Alliance Online - December 2007

New directions for old philanthropists?

Caroline Hartnell

EVENT Association of Charitable Foundations 2007 Conference
Date 19 September
Venue London, UK

This year the UK’s Association of Charitable Foundations forsook its usual two-day residential conference, opting instead for a one-day event in London in September. With two enjoyable plenaries, a good selection of breakout sessions and an evening receptions, the 270 participants seemed to enjoy the new format. Maybe less is more? Support for campaigning, engaging with new philanthropists, and mission-related investing were some of the topics that came up.

The opening plenary, entitled ‘The Bigger Picture’, focused on the state of civil society in the UK and the implications for foundations. All three panellists seemed to be broadly agreed on the lie of the land. ‘Something feels wrong with civil society at the moment,’ said Debra Allcock Tyler (Directory of Social Change). People automatically look to the state for solutions, she said. They are more aware of their rights than of their responsibilities as citizens. Campbell Robb (Office of the Third Sector) stressed how ‘extraordinarily important’ it is that young people should engage in civil society. Stuart Etherington (National Council for Voluntary Organizations) painted a picture of civil society as increasingly dependent on government contracts, especially in the areas of social welfare, health care, and education and training.

Both Tyler and Etherington commented on the fact that large charities are getting larger while smaller charities are suffering, with trusts and foundations exacerbating the situation by increasingly giving larger grants to a few large charities. All three saw a key role for foundations in creating space for civil society, supporting campaigning, funding alternative voices – as Tyler put it, ‘acting as a counter-balance to the state’.

Not much new about new philanthropy?

The second plenary of the day asked ‘What's new about new philanthropy?’ Not that much, was the slightly surprising answer given by Matthew Bishop (The Economist). But there is a boom in philanthropy – among the ever-growing number of billionaires, giving money away is becoming the thing to do – and the new philanthropists do see themselves as new. They use terms like social investor, social entrepreneur, venture philanthropy. They are recreating the intermediaries they valued in their business life.

One thing that is new about them, said Bishop, is the scale of their ambitions. They're used to achieving things on a global scale and that is being carried over into their philanthropy. Mayor Bloomberg, for example, wants to eradicate smoking from the world. Bill Gates has major diseases in his sights. But though they think big, they don’t think of themselves as having big money compared to governments, so they talk a lot about leverage and their particular niche. They see themselves as innovators in the social sector, with others taking their ideas to scale.

They place a big emphasis on organization building and they think long term. ‘What have been your successes?’ Bishop asked Bill Gates recently. ‘It's early days,’ was Gates’ reply. ‘We’ve only been doing this seven years.’

But the new philanthropists definitely don’t see themselves as ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’; rather, they seem to feel people haven't been thinking about problems or trying to solve them. And this arrogance could end up defeating them, said Bishop. Warren Buffett doesn’t want to talk to non-profits; instead he has handed over to Bill Gates, who at least tolerates them. There is a danger that a parallel sector will be created doing the same things as the existing sector.

So what is to be done? We need to get the ‘new kids on the block’ to listen to what the older philanthropists have to say, said Bishop. But it’s not just up to the new kids. Couldn’t the older philanthropists talk the new langauge in order to engage them? The existing world of philanthropy needs to embrace transparency in order to tell their stories, their successes and failures. ‘I urge you to find ways to talk to them,’ Bishop ended.

One important question that arose in the discussion was whether you can have too much philanthropy. Billionaires are not accountable for their actions if they decide to change focus overnight. ‘We need to have a discussion about the role we want the mega-wealthy to play in society,’ said one participant.

Climate change on the agenda

The conference offered a wide range of breakout sessions, with two devoted to use of foundation assets, one on mission related investing and one on ethical investment – surely a sign of growing interest in this area.

Another newly topical subject is climate change, and ACF’s session on the topic was perfectly pitched for most conference participants, with three generalist grantmakers talking about why they are starting to consider climate change in their grantmaking. For Joseph Rowntree Charitable Foundation and for Comic Relief, this stems from the growing realization of how much climate change is going to affect the poor of the world. As Stephen Pittam (JRCT) put it, climate change ‘needs to come out of the environmental box’. Now they see it as a social justice issue, it's easier to start thinking about how to integrate it into programmes on migration, peace and conflict, and global governance. City Bridges Trust is ahead of the other two in that it has already started to do specific climate change grantmaking, offering eco-audits to London CSOs.

Mission-related investing came up in this session, with one participant asking about the 95 per cent of our assets that may run counter to our grantmaking. It does seem that climate change may be the issue that finally brings mission-relating investing out of the shadows where it has so long languished and into the mainstream of foundation thinking.

For more information
www.acf.org.uk

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