Speaker 1: Welcome to Go, Ask Alli, a production of Shonda Land
Speaker 1: Audio and partnership with I Heart Radio. When I have
Speaker 1: been with friends and that happened and I paid my pants,
Speaker 1: I did lose the room, they did leave. I saw
Speaker 1: her light up and I was like, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to work. But we are here until one of our
Speaker 1: last breaths. I was just the one that was meant
Speaker 1: to take care of mamma. It's for me to remember
Speaker 1: every single day is that I always have a choice.
Speaker 1: Everyone always has a choice. Whenever somebody says no, you
Speaker 1: can't or there's no rules for you, or you have
Speaker 1: to look like this, I go. I'll show you. I'll
Speaker 1: show you. Welcome to Go, ask Allie. I'm Alli Wentworth.
Speaker 1: In this crazy world right now with so much going on,
Speaker 1: how can we become givers philanthropists? How can we get
Speaker 1: ourselves off ourselves and help others? And by the way,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be rich to be a giver.
Speaker 1: Everybody has something that they're passionate about, and there's so
Speaker 1: much we need to deal with. How do we do
Speaker 1: our part? And isn't it our responsibility to teach our
Speaker 1: children how to be impactful giving people and there's no
Speaker 1: better person to teach us how to be givers than
Speaker 1: Melinda French Gates. She's a philanthropist, businesswoman, and a global
Speaker 1: advocate for women and girls. As a co chair of
Speaker 1: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for over twenty years,
Speaker 1: Melinda sets a direction and priorities for It's more than
Speaker 1: ready for this fifty billion dollar endowment. In she, along
Speaker 1: with her former husband Bill Gates and mega investor Warren Buffett,
Speaker 1: created the Giving Pledge. This philanthropic pledge commits the wealthiest
Speaker 1: people in the US to give away the majority of
Speaker 1: their fortune to charity. In Melinda founded Pivotal Ventures, a
Speaker 1: company working toward gender equality and helping to remove the
Speaker 1: social barriers that hold women back. Melinda is also the
Speaker 1: author of the best selling book The Moment of Lift,
Speaker 1: and she recently launched a master class on masterclass dot com,
Speaker 1: making philanthropy more accessible to everyone. Welcome, Melinda French Gates.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to have you with me today. Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me Ali, of course, and you are one
Speaker 1: of my heroes. And I'll tell you why. I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in giving back. I'm a big believer in philanthropy.
Speaker 1: I have two daughters who I have. Part of my
Speaker 1: parenting has been to make them more empathic, philanthropic women.
Speaker 1: And you have mastered And I say that because you
Speaker 1: even have a master class with which you describe all this.
Speaker 1: But you have sort of mastered the best way to
Speaker 1: be a giver. So I'm going to start on a
Speaker 1: very fundamental place and just say to you, what makes you,
Speaker 1: Belinda French Gates such a confident giver? Oh well, thank
Speaker 1: you for that question, and also for mentioning the master
Speaker 1: class and giving that. It's so good, you know. I
Speaker 1: think sometimes we don't stop and reflect and realize we
Speaker 1: all have something to give back, right. I think so
Speaker 1: often we think of it as oh, I don't have
Speaker 1: money or I don't have the time to give back. No,
Speaker 1: there are lots of ways to give back, and we
Speaker 1: need to come from a place of not scarcity. But
Speaker 1: what do I have that I can give? So for me,
Speaker 1: in terms of being an effective giver, what I've really
Speaker 1: tried to do is to learn and be on what
Speaker 1: I call a learning journey. Um. I try to meet
Speaker 1: with different people in the community, whether it's in my
Speaker 1: backyard of Seattle, or whether like you, I've been lucky
Speaker 1: enough to go to various countries in Africa or whatever
Speaker 1: I go on the ground in India. I try to
Speaker 1: listen to communities about what they say they need and
Speaker 1: then think about what might either the foundation that I'm
Speaker 1: part of, the Gates Foundation, or my company, Pivotal Ventures,
Speaker 1: what might we be able to do in a culturally
Speaker 1: appropriate way that will help lift others up. You know,
Speaker 1: I've always heard growing up, and you know I hear
Speaker 1: it today that when people think of philanthropy, they think, well,
Speaker 1: I don't I'm not rich, I'm not I'm not a philanthropist.
