Episode 89: Patriotic Philanthropy - Giving to Your Country, State, City

Welcome to another edition of "Around with Randall", your weekly podcast for making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett.

It's wonderful to have you again here with me, Randall, on "Around with Randall." Today we're going to talk about, in the spirit of Independence Day, a concept that in philanthropy has been developing in the last maybe 10 to 15 years as a concept, but in principle has been a law around for a lot longer. And that's the idea of patriotic philanthropy. And we need to give credit to the person that's kind of coined the phrase, and then his actions have more than justified the connection to it. And that's David Rubinstein who, a Duke graduate, undergrad, University Chicago lawyer worked in the White House at age 27, now in his mid 70s, started an equity firm called the Carlisle Group that has made him a billionaire.

Many years ago he, David Rubinstein, felt the responsibility in giving back and giving towards the idea of what his country has meant to him and what it means to many other people, and so he started doing things that were, I'm not sure I'd call it unusual but I would say really heightened the concept that he eventually coined patriotic philanthropy. During an earthquake when the Washington Monument was damaged he gave millions of dollars and said I'll be willing to pay for it myself we've got to get this done. He has given tens of millions of dollars to the Holocaust Museum. He has generated immense amount of interest in the different museums along the mind or the The Monuments along the Corridor in Washington where you find the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson, and all of those. He has been involved with various projects being on the board at things like the Kennedy Center, but really he began to talk in about 10 years ago maybe a little bit less about this concept in a much more voracious thought process about what it means to give back to your country.

In one way he was speaking from, I think as he talks about it, one of the Great comments or or speeches ever given and I will give a little bit of uh credit to Ted Sorensen, a fine Nebraskan. But he wrote a great deal of the speech that John F Kennedy gave at his inaugural when the question was asked or comment made ask not what you do you can what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country, and that inspiration has given David Rubinstein a platform to say there are ways that we can be philanthropic and elevate the opportunity of recognizing what our history is in America, and maybe things that happened overseas that affected or will affect our country and its citizens. One of my favorite things that he did was, is, he gave an immense amount of resources to get the panda or pandas and its sanctuary in the Washington National Zoo and that made a difference for the ongoing opportunities that many Americans enjoy in seeing the pandas in America. Obviously not they're not from here, they're from China, so it's a wonderful opportunity to see something that's very unique. Obviously incredibly cute.

This idea of patriotic philanthropy though doesn't start with David Rubinstein. I think he's coined kind of the concept. Let me give you some examples of patriotic philanthropy going back how long ago? The Revolutionary War. People made donations to better the troops. Maybe it was an individual farmer near Valley Forge who gave food to help the quartered soldiers during those cold Winters, it buying bonds during Wars and there were Bond drives of World War I, and two things of that nature even the kids and you see films today. I think sometimes we're lost in some of the the the understanding but in World War II they were asking kids to go around into garbage cans and other things to collect metal and that was their contribution. But I think we have other examples.

So let's start with maybe some national parks. In 1929 the estate of of Hayward Kendall donated 430 acres that eventually became Muir Woods in California National Park. There have been many other examples of things of that nature how about going back into the middle part of the 19th century. The Smithsonian, well that grew out of a donation from that family towards the gift on the, to the United States. And now you have the Smithsonian Institute with all of the museums along Capital that that Waterway and the walkway right in the middle of the nation's capital in front of the capitol. I think about things like land trusts. Ted Turner has spent a great number of years purchasing land to put them in land trusts so they wouldn't be developed Farmland, acreages, things of that nature. Recently we've had a huge effort in philanthropic philanthropy with veterans coming back from recent Wars, Afghanistan or Iraq or wherever trouble may lie, and they've come back with mental challenges, physical challenges and non-profit organizations have been stood up to support them with immense donations whether it's building a house or providing services or whether it's purchasing a car that runs a little or operates a little bit differently, all based on that kind of philanthropic feeling.

How about after 9-11 and the immense amount of money that was given to help not only create a monument but to help people. And now you have organizations as 911 survivors in particular, those First Responders, doing remarkable things in those crazy days following needing assistance, and they're building them homes in retirement areas so that they can live life and that's in partnership. In some ways I hear or see the idea of Wounded Warriors doing this similar type things.

If we look at kind of the benefits at a more localized level, so I think of here in Nebraska J. Sterling Morgan who you may look at and probably like I don't know is that John Pierpont Morgan no no that's the banker in New York. Julius Sterling Morgan founder of Arbor Day in 1885 I believe it was, he said we're going to take a day off from his successful businesses and we're going to have people plant trees and that became the first Arbor Day. And he ended up giving his, with his children, giving his property to become Arbor Day Farm down in Nebraska City and now it's a sanctuary for research and efforts to, in partnership with its foundation, to push the planting of trees around the world. I think of here in Omaha the private public partnership that I've written about regarding the VA hospital where Omaha realized that it needed an update to its and then actually new VA hospital. But we were so far down the list and to be candid working with government's not easy, so the local philanthropic Community started raising money and they were able to build it in a shorter period of time, under budget, and it was the first public-private partnership for a VA Hospital done through philanthropy to take care of those who fought for our freedom.

