I am sitting in the Zeitgeist Arts Café in Duluth listening to some awesome jazz reading an ebook by one of my favorite people, Katya Andresen.  I just had a great discussion with about 20 nonprofit leaders in the Duluth area about how to use the tools of GiveMN to increase their online giving.   (Special thanks to the MN Council on Nonprofits for organizing this event.)

The drive to Duluth from the Twin Cities was beautiful - a sea of green budding trees, picturesque farms and the breath taking vista when you come over the hill into Duluth. 

Sitting by the Lake Superior reminds me of one of my favorite people, my grandpa Tom Nelson.  My grandpa loved his lake - Clear Lake, Iowa - where he lived almost all of his 83 years.  Grandpa Nelson died last month and will be so very missed by those of us he left behind.  His visitation was a major town event with hundreds of people coming through to pay their respects to a man who had done so much for his community.   As a business owner in a small town, people looked to him as the leader that he was.

It was amazing to hear story after story as people came through... your grandpa encouraged me to go to college and then paid for my books, your grandpa was my boy scout leader and took us camping every summer, after my husband died your grandpa mowed my grass and shoveled the walk for years, I worked for your grandpa and he made sure we had a chicken dinner if we worked the Sunday shift... and on and on.

And there were the awards.  As we gathered photos and newspaper articles to make a memory board, I found awards from the Lion’s Club, the Lake Preservation, his church and more - all of whom he and my grandma had supported financially for decades.

My grandpa would never call himself a philanthropist.  He never really liked to talk about himself.  He loved people and his town.  It has helped me better understand why people support so many different causes and organizations - we are moved and motivated for deeply personal reasons.  He loved that lake and those who lived by it.  I miss you Grandpa - I hope I can teach my sons that caring about where you live is always the right thing to do. 

I’d love to hear from GiveMN readers - who inspires you to give?