In this module, you will learn about selecting a specific social issue area on which to focus your giving. The social issue you select will guide your individual giving action plan, aka, your IGAP, as well as your nonprofit analysis. It's important to note that you can continue to apply the radar framework in any of your future giving efforts. And even though you are honing in on one specific issue for our course throughout your giving life, you will likely focus your philanthropy on many different social issues. As I mentioned earlier, our giving radar framework that we will use, begins with reflection. In selecting an issue, please focus on a social issue that you are passionate about addressing. This passion is what will fuel your engagement beyond your initial gift. The reasons for your interest in a particular issue can be highly personal. Perhaps you have family members who are in the military, who benefited from strong veterans services, or healthcare. Or maybe you had an incredible mentoring experience when you were in Junior High, and you want to ensure that other students can benefit from the same type of counsel and companionship. Other reasons might govern your issue selection as well. Perhaps you want to give to a specific community or country where your dollars will have what you feel is greater purchasing power and thus potentially greater leverage. Perhaps you feel that environmental issues are chronically underfunded relative to other causes and you want to help be one of the people who closes that funding gap. Whatever your reasons, though, keep in mind that this process is about balancing your personal interest with a clear public need. That is the marriage of reflection and strategy that will guide you on your giving journey, so let's get started right now. First, let's discuss what a social issue entails and why focusing on just one highly specified area can actually enhance the impact of your philanthropy. You might begin by identifying a broad issue that describes a subset of social problems and goals. There is no pre-agreed-upon list of issue areas, but you will often hear people reference these broad across the globe problems to tackle. Such as the environment or education or international development, healthcare, arts and culture just to name a very few out of the countless social issues that need our resources. As you can see by just these few examples, an issue area is generally quite broad. However, there are many reasons why it can be helpful to choose an issue area to help you focus your philanthropic actions. First, concentrating on a specific issue allows you to focus your research process and to build expertise. For example, if you choose education as your issue, you can learn about the education system's pressing needs, and the root causes of those needs, by researching online. Talking to experts, thought leaders, educators. Meeting with organizations in your community, members of the school board, local community college lecturers. This knowledge is what will then allow you to better understand the types of giving, organizations, and strategies that you believe will be the most valuable. Second, as you continue in your research and nonprofit assessment process, you will compare organizations across a number of different characteristics. It is much easier to compare organizations that are working within a given issue area, which is, of course, the apples to apples argument. Third, as you strive to address an issue that you are personally passionate about. You will likely be driven to spend more time, and more energy in your philanthropy than merely clicking the Donate Now button or writing a check. Plus, everything you do and every ounce of knowledge that you glean builds on itself, and enables you ultimately to have a greater impact in a specific field over time. One key point to remember, we do not necessarily have a shared notion on every count of what is good for society, either in a particular field, or among the students in our MOOC. What some see as critical to furthering humankind, others may see as detrimental. Some philanthropy works in collaboration and some philanthropy strives towards opposition. Philanthropic goals are established by the giver's individual values. We all know that one of the most beautiful things about philanthropy is its pluralism, is the fact that we as individuals get to express our personal values through our generosity. Our MOOC's purpose is not to dictate through example what any of you should or should not fund. But rather to empower all of you to be more strategic in your giving, and to significantly improve our world in the way that you uniquely can do. So, how do you select a social issue? It's important to first reflect on your personal values, motivations and passions for giving. While selecting a social issue can be deeply personal, I have found the following questions useful in beginning to understand where it is you want to focus your philanthropic energies. Even if you already have a broad issue area or even a specific social issue in mind, I encourage you to respond to the following questions in your workbook. Are there certain people or a target population that you want to help? This question may inform geographic constraints such as supporting people within the community where you or your relatives live or work. Perhaps you want to focus on a certain demographic like pre-K or the elderly. When you hear of local, national and world events, what moves you? What troubles you the most and why? Do these reactions stem from a professional concern and intellectual interest? An emotional response, or a personal connection? Finally, looking at the heart and mind connection, is there a particular sweet spot where your personal passions intersect with societies most pressing needs? I would recommend that you write down your answers to all of these questions. Write them down in your workbooks. As you see key words or phrases that resonate with you, circle them, build from them. One of the tricks that I use in my own giving, when I am addressing these questions, which I like to do year after year. To ensure that I'm still staying on track in terms of what fuels me the most and what provides the most good for society is asking why. So ask yourself why at least three times to get to the root of your motivations and goals. If you like another example, our case study speaker in the next video, will walk us through his own process, for selecting his issue area. Your homework for this week will be to engage in the social issue selection process and ultimately choose the specific issue you want to explore for the rest of our time together. For example, if I choose healthcare as my issue area, I might choose to focus on the specific problem of delivering quality care within a local hospital emergency department. That hypothetical is actually a reality in my beloved's and my philanthropy. Or, on the other hand, we might have chosen to focus on the problem of childhood obesity in a specific school district instead. In both cases, there is prevention of greater medical problems that we are addressing while simultaneously meeting immediate needs. But I encourage you to look at the accompanying homework handout for more suggestions to guide you on your journey.
