Last week I had the great pleasure of spending an evening with a few “social entrepreneurs” at the conclusion of a quick 2-day trip to Israel for a series of meetings. Without meaning to denigrate any of the others with whom I met, that evening was certainly the highlight. It is so refreshing and reinvigorating to spend time with those who are truly committed to invention, re-invention, and re-balancing the volunteer sector. As readers of my blogs or attendees of my lectures are well aware, I firmly believe that we are in the midst of a profound transformative time in history, and that 21st Century institutions are being created or evolved in just such settings. Whatever little knowledge I can share with those who attend pales in comparison to what I learn from them and how optimistic it … Continue Reading
Size Matters
Not since the Madoff business have I been asked for my opinion by more people than I have since Warren Buffett began his highly publicized assault his very rich peers on behalf of big money philanthropy. Some of the questions I have received are predictably voyeuristic - the endless fascination with the lives of the super-rich and famous. Hate to disappoint, but even when I might have something interesting to say along these lines I wouldn’t tell the press. Most of the questions, though, reflect a real puzzlement that goes beyond fascination. What does it mean about the current state of philanthropy? What will it mean for the independent sector? What are the implications for the rest of us who may be altruistic and generous but can hardly match the munificence of the 40 richest? What will … Continue Reading
The Role of Private Philanthropy
In recent months, there have been a number of voices arguing that private philanthropy should reflect agreed upon societal needs and not be so “private.” There are numerous arguments which inform this perspective - the most cogent argue that philanthropic money is for the public good and therefore should be held to some standards that demonstrate a commitment to the public good. If there are hungry, homeless, illiterate, impoverished people, is it legitimate to support wealthy cultural institutions? The logical extension of this argument is that there should be some consensus measure which determines what social needs are - and implicitly, what they aren’t. There are numerous problems with this: It may seem to be obvious if we compare supporting Harvard vs. a homeless shelter, or the … Continue Reading
The Outcome Debate Continues
I suspect that most readers will not be surprised to learn that I am pleased to see that we in the blogosphere are beginning to see some of my fellow philanthropy bloggers plead for a more balanced and reasonable view of effectiveness measures for non profit success. For the last few years, most of the noise has been from those who push for ever more sophisticated metrics, outcome measures, effectiveness indices, ratios, and the like. While well intentioned, read together, these attempts at applying some sort of “objectivity” to the grantmaking process and the results by the recipients have often served to straitjacket the process, force unrealistic and frankly meaningless and premature measures on npo’s/ngo’s, and distort the ability to get at what really matters. In fairness, much of … Continue Reading
“WiseGen”…. If Only!
Recently, a wonderful young leader, Seth Cohen of Atlanta, wrote a blog piece advocating that younger leaders and funders would do well to learn from and not dismiss the wisdom of those whose life experience might provide welcome insights for them. He called that older group “WiseGen.” At first blush, I was inclined to read this as a “shout out” to my own work. After all, for several years, the name of this blog, the address of our website, and our domain name are all ‘WisePhilanthropy.com’, my book is “Saying ‘Yes’ Wisely”. Implicit is that there are things that one can learn from the real life experience of many generations of funders, and that the greatest gift I can give in my teaching and philanthropy advising is to help apply the wisdom of others to individual decision … Continue Reading
A Plea for Less Guilt Inducing Philanthropy
You may think that this posting, my first in the year 2010, written just after the onslaught of end-of-year fundraising requests, is about the tone, content, and timing of those requests for our money. Indeed, one could have an interesting post about that, especially now that much of that previously wasted paper has been replaced by on-line requests which all come from the same script. “A week left”, “only 48 hours left” “last day to….” But I will let others with more expertise on the fundraising and development side tackle that. No, this posting is addressed to those of us who give money, and those of us who advise people how to do so. What concerns me is that those of us who write about philanthropy are increasingly doing so in a judgmental and guilt inducing manner. The guilt … Continue Reading
Giving and Gifting: A Message For the Season
With the gift giving season upon us, I am re-posting this seasonal message. Originally written in 2004, this has been requested and reprinted many times. ‘Tis the season…. For gifting and giving. Gifting focuses on the object; giving is about the subject. Gifting answers the question how much we give; giving shows how much we care. Gifting satisfies our lists; giving satisfies our life. Gifting fulfills our responsibility; giving expands our sensibilities; Charitable gifting rewards our bottom line; philanthropic giving celebrates our highest values. Gifting changes the mood; giving changes the world. Gifting expresses our generosity; giving expresses our love. May the holiday season teach us that the best gift of all is truly giving of oneself. It is the gift which … Continue Reading
Who Are the Experts?
from Wise Philanthropy: Philanthropedia - Some early observations and questions Technology allows and public culture encourages individuals to give to projects based on their own interest and to respond to projects as identified through a growing number of direct giving sites. These models permit a funder or donor with limited means to nevertheless play a key role in supporting a specific project and have reasonable confidence that the money is going directly to that project - without undue bureaucracy or mediation. This also allows such donors to be proactive rather than reactive to solicitations, which we all know can become annoying. However, we also know that this open source funding model has a weakness: where is the assessment of the quality of the project or of the organization? It is … Continue Reading
The Innovation Generation: The “Values” Proposition
In my work with families and foundations helping them make good [for them] decisions about their giving strategies, there are two pre-condition steps which make all the difference: I help them understand their “culture” and their “values.” Without an understanding of both of those, their philanthropy may be high quality but their satisfaction is likely not to be. So I spend a lot of time on both. With the critical mass of newer models of non profit organizations and giving models, it is interesting to step back to see what it looks like from the “culture” and “values” vantage. There is no need to rehearse here all of the developments of this era. Technology and communication have redefined how we do things, when we do things, with whom we do things. The question which remains … Continue Reading
You Don’t Need to Be Rich to Be a Philanthropist
The other evening, at a wonderful benefit event, honoring two genuinely deserving people who represent a new generation of philanthropic leadership, I had another one of those predictable conversations. “How much money does one need to have to utilize someone like you?” they asked. A question I am asked, in one form or anther, all the time. [In my case it is an easy answer: it doesn’t matter. I charge everyone by the project, not by the depth of one’s pocket or the scope of one’s giving.] Implicit in the question is that only the ultra rich or the super rich, or at least the very rich can afford the kind of advisory services which can make one a better, wiser, or more sophisticated. Only the rich can really be philanthropists. This is not true. The difference between being … Continue Reading
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