USF Sarasota-M anatee Harry Leopold has shared a lot in his lifetime. During his career, sharing his knowledge, skill, and expertise led to success as an investment banker. Retiring young, Leopold began focusing on a different kind of sharing — philanthropy, which he says has given him more satisfaction than anything else he has accomplished. Now Leopold has created the Leopold Institute for Philanthropic Studies and, along with the University of South Florida SarasotaManatee and the Lifelong Learning Academy, aims to share with others how they can discover the joy and satisfaction of giving. A five-session series, “Discovering the Joy of Giving”, begins in January. Each session is followed by a cocktail event at the Powel Crosley Estate. “Participants will gain new tools to maximize the impact of their giving and perhaps an increased deep satisfaction, pleasure, and personal sense of purpose,” Leopold says. Experts who will be sharing their insights during the series include: Tracy Gary, author of Inspired Philanthropy; former ambassador and presidential Cabinet member James Joseph, author of The Charitable Impulse; Herald-Tribune Executive Editor Bill Church; Sarasota philanthropists Bob and Diane Roskamp, founders of the Roskamp Foundation, and Alison Powell, co-producer of the Conversations with Remarkable Givers video project for The Bridgespan Group. Series participants will distribute $25,000 in grants from the Harry Leopold Foundation to five local nonprofit organizations. Leopold is well known here as a philanthropist who has donated millions of dollars to many local performing arts, cultural, human services, and educational nonprofits. Even so, the feeling of his first giving experience years ago still resonates. Leopold and his parents immigrated to the U.S. from Holland and worked as farmers. Eventually, the family of seven was able to buy a small farmhouse with only one bathroom on the second floor. That became a hardship for his father while recovering from cancer surgery, and Leopold had a first floor bathroom installed when his parents were on a trip. “When my father saw it, he started crying,” he said, “and I discovered feelings I didn’t know I had. I realized giving was as wonderful for the giver as the receiver.”
Photo by Rod Millington
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December 2014
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