Speaker 1: You know. You people go to black tie parties and
Speaker 1: write checks. And one of the great things again about
Speaker 1: your master class and what you talk about so often
Speaker 1: is that there are different ways to give back, and
Speaker 1: you emphasize having philanthropy more accessible to everybody. So what
Speaker 1: do you say when people say to you, listen, I
Speaker 1: I can't write a check to that. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm overwhelmed by the global warming crisis. How could I
Speaker 1: possibly help? Do you say? Well? Recycle? I mean, what
Speaker 1: is your answer to that kind of big question? Definitely
Speaker 1: recycle in your home, start a calm post. Been really
Speaker 1: look at your electricity bill and see as the way
Speaker 1: you can cut back. What are you teaching your children
Speaker 1: about climate change? You know, I can only speak to
Speaker 1: what I have learned and know. But you know, my
Speaker 1: parents sent my sister and I to a school whose
Speaker 1: motto was Sertium. And what I learned at that high
Speaker 1: school is that even as a high school junior and senior,
Speaker 1: I had something to give back in my community. So
Speaker 1: I went and volunteered at a local public elementary school
Speaker 1: four miles down the road from my high school. And
Speaker 1: believe me, I could see at the end of a
Speaker 1: few hours that I had helped the teacher who was
Speaker 1: at the front of the classroom trying to teach thirty students,
Speaker 1: not all of them spoke English. I was there helping
Speaker 1: tutor in math in the back of the class. So
Speaker 1: I know I was lifting a little bit of her
Speaker 1: burden and hopefully teaching something to these kids. And so
Speaker 1: I try to say to people, you know, really think
Speaker 1: about your resources, what you have to give back in
Speaker 1: terms of your time. You know, at Christmas time, when
Speaker 1: my children were little, again, I wanted to teach them
Speaker 1: when they were little about giving back. We would go
Speaker 1: make boxes for the homeless. Now, did it end homelessness
Speaker 1: in Seattle? No? Did people need still, you know, a
Speaker 1: warm place to go that they could, Yes, but it
Speaker 1: meant that when they did go into a shelter, they
Speaker 1: had this small kit that helped them, whether it was
Speaker 1: soap and raisors and shampoos. And my kids learned something
Speaker 1: about what it means for a community to come together
Speaker 1: and support others. You know, nine dollars and cents will
Speaker 1: buy a malaria bednet on the Internet, and that can
Speaker 1: save a child's life if they sleep under malarial bednet.
Speaker 1: That or a mom's life, a pregnant mom. So, you know,
Speaker 1: we can even teach our kids that as they start
Speaker 1: to earn money, or as they get a little bit
Speaker 1: of an allowance, that they can go do something for
Speaker 1: somebody in another country that they might know by simply
Speaker 1: going on the internet and doing a little bit of
Speaker 1: that kind of giving instead of perhaps going and buying
Speaker 1: you know, the fancy meal they want to have from
Speaker 1: door dash or fancy you know cup of coffee maybe.
Speaker 1: And I think that it should be part of parenting,
Speaker 1: part of school that our younger generations have it be
Speaker 1: an automatic thing for them to be a giver like that.
Speaker 1: I don't even want them to think twice about it
Speaker 1: that you definitely you give back. That's just what you do.
Speaker 1: And you know, there is a way to teach this
Speaker 1: with very young children, you know, if you get their
Speaker 1: hands dirty with it, they feel it in a way.
Speaker 1: They might not intellectualize it, but they feel it, you know.
Speaker 1: I remember my kids would have bake sales and then
Speaker 1: they would be all excited and think, oh, what are
Speaker 1: we going to buy with this money? You know, and
Speaker 1: George used to say, oh, no, all the money goes
Speaker 1: to charity. We don't need anything. You know, you need
Speaker 1: to figure out what charity you want to give this to.
Speaker 1: And of course my eldest said, Sephora, and we said
Speaker 1: that's not a charity. But but they understood it, you know,
Speaker 1: and then they started to, you know, have a little
Speaker 1: fundraisers or bake sales where it was for the polar bears,
Speaker 1: or it was for a teacher that was said, you know,
Speaker 1: and you ingrain it in their brains that giving back
Speaker 1: is all part of a normal way to live a
Speaker 1: full life. And I love that you preach that. Um
Speaker 1: when we talk about sort of international philanthropy, global reach.
