Giving Compass' Take:

• Milos Maricic, writing for Medium, lists five types of mistakes that philanthropists and individuals in the donor space are making and offers recommendations on how to improve charitable giving practices. 

• What are some ways you develop your investment and charitable giving strategies? 

• Read about how charitable giving is likely to change in 2019. 

A year ago I decided to start my own charitable foundation. Since then, I have been consulting my contacts with similar plans, people who have hit that “magic number” that allows them to effectively retire and now want to do something “for the society,” whatever that means.

Most of us are discovering that we are not at all good at giving back to the world. I’ve seen at least five types of mistakes made, not least in my own behavior.

  • #1 Not starting to give back early enough I always thought of my charitable efforts as something I’d start doing in earnest once I reached a certain level of wealth X; the target over time became 5X, 10X and so on. This was a very shortsighted way to go about it.
  • #2 Not recognizing our responsibility to train and empower However accomplished we are in our field, we prefer to consider ourselves “lifelong learners” and nothing more, because there is a social stigma associated with a claim to mastery. But this mild stigma is worth enduring, because it comes with a strong call of responsibility.
  • #3 Not investing in a way that maximizes impact Investing for the greatest benefit is not easy at all. Options are many and all have pitfalls. There are a myriad of huge problems out there in the world, and each requires learning and understanding.
  • #4 Not learning the technical skills needed for giving back Giving back requires a unique set of skills that we should not automatically assume to have. We need the technique — the passion and the knowledge are not enough.
  • #5 Not adjusting our career goals to include others explicitly What is the reasonable end goal of a successful career? Perhaps for our family to be financially secure by the time we retire?

Read the full article about being better at giving back by Milos Maricic at Medium.