CheekyChicago

I have been called a lot of things in my time. As of late, I’ve noticed that certain terms of endearment (so to speak) directed at me have taken on some new and interesting forms. Some of these names, I had to Google.

Let me explain.

Months ago while chatting over wine and talking about my charity interests, someone said, “Oh, so you’re a Grassroots gal.”  It was a term I had heard of, just one I never considered calling myself. At least until now. I thought about the term, about what the term implied, and was actually quite proud that someone referred to me as such. When I thought ‘grassroots,’ I thought of this describing a person who really felt a drive and passion for delving into their community via volunteerism and community generated donations (free donating and delivering of goods). When I reminisce of growing up – hanging tightly to the coat tails of my mother at American Brain Tumor Association fundraisers – I think of her first empowering me to think more open mindedly about making differences in the lives of people I didn’t know by expressing my appreciation of what it really means to listen to others in need.

The other day I was speaking to a colleague in passing, oozing over my love for Cheeky, and this person says to me , “You know, you’re basically a Citizen Philanthropist?”  Now this was a term I had to Google. Basically, I understand this to be a person using media, mostly social, to engage in charitable/philanthropic giving.  For example, people who donate a dollar online via sites like Facebook and become a “fan” of a cause. They may be in turn receive a bracelet representing said cause. These people are donating more money through these sites then organizations have ever witnessed before through online campaigns. They are tweeting about their pledging, becoming “fans” of Facebook groups, and Skyping telethons in volumes. I do not tweet. I am only logged into my Facebook account once every two weeks. I have never Skyped, and furthermore, I do not own the tools to Skype even if I wanted to. I am thinking my colleague saw my outreach amongst the online community as being my means of socially networking ideals of giving – which, in part, is true.

Now, ironically enough, the same conversation led to that person asking about my history of being a volunteer.  Their response was, “It’s nice to see an Anti-Slactivist nowadays.” I had never heard of this word before either – in researching this new little gem, I found myself gaining insight through Urbandictionary.com. Urban Dictionary defines this as people who are Citizen Philanthropists that talk the talk, but don’t necessarily walk the walk when it comes to conventional volunteer opportunities. For example, they participate in a Facebook campaign or become a “follower” of a charitable group, but cannot provide or choose not to participate in grassroots giving. Charitable slackers of sorts.

So this brings me to defining one last phrase for you to mull over – the Inner Philanthropist.  It is what it sounds – the notion of all of us taking time to discover what our limits are when it comes to giving, donating, and volunteering. If you are a person who only has time to go to your social media sources to network the causes you want to support, then bravo. Keep it up. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that the online donor is a bigger contributor than ever before. I know that new fundraising possibilities have come from social media.  However, if you are a person – like me – who wants to be in the face of philanthropy and charitable endeavors in your own community – then lets be the first to introduce the newest term of endearment; a new term you can use to refer to me and a new term I can use to refer to you…a Cheeky Philanthropist.

Welcome to the club, Cheeky readers.