Speaker 1: You know, I took my daughter to Burundi and she
Speaker 1: smelled and tasted and saw incredible poverty and got to
Speaker 1: meet with women. She got to see what, you know,
Speaker 1: maternal care looked like, um in a country that had
Speaker 1: no infrastructure or scaffolding for that. I came back from
Speaker 1: Burundi and was trying to fundraise, and I was continually
Speaker 1: met with why should I help out, you know, women
Speaker 1: in a country I don't even know where it is
Speaker 1: on the map? What about my community? And I I
Speaker 1: sort of was met with that over and over again,
Speaker 1: and I thought, how do we sort of expand our
Speaker 1: reach and expand our desire to reach when we, particularly
Speaker 1: our country right now seems to be very self centered.
Speaker 1: M hmm. Well, I think, you know, people can connect
Speaker 1: to what they feel, uh and what they know, And
Speaker 1: so I think often having people start in their own backyard,
Speaker 1: in their own community, but maybe it's not the community
Speaker 1: that they live in, but maybe they need to drive
Speaker 1: fifteen miles from different parts of the city or take
Speaker 1: a train or a bus. And when they start to
Speaker 1: see other communities living differently up against barriers in their
Speaker 1: own city, and they start to think about how might
Speaker 1: I give to this community or or with a community
Speaker 1: group that's already working here, it starts to open their eyes.
Speaker 1: So that's why I call it a learning journey. And
Speaker 1: then I think you can start to connect people with Okay,
Speaker 1: you've learned something about say maybe it's moms and little
Speaker 1: kids and how difficult life is in the backyard of
Speaker 1: where you live for them. Um, but you can also say,
Speaker 1: imagine what it's like for a woman who is giving
Speaker 1: birth under these circumstances in a different part of the world.
Speaker 1: And you can start to connect the local to the
Speaker 1: global and and start to help people see and particularly
Speaker 1: using the Internet and some of the images. I think
Speaker 1: everybody understands that when a family has money, it unlocks
Speaker 1: things for a family, right, whether it's more groceries, or
Speaker 1: more schooling for the kids, or a step up so
Speaker 1: they can start a business. You know, people going online
Speaker 1: and understanding what does hef for international do in other
Speaker 1: countries around the world. Wow, you can imagine how a
Speaker 1: small flock of chicks might actually lead to chickens that
Speaker 1: lay eggs that can the eggs can be eaten for
Speaker 1: nutrition and go on the market. So I think sometimes
Speaker 1: we have to help people connect the local to the global. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, have you found that if you can make
Speaker 1: not only that connection, but if you can make them
Speaker 1: feel like there's no small amount of gift. In other words,
Speaker 1: if you say this amount of money will get you
Speaker 1: a mosquito netting that will stop a child from getting there,
Speaker 1: you know this amount of money will pay for a crib, definitely.
Speaker 1: And I think people want to know that if they
Speaker 1: give something, whether they're giving twenty dollars or or a
Speaker 1: hundred dollars, they want to know that actually has impact. Right.
Speaker 1: And so again, if you go back to going on
Speaker 1: the internet and buying somebody a small flock of chicks,
Speaker 1: which does not cost much at all, there um lots
Speaker 1: of organizations that do that, you can actually see an
Speaker 1: impact on a family. And so for me, like for
Speaker 1: my kids, they used to kind of create wish lists
Speaker 1: that they wanted for Christmas. I expected on their risk lists,
Speaker 1: besides maybe the makeup they wanted or the soccer ball,
Speaker 1: that they had some organizations and specific things they wanted
Speaker 1: to give to. And so we would often at holiday
Speaker 1: time they might receive one or two things to themselves
Speaker 1: and something for another family. And so just by doing
Speaker 1: that research, they started to realize, oh, you know that
Speaker 1: my parents might spend on me for this item. Wow,
Speaker 1: that could go a long way in another part of
Speaker 1: the world. Um, I'm sure you've gotten this pushback. I
Speaker 1: find that there's a lot of cynicism sometimes when you
Speaker 1: want to be an active giver, because you start to
Speaker 1: read stories or you hear from people, Oh, I gave
Speaker 1: this money to this organization and it actually never even
Speaker 1: went there. So people start to get very, um a
Speaker 1: cynical about being givers because they go, oh, well, I
Speaker 1: don't even know if my money is going to that.
