A good deal, as it turns out. To illustrate, let me stretch the travel metaphor a bit thinner and reconstruct for you an historic trip through the scenic philanthropic countryside of Greenville County, South Carolina. The Emrys Foundation was publicly dedicated to the promotion of women and other minorities in all artistic endeavors, but our maverick group also embraced as our quietly subversive mission changing the artistic profile of Greenville itself. Although our members are predominately female, we, like the Marines, always make room for a few good men. The unexpected pleasures I have experienced in playing on the Emrys philanthropic team are manifold.
Focused intimacy produces friendships born of communal efforts to achieve shared goals.
This kind of comradeship, free of the obligation to give bridal showers for the daughters of friends, or to endure confidences about ungenerous spouses, provides one of life's great unpremeditated pleasures. And there is no greater bonding experience than together giving away the foundation's money through our scholarship and fellowship programs. Using the combined clout of a few thousand pooled philanthropic dollars, we earn the right to have our agenda considered in planning the programs and setting the policies of many community organizations. It's one of the hard facts of life that institutions are more grateful for checks written for several thousand dollars than for several thousand hours of volunteer sweat. The pleasure of having your say, of being heard and attended to, is one of the great joys of philanthropy.