My Donations 2012

This is something new for me to share more of my personal tracking. I decided to be a better self-tracker in 2012. I tracked places I went in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 but only last year did I start to track in a real way a number of other personal items. That list includes books I read (that post is coming soon) and 100% of donations versus just my larger donations. I decided to include a second column for crowdfunding. It’s all split up below but I wanted to be able to really dig in and share where I’m giving to.

My goal was 1% of my salary. I have been exceeding that for most of my career (before the One Percent Foundation was created, though I do love that there is a larger movement towards something I believe in.

In giving there were a few areas that I really focus on. I first go local, so I give to places that were meaningful to me growing up like my alma maters and then I give locally to where I live. I also give to organizations that focus on my core areas: women & girls, financial literacy & microfinance and education. I also give when friends ask. So quite a few donations below are to birthday or other various fundraisers. I believe many of us are giving to organizations because friends ask and I know I greatly appreciate it when I ask and friends give so this is also really important to me. I give to people who I believe in. I give to more startup nonprofits than established ones. I give to socially relevant topics like Planned Parenhood’s battle last year. I give to places where I also dedicate my time volunteering and playing a bigger role (Kiva, She’s The First, Resolve, Step Up Women’s Network). Last, I included crowdfunding in my tracking just to see how much I gave over last year to Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. These aren’t part of my total donations but I did track them.

I’m not releasing the actual amounts instead I bucketed below. I’m excited to track again this year and really look at where I’m giving and how it supports my overall giving philosophy. I am going to be writing more about my own giving philosophy and am excited to put some of those thoughts to paper and share them here.

If you have a giving philosophy and want to share that with me, I’d love to hear from you.

Without further ado, giving in 2012.

$0-$100
Care For The Homeless
charity:water
Hole In The Wall Gang
Kiva
Plant A Fish
Red Cross

$100-$250
BPeace
Glory Reborn
Resolve Network**
Shady Side Academy
St. Edmund’s Academy
Step Up Women’s Network
University of Vermont

$500+
She’s The First*

Additional fundraising platforms used:
Crowdrise
Razoo
Kickstarter
IndieGoGo

* – Board of Directors
** Advisory Board

My Cities 2012

I loosely started tracking travel and writing it up in a blog post in 2009, then more formally in 2010 via a Google Doc I kept throughout the year. 2011 was a big year in that Taylor and I settled into a real home together and the nomadic road I had been on came to close. In 2011 I started a new job in New York City and the travel decreased from pretty much all the time, to a more modest vacation and weekend travel mixed along with business travel.

2012 was the most magical year of my life. Of course the #1 reason is that Taylor and I got married! A lot of travel in the earlier parts of last year was focused around other friends getting married and lots of trips to Pittsburgh before the wedding. After the wedding, Taylor and I started our list of “moons”! That is the many moons we’re taking in our first year of marriage together. Some of these are in this post, some will be in My Cities 2013.

I tracked more closely in 2012. I kept track of the purpose of the trip, how many nights I was gone and where we stayed. In 2011, I was away 74 nights of the year (20%) and in 2012 I traveled 94 nights, which is 25.75%.

I love travel and it’s such an important part of my life and of my life with Taylor. Looking at the list below it looks like a lot! But I also know that this is one are of our lives that we make time for. It’s where we allocate our disposable income, it’s where we recalibrate our souls, it’s where we connect with ourselves, each other and friends. It’s critical to how I define happiness in my life.

I’m looking forward to so many more adventures in 2013! Any trips or recommendations of musts, please leave them in the comments!

January (2)
Luso, Portugal – Palace Hotel do Bussaco
Lisbon, Portugal – Hotel York House

Highlights: Holiday trip to Portugal

February (3)
New Orleans, LA – Katie & Semmes’ House

Highlights: Mardi Gras

March (10)
Austin, TX – Driskill Hotel
Savannah, GA – Avia Hotel
Taos, New Mexico – VBRO House

Highlights: SXSW (year 5!), St. Patrick’s Day with my Mom and sisters in Savannah and Joey’s bachelorette in Taos