Speaker 1: So how do you address that when people start to
Speaker 1: mistrust organizations and how do you check that? Well, I
Speaker 1: would say, you know, whoever you give to, you should
Speaker 1: expect to understand where your money went. That's that's a
Speaker 1: real thing and you should expect that. But I would
Speaker 1: also say they're unbelievable organizations who have been out doing
Speaker 1: this work for a very long time. You know, if
Speaker 1: you're concerned that you send your money internationally and you
Speaker 1: might not know where it's going or you don't know
Speaker 1: this organization, you can also go online through donors choose
Speaker 1: and say, oh, there's a teacher advertising that he or
Speaker 1: she needs a printer for their classroom, or here she
Speaker 1: needs school supplies for the kids. I cannot tell you
Speaker 1: how many classrooms in the United States were teachers take
Speaker 1: out of their own salary to buy supplies for the
Speaker 1: kids in the classroom. It is not hard to imagine
Speaker 1: that classroom supplies go a long way for having a
Speaker 1: class that actually works. So I think there are lots
Speaker 1: of ways. You just have to do a little bit
Speaker 1: of investigation and on your own, and it's not hard
Speaker 1: to find credible information. I also tell people go ask
Speaker 1: a friend, go ask somebody else who's done there giving,
Speaker 1: who feels really good about it. And if you start
Speaker 1: to get cynical, go out in the community and see
Speaker 1: what's actually going on. That is often really inspiring. Donors
Speaker 1: Choose is such a fantastic organization and a good one
Speaker 1: for kids because they can they can choose what they
Speaker 1: want to give. There's a lot more to come after
Speaker 1: the short break and we're back. UM. Since Roe versus
Speaker 1: Wade has been overturned, UM, there's been a lot of fundraising,
Speaker 1: community outreach, a lot of Twitter threads, all kinds of
Speaker 1: stuff going on. As women are trying to come together
Speaker 1: not only to help other women in our country, but
Speaker 1: again try to have some kind of a global reach.
Speaker 1: And I'm curious how you are seeing the philanthropic world
Speaker 1: right now, and what do you think is the most
Speaker 1: impactful thing women like me can do. Well? I think
Speaker 1: there are a number of things that we can do.
Speaker 1: Um let me just start by saying I was in
Speaker 1: Rwanda when the decision came out that drove versus weight
Speaker 1: had been overturned, and the Wandon's turned to me and said,
Speaker 1: how can this be. We look to your country to
Speaker 1: have good laws on the books that protect people. How
Speaker 1: in your own country could you have a law in
Speaker 1: the books almost fifty years for women and it be
Speaker 1: rolled back. I didn't have an answer for that, And um,
Speaker 1: so this is a decision that had ripples around the world.
Speaker 1: And what I know though to be true and what
Speaker 1: we all saw in this most recent election is voters
Speaker 1: came out and said not okay, not okay. And I
Speaker 1: think you know, many people were very, very worried about okay,
Speaker 1: given the timing of when that got overturned, would it
Speaker 1: actually show up at the polls in November? And guess
Speaker 1: what it did? Because you cannot roll back a basic
Speaker 1: right for women that protects women and protects bodily autonomy.
Speaker 1: So I think it doesn't just take the philanthropic community.
Speaker 1: I think it takes all of us, using our voices.
Speaker 1: We need to vote. What I was so pleased to
Speaker 1: see was lots and lots of groups coming together to
Speaker 1: get out the vote of young people, get out the
Speaker 1: vote of women, get out the vote of people who
Speaker 1: are like minded, and then I think the philanthropic community.
Speaker 1: What I'm seeing is many of the philanthropists talking to
Speaker 1: one another and saying, how do we also make sure
Speaker 1: that women have contraceptives, they know about them, they're educated
Speaker 1: about their body, and they have access to them, because
Speaker 1: that is a key, key, key tool so that women
Speaker 1: don't even get into the situation of needing to have
Speaker 1: an abortion. So I've been proud to see the philanthropic
Speaker 1: community come together around that and more funding go towards
Speaker 1: family planning and or contraceptives. And that needs to happen
Speaker 1: not just in the US but around the world. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: for sure. But it was incredibly exciting to see how
Speaker 1: everybody mobilized and how uh like everybody came together and
Speaker 1: did the push. It shows you that it can work, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that anybody who gets discouraged saying wow,
Speaker 1: my voice and my vote made a difference. Um, that's powerful. Yes.
