Small Sums Can Make a Powerful Gift - Article Summary and Reflection

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Small Sums Can Make a Powerful Gift - Byline: Bob Levey

Chronicle of Philanthropy.  21.6 (Jan 15, 2009): NA. Academic OneFile. Gale. Drexel University (PALCI). 18 Jan. 2009 

http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.library.drexel.edu/itx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A191967164&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=drexel_main&version=1.0

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc.

Summary – This is an article on a fundraiser who spent 2008 picking up loose change to make a point on how small sums can really add up.  I found this these statistics to be most interesting: “About 13 billion pennies are in circulation. But the Mint estimates that about two billion of that total are "lost" -- either stowed in drawers and forgotten, or tossed into wishing wells and left there, or dropped in public and never picked up.  If even one-fourth of those two billion pennies were reclaimed and donated, that would be $5-million.”

Reflection - The article makes a powerful statement on how loose change could affect us all and what the value of all the loose change floating around out there really is.  I also appreciate the writing style of the article.  The author makes his point in a very humorous way while also making you really think about the concept of the topic.

An article like this is a helpful reminder in showing Board Members, who often focus on the big gifts, that the little gifts really do add up.  Plus donors need to start somewhere and then have a relationship built with them to cause them to want to increase their giving.  If people realized how easy giving $50 really could be it becomes a great argument for “Don’t you think you could then give $100?”

This article also has me thinking I should start picking up change to help my own personal charity – AJ’s Grad School Loans Fund.