Insights

There are more than 1.4 million charities benefiting pursuits such as religion, education, health, human services, the arts, environment and international affairs. Americans gave more than $260 billion in philanthropic donations in 2005, of which approximately 3 percent went to major natural disasters at home and abroad. Individual donations made up 77 percent of the total giving in 2005. It’s interesting that the people who make the least, with incomes below $10,000, gave the most—with 5.2 percent of their earnings going to charity. In 2005, 89 percent of households contributed to one or more charities with the average amount donated being $1,600, or 3.1 percent of their income. How much do you give to charity?

After I retired to Florida 20 years ago from a busy executive life in the computer industry, my plan was to play golf and tennis, read books and take life easy. I felt I had been active in business and community affairs, and it was time for others to step up and do their parts now. But after a few years of easy living in retirement, I felt my life was regimented and unfulfilled. I decided to become active in charitable work and give back to the community in which I lived.

Rather than simply volunteering, I decided to find a charity that offered a cause important to me, that would use my skills, where I would learn something new, and one that would allow me to still enjoy my retirement lifestyle. I learned that there was not a children’s hospital in Southwest Florida, and children needing hospitalization for serious conditions had to travel to Miami or Tampa for medical care. I therefore joined the Children’s Hospital Development Board in 1991 and discovered we needed to raise money if a Southwest Florida Children’s Hospital was to become a reality.

After founding the Boston Red Sox Children’s Hospital Celebrity Classic in 1992, I became committed to raising money for the welfare of sick children. In 1994, the Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida began operations within the HealthPark Medical Center in Fort Myers, serving Lee, Collier, Hendry, Charlotte and DeSoto counties.

In 1995, our daughter, Barbara, died of cancer. Her mother, Betty, and I decided to celebrate her life, and in her memory, founded the Barbara’s Friends Children’s Hospital Cancer Fund. After 12 years of community fundraising, Barbara’s Friends has raised more than $6.3 million. One hundred percent of the funds have been used to provide facilities and medical care for Southwest Florida children stricken with cancer and fighting hematology blood disorders. The result is an outpatient center that provides bone marrow aspirations, spinal taps, chemotherapy and blood transfusions for nearly 100 children per week. Other local charitable groups have also given to the Children’s Hospital, helping to supply hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of state-of-the-art equipment for the hospital’s neonatal intensive care department.

If you would like to give back to your community but don’t know where to begin, below is a list of questions and tips to consider when choosing a cause to support.