April (7)
New Orleans, LA – McKenzie’s House
Pittsburgh, PA – Mom’s House

Highlights: French Quarter Fest, Bridal Shower

May (4)
Santa Barbara, CA – AirBNB
Airplane – Red-eye

Highlights: Joey & Jeff’s Wedding

June (15)
San Francisco, CA – Anne’s House
Santa Clara, CA – Santa Clara Marriott
Los Angeles, CA – Mr. C’s Hotel
Venice, CA – Hotel Erwin
Montauk, NY- VBRO House
Roxbury, NY – Roxbury B&B

Highlights: Nicky & Paul’s Wedding, Ruthie & Erik’s Wedding, my bachelorette, LA work trip and showing Taylor around my old stomping grounds, speaking at WITI

July (10)
Burlington, VT – B&B
Shelton, CT – Marriott Courtyard
Carlsbad, CA – Grand Pacific Palisades
Miami, FL – The Perry
Pittsburgh, PA – Mom’s House

Highlights: Idyllic 4th of July trip to Burlington with Taylor plus showing him my college town, work trips to CA, CT & FL and a dress fitting in Pittsburgh

August (13)
Pittsburgh, PA – Mom’s House
Pittsburgh, PA – Hilton Garden Inn
Pittsburgh, PA – Mom’s House
McCoy, CO – Black Mountain Ranch
Pittsburgh, PA – Mom’s House

Highlights: Our wedding! Our MiniMoon to Colorado!

September (2)
Cape Cod, MA – Sea Crest Beach Resort

Highlights: Kate & Greg’s Wedding

October (3)
Luray, VA – Hemrock

Highlights: Weekend getaway to the Shenandoahs

November (14)
Chambersburg, PA – Mom’s House
Pittsburgh, PA – Mom’s House
Boston, MA – Sea Port Hotel
Antigua, Guatemala – Casa Santo Domingo
Panajachel, Guatemala – Villas B’alam Ya
Panajachel, Guatemala – Hotel Regis
Santiago, Guatemala – Posado Santiago
Washington, DC – Beacon Hotel

Highlights: Hurrican Sandy Evacuation, work trip to Boston, our VolunteerMoon to Guatemala through She’s The First and Starfish One By One and TEDxWomen and the World Economic Forum Young GLobal Leaders retreat in DC

December (15)
Las Vegas, NV -The Ogden
Paris, France -Air BNB

Highlights: Downtown Project Las Vegas & speaking at TechWeek and our holiday trip (aka ParisMoon) to Paris

Introducing Catapult. Crowdfunding and Microfinance Combined

What if you took the best of the web, combined it, and put the focus on helping women and girls? That is the challenge taken by Catapult, a new website that brings together crowdfunding and microfinance to help women and girls around the world. Launched (with exciting buzz) at the Clinton Global Initiative, Catapult is gaining momentum with both its early partners, supporters, press and new members.

Catapult was born from Women Deliver, a global advocacy organization that brings together voices from around the world to call for action to improve the health and well-being of girls and women. Women Deliver focuses on solutions by nonprofits, NGOs and voices from around the world. Catapult can do this through each and every one of us taking an action.

There are other platforms out there that speak just to microfinance or to crowdfunding. I know for me, when I am making a loan on Kiva, I specify that I want a project that supports women. However there wasn’t one place that only supported women and that went beyond microfinance for traditional businesses, home loans and educational loans but that also supported all of the ways women and girls in the developing world need our help. Also I would be willing to make my loan a donation, if only I was given the opportunity to do so.

Catapult also speaks to the growing need in nonprofits to showcase where our donation is going. Instead of making an unrestricted donation to an organization, donors want to know where their money is going and be able to track the progress of that initiative/campaign. Through Catapult they can.

Like Kiva and many other platforms, Catapult does not take a percentage of the donation. You can support them through an additional donation in check-out but 100% of your donation goes to the project you’re funding.

Here is their missions statement:

We all believe in a gender equal world.

Obviously.

But more than 500 million girls and women will be denied the opportunity to take part in the next generation’s development.

This doesn’t have to be the reality. Organizations working for girls and women currently raise less than half the average amount raised by other nonprofits and charities.

Catapult can change that.

We’re combining the financial power and actions of people like you to help tackle gender inequality around the world.

Join me, create an account, find a project you believe in, and help fund it. Spread the word. Help get these projects out into the world.

**Disclosure: Engender Health is a client and is one of the first organizations to launch projects on Catapult’s platform. But in all fairness, I knew about Catapult way before Engender Health was a client and that is just a happy by-product of being so involved and passionate in the women & girls network.

