Transcriber: Wendy Steele Reviewer: Jeong-Lan Kinser
My mother died when I was a little girl and as a result,
my dad and my maternal grandparents had to step in
and assume a much bigger role than any of them ever expected.
They did this wholeheartedly and my sisters and I benefited greatly
from their love and their extra attention.
Of course, I lived with my father full time.
My grandparents had a winter place in sunny Florida.
And they created what they affectionately called "The Honored Guest Program"
where they invited their grandchildren one at a time for undivided attention.
In these visits,
they literally and figuratively rolled out the red carpet for our visits.
When I arrived, I got to eat all of my favorite foods.
I got to do all of my favorite things.
And I got to spend some wonderful time with this couple whom I adored.
Our days were spent walking the beach.
When we walked the beach, my grandfather, who was an avid fisherman,
would connect the dots for me between what the seagulls were doing,
and the pelicans, how they were behaving,
what the wave action looked like and the wind and the temperature.
All these things were going to help him have a better afternoon of fishing.
My grandmother was a discerning sheller.
She taught me all the names of the shells on the beach.
She told me what not to touch because it was still living
and what to pick up.
These days, I learned about life.
And I forged a relationship with my grandparents
that I treasured the rest of my days.
In the evenings, Grampy would go to bed early
and Grammy and I would go off into another room
where she would pull out a jigsaw puzzle.
The two of us would spend hours trying to put it together
while we chatted comfortably.
Grammy had a very specific rule, however, with jigsaw puzzles.
And that was, we were never allowed to look at the box.
We couldn't keep the box on the table to see what the image would look like,
but rather, we had to pick up each piece and decide where it best fit
based on the colors and the shapes we saw before us.
These visits as an Honored Guest left me with so much.
Considerably more than I could ever describe to you here.
But part of what it taught me, I realized much later, was how to think.
So if we fast forward the clock, now it's the summer of 2001.
I was living in Cincinnati,
and on vacation with my children in Northern Michigan.
I'm a firm believer that as busy as we are,
as much as we value work and a good work ethic
which I can be accused of being slightly over zealous in that area.
Taking vacations are so fruitful.
Most of my very best ideas have come
when I have taken a break and stepped away.
In this case, I was on vacation with my children
and a number of seemingly disconnected issues
were running through my head.
Things like, I worked on some non-profit boards and I understood how they operated.
And they had the same, constant, nagging problem.
And that was, they weren't getting significant grants.
They would get small grants and they were very grateful for that,
but it never allowed them
to strategically get their head off their desk
and look to the horizon and really execute.
At the same time, I had a number of wonderful, talented women friends
who were in no way involved in their community.
Their reasons were varied,
but their reasons were very real. They traveled for their work.
They were a stay at home mom. They didn't think they had enough to give.
Enough time, enough money, enough energy, enough expertise.
And in my heart of hearts, I knew that they were wrong.
So, what I wanted to do, is to find a way to get these women involved.
Because I knew that if they did become involved,
they would get as much as they gave.
And I knew that the non-profit community
and the community at large needed those skills.
They needed what those women could bring to the table.
And as I spent that summer thinking,
the image that started to appear
was the structure of Impact 100.
Impact 100 became that image when
all the pieces of the puzzle fit together just right.
In 2001, with the help of some very talented women in Cincinnati, Ohio,
Impact 100 was launched.
The idea was very simple:
Gather at least 100 women who would donate $1,000,
pool that money and make a significant grant.
The minimum grant size for Impact 100 is $100,000.
Make it in any one of five focus areas:
Education, environment, culture, health and wellness or family.
The idea being that there wouldn't be a non-profit in the community
that wouldn't qualify.
And it worked. It worked! It was very simple and it grew.
The reason it did, I believe,
is something that I learned a little bit later.
And that is,
when we give back, we get so much
while simultaneously making the community a better place to live.
And that sort of feeds on itself.
As the community is made a better place to live,
more people give back, and the community gets better.
It's sort of like this vortex of generosity.
And as it grows, the world continues to get better.
And I was reminded of the shells
that I would pick up on the beach with my grandmother,
that spiral shape is exactly what happens in communities.
Here's something else I learned.
It turns out,
that we are biologically wired to give,
which I think is awesome.
What happens when we give back, is our body produces oxytocin.
Oxytocin, you might ring a bell because it is sometimes known
as the "trust" or "love" hormone.
Right after you deliver a baby, you get a lot of oxytocin
and that is part of that bonding that occurs.
So the thing about generosity is: if you do something,
whether it is time, talent, or treasure, your body gets a little shot of oxytocin,
and that's pretty cool.
The recipient of your generosity,
they get a little shot of oxytocin and they feel good.
Even someone who witnesses what you've done, they get a little shot.
Well, here's something else:
our body needs and wants you to produce oxytocin.
It goes all the way back to the survival of our early species.
Because part of what oxytocin does
is it will suppress the stress hormone of cortisol.
So when you are overly stressed, you are typically less generous. Makes sense?
You also have less feeling of bonding.
The more you give, the more oxytocin,
the more your body triggers you to do more,
and in doing more, the cycle continues.
Even more interesting,
is in our families today,
the best indicator as to whether a child will grow up to be generous,
and by generous, or philanthropic,
I mean someone who thinks about giving back to their community.
One of the largest indicators
is whether or not they had a role model growing up
who modeled what it was like to give back.
More recent data suggests
that if you actually have a conversation with that child,
it's that much more likely that it will "stick"
and that they will grow up to be generous adults.
So now that we know that generosity is contagious,
and we know that that's how children learn,
you think, "Well, why aren't we all talking about generosity in our families?"
That is a story for another day.
But what I would suggest is that it is time we start;
because not only do children grow up to be more generous, in this environment,
when they talk about it with a role model, but they get some other benefits.
Benefits that every one of us would want for our younger generation to have.
They get more self esteem. They feel more connected.
They are more confident.
Less likely to suffer from depression or have suicidal thoughts.
Those are significant.
For the senior citizens in your life, retirees who give back,
report that they are more connected, their life has more meaning.
They even have better health and statistically live longer
than their counter parts who don't give back.
You take this example into the workplace,
and the results are not just "warm and fuzzy"
of everybody loves each other because we are all giving back together.
It's not expensive to create a program of generosity within your company,
within your church, within your school, within your community.
But the results are staggering.
People who are generous,
also statistically are more creative, better at problem solving.
They have higher degrees of empathy and they behave in a more ethical manner.
All those things effect the bottom line in a meaningful way
and make the community a better place to live.
So what I would like to suggest
is that the generosity epidemic starts here and starts now.
It starts in your families, in your communities,
in your businesses and your schools.
I hope you will join me,
because the impact of generosity is huge.
(Applause)