A History of Giving Back: Alison Goldberg ’92
For most people, philanthropy means writing a few checks to favorite charities, taking part in a fundraising walk, or helping out in a soup kitchen during the holidays.
But for Alison Goldberg ’92, philanthropy is a way of life, her vocation and avocation. While she has been involved in a wide range of programs at a variety of institutions during the past 20 years, she has never lost sight of her goal to effect meaningful social change.
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After graduating from Tufts University in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in art history and anthropology, she was awarded a fellowship with the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program through the Congressional Hunger Center, a non-profit whose mission is “to make issues of domestic and international hunger a priority to policymakers in the U.S. government, and to raise a new generation of leaders to fight against hunger and poverty.”
For her field assignment, Goldberg lived and worked on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana, before returning to Washington D.C. for the policy portion of her fellowship. There, she worked at the Food Research and Action Center which was focused on the preservation and expansion of food stamp and early childhood nutrition programs.
“I was on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation during the beginning of welfare reform, so there were many opportunities to hear firsthand about the challenge this community and others were facing because of a policy decision,” said Goldberg.
She then went on to earn a master’s degree in city and regional planning at Cornell University, where she became involved in community-based projects focused on food security. She returned to Ghana, where she had spent a semester abroad as a college student at Tufts. There, she worked with a small community development organization to help gather input about the local food system.
Around that time, her mother established a family foundation. “I attended philanthropy conferences and learned about how foundations operate,” she said. But she soon found that few family foundations were including the views of leaders in the communities where they were directing funding. She knew from experience that the people who have the money do not necessarily know where it can be most effectively spent. The ideal is to create a partnership between donors and the people they want to help, the real experts in the equation. Those in the field know where the resources are most needed, but the power to grant funds too often resides with the donor.
Not only did Goldberg educate herself in the “best practices” of philanthropy, she went on in 2001 to establish Foundations for Change to provide training and resources to young donors and family funders interested in social change philanthropy. The organization soon merged with a similar group, Resource Generation, and Goldberg became its first donor education director. In 2007 she published, with fellow Resource Generation staff member Karen Pittelman, a “guidebook” called Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The Next Generation.
Her message to young wealthy philanthropists: “Break the silence about money. Open up a dialogue with people who are working on the issues you care about to find ways to leverage your privilege and resources. Take action for what you believe in. This goes beyond giving. Think about how you can make socially responsible investments and also how you can use your voice to support policies to create a more equitable society. ”
With the economic crisis accelerating in 2008, Goldberg collaborated with Chuck Collins at the Institute for Policy Studies to establish Wealth for the Common Good, a network of business leaders, high-income individuals and partners who advocate for shared prosperity and fair taxation – “the one percent” that wants an economy that works for everyone.”
Goldberg’s general advice about how to get started with giving:
“Get involved in an organization whose mission you believe in,” she said. “Work on a campaign. Volunteer in programs or at events – for whatever the issue is that interests you, whether it is the environment or community issues.”
With two small children, Goldberg recognizes the need to educate even the very young about global issues. She recently wrote a children’s book about a young maple sugar maker who takes action to help the maple trees when she learns they are threatened by climate change.
“Young people – even very young children – can encourage adults to change their behavior,” she concluded. “After he learned about climate change, a four-year-old friend of my daughter convinced his family to walk to school, rather than drive.”
That is the kind of impact Alison Goldberg hopes every young person will have on the world around him or her, one small step at a time.
For her field assignment, Goldberg lived and worked on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana, before returning to Washington D.C. for the policy portion of her fellowship. There, she worked at the Food Research and Action Center which was focused on the preservation and expansion of food stamp and early childhood nutrition programs.
“I was on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation during the beginning of welfare reform, so there were many opportunities to hear firsthand about the challenge this community and others were facing because of a policy decision,” said Goldberg.
She then went on to earn a master’s degree in city and regional planning at Cornell University, where she became involved in community-based projects focused on food security. She returned to Ghana, where she had spent a semester abroad as a college student at Tufts. There, she worked with a small community development organization to help gather input about the local food system.
Around that time, her mother established a family foundation. “I attended philanthropy conferences and learned about how foundations operate,” she said. But she soon found that few family foundations were including the views of leaders in the communities where they were directing funding. She knew from experience that the people who have the money do not necessarily know where it can be most effectively spent. The ideal is to create a partnership between donors and the people they want to help, the real experts in the equation. Those in the field know where the resources are most needed, but the power to grant funds too often resides with the donor.
Not only did Goldberg educate herself in the “best practices” of philanthropy, she went on in 2001 to establish Foundations for Change to provide training and resources to young donors and family funders interested in social change philanthropy. The organization soon merged with a similar group, Resource Generation, and Goldberg became its first donor education director. In 2007 she published, with fellow Resource Generation staff member Karen Pittelman, a “guidebook” called Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The Next Generation.
Her message to young wealthy philanthropists: “Break the silence about money. Open up a dialogue with people who are working on the issues you care about to find ways to leverage your privilege and resources. Take action for what you believe in. This goes beyond giving. Think about how you can make socially responsible investments and also how you can use your voice to support policies to create a more equitable society. ”
With the economic crisis accelerating in 2008, Goldberg collaborated with Chuck Collins at the Institute for Policy Studies to establish Wealth for the Common Good, a network of business leaders, high-income individuals and partners who advocate for shared prosperity and fair taxation – “the one percent” that wants an economy that works for everyone.”
Goldberg’s general advice about how to get started with giving:
“Get involved in an organization whose mission you believe in,” she said. “Work on a campaign. Volunteer in programs or at events – for whatever the issue is that interests you, whether it is the environment or community issues.”
With two small children, Goldberg recognizes the need to educate even the very young about global issues. She recently wrote a children’s book about a young maple sugar maker who takes action to help the maple trees when she learns they are threatened by climate change.
“Young people – even very young children – can encourage adults to change their behavior,” she concluded. “After he learned about climate change, a four-year-old friend of my daughter convinced his family to walk to school, rather than drive.”
That is the kind of impact Alison Goldberg hopes every young person will have on the world around him or her, one small step at a time.
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