// Giving Goals Revisited//

Identify how you have achieved/demonstrated a commitment to your short-term (18 months since last September) and long-term goals for giving. Describe the steps you took to be successful. Identify and explain the barriers that you had to overcome or that obstructed your success. Were they financial, physical, social/emotional, technical, cultural, and/or political? Finally, how did AU support you in achieving your goals for giving?

                              Last September, as a new addition to the Frederick Douglass Distinguished Scholars Program Class of 2016, I made a list of short term and long term goals for myself. Inspired by Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen’s book, Giving 2.0, I decided to make my goals “giving-specific.” So for those who do not remember the goals I planned out for the next 18 months, here’s a reminder:

                              “In the next 18 months I plan to attend the Young People’s Conference in Brazil  with other members of the church and give by spreading the word of God to people there who have not had the opportunity to experience a life of Christ. Other ways I plan to give are connected to my involvement in the Frederick Douglass Distinguished Scholars program here at American University. As part of the FDDS program, I have the opportunity to participate and contribute to projects involving the Smithsonian National Museum for African American History and Culture as well as serving on the board for Scholars 4 Progress.”

                              Since then, I decided not to attend the Young People’s Conference in Brazil this year. I no longer felt that I was prepared enough to go internationally and preach the gospel. I know the Bible speaks of being “ready in season and out of season” to spread His Word but my nerves got the best of me. Don’t worry though, I am taking steps to “get prepared” this summer so when summer 2014 comes around I have no excuses. So instead, I applied and was accepted to the Summer College Training in Urbana-Champaign, IL. Take a look at my acceptance letter:

                              “We have accepted your application to participate in the college training in Urbana-Champaign, IL.  We are deeply grateful to the Lord for this precious opportunity to spend one week together contacting, receiving, partaking of, and enjoying the Lord in the Word and in the ministry of the age for our growth in life unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” Doesn’t that sound amazing? I’m so excited!

                              Regarding the Smithsonian project, we collectively decided to abandon it but as a filler, well not really a filler but it replaced my commitment with this project, I joined FotoSynthesis. FotoSynthesis is designed to be a self-sustaining education program to connect middle school students in the DC area with middle schools students from around the world through a combination of social media and photography, but currently we are still registered as a club at American University. For those of you who do not already know, FotoSynthesis won second place in the Adobe Youth Voices UNICEF Challenge Aspire Awards Competition and $30,000! Thanks again to everyone who supported us; we are clearly on our way to becoming an independent program.  

                              Alongside serving on the board of FotoSynthesis as CFO, I continue to serve on the board of Scholars for Progress (S4P) as the External Relations Coordinator. I once wrote that at the end of the 18 months, Scholars for Progress would no longer be a name only common to AU and Woodrow Wilson and would expand to other high schools and colleges in DC; well, we had a change of heart. We decided to keep S4P as an AU-centric club and not develop new chapter in other DC colleges. My tasks remain the same for S4P, and I hope that working over the summer with my fellow members will bring us where we need to be to start in the fall of 2013.

                              “My long term goal… is to be a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur refers to an individual who start their own business dedicated to finding innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social issues. Along with becoming a social entrepreneur, I would like to know 4 languages fluently by the time I am 40; Spanish, Korean, Igbo, and English.”

                              My long term goal has remained the same and in order to ensure success, I continue to take necessary classes to expand my knowledge in both business and international problems and keeping an eye out for programs and internships that would propel me in the directions of my goal and reinforce my passion. I use to be a part of Compass Fellows Freshman year but decided to abandon that commitment because it was not as fruitful as I hoped it would be to achieving my goal of being a social entrepreneur. However, I still plan on one day being a part of the Ashoka Changemakers. Regarding my passion for learning languages,  I continue to take Spanish classes at AU, and during the summer, use Rosetta stone and practice with fluent speakers when I get the chance. I also joined a Spanish meetup here in NY so I can surround myself with people interested in practicing their Spanish language skills as well. For Igbo, I have my family members that are fluent speak to me in nothing but Igbo so my understanding of the language is improving. I still can’t read or write it because many people that speak Igbo never learned to - after all, it is a dying language. How unfortunate. But my Korean is getting better, if I may say so myself. Now that I have the Korean rosetta stone, I am practicing often throughout the summer. And of course, I am still watching my Korean dramas so that is helping me with my understanding of the language as well. I actually added another language to the list because I want to pursue a career in international business; so it only makes sense that I learn Mandarin as well. (But that is for another time.)

