Think Again on Policy

Lesley Grady, senior vice president of Community Partnerships, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta

If you volunteer with the sick and have never thought about public funding for medical research…

If you give food to local pantries and never questioned why people are hungry…

If you plan to grow your philanthropy as you grow your income and don’t monitor giving and taxation regulations…

Think again.

No matter how much we give to or care about the causes that are dear to us, if we don’t pay attention to the policy — and politics — that help or harm these causes, we have stopped short of the impact we can achieve.

Under the Gold Dome and in Washington, representatives are making decisions and administrators are developing procedures that determine critical resources for our families and communities. The issues are complicated and prioritizing is tough. So it’s up to us to become educated and then to proactively define and frame our needs and desires around the causes that we care most about.

We can’t do this if we divorce our philanthropy from the rest of our lives. For philanthropy to thrive it needs a caring public, engaged in an interactive, dynamic and persistent relationship with one another and with our public leaders. The facts bear this out: politically active communities bring higher alertness to social needs and the processes of governance and, over time, raise awareness that leads to positive change.

A healthy region is characterized by a broad continuum of attitudes and actions that make a difference in the civic life of our communities. Engaging through volunteerism, leadership, education, voting and advocacy is important work that requires all of us.

Think again…and then act.