Our Honeymoon at a Dude Ranch in Colorado

What a hard decision! Taylor and I looked at a map of the whole world…THE WHOLE WORLD…and were faced with making a huge decision.

Where to go on our honeymoon.

Now of course, as two very experienced travelers, we had a few prerequisites that surfaced as we talked through every nook, cranny and crevice, or in this case every city, state and country. Our final decision? Black Mountain Ranch, a working dude and cattle ranch in the heart of Colorado. How in the world did we narrow down the whole world to one of most amazing places in the world? Keep reading!

1) We wanted a location in the United States. There are so many amazing things to see in the US and we both felt like while we had been all of the globe, there was more to see within our own country. We had just under a week after our wedding and we wanted to plan a bigger honeymoon for around the holidays so from a geographic perspective is also made sense not to go too far. Some might argue Pittsburgh to Colorado is far, but play along with me here. For us, it was just a quick plane ride away…plus a four hour drive from the Denver airport.

2) We wanted minimal decisions. Sometimes you go somewhere, like Paris, and you want to do a lot of research in advance, make reservations, wander around and get lost and have a map handy in case you need it. Those trip are great! I love to travel like that. But I also like to go someplace and have a “Club Med” version of a vacation, except for the Club Med part, I don’t like anything that feels “canned” or “stripped of cultural relevance.” If we’re in Colorado, we want to feel like we’re in Colorado! Back to minimal decisions. This is bliss to me: wake up, meals are pretty much pre-determined and the main thing you have to decide is which activity you are going to do that day. Given that we were planning a wedding, plus working, plus just having so much on our plates, we knew we wouldn’t have time to properly research anywhere and wanted to be able to pack, go somewhere, unpack and figure out the rest when we got there.

3) We wanted lot of outdoor activities. Yes, often vacations are about laying in the sun, doing a whole lot of nothing and eating lots of good food. I love doing that! For about 2 days. After that, I get a little restless. So does Taylor. Also I knew after the wedding weekend we would be mentally pretty tired and physically worn out, but we are really active people. If we were going somewhere for 6 days, we wanted it to be somewhere with lots of outdoor activities. Let the record show, the good part is non-negotiable.

4) We wanted to do something we’d never done before. We could have gone someplace tropical and gone snorkeling. Sure. That would have been really sweet. But we wanted an adventure! Something out of the box that would be way different. A dude ranch fits that criterion to a T. Horses, fishing, rafting, canoeing, shooting guns, playing pool, horseshoes, sleeping out under the stars, line dancing, learning to rope cattle, drinking beer from the bottle at 3pm…I mean if that all doesn’t sound like heaven, I don’t know what does. Best of all, I’d only done about 4 of those things ever before and of those 4, one of them I hadn’t tried in 10+ years. I mean it’s not every day you can have your OWN HORSE for a week and do pretty much whatever you want that includes cowboy boots. There isn’t one “coolest part” but if I had to pick, I would definitely say living as a cowgirl (outfit and all) for the week is up there.

Bonus Points: Referral from a friend. Let’s face it. A good friend telling you someplace or something or somewhere is amazing carries much more weight than not having any social context at all. That is why we all read reviews but it’s also why so much happens via word of mouth marketing. Our good friend Andrew Hyde had lived at Black Mountain Ranch last summer. He blogged about it and he included it in a chapter in his book, This Book Is About Travel.

With all of these things in mind, where in the world would you go?

I’m re-posting my review on Trip Advisor and Yelp below. If you’re interested in going to Black Mountain Ranch next summer, just let them know (honeymoon or otherwise). I’m happy to make an intro too and/or give you more information, hit me up! You can also email the Ranch directly at howdy@blackmtnranch.com.

What an amazing vacation! My (new) husband and I chose Black Mountain Ranch for our honeymoon. It might seem a bit crazy to spend your honeymoon on a Dude Ranch but it was exactly what we were looking for and I can’t recommend it enough!

During our week on the Ranch we met families and independent travelers – the Ranch can handle any group of travelers, all you have to do is bring your adventurous spirit.

The staff are so warm and truly lovely. They are great with kids, great with adults who are kids at heart and great with adjusting city folks to life on a working cattle ranch.

