Be Present

I had the opportunity to listen to a very eye opening presentation by Cynthia Rivera Weissblum, President and CEO of the Edwin Gould Foundation recently at a leadership summit. She made a great point about the importance of being present to become a successful leader. There are always a million tasks to do and lots of internal and external "chatter" that are a distraction from what is truly important. When you can distance yourself from that "organizational noise", you can become a thought leader that can see the forest through the trees and can add value to your organization. She described a coupling of a love for the greater good and a desire to be operationally sound as the ideal combination for a successful leader. Here are other pieces of advice from Cynthia:

• If you have defined the end game of your position as "doing everything", you have already lost the battle.
• When you are trying to create organizational efficiencies, collect data to show that there is a better way to do things. Data + Humility=Success.
• Don't fear change, that fear is just a reminder that you need to look at the issue from multiple angles.
• Bring consensus by learning to bring the best thinking of an entire group together.

Stretch your Grantmaking Dollars

How much larger would the impact of foundation giving be if every single foundation only engaged in mission-related investments?

Career Defining Moments

One year ago I was selected as an Association of Black Foundation Executives Connecting Leaders Fellow. To say that my selection was a career defining moment, is an inadequate understatement. When I applied for the program I was aware that I would receive professional development, the support of a professional coach, and education on how to better serve the Black community through organized philanthropy. What I didn't realize at the time was that I was also going to receive a nearly limitless supply of seasoned mentors who had a vested interest in my success, as well as the "excuse" to dedicate time learning from those that have come before me in the philanthropic field. Too often in our careers we say that we don't have time for professional development. We'd love to call that person, whose career we've been admiring from afar, but are afraid they'll think we're weird. We'd like to do research on effective grantmaking strategies but it's outside of our current job description. A year of doing just that has shown me that a year is not enough. To be a truly effective grantmaker, you need to spend an entire career asking tough questions, learning from the successes and failures of other foundations, taking the time to really get to know your peers from other foundations, and to learn important lessons from those that are retiring out of the sector to ensure that their years of hard earned experience and wisdom do not leave the sector with them.

Take a few minutes today and think about what your ideal professional development program would look like. Would you travel to see other foundations in action, would you interview the best and brightest in the nonprofit sector to see why some organizations thrive and others do not, would you read about the early greats in philanthropy (Rockefeller and Carnegie) to figure out lessons their giving can teach us abut philanthropy today? Once you have those key components in your head, I challenge you to go out and do it. The only thing that is stopping you is you.

New partnership between foundations and MTV angers nonprofits

The New York Times recently wrote about how a new collaboration between MTV and some national foundations has left many nonprofits in the dust.

MTV has begun testing a social networking Web site called ThinkMTV.com that is intended to encourage activism among young people. It has the financial support of four foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Case Foundation.

But the foundations’ alliance with a for-profit venture has upset leaders of several similar nonprofit sites, some of whom have unsuccessfully sought support from the same foundations in the past.

“We have often been told by funders, including some of those announced as underwriters of the Think site, that they don’t fund this kind of work, so it kind of bothered me to hear about this,” said Jennifer Corriero, executive director and co-founder of TakingITGlobal.org.

Ms. Corriero’s organization is one of the social networking sites MTV studied before setting up Think MTV, and she said she had hoped that a collaboration would develop. “It’s been really challenging for us to attract funds to run our services,” she said. “We were hoping that part of this work with them could enhance our platform and build on what already exists, instead of reinventing the wheel.” More...

Is a foundation's role to build the nonprofit sector or do they have the flexibility to work with for-profit organizations that may have profit related motives but have a much larger reach? Pros/Cons?

How to be your Program Officer's BFF

New Voices of Philanthropy is participating in this month’s giving carnival hosted by Arlene Spencer's Seeking Grant Money Today blog. The topic this month is “ Are relationships everything in Philanthropy, today?” Since I’m writing from the foundation perspective, my opinion is that it isn’t everything, but it is the most important thing. Fabulous program ideas will get you far, but a good relationship with your program officer will help move that idea forward.

A positive relationship with your program officer is hard to come by and even harder to maintain. This difficulty has nothing to do with your stunning personality or their interest in getting to know you and your organization better, it is just a byproduct of the great number of relationships that they have to maintain. Developing this relationship is important because your program officer needs to be your interpreter and advocate throughout the entire grantmaking process. These tips may not have you and your program officer braiding each others’ hair and you still may not be in their cell phone’s five favorite people but it will help make the grant process more civilized.

1) Turn in your application at least one month before the stated deadline. There is nothing that builds a good grantmaking relationship quite like an early application. Early applications give a program officer time to fully read and analyze the proposal and call with any follow-up that may be needed to make a good decision about the fit of this proposal into the foundation’s guidelines. Grant application that comes in five minutes before the deadline don’t get that personal touch. Do everyone a favor and make a fake grant calendar for yourself that gets applications in early enough to start a dialogue with the funder.
2) Don’t stretch the limits of creativity. Great grantwriters can make any program fit within the guidelines of a foundation. Fundraising for a humane society and the foundation you are prospecting only supports healthy family development? Dogs are like part of the family! Fundraising for a junior high band trip to Germany and the foundation only supports mental health programming? Vacations are the best medicine and have you ever met a junior high student that wouldn’t benefit from a little bit of therapy? This kind of creative writing only wastes valuable time that could be used cultivating a relationship with a funder that is a better fit.
3) Be honest. When asked about weaknesses in programming or audit numbers that don’t add up, be honest. Foundations don’t expect your organization to be perfect but they do want you to be able to identify and work on weaknesses. By pretending that those weaknesses don’t exist, you create a feeling of mistrust that is hard to overcome.
4) Ask for feedback on unsuccessful proposals. Getting a “no” is hard but by being dedicated to continuing a relationship you learn important things that may strengthen your next application to that foundation. Maybe your proposal was denied because they wanted to see a partnership with a local school district or maybe it was denied because they no longer fund youth development. You might also find out that the “no” was because they had run out of money for this fiscal year but if you reapplied in two months, your proposal would be a good fit.

What other tips would you give to grantseekers to develop a positive relationship with their PO?