HindSight Consulting, Inc. & NCGives:
In 2006, HindSight was selected as a partner of NCGIVES. This partnership included investment to focus on organizing giving circles in the state of North Carolina. The giving circle organizing is primarily with African Americans but also includes allies of African Americans and other people of color.
Currently HindSight's giving circle organizing has created four giving circles in North Carolina:
A LOT - A Legacy of Tradition - A giving circle of African American men in the Greater Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill)
Heritage Quilters Circle - A giving circle of skilled quilters located in Warrenton, NC.
Way Out - A giving circle of human service providers and family advocates located in Wake County.
New Generation of African American Philanthropists - A giving circle of young adult African Americans located in Charlotte, NC
Inspiring New Philanthropy to Build Equitable Communities
Not all philanthropy involves the largess of a single wealthy individual or family. Across the South, groups of like-minded people are pooling their resources to help make a difference in their communities through giving circles.
Like investment clubs, giving circles make focused investments. The difference is that giving circles invest in philanthropy and social change. They consider themselves "untapped philanthropists," supporting nonprofits with financial and intellectual capital, resources and contacts. They are a relatively new piece in the mosaic of Southern community philanthropy, though the tradition of giving circles is not new. What is new is formalizing giving circles among groups of people who traditionally have been viewed as "consumers" of the community's philanthropy rather than as "producers" or donors.
About HindSight Consulting
With initial investment from the Ford Foundation, Darryl Lester, who founded HindSight Consulting with his wife, Dionne to begin to encourage more strategic civic engagement and community philanthropy among young adult African Americans in the American South to address issues of race and equity in their local communities.
In 2004, HindSight partnered with dynamic young African American leaders in Birmingham, Alabama, and the Research Triangle area of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) to create two giving circles: the Birmingham Change Fund and the Next Generation of African American Philanthropists Fund (NGAAP Fund). In late 2005, New Mountain Climbers of Christiansburg, Virginia, and Zawadi of New Orleans, Louisiana, joined HindSight's newly conceived Community Investment Network (www.thecommunityinvestment.org).According to Ambassador James Joseph, former United States Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa:
"It has been my experience that when neighbors help neighbors, and even when strangers help strangers, both those who help and those who are helped are transformed. It has been my experience that when that which was "their" problem becomes "our" problem, the transaction transforms a mere association into a relationship that has the potential for new communities of meaning and belonging. In other words, doing something for someone else -- making the condition of others our own -- is a powerful force in building community. When we experience the problem of the poor or troubled, when we help someone to find cultural meaning in a museum or creative expression in a painting, when we help someone to find housing or regain his health, we are far more likely to find common ground, and we are likely to find that in serving others we discover the genesis of community."
Darryl Lester
Founding Partner
HindSight Consulting, Inc
2205 Up Above Lane
Raleigh, NC 27614
dklester@nc.rr.com
919.604.0745(o)
919.792-2422 (f)
