97, West Chester East High School, Pennsylvania

The facilitator writes L I S T E N on a flip chart or blackboard vertically. The following is written beside each letter as facilitator tells participants that:

L — Listening and Leadership
I — Invites
S — Service
T — to the
E — Entire
N — Nation.

Today, we are listening to leaders who serve our community/ organization.

 

Activity:

The facilitator gives a profile of a community trustee/leader (United Way Director, Executive Director of the organization, City Council member, etc.) to each participant at the beginning of the session and asks that they read the profile. After about 5 minutes, the facilitator directs a group brainstorming session concerning the topics that might be addressed with the interviewee. The facilitator lists the topics on newsprint. Group should generate as many topics as possible but topics need to be relevant to the organization or community the leader represents.

The facilitator numbers off participants into pairs and gives each pair a notepad and pencil. The pairs decide which of the topics they will be responsible for by developing three (3) questions which are relevant to the topic: Examples:

1. What has the leader learned about a specific community need?
2. What must happen in the community or organization to address the need?
3. What resources does the interviewee have to address the need and what additional resources are needed?
4. What worked well in the community when addressing a need?
5. What are the assets of this community or those things that add to the quality of life in this community?

When the guest arrives, the participants should seat themselves in a semicircle around the inter¬viewee. Each pair will ask the most significant of their three questions. (If time allows, pairs may ask the second and third questions.) The facilitator needs to record the answers to the question, using flipcharts or recording the answers. (Ask the interviewee if there is an objection to being recorded before doing so.) After the questions have been answered, one of the participants should be designated to thank the interviewee and explain the next steps they will follow in the information-gathering phase.

 

Processing:

The facilitator draws the following chart on flipchart paper.

• First Sheet put the title: Background information the group needs to know
• Second Sheet put the title: Information the group can use immediately
• Third Sheet put the title: Information the group will use at a later date

The participants should begin to place the interviewee’s responses under the correct title. If there are several responses the participants think need to be in two places or if there are some that the group cannot reach a decision about, the facilitator should address those when the group determines how it wants to use the information gained:

1. To develop a community or organization project which addresses the need
2. To share the information with others in the organization or community
3. To address the need individually, not as a group

The participants need to decide how they will use the information they have gathered. Have the groups reach a decision on how:

• To develop a community or organization project which addresses the need?
• To share the information with others in the organization or community?
• To address the need individually, not as a group