Listen to “Freely Given” by Fred Smith On April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress declared war on Germany. With the same declaration they created the War Chest and [...]
Listen to “Songs of Joy” by Fred Smith Studies are showing that giving, especially smaller gifts, has increased substantially during the pandemic. In fact, donations to food [...]
Listen to “We Should Do Something Together” by Fred Smith Now that the first devastating wave of the pandemic has hit and communities are beginning to slowly open up we can [...]
Listen to “A Modest Proposal” by Fred Smith Jonathan Swift’s satirical response to the plight of the Irish people after decades of poverty and abuse shocked the sensibilities [...]
Listen to “Small Things” by Fred Smith After years of pursuing high impact philanthropy and broad systemic change this is a time for many to resist being swept away by the enormity of [...]
Listen to “Our Secret Inquietude” by Fred Smith After my father died we were sorting through his papers and found a stock certificate for 100 worthless shares. They were all [...]
Listen to “Gifts of a Lifetime” by Fred Smith It’s a familiar scene made even more so by movies and novels: the reading of the last will and testament. The somber family [...]
Listen to “Time is Running Out” by Fred Smith If I were to pick one word to describe my mail from nonprofits in December, it would be URGENT! Every email was intent on [...]
Listen to “Scrooge Repents” by Fred Smith While I would not say I have been Scrooge, I have come close. In fact, the whole period between Thanksgiving and the end of the year [...]