My birthday is coming up, August 25 to be exact. While I’m very big on celebrating such occasions, I’m not so big on presents. Don’t really need anything. I don’t wear much jewelry. Don’t need any more knicknacks to have to dust. Really need to cut back on my chocolate consumption. So I’ve decided if anyone asks what I’d like for my birthday, I’m going to ask for a donation to the IABC Research Foundation.
And I’m going to start doing the same for gifts I give. Thank-you gifts, speaker gifts, something to send instead of flowers or gift baskets. It’s a gift that hits all four of my I’s, supporting international communications research, expanding our influence on the profession, providing inspiration to become a Foundation supporter, and demonstrating the importance of individual contributions.
So if anyone out there wants to help me celebrate my birthday, there’s a link below that let’s you make a donation online. I’ll start it off by making a donation of $1 for every year I am old (but I’m not telling you the total!).
PS – I’ve learned that I share my birthdate with Mari Pavia, the IABC staffer who manages the Research Foundation. So feel free to celebrate her birthday with a donation too!
Barb, I share your birthdate, too! What a great way to celebrate it.
Awesome! And, Barb, since I am, perhaps, “a few years older,” my dollar-per-year donation will be a little bit larger! Happy Birthday!
Barb,
I think this is a great thing for you to ask for, but I’m not sure it’s a good strategy for gift-giving. Surely gifts, like communications plans, should focus on the target’s needs/wants/interests, not on yours? Thank-you gifts, speaker gifts, hostess gifts and the like fulfil social functions and, as such, are often culturally ritualized.
I think that philanthropy as a gift is specific to the American (perhaps Norht American) culture. A few years ago, I celebrated Mother’s Day by making a donation to the Breast Cancer Society in honor of my mother, who is a nurse. She loved it, and her colleagues also thought it was great. My French in-laws are totally perplexed by such acts. Gifts here are meant to be a tiny bit frivolous for the receiver. So a man could give his wife a silky nightgown, but never woolly pajamas. Thus flowers, wine and chocolate all have their uses, but also have a slightly decadent side to them, which makes them perfect gifts for social functions.
It would be interesting to see what IABC members from other countries think.