New Book: Change Philanthropy

Posted by on November 9, 2009

[posted from Comm-Org]

Got Grants? Maximizing Impact?

Funders are getting advice from all over the place these days… hold the line, be strategic, cut back on grants, make more grants, stick with what you know, try something new, give to programs, offer general
support….

Aarrgghh!

What’s a funder to do????

It could make you frustrated enough to run to Facebook or tweet your rant.

Or…

It could make you thumb through Change Philanthropy: Candid Stories of Foundations Maximizing Results Through Social Justice, a new book sponsored by the Center for Community Change, written by Alicia Epstein Korten and published by Josey-Bass.

It’s easy and fun to read.  Each chapter could be its own fun, sophisticated reality TV series on a Philanthropy channel. Real people. Real issues. Real disappointments.  Real change.  Real impact.  Money
well spent.

Change Philanthropy tells the stories of 10 foundations engaged in addressing the important problems of our times-changing neighborhoods, quality public education, disaster relief, family-supporting wages, fair immigration policies,-  and illuminates the lessons learned as they decided how to approach these issues and divulges what worked and what didn’t.

Change Philanthropy defines social justice as citizens transforming systems, institutions, and cultures to ensure that all citizens can participate fully in the social spiritual, economic and political life of a country, regardless of their position or station in life.  Social justice philanthropy moves beyond funding that focuses solely on services such as homeless shelters or hospitals, to one aimed at helping people influence the context in which they live.

The book argues that one critical way for foundations to become even more relevant is to improve the balance between funding services that ameliorate symptoms of societal ills and addressing root causes of those ills.

You might be asking, what does this mean exactly? Here’s an example. The Leeds and Jobin-Leeds families initially funded one education institute to service a handful of children left behind by New York’s decaying public school system. Over time they came to question why so many public schools in New York were failing. As a result, they decided to put their money behind the Schott Foundation to make their dollars work supporting grantees in their efforts to transform the larger New York public school system so as to reach a much broader number of children.

And there are many stories in the book like this one.

This book is written for funders who are dedicated to stretching grantmaking dollars to make a positive and permanent difference. And each chapter includes lessons for how to be better grantmakers, diligent financial stewards and responsive to the people whose lives the grants are hoping to make better.

Who stars in the book?  Ford, Mott, Jacobs Family Foundation, Discount, Open Society Institute, Schott, Needmor, Global Fund for Women, Liberty Hill, The Gulf Coast Fund.

Buy this book.  Have your highlighting pen ready. Don’t be afraid to turn down the corners of the pages where you have an aha moment.  And there are many of them like withstanding controversy, redirecting investments, funding campaigns, bridging political differences within the family, community involvement, allowable lobbying.

Share it with new program officers and seasoned board trustees.

Because, as Gara LaMarche, President of Atlantic Philanthropies says, “it is ever is ever more urgent in this period of global economic stress, that foundations and the organizations they fund put their power and money behind strategies that promote lasting change, not temporary charity.”

That’s what funders should do!