One of the things I hear most often these days since announcing Your Philanthropy is spinning off to become its own philanthropic consulting firm is, “I’m so excited for you…now explain again exactly what you’ll be doing?” The question usually can be interpreted to mean, “What kind of people will you help? And if it’s just wealthy people, then I don’t see myself ...[Read More]
Who is You
Fred Smith: Mailbox Money
My family moved to Tyler in 1984, and I almost immediately began teaching a Bible study that had been going for 20 years. The couples had begun as young parents and kept meeting weekly through all the stages of raising children and seeing them go off – and then seeing some of them come home again to raise their own families here. I discovered that Tyler is a good place to find relationships ...[Read More]
The Proof Is In The Pudding
At a family reunion this past weekend, I learned my father used to pay his younger siblings a nickel for their chocolate pudding when he came home on military leave. He loved chocolate pudding, and I was raised on it – the homemade kind my mother cooled down in a water bath in the kitchen sink. To this day, eating homemade chocolate pudding produces feelings of comfort and pleasure for me, and it ...[Read More]
Fred Smith: The Land of Opportunity
Kyle Penney at the East Texas Communities Foundation has created an interesting and insightful study of the transfer of wealth that is going on in East Texas and will last for at least the next 50 years. While the total transfer in the United States is in the trillions of dollars, the numbers for East Texas are also remarkable. Kyle estimates that over the next 10 years, almost $21 billion will tr ...[Read More]