Speaker 1: And I also think that when we look at particularly
Speaker 1: this subject of women in our country right now, particularly
Speaker 1: after ROVERSUS it has been overturned. I think as women,
Speaker 1: we can we can see that we all have our superpowers. Meaning,
Speaker 1: you know, there are some people that have money and
Speaker 1: that's great, and that's a superpower. That's something that you
Speaker 1: can bring to the table that is incredibly impactful. And
Speaker 1: you know, you could just be loud on social media,
Speaker 1: you could be a marcher. You know, you could be
Speaker 1: an organizer. Uh. I think a way of sort of
Speaker 1: closing the systemic inequities is to say everybody has an
Speaker 1: important piece to the puzzle. Absolutely, And I think we
Speaker 1: need to start saying to ourselves it's not okay anymore.
Speaker 1: It just is not okay. It never should have been
Speaker 1: okay for somebody else to make decisions for women versus
Speaker 1: women having the seat at the table and making the
Speaker 1: decisions for themselves. We make different policy when we are
Speaker 1: represented well. So one of the things I've been really
Speaker 1: looking at is, you know, women's power and influence. We
Speaker 1: need far more women in our halls of Congress. And
Speaker 1: yes we've ticked up some in this most recent election,
Speaker 1: more female governors. I think of Congress is now female.
Speaker 1: But we have no black woman, not one single black
Speaker 1: woman in our Senate, not one. And I don't know
Speaker 1: about you, but when I look out in society, I
Speaker 1: see a lot different representation than I see in the
Speaker 1: halls of Congress. And so until we get more female governors,
Speaker 1: more females in the state legislatures, more females in Congress
Speaker 1: and in the Senate, you're going to continue to have
Speaker 1: a Supreme Court that looks the way it looks today,
Speaker 1: because who puts our Supreme Court into place this current Senate,
Speaker 1: which is a majority of white males and who are
Speaker 1: happened to be a bit older. So you know, society
Speaker 1: is changed, It has changed in the last fifty years,
Speaker 1: but the Supreme Court hasn't caught up to that. And
Speaker 1: so all the more we need to vote with our feet.
Speaker 1: We need to use our money. We need to teach
Speaker 1: women to run. We have to cut the harassment in
Speaker 1: running back. We need to fund female candidates because we
Speaker 1: need to be represented in our halls of Congress the
Speaker 1: way we look in society. So if I'm listening to
Speaker 1: this podcast right now, I go, She's right. God, I
Speaker 1: love Melinda French Gates. She is so right. What could
Speaker 1: I possibly do? You can do so many things. You
Speaker 1: can do what you just did and show up in
Speaker 1: the last election. You can get out the vote with
Speaker 1: young people in the next election. You can get out
Speaker 1: the vote with different groups. You can decide you're going
Speaker 1: to write Congress. You can go and help a women's
Speaker 1: organization who's doing the hard work on the ground of
Speaker 1: educating girls about their bodies and making sure they have contraceptives.
Speaker 1: You can stand up and say it's not okay by
Speaker 1: me that we are the only the only wealthy country
Speaker 1: in the world that doesn't have paid family medical leave.
Speaker 1: When I was in Rwanda this summer, because their parliament
Speaker 1: after the genocide was put into law that there would
Speaker 1: be far more parliamentarians I think would be women. It's
Speaker 1: today six women. Rwanda has a paid family medical leave
Speaker 1: on the books because the women helped get it on
Speaker 1: the books. Their society has changed, but we still have
Speaker 1: a country where we can't get through the Senate we
Speaker 1: tried hard, we couldn't get it done to get paid
Speaker 1: family medical leave. And yet we know our families are
Speaker 1: better off when the woman and the man can take
Speaker 1: time at the birth of their child and have some
Speaker 1: wage replacement. It's it's not enough any longer to make
Speaker 1: sure a woman can get a job in society. If
Speaker 1: there's nobody to take care of her kids, and we
Speaker 1: expect her to take care of the kids or the
Speaker 1: aging parents, we can't accept that anymore. I mean, is
Speaker 1: there power in having a lot of bigger foundations and
Speaker 1: organizations come together and merge on certain topics. Absolutely, and
Speaker 1: that is actually happening. And it's not just the foundations,
Speaker 1: it's also the grassroots organized. There's like a group called
Speaker 1: Mom's Rising working with the organizations in d C who
Speaker 1: are trying to create this change. It has to go
Speaker 1: across all of society, civil society saying no more. We're
Speaker 1: gonna rise up and tell our state House we want
Speaker 1: paid family medically with wage replacement. So you've got to
Speaker 1: bring the community together, and not just a philanthropist, but
Speaker 1: of activists too. And let's talk about activism for for
Speaker 1: a minute. In this world, do you see, particularly with
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. Now, do you actually see like
Speaker 1: the Women's March, which was the most numbers ever of
Speaker 1: any march, But do you see that kind of activism
Speaker 1: move the needle at all? Absolutely? I mean, look, if
Speaker 1: you go back, just in a short period of history
Speaker 1: in the US, what finally God the Vietnam War to stop?
