‘Catalytic philanthropy’ drives US Confrence impresses

‘Catalytic philanthropy’ is driving grantmaking in America, say New Zealand philanthropy professionals who have recently returned from the US.

TrustLine, June 2010

A group of five New Zealanders, representing five organisations involved in philanthropy, attended the GEO National Conference in Pittsburgh in April to learn more about  philanthropy within this international context.

ASB Community Trust staff Chloe Harwood and Karyn McLeod have returned  impressed by the scale of US giving, but confident that philanthropy in New Zealand still measures up well.

“The US is the heartland of evaluation and strategic grantmaking, so they do have a jump-start on us,” commented Chloe, the Trust’s Policy and Research Manager. “We got to hear from large funders and we could see that philanthropy there is an industry. They borrow extensively from the business model, focus on fewer projects and they are strategic about advocating for policy change in areas such as immigration and health.”

Karyn McLeod, the Trust’s Grants Manager, said the GEO (Grantmakers for Effective Organisations) conference drew 500 delegates from 350 member organisations – a small conference by US standards,  where up to 3000 people can sometimes attend a philanthropy conference. However, major philanthropic organisations were represented, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, W. K. Kellogg Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, The Rockefeller and Ford foundations.

Much of the talk at the conference was about “catalytic philanthropy”, said Chloe. “They are trying to bring groups together to bring about change. They work to understand the big issues and bring partners to the table through intentional giving.”

The pair noted that the US focus is on workforce development and job creation, with businesses working closely with universities to ensure students graduate with the skills that businesses need.  The philanthropic sector, too, has a strong focus on jobs and economic security, job training and job placement.

CEO of Philanthropy New Zealand Robyn Scott, who also attended the conference, said replication was a key issue.

“Funding innovation is one thing, but replicating it and diffusing it - going to scale - is another,” she said. “For successful replication, you need to fund and measure in years not months, invest in leaders as much if not more than in programs, and insist on good metrics.”

Robyn also commented on innovation, which was another strong theme at the conference.

“Philanthropy today takes place in a context that is radically different from the one in which the processes currently in use were developed,” she said. “Foundations are dealing with large, complex problems, under new pressure to be transparent and with a nonprofit sector using new tools and processes. Without innovation, philanthropy’s efforts will no longer match the emerging realities of the world.”

Karyn said that US philanthropic groups have been grappling with the same issues New Zealand organisations face, including the effects of the 2008/09 global financial meltdown.

“Eighty per cent of grantmakers had to cut costs last year with some making staff lay offs for the first time,” said Karyn. “Only 18% of not-for-profit grantees expect to break even this year and there’s now a concern that saying no to grant applicants last year may have damaged relationships.

“They’re noticing that fewer grantees  are applying for grants and one theory is that community groups are now so busy trying to survive that they haven’t got the time and resources to invest in applying for grants.”

Chloe agreed that the effects of recession are still visible, at least in Pittsburgh,  but she was encouraged by the American delegates’ robust attitude to discussing mistakes and learning from them.

“Delegates at the conference shared their organisation’s internal resources with us, such as evaluation models and how staff report to the board – things you won’t find on a website. We were impressed by the way they encouraged learning and discussed even their bad decisions.”

Chloe and Karyn also travelled to New York to visit key philanthropy organisations including The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Ford Foundation, New York Community Trust Trust, Edna McConnelland the Robin Hood Foundation.

After comparing New York’s population of nine million to the population of New Zealand, they came back optimistic that philanthropy has the scale and resources to make a difference here.

“New Zealand compares well,” says Karyn. “it is promosing to know that we  are using research to guide our assessments, there’s a good balance of funding and it’s still about people, the community and relationships.”  

Read more about GEO at www.geofunders.org