Giving Compass' Take:

• Writing for the National Committee for Family Philanthropy, The Philanthropic Initiative's Leslie Pine lists five ways to approach the giving journey from a Zen-like "beginner's mind," useful for newcomers and veterans alike.

• It's always good for philanthropists to reset if they feel that things are starting to go astray, and this mental exercise should help those who are perhaps stuck in the weeds.

• Impact philanthropy is all about making changes from within, as this piece articulates.

As you consider launching or ramping up your own philanthropic endeavors in the future, consider a few of these approaches and envision where they might take you:

1. Find out what the future is asking you. Inspired by futurist Mark Stevenson, I like this challenge because it requires you to put aside the past and present. If you desire change, what is happening now is not working. Or perhaps it’s working, but you can see disruption on the horizon. Consider where current trends point, not only within your walls, but within your industry or field of interest and in the markets and communities you serve. Be able to have a “future-literate” conversation.

2. Take one step at a time. Often the first step is to define the change you want to see, and to do so with optimism. Don’t rush this, but keep at it steadily until it is right. The result is a point on which to focus, against which anything extraneous to your primary purpose can be set aside.

3. Use your "don't know" mind. Don’t pre-judge. Once you articulate your goals, don’t rush into the future carrying only what you know now. You are seeking real change, and the right answers may be counter-intuitive at first.

4. Look at experience from fresh perspectives. Your own experience clearly has value, but re-examine it for evidence you might need to convince others — even if you are in the driver’s seat.

5. Think long-term, knowing there will be adjustments along the way. Change requires risk. Risk requires managed experimentation. It’s okay to think small, testing ideas to gain data on how they can be improved and to identify how they might be scaled up efficiently.

Read the full article about approaching philanthropy from a beginner's mind by Leslie Pine at ncfp.org.