Don’t “Give Back”…“Invest in OUr Communities” Instead

After more than 20 years of doing extensive pro bono consulting work in the non-profit space, I have grown to become very uncomfortable with the current phrase of choice "giving back" to describe charitable and philanthropic contributions for several reasons:

"Giving Back" is a condescending term that implies:

o A clear hierarchy between donor and recipient
o Recipients don't deserve or haven't earned the support they are receiving
o A lack of rigor in the process to determine which beneficiaries are deserving of support and how best to provide that support for maximum impact.
o That the "gift" comes with no clear expectations, targets, measurement, or evaluation of impact.

Instead, I strongly prefer that instead we "invest in our communities":

o Establishing a collaborative partnership between "investor" and "investee" to work together to achieve the desired impact
o Respecting the beneficiaries who were chosen because they are deserving and worthy of investment
o Applying rigorous objective processes to identify issues, beneficiaries and opportunities for maximum impact
o With clearly defined expectations, targets, metrics, evaluation systems and appropriate follow up action to achieve the desired impact.

I find that this simple...but powerful...change in phrasing makes a huge impact in establishing a more constructive mind set, clearly defined expectations, collaborative working relationships, appropriate measurement and monitoring systems and followup action that is much more likely to deliver substantial impact than a "giving back" mindset does.