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Black Women's Blueprint, a 2022 Brooklyn Community Foundation Spark Prize winner

Discover Your Social Impact Personality Type: How Do You Spread Love in the Community?

Social connections and community impact are two of today’s most important cultural trends. Combined, they add up to a growing commitment to philanthropy. 

Not everyone likes to “do good” in exactly the same way, though. Understanding the ideal mix of charitable activities based on your social impact personality type—investor, connector or activator—can be useful as you decide how to spread love in your community. 

Investors prefer to engage in social impact activities that are independent, preferring to put their financial resources directly behind the causes they care about. Investors may not have the time to engage with charitable work in person, but are able to write a check or purchase a product that supports a cause, mobilizing funds to support their favorite organizations.

Connectors prefer to engage in social impact activities that are social in nature, involving the opportunity to get together with other people, although not necessarily always in pursuit of the same specific charitable endeavor. This may include celebrating at community events, gathering for demonstrations, or spreading the word about a favorite cause on social media.

Activators are passionate about participating in one or two causes they care most about, and tend to focus on moving the needle on a single social issue on a broad scale. They generally tend towards focused and scheduled activities oriented toward a specific task or community goal—many people who serve on boards of directors are activators.

Whatever your social impact personality type, our team at Brooklyn Community Foundation can help you reach your goals, whether you are a donor or donor advisor in our community.


 

For investor types, our team can help you:

  • Incorporate a racial justice and equity lens into your charitable giving

  • Discover local and national nonprofits that serve your areas of interest

  • Set up a Donor Advised Fund with us to facilitate your charitable giving

  • Structure your estate plan to include a bequest to your existing Donor Advised Fund at Brooklyn Community Foundation 

  • Give appreciated stock to your Donor Advised Fund—instead of cash—to minimize capital gains tax exposure

If you are a connector, you may want to:

  • Donate in honor of a friend or loved one to their favorite charity.

  • Set up a giving circle with like-minded people, pooling your resources to make high impact grants to organizations working in fields you are most passionate about.

  • Come together with siblings, children, and grandchildren during the holidays to make one big gift from your Donor Advised Fund to a single charity, as a family.

  • Follow us on social media @BklynFoundation (InstagramTwitter, and LinkedIn) and sign up for our monthly Giving Matters newsletter to learn about events and campaigns by our community partners across Brooklyn.

Finally, for activators, our team can advise you on how to:

  • Find local organizations to support—financially or by other means—that are leading movements on issues of racial and social justice, whether through direct service work, advocacy, or a combination of both, like our Community-led Social Change grantees.

  • Give to immediate response and relief efforts, such as our Brooklyn COVID-19 Response Fund, in the wake of humanitarian crises.

  • Become a champion for our borough-wide Giving Tuesday campaign, #BrooklynGives, which unites donors and nonprofits in support of social change on the year’s biggest single day of giving at BrooklynGives.org

Getting in touch with the ways you like to give back means you’ll enjoy your community engagement even more. That’s good for the community—and good for you, too.   


To learn more about Donor Advised Funds and how they can help you or your clients give with intention, contact our Donor Services team at donorservices@bcfny.org.

Melissa Pawlak

Donor Services Manager (She/Her/Hers)
Whatever your social impact personality type, our team at Brooklyn Community Foundation can help you reach your goals, whether you are a donor or donor advisor in our community.