Speaker 1: What got our government to say, wait a minute, wait
Speaker 1: a minute. We put ourselves in a situation that Americans
Speaker 1: are telling us they don't want. It was the protesting
Speaker 1: that happened over in a sustained period of time. So
Speaker 1: I do see and believe and know that when we
Speaker 1: march for what we know is right for women, for family,
Speaker 1: for our country, it does create change. Do you think
Speaker 1: the biggest hurdle right now for women is the reversal
Speaker 1: of reversus waved? I think there are a number of
Speaker 1: really big hurdles in our country for women. I think
Speaker 1: one of them has to do with women not being
Speaker 1: in key leadership roles. Just take across industries, there's not enough.
Speaker 1: There's no industry where you can say, look, females are
Speaker 1: the majority. So take the take the finance sector, that's
Speaker 1: what funds our society. You don't see women at the
Speaker 1: tops of most of the banks, look at the tech sector.
Speaker 1: It is creating our society, right. I'm sad to say
Speaker 1: that when I was in college in the late nineteen
Speaker 1: eightiest of computer science gradual for women were down to
Speaker 1: thirty two. So if we're not creating sitting at the
Speaker 1: table creating products, you're seeing some of the societal effects.
Speaker 1: If you don't have the women at the top of
Speaker 1: representation in state houses at at least an equal level,
Speaker 1: then you're gonna get policies if the state hellouse or
Speaker 1: the federal level of what you're seeing. So we have
Speaker 1: got to elevate women's power and their influence. And until
Speaker 1: we do that, we're going to keep seeing things kind
Speaker 1: of go forward, but then roll back, go forward, and
Speaker 1: then roll back. What do you say to your daughters,
Speaker 1: I say to my daughters, use your voice, use anything
Speaker 1: you have. I say the same thing to my son.
Speaker 1: So I have a daughter's twenty, a son who's twenty three,
Speaker 1: and a daughter who's twenty and I started realizing, in
Speaker 1: terms of living my values. I was not speaking out
Speaker 1: about these women's issues until about two thousand and twelve.
Speaker 1: I started advocating for contraceptives because I saw the need,
Speaker 1: I heard a need from women around the world. But
Speaker 1: when I came home and realized I was saying to
Speaker 1: my children to use their voice, I realized I needed
Speaker 1: to use my voice more fully. And so I feel
Speaker 1: like as a mom, I try and role model for
Speaker 1: them what I know. I am deeply proud of my
Speaker 1: three children. But I'll just say about the one who's
Speaker 1: in college right now, she's twenty. Boy, was she out
Speaker 1: there really using her voice about vote in this election.
Speaker 1: It's vital to women, And so I tell them, you know,
Speaker 1: they have a lot of power in their voice and
Speaker 1: in their platforms and with any earnings that they make
Speaker 1: or when they used to have an allowance even to
Speaker 1: put a little bit of a aside and make sure
Speaker 1: that they do something smart with that money. That's how
Speaker 1: they learned and did they have They created their own
Speaker 1: kind of passions about what they want to see change
Speaker 1: or where they want to put their money and activism towards.
Speaker 1: Absolutely that's different from yours. Yes, well, in some cases
Speaker 1: it's absolutely different than ours. And in one of the
Speaker 1: cases it's becoming a little bit more clear that it's
Speaker 1: in an area that I'm already passionate about. I was
Speaker 1: lucky enough to be able to take all three kids
Speaker 1: when they were young, out to the developing world multiple times,
Speaker 1: and they would even notice things I wouldn't see when
Speaker 1: I would take them, for instance, into a township. Um.
Speaker 1: They spent time actually living with families, sometimes with me,
Speaker 1: some on their own in other countries. And when you
Speaker 1: do that, you start to learn what a tiny place
Speaker 1: in our case they were born and grew up in Seattle,
Speaker 1: what a tiny speck on the map Seattle is right,
Speaker 1: And how privileged we are to live in the United
Speaker 1: States and to even have the educational system that we have.
