Philanthropic Therapy: Can Meaning and Money Mix?
Philanthropic Therapy: Can Meaning and Money Mix?
By Margaret May Damen, CFP, CLU, ChFC
NABBW’s Philanthropy Expert
“Philanthropic Therapy: Can Meaning and Money Mix?
Once again, I was rewarded with an “aha moment” as I experienced George Kinder’s life planning and financial coaching session. The Kinder Institute of Life Planning takes a holistic approach when designing a wealth holder’s financial plan. Holistic to the point that one of the Institute’s participants, CFP Rick Kahler, in Rapid City, South Dakota, is a leading proponent and co-founder of the Healing Money Issues Program.
Kahler and his colleagues at the Financial Therapy Association believe this emerging field of financial therapy, a very sensitive and highly emotional profession, can help clients understand and work through the issues blocking their ability to deal effectively with money and life planning.
All this leads me to the question, could such a concept, under the right circumstances and with properly trained and qualified practitioners, benefit those in the field of giving philanthropic advice to wealth holders? Would there be a safe space for individuals with wealth who are searching for the meaning of their money during their lifetime to openly discuss their fear, hopes, and dreams? Could a dialogue take place that would ethically and emotionally help clients discover and understand their life-stories about money? And in this setting would the dialogue help foster a cultural shift in society’s consciousness that would allow a free flowing and honest conversation as to the good money can do to bring more balance and harmony into the world?
It’s a fact, “Money Makes the World Go ‘Round,” so let’s find a way to get on the merry-go-round and grab the brass ring for the greater good.
Stuart Wilde, author of The Little Money Bible, says, “Money is just a symbol we use to facilitate the gathering of memories and experiences. It assists in interaction with others, and it allows us to come to concepts of honor and integrity, fairness and compassion.”
Is this the meaning of money that so many are looking for in their philanthropic life planning? And if so, is there a way philanthropic therapy can make that happen?
<
Margaret May Damen is Founder of the Institute For Women and Wealth in Lake Worth, Florida, which provides a forum for women to recognize and fulfill their abundant wealth legacy of values and valuables. She is the Planned Giving Consultant to the Kravis Center of the Performing Arts, West Palm Beach, Florida; a strategic leadership consultant for the United Way of Martin County Foundation, Stuart, Florida and serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Board of the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning, Indianapolis IN.
She is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop leader on topics of money, wealth, and women\’s legacy. As a recognized thought-leader and change maker, she has presented papers at the national conferences of the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning, the International Association of Professional Fundraisers and the Association of Healthcare Philanthropic Professionals. Margaret is a member of the Sigma Alpha Iota National Music Fraternity and a classical flutist. She is co-author of “Women, Wealth and Giving: The Virtuous Legacy of the Boom Generation.”
Learn more about Margaret May on her website, Margaret-May.com. To download your copy of The 10 Steps to Being a Virtuous Philanthropist visit her web site InstituteForWomenandWealth.org. If you have questions about how to begin your philanthropic role, send her an email at mmdamen@earthlink.net . Carpe Diem! The Philanthropic Muse
Previously published at http://margaretmaydamen.blogspot.com/2011/11/philanthropic-therapy-can-meaning-and.html
