The idea behind these meetings is fairly straightforward: to discuss the question of why anyone would choose to live and work in the “nonprofit world.”

Though the idea behind the meetings is straightforward, however, the questions we will ask may not be. The questions we will address, like work in the nonprofit world, involve understandings of individual commitment and social justice. These are large and complex questions, questions people tend to answer with their hearts or their guts or only with shrugs rather than with words and reasoned accounts.

Here we will try to speak carefully and meaningfully, and to listen similarly, with the hope that we can enhance our understanding of why we do what we do. Because we will be pursuing questions as close to us as they are complex, we will orient our meetings around relevant and provocative excerpts from the writings of some who have thought long and hard about these questions and who also happen to have informed, often in indirect ways, our own opinions on these matters.

The goal throughout is the exchange and scrutiny of ideas.

This Phase II discussion is offered to younger people doing work as civic leaders in their communities and educates younger civic leaders involved in community change about traditions of philanthropic giving.

This discussion is limited tovolunteers and workers at Public Allies Chicago.

For more information, please contact Adam Davis at 312.422.5580.