Past Issues
Winter 2010
It seems like we’re always up against something urgent that needs doing before we can find time to do it. And there’s no time like the holiday season and the onset of a new year that makes us conscious of what’s left undone, and how it’s important to prioritize and make improvements in ourselves. This is a special time of the year only if we take time to enjoy what it is meant to represent. No matter your particular faith, the season represents hope, salvation, simple miracles, and another chance to make personal improvements we’ve been putting off. Take the time to enjoy what this time of the year really means and direct this year’s change in you towards the improvement of the lives of those in need.
This issue, we take an in-depth look at critical issues facing our communities as we explore transformative success and on-going challenges in the battle against homelessness and domestic violence. Download to read more…
Summer 2010
Themes will often run through the pages of Today’s Giving. In our first issue we discussed new ideas for collaboration and the economy. Issue two developed around spring and renewal, so health and the benefits of volunteering emerged. The process of defining the articles and topics is interesting and rewarding. In each issue we develop, we are guided by our goal to always provide an honest perspective to ensure that insight, inspiration and guidance is vetted through a more journalistic approach to writing versus just great story telling.
The theme for this issue was challenging, because it is a large topic with many facets: education. As many of us spend the warm summer days (hopefully) on family vacations, going to the lake, meeting old friends at reunions, and joining new family members at weddings, we are also planning for the next year. Download to read more…
Spring 2010
The calendar says March 21 is the first day of spring, but those of us living in the Upper Midwest know better. For us, spring comes much later. We must first endure winter’s last stance through the March and April storms that delay our release just a few more weeks. We need to witness the winter snow that we strained to blow and shovel into orderly piles dwindle down in the spring sunshine; moving our battle with mother nature from our roadways and driveways to our rivers and streams that will ultimately usher the effects of winter away. Winter’s cold and quiet nature is part of who we are. Spring and its promise of renewal is the spirit of hope that allows us to cope and thrive even in the depths of winter’s grip.
We may experience a time of “winter” in our personal lives, as well, when all seems cold and dormant. Whether through addiction, a health or faith crisis, extreme poverty, or simply through the effects of age, each of us is susceptible to the isolation that our personal trials create. Download to read more…
Winter 2009
Already, we’re looking back at the first decade of what seems like still a brand-new century. With it came dramatic revolution: Changes in the ways we learn, work, and interact.
Changes in the ways we earn and spend. Changes in how we see ourselves, and the world. Changes in what we value. Changes in what we want to change.
The attacks of 9/11/2001 altered long-held perceptions that the Western world in general and America in particular are inexorable and untouchable powers—especially among America’s younger generations who’d grown up in a country without the draft; without major war. Over the remainder of the decade, America’s youth have engaged in activism and politics at a level unequaled since the ’60s.
In the meantime, the first U.S. baby-boomers reached retirement, and a generation so passionate about shaping the world around them four decades ago is now poised to do the same through a new trend in philanthropy in which contributors take more active part in causes they support. Download to read more…
