From High-Tech Workers to High-Powered Givers

By ELIZABETH GREENE

When Jim Johnson was ready to start giving away some of the money he had earned at Intel Corporation, the computer-hardware expert attacked philanthropy the way he would any engineering problem.

“I said, Okay, I need to get educated about this,” he says. Like many high-tech workers,

he grew up in a middle-class home, where philanthropy extended only so far as the church and a Christmas donation to the Salvation Army. “I realized that I didn’t have the cultural training.”

People in high-tech industries have been labeled as stingy for being reluctant to part with their wealth. But Mr. Johnson, the Oregon site manager for Intel, says his peers have a strong desire to understand philanthropy better and to contribute more.

Through the Northwest Giving Project, which has offices in both Portland and Seattle, Mr. Johnson and others are trying to spread what they have learned to others like themselves.

Often that means educating people about specific ways to give, from starting a foundation to sitting on a charity board, and helping them to clarify what it is they want to achieve through their philanthropy.

Sudden Opportunities

“They have this opportunity that they never envisioned that has come upon them suddenly,” says Janet L. Barry, interim director of the Northwest Giving Project and the manager of the Seattle office.

Giving newly wealthy people basic information has become one of the chief jobs of the giving project, which was started last year with a three-year grant of $325,000 from New Ventures in Philanthropy, a project of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers. In addition to money from New Ventures, the Northwest Giving Project has raised $437,500 from local and regional donors.

In Portland, the group is closely linked with Intel, which has more than 15,000 employees in the area. In the Seattle region, it is busy working with the employees at Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Real Networks, among others.

Last month, the Seattle group brought eight seasoned donors together with about 35 new ones — most of whom had earned their wealth in high-tech jobs in the last 10 years.

Donors on a panel were asked to speak about the types of charitable projects they were involved in, their greatest rewards and lessons, and what they wished they had known earlier.

The conversation took many turns, from ways to bring children into philanthropy to some of the greatest challenges faced by donors, and became quite personal at times.

Wanting Information

Creating a “safe place” to talk about philanthropy — in this case it was a donor’s home, though the actual place is not as important as the feel — is key to stimulating that sort of conversation and the enthusiasm for philanthropy that follows, say charity leaders and donors themselves.

“What scares high-tech people is to walk into a room with a bunch of nonprofits and then have a big sign on their foreheads that says I want to give my time and my money,’” says Mr. Johnson. “What they really want on the top of their foreheads is I may be willing to do this, but I need to get a lot more information before I take that step.’”

It also helps to give such donors, who set high standards for themselves and others, access to national experts on philanthropy, observers say.

The Portland group has held eight presentations at Intel, which provides the room and the equipment and lets Joyce B. White, the program manager for the project’s Portland-Vancouver office, take care of the rest.

With a financial planner and officials from a private and a community foundation, Ms. White explores ways to organize one’s giving, from donating directly to charities to establishing a private foundation, and delves into a subject close to the employees’ hearts: the implications of giving stock acquired through Intel plans.

Intel’s Mr. Johnson gives a presentation at each session on his own philanthropic journey, which 26 years at the company has made possible.

He and his wife, Nancy, are now trying to interest their two youngest daughters, who are in high school, in their work with abused teenagers, an anti-litter organization, and a community group that serves low-income residents.

Initially, the push to get involved came from Mr. Johnson’s wife. “She wanted to give and I wanted to make sure that we had enough money to support our family,” he says. But that dynamic didn’t last long. “We had a lot more money than we needed.”