D.C. conference highlights excitement in giving

Last November, the first-ever White House Conference on Philanthropy was convened, hosted by Hillary Clinton with President Bill Clinton.

Subtitled "Gifts to the Future," the day-long event was broadcast by satellite to 3,000 Public Broadcasting System stations, was available on the Internet and now is available on videotape.

Because philanthropy is my beat, so to speak, I asked Ozarks Public Television for a copy of the videotape, and they obliged by obtaining it for me.

I honestly thought I would know most everything that would be said, but I was wrong.

It was a beautifully planned and executed two-hour excerpt of the full conference, with the purpose of finding ways to magnify and instill the philanthropic spirit in America in the new millennium.

It was such an inspiring celebration of individual acts of philanthropy, small and large, and contained such exciting news about new trends in philanthropy that I wished I had been there.

So many ideas were presented that it will take more than one column to discuss them.

One thing is sure: A different future is ahead for us.

Hillary Clinton said there has never been a better time for philanthropy in America than today. It is a time of unprecedented wealth in our country, and soon we will see the upcoming $12 trillion transfer of wealth to the baby boom generation.

She gave an amazing example of what could happen if each American family would increase its giving just 1 percent from the 2 percent of income now given to 3 percent.

We could, each year, offer child care to more than 6 million children, deliver 250 million more meals to homebound elderly, guarantee Head Start programs for preschoolers across the country, provide shelter to 4 million homeless, save all rare books in all our libraries, and still have enough to start a Ford Foundation each year.

Emmett Carson, president and chief executive officer of the Minneapolis Foundation, and scholar of African-American philanthropy, spoke about the largely unacknowledged, but strong, role of minorities in philanthropy.

He predicted that minority and youth giving will become even stronger in the future.

This was borne out by representatives from Hispanics in Philanthropy, who spoke of the newly formed League of Hispanic Charities; the Jewish Funders Network, who cited the long and deeply rooted tradition of giving in the Jewish community; and the Council of Michigan Foundations, which has launched an exciting statewide program of youth philanthropy rapidly being copied across the nation.

Carson proposed that philanthropy day be celebrated at Thanksgiving in recognition of the fact that giving of some kind is present across all economic classes.

Philanthropist Paul Newman, America Online CEO Steve Case, the presidents of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the National Charities Information League were all present.

Also present was 18-year-old Justin Timberlake of N-Sync, who just established a foundation to provide more opportunities in music for high school students.

In my next column, I'll discuss the other exciting trends discussed at the White House conference.

(Jan Horton is president and CEO of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, proud to be a lifelong volunteer, advocate of the arts, and conservationist.)