SRQ Daily Columnist Teri A Hansen is president and CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation

Growing up in San Diego, I rarely asked why we piled into the family station wagon most Saturdays to deliver donated clothes across the border. As a volunteer Red Cross captain in second grade, I probably didn’t ask much about the coins I was collecting from my classmates, either. I watched (and helped) my parents do church and community service projects from as early as I can remember. It was just something you did. 

Later, as a journalism major and then a public affairs officer in the Air Force, I grew to appreciate the value of questions. When I moved into philanthropy, having been invited to start a community foundation from the ground up in Indiana, questions were fundamental: What opportunities were most important for the community to seize? How could nonprofits, businesses and community leaders work together to seize them? What were our donors’ values, passions and goals, and how did they align? 

At Gulf Coast Community Foundation, we often say smart philanthropy starts with smart questions. Exploring what a donor hopes to achieve and be remembered for, asking a charity what it has accomplished, crunching the numbers to see how a donation can go farther—that’s all critical to making the most of your individual, and our community’s collective, charitable giving.

But questions needn’t stifle the impulse to give. They should amplify it. Questions should probe, but they needn’t be rhetorically cynical: Why should I give to a charity that pays its staff, or to one that spends money on fundraising? (We have good answers for both of those, but I urge you to listen to my more eloquent friend Dan Pallotta’s response.)

If “charity” is giving a hungry woman a fish, and “philanthropy” is teaching her how to fish (along with funding a school that teaches her neighbors too), we need both at this time of year. We need donors to fill the Red Kettle outside of Publix, as well as donors who invest in the infrastructure of their favorite nonprofits.  We need donors to buy turkeys and toys for tots so struggling families can enjoy a holiday with dignity, and we also need donors willing to structure ambitious philanthropic gifts that will catalyze long-term, systemic change.

At Gulf Coast, we specialize in endowed philanthropy. We combine research and tough questions to address our community’s big issues. But we also believe giving should be easy and fun. When I visit our GulfCoastGives.org charitable crowdfunding website, I'm a sucker for a project that helps little kids! I might quickly ask, Is the cause worthy, and do I think the organization can succeed (or will I at least give them the chance to)? If those answers are “yes” (and they often are), I’ve already clicked “donate.”

By diving deeply into the charities and causes that matter most to you, you’ll improve your ability to make a real, lasting and personally fulfilling difference. In the end, though, it’s the act of giving—and that includes executing a planned a gift to be realized later—that fulfills your altruistic intentions while giving you that feel-good “giver’s glow.”

If you have the means, we encourage you to give smart and give well this holiday season, and the rest of the year. But even as you’re asking the important questions that will inform and improve your giving, why not just get started? After all, “to donate” begins with “to do.”

SRQ Daily Columnist Teri A Hansen is president and CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation