Time, Treasure and Talent

By Tim Jackson on December 8th, 2009 | Posted in Best Practices, Venture Capital | 6 Comments »

All of us at Tech Capital are very involved in supporting charitable activities in our community. As a result, I am often asked for advice by those who are trying to figure out a strategy for their charitable giving. Let me share my thoughts on this topic:

  1. Charitable giving is about more than writing cheques. The gifts we can contribute are often described as the “three Ts” being Time, Treasure and Talent. In Givingthinking about your contributions I think you should be giving all three. That doesn’t mean you have to do all for each entity you support. In some cases I am very involved with organizations, sitting on the board, volunteering time at events and providing financial support. In some instances I just provide financial assistance or in other cases will provide a skill set to help with an issue without  providing financial assistance. Evaluate how much you think you can give for each of the Ts and allocate accordingly.
  2. When it comes to financial contributions I am often asked “how much should I be giving”? There is no easy answer to this question but I do think a general guideline should be that your giving should “hurt” a bit. What I mean by that is I encourage you to give to the point where you have to make a small sacrifice personally in order to make your financial contributions. This will be a different level for everyone. For some it will be $100 a year for others $50,000 a year. My point is that while it is different for everyone you should know when you hit it.
  3. Be strategic about your giving – balancing ongoing support with being able to respond to new requests. I have several core organizations I support each year because I believe in their mandate but I leave some room each year for “one off” situations that come up.
  4. If you are unsure where to start, you may want to chat with some friends and decide collectively to support a charity or project. This is the way groups like SVPI work (www.svpi.org). Jacqui Murphy and I attended the SVPI annual conference this year and hope to have a Waterloo Region branch approved at their 2010 annual conference.

Stay tuned for some thoughts on how you can approach charitable giving in the same way we approach venture capital investing…


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6 Responses to “Time, Treasure and Talent”

  1. Joseph Says:
    December 8th, 2009 at 9:58 am

    Something I’ve always wondered: when someone wants to join an SVPI chapter, they have to commit to a specific donation level. Is that level dictated by SVPI or is it decided on a per-chapter basis?

    I agree – an SVPI chapter locally would be incredible to have.

  2. Tweets that mention Time, Treasure and Talent — Tech Capital Partners Blog -- Topsy.com Says:
    December 8th, 2009 at 10:00 am

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Joseph Fung and Tech Capital, Peter Frisella. Peter Frisella said: RT @techcapital: New blog post by @timothyjackson "Time, Treasure and Talent" http://bit.ly/5QNbdP [...]

  3. uberVU - social comments Says:
    December 8th, 2009 at 10:34 am

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

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  4. Jacqui Says:
    December 8th, 2009 at 3:49 pm

    Joseph – Good question. We’re in the process of figuring out all of the nuances associated with starting an SVPI chapter. We will definitely circle back to you once we finalize what we’ll be doing locally.

    Tim – When you and I had this conversation a few years back I remember you suggesting “starting” with an annual contribution of 1% of your income. The key lesson that I took away from this suggestion was to think strategically about charitable giving. Some people may think that 1% is a huge number, others may think it is small. Regardless, it sets a target amount at the beginning of the year and allows you to be proactive about giving (when, where, how much) vs. waiting for someone to ask you to give.

    I think a lot of people are thinking about ways they can help – especially at this time of year. Thanks for the post.

  5. Rob Lane Says:
    December 8th, 2009 at 7:27 pm

    Tim,

    As I have come to expect from you, this is a great post. I completely agree with all your points but especially point 2). How much to give is always a challenge but you hit the nail on the head. Give enough where you feel it, can be $100 or $1M and often it is the value of time. Many charities/non profits could never “afford” to hire your skill set so giving your time is of great value.

    Thanks,
    Rob

  6. Philanthropic Giving vs. Venture Capital — Tech Capital Partners Blog Says:
    December 11th, 2009 at 8:04 am

    [...] Time, Treasure and Talent [...]

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