                  But with all great thing, we are sure to encounter our fair share of barriers that will try to deter us from reaching our goals. I am glad to say that, because of the Frederick Douglass Distinguished Scholarship, my finances are not one of them. Barriers I have faced with my short term goals are getting Scholars for Progress started last spring because of a lack of communication with our partner high school. But we’re working on it. Just like learning a  new language, it’s a work in progress. 

// Give $mart Blog Post #7: Success and Failure are Nothing but a Point of View//

Explain the difference between a successful failure and a failed success. Do you learn more from successfully failing or failing successfully? Please explain.

                A great shortcoming of mankind is our unwillingness to see fault in ourselves and in our work. Because of this, many of us struggle to answer one important question: “am I getting better?” The reason for this is not because we do not have an answer to this question per se, but because we refuse to allow ourselves to move forward by looking back; we often try other means of arriving at success like focusing on what we were triumphant in and disregarding past disappointments. However, according to Tierney and Fleishman, authors of Give $mart: Philanthropy that gets Results, “[f]ailure, in fact, is often a better teacher than success.” The only way to understand and properly evaluate our progress is to take into consideration our reason(s) for failing in the past and learning from them.   Many of us tend to believe that failures should be thrust aside because we do not care to see the hidden gem within, which is simply a learning opportunity.

                Tierney and Fleishman describe a failed success as an action that leads to a desired result but fails to meet your set definition of success.  For example, if your goal was to end world hunger and you work to a point where you were able to end hunger in one country like the Central African Republic and decided that was good enough - that is a failed success. Although, ending hunger in any one country is an admirable accomplishment, and certainly one to feel proud of,  you have not reached your set  goal and thus, have failed. When philanthropists start to become complacent with little victories (merely steps on the way to their ultimate goal) they are experiencing failed successes;  they are allowing current triumphs to overshadow their long standing image of success. Now, the difference between a failed success and a successful failure is that with a successful failure, you are not accomplishing a goal or task but learning from a failed task you have attempted to accomplish. The great thing about a successful failure is that you are still moving forward to your defined level of success, just in another way that you had not originally planned for yourself.  Successful failures can even potentially steer you in a faster route or a quicker path to success. By learning what doesn’t work, we are able to narrow down the list for what will. Like Tierney and Fleishman said, “the most useful learning comes from information that helps [us] make smarter decisions : about [our] strategy;” for this reason, I find that there is a lot more to learn in successful failures than there are in failed successes.

                However, I find it imperative to realize that success is subjective: what one person may define as success does not necessary set the boundaries for what another person can and/or will label as success. And the road to each success has never been a straight one or the same one for all people so it is possible that both failed successes and successful failures can lead a person to their defined success. I guess the results we are holding ourselves accountable for can either be hindered  by a successful failure, advanced by a failed success,  vice versa or both at different times along the pathway to one’s philanthropic goal(s). But with either, we need to take it as a learning experience we can use to evaluate our current performance in order to accelerate our future success.   

                Nkemdilim Chukwuma

// The Art of Taking Risks: Getting Personal - Give $mart Blog Post #4//

“When working in a group project you will face obstacles; one of which is risk, another is accountability and you also have to learn how to delegate. Explain when and how you decide to take a risk. Describe your catalyst for action, when do you move from ‘I will do’ to ‘I have done.’”

                Last semester, in my microeconomics class, I learned that the majority of the world is risk averse. So in order to persuade people to take risks, the potential benefit or outcome of taking a risk must outweigh the cost of doing so. It makes sense and, to some extent, I agree. But when it comes to quantifying non-monetary costs and benefits, this economic method of analysis may yield unsatisfying and highly subjective results. Some critics argue that cost-benefit analysis is only adequate when thinking with one’s head. But what about the heart?  

                When deciding to taking risks, Thomas J. Tierney and Joel L. Fleishman, authors of “Give $mart,” remind us that it is “imperative to get personal.” To them, “deciding what you will do to make change happen is a choice that requires both your head and your heart.” So before deciding to take a risk or not take a risk we must first be able to answer one question: would “you be able to and willing — no kidding — to hold yourself accountable for its success”? If the answer is yes, you should consider taking the risk but if not, we are advised to rethink our decision to get involved. Resources are limited − money, time, talent − all limited. So to get the most out of the consumption of our scarce resources, we should have a personal connection to or be passionate about the things we decided to take a chance on.