Speaker 1: And I think when you do that, or you work
Speaker 1: at the food bank, which we did every year, you
Speaker 1: start to realize I have something to give and that
Speaker 1: they should be expected to give back over time, and
Speaker 1: they are. It's amazing how much gratitude plays a part
Speaker 1: in all of that. Huge, which is why I've always said,
Speaker 1: you know, if you can get your kids to the
Speaker 1: food pantry, sorting clothes, if you can get them immersed
Speaker 1: in it, let them see it, let them understand it. Um,
Speaker 1: the gratitude and the empathy, you know, comes into play,
Speaker 1: and then they become people that eventually hopefully get back
Speaker 1: when they're older and it's time for a short break.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to go. Ask Alli, what do you worry
Speaker 1: about the most when it comes to philanthropy. What keeps
Speaker 1: you up at night? I worried that people don't see
Speaker 1: others in need. If you if you're not looking and
Speaker 1: you only live in your community and you don't branch
Speaker 1: out more, you don't often see the needs that are
Speaker 1: right around you. And I think it's our empathy and
Speaker 1: opening our hearts that get us to give. And I
Speaker 1: think sometimes people also mistake philanthropy is oh, well, if
Speaker 1: a philanthropist does it, then I don't have to do it,
Speaker 1: or then my government doesn't have to do it. No.
Speaker 1: In fact, it takes all of society working together. It
Speaker 1: takes philanthropic dollars, money and time. It takes civil society
Speaker 1: who's trying to raise their voices about issues, and it
Speaker 1: takes government funding to actually change the world. And so
Speaker 1: I worry sometimes that people stop realizing that, you know,
Speaker 1: we actually can change the world. Doesn't take very many
Speaker 1: of us, like a small group of committed individuals that
Speaker 1: does actually change the world. You know, it's It's interesting
Speaker 1: because you know, I'm I'm involved with a lot of
Speaker 1: organizations and I have a friend who has a foundation
Speaker 1: and we're working to end the rape backlog that kits
Speaker 1: And for me, I love to say to people when
Speaker 1: I'm trying to fundraise that, God, wouldn't it be this
Speaker 1: amazing thing if all of us women got together and
Speaker 1: ended the rape kit backlog. Wouldn't that make us sleep
Speaker 1: well at night? You know? So sometimes it's great to
Speaker 1: have a goal, you know what I mean, and bring
Speaker 1: people together for that. Definitely. So, Melinda, in your master class,
Speaker 1: which is the greatest way to learn how to be involved,
Speaker 1: you talk about how somebody begins to be a giver.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about how somebody uh
Speaker 1: sort of discovers an organization or something they feel passionate
Speaker 1: about and what the steps are to becoming involved in it.
Speaker 1: So I normally tell people start with your values, you know,
Speaker 1: reflect on your values of how did you grow up,
Speaker 1: what do you believe, who are you, who do you
Speaker 1: want to be in the world, And spend some time
Speaker 1: reflecting on that in quiet and then writing those down
Speaker 1: and maybe even refining them. And then once you know
Speaker 1: what your values are. Then I think going and connecting
Speaker 1: with people in the community. You can start either if
Speaker 1: you're part of a church group through that, if you
Speaker 1: have kids in school, you can see what volunteer opportunities
Speaker 1: others are doing in your school. You can go out
Speaker 1: and do a little bit of research in in the
Speaker 1: community or on the internet. You can go to the library.
Speaker 1: But I think doing a bit of research first and
Speaker 1: connecting with others, then you'll start to see who are
Speaker 1: the organizations that I want to get behind in the community,
Speaker 1: either with my time or my voice, or my expertise
Speaker 1: or my money. Once you have those values, I think
Speaker 1: then it's in you do some research. Then I think
Speaker 1: it's easier to say, oh, I want to go with
Speaker 1: this organization instead of that one. Um. In a perfect world, Melinda,
Speaker 1: you're a hundred and two and you're sitting outside i'd
Speaker 1: with a little blanket on your lap and your grandchildren
Speaker 1: frolicking in the grass. What would be a fantastic legacy
Speaker 1: for you? What would you like to sit back on
Speaker 1: your little down pillow and go, well, I did this,
Speaker 1: I think just for them to know that I felt lucky,
Speaker 1: lucky enough to be able to lift up some other families,
Speaker 1: whether it's hundreds or thousands, or maybe it's even more
Speaker 1: than that. If I'm lucky in my case that I
Speaker 1: lifted up other people and I was there for others
Speaker 1: in addition to our family. Um. And if I've done that,
Speaker 1: I think I will feel pretty proud talking to my grandchildren.
