US foundations explore ‘futures’ for philanthropy

Overheard comment on the opening plenary at last year’s Council on Foundations conference, addressed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan: ‘Doesn’t Kofi Annan get it? Most of us don’t do international.’ Perhaps luckily for the rest of the world, none of the speakers at this year’s plenary seemed to get it either.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson spoke of ‘the millions who live in abject poverty’. ‘I see the deep humiliation,’ she said. ‘It’s completely the opposite of the equality and dignity and worth that the Universal Declaration talks about.’ Harry Belafonte, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, quoted Martin Luther King: ‘Terrorism is the final utterance of the voice unheard’ and went on to wonder about ‘the extent to which those who sit in places of power have ever really and truly heard those voices’. He spoke of the things philanthropy should do ‘for those who are most ground under’, both at home and overseas. Benjamin Barber[1] talked of ‘asymmetrical globalization’: we have globalized markets and technology. Where is global civil society, community, citizenship – the ‘container’ that makes the world human?

International giving by US foundations rising

In fact international grantmaking by US foundations is on the increase. A new report from the Foundation Center shows an 86.4 per cent increase between 1999 and 2000, from $1.3 billion to roughly $2.5 billion. The share of overall foundation funding rose from 11.3 to a record 16.3 per cent.[2]

The organizers of a conference session titled ‘International Grantmaking: It’s easier than you think’ had clearly anticipated an audience of complete beginners and found themselves with over 100 people in a packed room, most of whom were already doing international grantmaking, many making direct grants overseas. Speakers outlined four different ways of making overseas grants – and why they made them:

• through a US-based 501(c)(3) charity;
• through a donor-advised fund;
• through a community foundation, which sees international grantmaking as part of responding broadly to the needs of the community;
• directly to overseas organizations – either using an equivalency affidavit or using expenditure responsibility.

The advantage of the first two approaches is clearly that you can make grants in a number of countries easily and quickly. The potential downside is not having communication with the grantee or being identified with the grant (particularly an issue for a company?), but there are ways to over come this. More than one speaker talked of international grantmaking giving ‘tremendous bang for the buck’.[3]

Philanthropy’s future

What will philanthropy look like in 10-15 years? Is this a historic moment in its evolution, comparable to the early years of the twentieth century? This was the subject of a fascinating session on the last morning of the conference. Global Business Network (GBN), in partnership with the Packard and Kellogg Foundations, is involved in a ‘visioning’ exercise with the aim of catalysing exploration of the possible ‘futures’ of philanthropy.

According to Katherine Fulton of GBN, the early 21st century is witnessing ‘experienced and emerging leaders alike experimenting on many fronts at once, but doing so in ways that create shared knowledge and greater impact’. The tragedy of philanthropy is that we don’t learn from our mistakes. In this ‘knowledge age’ we could start to change that. Many of these experiments involve new forms of collaboration, new ways of linking groups of small donors with innovative projects – giving circles, venture philanthropy funds, women’s funds, etc.[4] It is estimated that by 2010 private giving in the US will have risen by $100 billion year.

In some ways there seems to be a remarkable consensus among foundations about what the future of organized philanthropy should look like. A survey was recently carried out among Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) members,[5] which revealed a wish among roughly 80 per cent of respondents to move towards a greater focus on long-term solutions, community-driven decision-making, non-financial support and capacity-building, and collaboration with corporations, government and other foundations. Fifty per cent felt the focus of grantmaking should become more global.

1 Benjamin Barber is a political scientist. His most recent book is Jihad versus McWorld (1995).
2 Highlights of Foundation Giving Trends 2002 can be viewed at www.fdncenter.org/research/trends_analysis/pdf/02fgthl.pdf. Estimates for 2001 foundation giving are also available at www.fdncenter.org
3 www.usig.org, the Council on Foundations/ICNL online resource for US foundations making international grants, now covers 19 countries. The aim is to include 30 by the end of September.
4 Some of these are profiled in the venture philanthropy feature in this issue of Alliance.
5 For more information about GEO, visit www.geofunders.org

For more information about the GBN project, contact Katherine Fulton at fulton@gbn.com or visit www.gbn.com/philanthropy

EVENT Council on Foundations 53rd Annual Conference
Date 29 April-1 May 2002
Venue Chicago, USA
Theme Opportunity & Uncertainty – Choices for Philanthropy