The setting could not be more stunning. Every day you’re surrounded by horses and landscapes as far as the eye can see. Your daily schedule is really up to you! Trail riding, arena riding, a trip to the shooting range, learning to rope, playing horseshoes, shooting pool, take a swim in the pool, go rafting, fishing, canoeing…see what I mean!

One night dinner is served at the lake, you ride there and back. One night everyone sleeps out at Pack Camp, and you ride back the next day. You pick the difficulty of your ride (easy, medium, hard) and once you arrive at Pack Camp your tent is set up and hot food is waiting for you. Plus campfire songs and the most beautiful night sky and stars you could ever imagine.

The food is so delicious with lots of options for your whole family. Breakfast and lunch are buffet-style and most days you order breakfast at dinner from a few options. Plus endless cookies on hand fresh-baked daily.

I love vacations like this – limited decisions! All you have to do is pick a few things every day and the rest is taken care of.

Your wrangler is your guide for the week but anyone on the property will help you with questions and everyone has skills they’re really great at and willing to share their tips and tricks from practicing roping to learning to Texas 2-step in the saloon in the evenings. Kids included!

Your horse is your best friend for the week. You’ll be shocked at how much more comfortable you feel on a hose by the end of the week. This goes for both experienced and non-experienced riders.

Not having a cell phone was a blessing and we didn’t miss it one bit. What a treat to really be on vacation and not be attached to your phone. There is limited wifi, but we didn’t use it and didn’t miss that either. There are of course phones on the property and ways to check back in with work/family if you have to.

Towards the end of the week, I mentioned to some of the families that I was surprised not to see one single kid meltdown or anyone not smiling all the time – the parents all agreed that since there were endless options and activities the kids were always occupied and that left everyone happy and tired at the end of the day. Same goes for adults!

As for us, it was a really romantic trip. We had tons of time to spend alone in the wilderness but also time to get to know some really cool families and some amazing staff, cowboys, cowgirls and wranglers.

Thank you to the May Family at Black Mountain Ranch for over 20 years of service. It was absolutely a vacation we’ll never forget and will be telling friends about for years and years to come.

Our Destination Wedding In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Recently, as many of you know, Taylor and I got married. We chose to get married in Pittsburgh, where my family is from and where most of them still live. Taylor also went to business school there so he spent a good two years in Pittsburgh and has many good memories there. So we picked Pittsburgh. A lot of people stop there when they think about the city they are getting married in. And then they turn their focus on the wedding itself and any other events around their wedding.

That’s totally ok! There are a lot of moving pieces around a wedding. I get it. But for Taylor and I, we really wanted to treat Pittsburgh as a destination. As a destination wedding.

Partially this was a nod to my upbringing but it was more than that. I have talked my whole life about how great Pittsburgh is but many of my friends had never been. Or, they had a misconception about Pittsburgh. We wanted to show them how diverse Pittsburgh is and how much it has to offer. We wanted to show the cultural history, the green spaces, the food. We wanted to use this as an opportunity to do our part to infuse money into the economy. We wanted to be good cultural ambassadors. So you might ask…

Pittsburgh as a destination? What? How?

You heard me! And let me fast forward to the end of this story. It worked. We pulled it off. How? Let me tell you.

First, we wanted to focus on the part of Pittsburgh where my family is from, the East End. So we chose a hotel near that area and most of the weekend activities were centered around that. We had a “welcome reception” Friday night and invited all guests to attend. That way people could meet up and find buddies to do things with on Saturday before the wedding.

Second, we leveraged technology. Not everyone has to do it to the extent we did, scale it to what works for you. For us we built a list on foursquare of our favorite places and told our guests to follow it. We built Pittsburgh into all of our pre-wedding communication (weekly MailChimp enewsletters for us but you could use anything). We customized our wedding website. We created a hashtag for our wedding that guests could follow on Twitter and that way they could also meet up with each other and find out what each other was up to. (Our was #STWedding).

Note: We changed the website after the wedding to show photos and took out event information so if you click through, it’s different than it was but the Pittsburgh parts are the same.

Third, we built a Pittsburgh page on our wedding website. It reads like a NYTimes “36 Hours In Pittsburgh” but has our voice, our favorites and is written for different audiences (athletic, culture, foodies, etc). We also talked about transportation and provided information on public transportation and taxi numbers so guests could figure out how to get from point A to point B and didn’t feel like they had to rent a car (even though a few did and that worked out great too)!

