Everything has a learning curve, even giving - perhaps especially giving.

Take Reed Sandridge who is giving $10 away to a stranger every day for one year. Reed is in the midst of a significant personal change; he recently lost his job. His answer to what many of us would think of as a time to focus only on ourselves is to give back. Reed's guide is his mom "who always told him that when you're going through tough times, that's when you most need to give back".

What's especially interesting about his story is that even though he's only giving $10 away each day, he's in a learning curve. He's not embarrassed by what he has to learn and in fact is being very transparent about success and failure. Check out his blog and you'll see what I mean.

We've had lots of learning curves as well. If you were to draw a picture of Fourth Partner's learning curve it would look a lot like a stock market chart. From the heights of success to the valley of occasional failures, we have been learning ...

I’ve never given to the United Way so I was surprised when Doug Bolles, Executive VP at Southside and the Chairman of the Allocations Committee, called and asked me to sit on the Committee to help make decisions about funding the 24 agencies they support. Had I not known Doug so well I might have thought this was an indirect way to get Fourth Partner involved in United Way. However, Doug is not indirect. In fact, Doug may be the best and most focused Chairman of any committee with whom I have ever worked. Do not invite him to serve unless you are serious about results.

My take on the way decisions were made at United Way about funding were shaped years ago. Early on I had been assured that a few friends with overlapping board responsibilities and club friendships met briefly and made the decisions about who was funded and how much they were given. That may have been true years ago but nothing could be further from the truth today. What I experienced was a process ...

One of the most consistent topics of conversation among parents is how to encourage our children to give. We've collected some of the best remarks we've heard from both adults and children and you may find them useful.

1. Expect them to give. Everyone responds to expectations. We have high expectations for them in school, social situations and in competitive sports - and they typically work to meet those expectations when they are reasonable and still challenging. Do the same for them in giving. Set the standard and they will rise to it.

2. Show them what you give. Too often our giving is a family secret for any number of reasons. Ron Blue made a point when his children were young to show them exactly how much and to what ministries he and Judy were giving. Not only does it expose them to good ministries early on but also it gives them an example from the people they respect the most. It also makes it real for them. Otherwise, children have to imagine the amount and typically ...