Folly #17: Plan or Jump In?

Dock ducks and elder wisdom for promising fledglings

A neighbor has a dock duck visitor each year. She is fond of a big planter on their deck, and returns regularly to lay her eggs.

Yesterday her ducklings hatched and, shortly after, they catapulted themselves off the edge … 15 feet down from their houseboat nest.

How do they do it?? Those tiny beings hurling themselves into the unknown! They just jump in.

Also this week I had conversations with two dear friends, each a man in his 60s who recently sold his business and is exploring what’s next. Both “jumped in” to travel and sports, without the constraints of needing to get back to work. Each is ethical, intelligent, hardworking, generous, kind.

I’m struck by the hole in their lives that their careers left. They clearly miss the companionship of colleagues and, no doubt, the influence of running a successful company.

And I admire how each thinks about the impact he wants to make with this “last third” of our lives. I am curious to see where they go, and what role philanthropy will play. They both have the brains and the financial resources to do a lot of good.

I also learned this week about a colleague whom I was so lucky to know when I worked on a philanthropic education network for women. She is a leader in making financial systems more inclusive, impactful and effective, especially by connecting and uplifting the work of investors across the gender-smart investing field. I read with awe her response to being diagnosed with stage four metastatic lung cancer, as she and her husband grapple with her mortality and the legacy she wants to leave. They have founded – and funded – a platform that leverages investment and grantmaking to move capital towards climate and gender justice.

My mother taught me philanthropy through her work as a volunteer. My daughter and her current employer have taught me how a warming climate disproportionately impacts women. I left the corporate sector for more meaningful work with nonprofits decades ago, but am still teaching myself how to create impact. I give. I teach. I consult. Ever impatient, I want to plan, but I also want to jump in.

Seeing those fearless ducklings today reminded me how risk-averse humans can be. How reluctant we are to give up control of our money (or, in the context of the Follies, to make large unrestricted gifts). How difficult it is for nonprofit leaders to solve deeply entrenched societal problems without being seen (by funders) as reckless.

So what will your legacy be? And where are you jumping in?