Note: This was also a nod to our NOLAlicious roots, so the format is one that matches our New Orleans newsletter of 2010 and is a big part of how we first became friends.

Fourth, and maybe the most important, we encouraged our guests (many of whom didn’t know each other and were in Pittsburgh for the first time) to meet up and do things together. So the wedding became a chance to explore a city we love and a place we really wanted everyone to see. The wedding was the culmination of the weekend and the lynchpin, but Pittsburgh was the backdrop and we wanted everyone to be able to experience it and love it as we do.

Fifth, we got out of the way! I knew once the weekend kicked into gear that we would be out of pocket. All of this information was communicated well in advance. I actually was jealous when I heard about how all of our friends did just about EVERYTHING Pittsburgh had to offer and I didn’t get to do it with them. But I knew I couldn’t play along, I had to get ready for the big day! So I let everyone else go and do their thing.

If you’re planning a wedding, in Pittsburgh or anywhere else, I encourage you to think about ways to build the backdrop into your wedding. Create the space for your guests to really enjoy the location. Many of them have traveled a good distance for you and your significant other, so let them enjoy the place you choose and enjoy getting to know each other. It makes the wedding all the more special when people leave at the end of the weekend with new friends, strengthened connections and good memories of where they’ve been.

For Pittsburgh, here are our recommendations…go out and explore! Let me know how it goes!

Go

Expand your mind… at the Andy Warhol Museum and the Mattress Factory. The Andy Warhol Museum is a great place to explore Warhol’s work in the town of his birth, and the Mattress Factory currently has a Yayoi Kusama exhibit, a can’t miss.

Get educated… by walking around the University of Pittsburgh (you’ll see the Cathedral of Learning, the second tallest university building in the world, from various spots around town) and Carnegie Mellon University. Taylor went to school at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, if you’re interested in seeing where Taylor spent 2 years!

Wander… The Strip District, the original economic center of Pittsburgh, now a historic market district that is especially alive on weekend days.

Explore… the Southside Slopes, home to over 700 sets of staircases, more than San Francisco.

Do

Shop… on Walnut Street in Shadyside, home to boutiques, bars, and a mix of long-time Pittsburgh shops and new chains, all tucked into one of Pittsburgh’s best neighborhoods.

Shop, eat and drink at The Waterfront and Southside Works, former homes of the steel mills that gave Pittsburgh it’s name, heritage, and soul. Go for a drink, a movie, dinner, or shopping.

Yoga… at Amazing Yoga in Shadyside.

Run… in Schenley Park or Frick Park. Frick Park has a couple great playground for kids and plenty of green space and woods for playing, walking, and running.

Eat

Breakfast… at Pamela’s Diner in Shadyside. Known for their chocolate chip and banana pancakes, but everything is good.

Indulge… at Primanti Brothers, a Pittsburgh institution, known for hearty sandwiches with fries and coleslaw on the sandwich. Bring your appetite, and prepare to walk off the impending food coma.

Return to your university days… at The “O” near University of Pittsburgh (properly known at Essie’s Original Hot Dog Shop) for a hot dog and fries.

A slice of pizza… from Aiello’s Pizza in Squirrel Hill. Best pizza in Pittsburgh, according to Sloane.

Get a drink… at William Penn Tavern in the heart of Shadyside.

See

The view and the sunset… from Mount Washington. The view from Grandview Promenade and Mount Washington Lookoutis one of the best of the city. Take a ride up the Duquesne Incline ($4.50 round-trip, exact change) and enjoy the views from one of the most scenic commutes you’ll ever see.

A football game… at Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pittsburgh Panthers (college football). The Steelers are playing an exhibition game on Sunday, Aug 19th (click here for tickets), stay for a game!

Lagniappe

A day trip outside Pittsburgh… to Fallingwater. 50 miles outside Pittsburgh, Fallingwater was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and is a national architectual landmark for its style, design, and construction.

Note: Tickets for Fallingwater must be bought in advance for a specific day and time. Time fill up, so definitely plan in advance. Check for tickets here, and all details are at Fallingwater.org. If you’re thinking of going on Saturday, make sure to plan for the 1.5 hours drive each way.