                When I decide to take a risk, I often combine the economic method of cost-benefit analysis with the suggestions made in “Give $mart.” I may not always take into consideration how much of my resources I will have to allocate to the task each step of the way (since I tend to look at things more holistically) but I make sure that I agree with the mission and vision of organization, or in other words, “get personal.”  A problem that I often face, however, is that I attach myself personally to several different projects.

                 At first, this may not sound like a bad thing (and depending on the case, Tierney an Fleishman say it may not be at all) but I for me, with my limited resources, it probably is. But it’s good to know that I am not the only one with this problem: “philanthropists (often) pursue a portfolio of interests.” What I failed to take into consideration was “that the choices [we] make in one area necessarily affect what [we] can do elsewhere.” So by doing so, I limit my personal accountability or stake in each task because this situation involves fundamental trade-offs.  

Nkemdilim Chukwuma

// Three Steps to Avoiding Failure: Get Clear, Get Real, Get Personal//

Give $mart Blog Post #3: What have you been unsuccessful at this year? What were the outcomes and tradeoffs related to that failure. Describe what changed in your behavior because of it, how you will manage your time appropriately, and the discipline required to avoid repeating your mistakes.

Last weekend, I participated in the 2013 Kogod Case Competition held by American University with two of my co-workers and lost; my team came in third place and we received $75 each. Some people may not see that as losing but when thinking of the amount of time and energy I spent preparing for the competition, third place sure wasn’t compensation enough. Since we only had three days to prepare for the case, I spent those three days completely focused on the competition and nothing else. I put all other work, including schoolwork and club work, on hold until I felt my team was well prepared and stayed up later than usual rehearsing and finalizing slides. I felt these were necessary tradeoffs to make, with the limited time we had for preparation and all and regret nothing. Even though I did not win, I gained experience, broadened my network, and learned more about a possible career choice. It was a great experience and I Iook forward to not only participating again next year but winning.

Another thing I have been unsuccessful with is Compass Fellows, but that was a choice I made. After reading “The Dip” by I forget who during winter break, I was inspired to quit some of the extracurricular activities I was a part of. I know, the phrase “inspired to quit” sounds a little off but that was basically what the book talked about: the art of giving up. I decided to quit the Compass Fellowship because I felt the amount of time and energy I put into it did not equal what I got out of it. I wanted to stop wasting my time participating and being “okay” in everything and focus on being great at one or a few things.

Fall semester freshman year, I participated in basically everything the school had to offer because my interests were vast and I felt that in doing so I would be able to eventually narrow them down.  That might have worked, but I realize now that in narrowing my interests down in that way, I wasted a lot of time. I realized that time is the most valuable resource we have to effect change and how I use my time will determine if and when I achieve my goals, regardless what my goals may be.

But one problem I struggle with a lot, and I mean A LOT, is my indecision. How  can I put my time and resources towards one thing when I am interested in so many things? How do I make such a tough decision? According to the authors of “Give $mart,” Tierney and Fleishman, “getting to the right level of specificity requires the discipline to make explicit choices and trade-offs.” I find myself longing for specificity in my goals and future plans but unwilling to make many of the necessary trade-offs to get to that point. Before I used to think that as long as I was helping people then my time wouldn’t be wasted; that was all I ever wanted to do anyways - help people. But I realized after reading chapter 2 that my preconceived definition of success was not specific enough. I needed to “get clear,” as Tierney and Fleishman put it, which “involves defining success in terms specific enough to help you decide where to invest your resources.” And since I still do not know exactly where to devote my resources to, I know where I need to start. Sure, I gave up Compass Fellows but I still participate in a number of things that are taking away from my focus. But then again, I don’t exactly know what my focus is yet. I think maybe for now, I just need to focus on getting clear.

Also, I find that my I-just-want-to-help-people speech is not going to cut it anymore. I’ve probably been told that a million times but now I understand that my goals need to be measureable. I can volunteer at KEEN one day and then a homeless shelter the next but my actions are far too scattered and so, my results will be as well. I just need to narrow down what I am passionate about, focus my resources and attention towards creating an effective plan for giving, and then hold myself responsible for my own success; or in Tierney’s and Fleishman’s words, “get clear, get real, and get personal.”

Nkemdilim Chukwuma