Philanthropy Can Wait
The generous impulse that can hurt the people you most want to help.
"Hold the big giving until your wealth is secure."
Meet Laura. After she sold her business, their family started donating money almost immediately.
After we sold the business, our family started donating money right away. It felt like what a wealthy family does, and we were finally one of them. The asks came fast once the sale was public, and we said yes to a lot of them. We gave $200,000 to our congregation. We scattered smaller checks to nonprofits and causes we believed in, anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000, wherever we were asked. We even started our own nonprofit. Right out of the gate, we were giving away more than $100,000 a year.
What we got wrong was the timing. When the money lands it feels like the finish line, so the giving feels overdue.
But wealth has stages. First you accumulate it. Then you preserve it. Only after your own financial future is preserved should you start thinking about what the rest is for, and that's the stage where real giving belongs.
After we sold the business, we should have been in preservation mode: making sure our own future was actually preserved, with decades of life and bills still ahead. Instead we skipped straight to giving, before we'd finished securing our own footing. It's the same rule as the oxygen mask on a plane: yours goes on first, then you help the person next to you. Ours was still off, and we were reaching over to help everybody else.
I'm not saying don't give. Giving has been one of the greatest experiences for our family. It's just this: wait until your family's financial future is preserved before helping others. The causes aren't going anywhere. You don't need to rush this. Philanthropy can wait.
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