June 2008

I hope that you have enjoyed my posts this week focused on and inspired by Bill Somerville and Fred Setterberg’s book, Grassroots Philanthropy. Feel free to read my earlier posts A New Kind of Philanthropy and A Look in the Mirror. I am including a longer quote from the book than I usually would. I found this passage of great comfort and inspiration. I know that all of us in the nonprofit world have been confronted with the enormity of societal problems and our own smallness in our ability to respond to them.

I love Bill’s response because it comes from many years of seasoned experience. In Bill’s shoes I might have a cynical approach to philanthropic success and I know myself that I have asked the question sometimes, “Are we really making a difference?” Bill writes to grantmakers but I think the message is the same to all of us in philanthropy. I encourage you to read the following as if it were written to us fundraisers.

Initiative grantmaking [fundraising] is also tempered by matters of size and scale…We focus on locating outstanding leaders and giving them free creative rein in discrete pockets of the community that they know best…It does not transform the world utterly or overnight.

We [Foundation Bill works at] don’t tackle projects beyond the scope of our modest resources. Despite the temptations, we will never attempt to untangle the Bay Area’s nightmare commute by underwriting massive public transportation projects or launch bottom-up reforms to transform our national healthcare system… we do not suffer from delusions of grandeur regarding our ability to burrow into vast and intricate public policy issues and emerge with the answer.

Does that mean grantmakers [and nonprofits] of limited size must content themselves with treating their communities’ ills with figurative Band-Aids?

Not at all. We know our limits—but only because we’ve repeatedly tested them… We also admit to ourselves that we will not achieve all of our goals during our collective lifetimes, never mind within the course of a single career.

But instead of dwelling on what lies beyond reach, I often find myself reflecting on the prospect of social tipping points—the means by which small improvements on a continuing basis trigger widespread change… I believe that if we all keep working with the smartest, most dedicated people in our midst, then we’ll make progress. At any moment the odds are stacked against us as grantmakers [fundraisers or social entrepreneurs], but time is on our side.

I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s post, A New Kind of Philanthropy. Today I wanted to talk little bit about a reflection that has been on my mind for a long time. Author Bill Somerville highlights in a few places in his book, Grassroots Philanthropy, what I have seen as a huge disconnect in true philanthropy.

A question I have asked myself many times is, “Isn’t philanthropy only possible because of a flawed economic system where a very few wealthy people have more than many unwealthy people?” Bill Summerville quotes an individual by the name of Luther King, “‘Philanthropy is commendable,’ wrote King, ‘but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.’”

I’ve always struggled when people talk about “ending hunger” or “ending poverty.” I absolutely believe we have the ability within ourselves and the economic means to solve hunger, poverty, or an other significant global problems. However, I have found that I do not have the own means of personal sacrifice necessary to make this come to fruition.

“In the world as it is now,” asserts the philosopher Peter Singer, “I can see no escape from the conclusion that each of us with wealth surplus to his or her essential needs should be giving most of it to help people suffering from poverty so dire as to be life-threatening. That’s right: I’m saying that you shouldn’t by that new car, take that cruise… whatever money you’re spending on luxuries, not necessities, should be given away.”

Those thoughts have stuck with me very strongly as I spend my life in fundraising trying to make the world a better place. Bill’s response to Peter is, “That’s a stiff standard, one that few of us are willing to embrace. But its severity also puts philanthropy in perspective. Aren’t we obligated to make greater efforts to ameliorate the lot of people suffering in our midst?”

I’ve made a pretty bold statement one that I acknowledge I am guilty of myself. So what is your response and what should my response be? What kind of “greater efforts” can we make to “ameliorate the lot of people suffering in our midst?”

A couple months ago I came across a remarkable book, Grassroots Philanthropy, by Bill Somerville with Fred Setterberg. Bill makes some remarkable observations on the philanthropic world and challenges today’s foundation world to be more efficient and effective. This week I want to focus on a couple of revelations that I have had as a result of reading this book.

I want to start by giving a brief summary of the book for my foundation readers. The book is written to a foundation employee audience but, outside of this post, I am going to focus on my reflections as a nonprofit professional. Quoted below are the “Seven Immodest Proposals” that Bill makes to the foundation world.

1. Get out of the office and into the field at least 30 percent of the time.
2. Pare back the paper to a slim stack.
3. Speed up your response time.
4. Empower the executive to make grants without board approval.
5. Establish a venture fund for riskier grants.
6. Fund outstanding individuals engaged in important work.
7. Link large foundations with smaller community foundations to pursue grassroots grantmaking.

If you are in philanthropy in anyway I encourage you to give this book a read. I do not and will not traditionally encourage you to read a book, unless I’ve read it and believe it to be worth your time. If you are interested in getting a copy of the book you can purchase it from the publisher or through amazon.com by following this link: Grassroots Philanthropy.

If you want another person’s opinion on the book feel free to read the review at GiftHub.org or SocialActions.com.

I’ve worked in three very different fundraising shops in my career and have found that they all have done things very differently and raised very different amounts of money. I know we have all looked enviously at other organizations and how well they can raise money and lamented why people are not knocking down doors to fund our programs. But the truth of the matter is growing a fundraising program takes a lot of work.

It is important that you rejoice in the fundraising strengths of the organization that you work for. I worked for a children’s hospice that was closely tied to a professional hockey team and they raised most of their money from hockey enthusiasts and businesses that wanted to align with that organization. I recently worked for a social services organization that had fantastic grassroots support. Currently I work for an organization who’s development program has great connections but is still relatively young. Every one of these nonprofits has it’s own strengths.

I want to take a moment to encourage you to improve on what you are already doing well. If you have great community support learn how to maximize it. If you are connected to a sports team then see what kinds of partnership things you can do to raise more money. I’m a huge advocate of trying new programs and having a well-rounded development office. But, don’t forsake your strengths as you continue to improve. Take a close look at what you are doing successfully right now and find ways to grow your successful programs. Once momentum has begun with a program you can often raise a lot more money improving it than starting over and trying to build momentum again in another area.