Even things as simple as the Red Cross and when there are parts of our country in great Strife from a hurricane or other disaster the Red Cross and those who give step into that breach because they want their citizenry to be whole and to to have opportunities to recover. One of the ones we don't talk a lot about in philanthropy comes from the military academies, in particular the the big three: Air Force, Army West Point United States Military Academy, and the Naval Academy, but also the Coast Guard is they now have foundations. And remember in all four of those instances the government's paying for all of it. That they educate young men and women with the commitment that they will serve a period of time in our military at a minimum and then hopefully longer so that that's their payback, but it's funded by the government. But philanthropy has developed into these service academies to give extra experiences and long-term care and Emergency Services.

How do we make the experience of serving in the military better? And maybe the one that I think of that's that's most important, at least to me, is I watched Tom Hanks put together the fundraising efforts and a number of other people as well but I think it was a natural face because of his work whether it was Saving Private Ryan or the work that went into supporting he's done some historic things regarding space when he knew from Earth to the Moon and HBO series, Band of Brothers in support of that the World War II Memorial one of our latest memorials. I think you could add to that also the memorial just before that from Martin Luther King Jr.

All of these are things that happen because of patriotism. And patriotism really is defined as the understanding and appreciating and and embracing the government that you are supporting. For us, it's federal government, and it's history, it's local government whether it's state or or City, and the types of environments and democracy in our case that we want. This is not to say it's perfect. It's not a perfect union.

There are a million challenges but the greatness that comes from patriotism and wanting to make a difference is aligned with this idea which I talk about constantly of the definition of philanthropy, love of mankind. And this is just a little more narrow. It's not just love of mankind, it's loving of my country, loving of its history, loving of the ability to make that a living breathing example, and helping the citizenry when I can.

So what does that mean for you? the Tactical. Our communities are made up of patriotic opportunities certainly you may have to stretch but there are people who want their community, their sense of giving back to be about the Next Generation. That people can understand what we've been through and value it's learned lessons for the future, so if you're in education, if your university has a long standing in the community investment. In certain community, parts of your community, parts of the city, Town, wherever you're located, there may be a kind of a patriotic feel. If you're in health care we know that health care is at the forefront of so many conversations. How do we take that and tie that to the idea of what Florence Nightingale started or what what you heard and saw and read about?

If you follow the Revolutionary War and people coming out of houses to take care of injured soldiers you know there's the movie, The Patriot, with, that encapsulates kind of the Civil War. Mel Gibson stars in it and the the start of it is he lost his house, become a hospital during a battle. There's lots of ways of looking at patriotism and I think the tactical piece here is is that to steal from a little bit from David Rubin is not asking what's in it for me, with my society, my culture, my city, my government, what is it that I can do to make my community a better place? That's what Ted Swordson wrote, John F Kennedy spoke of in January of 1961. Ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country.

Finding people who want a better community is the essence of what we do in terms of pipeline development, in terms of relationship-building, in terms of those introductions. Can you find people who want something bigger? To be on your board? And because they naturally attract other people like themselves, can you get people to see the value that your organization has in building a better community? Because they'll also introduce and attract people that can help you do the same. Patriotic philanthropy isn't just about the World War II museum or the Holocaust or the Smithsonian, certainly encompasses them. I think it actually is larger than that. I think it's the ability to want to learn from the past and make a better tomorrow, and I can't imagine a better connection than that to the overall thought of fundraising and philanthropy as a whole.

the Declaration of Independence is an amazing document that gave us a start in 1776 in the hot summer in Philadelphia. it allowed us the opportunity, really, amongst the first times in history to write down that we have freedoms. but with those freedoms, and I think David Rubinstein says this well, we have responsibilities. How can you help make your community a better place, small or big? It's the effort and the contribution that counts. As we celebrate, gosh we're only a couple years away from 250 years since the signing of that glorious document, 52 people I believe signed on that weekend, what can you do? Who can you find that's going to make your part of the community stronger and better? It's a great way to look at, hopefully with a little bit of a positive lens, the value that we all can give backD

Don't forget to check out the blogs, writing two or three a week, 90 second reads. Don't want to push it any more than that. Some interesting things have been said here. Recently I wrote something about planned giving and some of the disasters what can you learn from it. Check that out at HallettPhilanthropy.com/blogs, and of course if you're listening to this on Downcast or Apple or iHeartRadio or wherever, leave a review. Leave whatever stars are appropriate. Forward it to someone. Tell them about it. If it can be helpful, and of course if you want to communicate with me all you have to do is email me at Hallett... Randall@hallettphilanthropy.com. It's a great profession that we're in and it's a great time of the year to remember how important philanthropy can be. And I hope that you'll take this opportunity to take a moment or two and realize the great true blessings we have for being in this country, being born here or coming here, and not take it for granted. It's not perfect but as Winston Churchill eluded, it's the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried. Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, then there are those who wondered what happened. Be people who make things happen for your community, for those who are wondering what happened, and your community and our country will be a better place. I thank you for your time today. Appreciate you as always, taking a few minutes to listen in, create some hopefully some creative thought, give you something to take with you back into your professional life. I'll look forward to seeing you next time right back here on "Around with Randall". Don't forget make it a great day.