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Each year, the Institute invites a renowned scholar to give an original public address on a topic related to faith and giving. The public lecture includes a question-and-answer session and an opportunity to interact with the speaker, allowing the community to engage him or her in thoughtful discussion on the ways religion or faith informs philanthropic practices.
James M. Hodge, III
Synopsis: When our focus is primarily on money in seeking philanthropy, we chase money rather than meaning in our profession. This focus on the product (money) lessens the importance of purpose in our work, and not only raises less philanthropy, it devalues the noble role that philanthropy can play in a well-examined life. Our work in philanthropy must make the material to spiritual shift. A focus on the impact and difference philanthropy can have on lives, communities, and indeed the planet must be the raison d'etre of our profession. This will necessitate an entirely new form of metrics in philanthropy. Not the quantitative metrics of money, but the qualitative metrics of ever deepening relationships with benefactors and their perceptions of themselves at their best. This idealized, new and engaged philanthropy will be the result of nonprofit organizations and philanthropists co-creating mutual desirable futures.
Jim Hodge is Manager of the Principal Gift Program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Prior to his current tenure at Mayo, he served as Director of Development, Associate Vice President of Bowling Green State University in Ohio. His 21 years of fundraising experience include special emphasis on planned giving. He currently acts as adjunct faculty for the Center on Philanthropy’s The Fund Raising School, has served on the editorial board for New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising, and has written articles focusing on planned giving and major gifts.
Richard Gunderman, MD, Ph.D
Synopsis: A celebrated teacher once said that the truth will set us free. One such liberating insight concerns the relationship between giving, education, and faith. Many of our goods, such as money and the things money can buy, tend to be diminished when shared. Others, such as knowledge, can remain undiminished and in fact grow through giving. An example is liberal education, an encounter with a human being or a text from which both teacher and student emerge enriched. This is nowhere more apparent than with the greatest human beings and texts, which draw us into conversation about the kinds of lives we are called to lead. Such texts address matters of faith -- faith not as the choice between belief or disbelief, but as the view of ourselves and the world on which we are staking our lives. It is in liberal education's shared quest for faith that we enjoy one of our greatest opportunities to give and to achieve our fullest liberation as human beings.
Dr. Gunderman is Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Medical Education, Philosophy, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy at Indiana University. His publications include We Make a Life By What We Give (2008), Achieving Excellence in Medical Education (2007) and Leadership in Healthcare (2009).
Dr. Ingrid Mattson
On Thursday, March 25, 2010, Dr. Ingrid Mattson delivered the 7th annual Thomas H. Lake Lecture to an audience of approximately 120 people who came from both in- and out-of-state to see her speak. Among those in attendance were university professors, students, leadership of the Islamic Society of North America, Jewish and Christian clergy, and representatives of multiple Indianapolis-area Muslim congregations.
Following greetings from both Dr. Patrick Rooney (Executive Director of the Center on Philanthropy) and Dr. Charles Bantz (Chancellor of IUPUI), Dr. Bill Enright (Director of the Lake Institute) introduced the Institute’s first female and first Muslim lecturer. Petite, and wearing a blue and green hijab, Dr. Mattson commanded the audience’s attention with her clear voice and dynamic address. More...
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