Speaker 1: And hopefully there are many. Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure
Speaker 1: there will be many. I love everything you're doing, and
Speaker 1: I'm just so I'm grateful you came and just talk
Speaker 1: to me about sort of everything you're thinking and what's
Speaker 1: going on, and and before I let you go and
Speaker 1: save the world. Um. In my podcast, I ask a
Speaker 1: lot of questions and then I allow my guests at
Speaker 1: the end to ask me anything anything. It could be
Speaker 1: a recipe, it could be something deeply personal about my husband,
Speaker 1: whatever you want. So I turned to you, Lynd and say,
Speaker 1: what what would you like to ask Ali? Well, I'd
Speaker 1: like to ask you Ali, as we are getting here
Speaker 1: near the end of the year, what has given you
Speaker 1: the most joy this year? Oh? What a wonderful question. Um,
Speaker 1: what has given me? I'll tell you a few things,
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you one that's more in line with
Speaker 1: what we're talking about what has given me joy is
Speaker 1: I have a daughter in college. I have my youngest
Speaker 1: who's a senior in high school. And I was very
Speaker 1: conscious this year of being as present as I could
Speaker 1: with my younger daughter because I knew she was leaving
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to be with her and whatever
Speaker 1: that looked like, if whether we were watching a movie,
Speaker 1: or we were cooking together, or you know, I was
Speaker 1: bothering her because I was asking her questions about her boyfriend,
Speaker 1: whatever it was, I thought, I'm just gonna eat up
Speaker 1: every last second I can with my daughter. That has
Speaker 1: given me great joy. Um. And you know, just to
Speaker 1: continue sort of what we've been talking about here, George
Speaker 1: and I are big believers in giving back. And we
Speaker 1: had heard about this young boy in Haiti who had
Speaker 1: been mauled by a group of wild dogs and a
Speaker 1: doctor friend of ours was gonna, you know, do through
Speaker 1: the surgery on him. He was coming up to New York.
Speaker 1: And you know, George and I helped this boy, a
Speaker 1: boy that I met very briefly but we'll never see again.
Speaker 1: You know, we have no connection to this child. But
Speaker 1: if somebody says to you that, you know, this boy
Speaker 1: is going to live or die and we just need
Speaker 1: some help. Of course, my God, of course. And this
Speaker 1: child is now after many many many surgeries, he's back
Speaker 1: in his his country and he's you know, playing soccer
Speaker 1: and he's he's living a life. But it was such
Speaker 1: a incredible gift to help somebody else. And it's those
Speaker 1: moments that I find incredibly fulfilling. And it's to be
Speaker 1: off us, you know what I mean, Like we're good,
Speaker 1: we have everything we need. What do you need? You know? Um?
Speaker 1: And I have a mother who's getting older, and to
Speaker 1: know that she's happy and you know, lifting her weights
Speaker 1: and and she's she's cared for, you know, as long
Speaker 1: as my extended family. Everybody's okay. I'm very grateful, but
Speaker 1: thank you. It was a long winded answer that was
Speaker 1: so beautiful. Oh my gosh. I agree. It's all about family,
Speaker 1: friends and doing meaningful work. It really is. There's an
Speaker 1: old Emerson quote, Ralph Waldo. Emerson says that success is
Speaker 1: to know that even one life has breathed easier because
Speaker 1: you have lived. That is to have succeeded so perfect.
Speaker 1: Think that's what you're doing. I love it. You, my God.
Speaker 1: You ended my podcast on such a fantastic note. Thank you, Melenda,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to Go
Speaker 1: Ask Ali. Check out Melenda's book The Moment of Lift,
Speaker 1: and you can see Melenda's masterclass on philanthropy at masterclass
Speaker 1: dot com. Give back this holiday season because now more
Speaker 1: than ever, people do need your help. For more info
Speaker 1: and what you heard in this episode, check out our
Speaker 1: show notes and be sure to subscribe, rate and review.
Speaker 1: Go Ask Aali and follow me on social media on
Speaker 1: Instagram at the Real Ali Wentworth Now. If you'd like
Speaker 1: to ask me a question or suggested guest or a
Speaker 1: topic to dig into, I'd love to hear from you,
Speaker 1: and there's a bunch of ways you can do it.
Speaker 1: You can call or text me at three to three
Speaker 1: three four six three five six, or you can email
Speaker 1: a voice memo right from your phone to Go Ask
Speaker 1: Gali podcast at gmail dot com. If you leave a question,
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