Alliance Online - June 2008

Starting to define a common purpose

Caroline Hartnell

EVENT Philanthropy’s Vision: A Leadership Summit
Date 4-7 May
Venue Washington Metropolitan Area, USA
Organizers Council on Foundations

So did the Council on Foundations’ grandly named Summit live up to its ambitions? It certainly brought in the numbers: more than 3,200 grantmakers and non-profit leaders from 40 countries gathered for what Michael Seltzer, blogging on PhilanTopic, the Foundation Center’s blog, dubbed ‘the largest convocation of philanthropists in history’.

But the Summit succeeded in more than the numbers game. Six philanthropic leaders from outside the US speaking in the ‘opening ceremony’ signalled that philanthropy is now a global affair, while perhaps the best conference plenary I’ve ever attended signalled that human rights is an issue for the US as much as for the rest of the world. The ‘electronic town hall plenary’ run by AmericaSpeaks proved an interesting experience, while the much-touted mini-summits seem to have offered high-quality content.

Did the US delegates, 90 per cent of the total, feel there was too much international content in what is after all US foundations’ national conference? As far as I could tell, they didn’t. The strategy of including speakers from outside the US on many panels to bring different perspectives to the conversation rather than having ‘international’ panels seems to have worked well. As for the community foundation and family foundation delegates all coming to one big conference, I detected some regret for more specifically relevant breakout sessions, but as this was a one-off event I don’t think there were many complaints.

The least successful thing about the conference was undoubtedly the venue: the newly built, inhumanly proportioned and over-airconditioned Convention Center at National Harbour, outside Washington DC. Expressions like ‘caged bird’ and ‘prisoner’ were to be heard. The fact that 3,200 people shivered for four days in a brand-new building despite the warm weather outside says a lot about how we are failing to take the challenges of global warming seriously.

A lofty beginning

Council President and CEO Steve Gunderson opened the plenary on a lofty note. ‘Tonight we have been called to a summit,’ he began. ‘The global landscape can become a common workbench ... Darfur, Tibet and African AIDS orphans [and now of course the tragedies in Burma and China] are in our sitting rooms … If we listen and learn from one another we can start to define a common purpose.’

And the listening began with the opening ceremony and speakers from Europe, Africa, Brazil, the Middle East, the Philippines and Canada. Philanthropy may have started in Europe, but it’s growing at a phenomenal rate in Africa, said Akwasi Aidoo of TrustAfrica, with over 25 new foundations established in the last 10 years and $1 billion in assets between them. ‘Africa is no longer the weakest link.’ In the Arab region, said Atallah Kuttab of the Arab Foundations Forum, the challenge is to transform people’s traditional generosity into more strategic giving – to move from giving the needy a fish to teaching them how to fish. In Brazil, where philanthropy is more developed, the aim is rather ‘to change the whole fishing industrial chain’, said Fernando Rossetti of GIFE. Rory Tolentino of the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Forum spoke of the potential contribution to be made by the 3 per cent of the world’s population who are migrants.

Leveraging philanthropy’s strength

The session ended with outgoing Council chairman Maxwell King urging foundations to work ‘bigger and bolder’ and to ‘leverage philanthropy’s strength’ to help solve society’s problems. How to leverage this strength and achieve greater impact was the focus of AmericaSpeaks’ electronic town hall plenary on the ‘Power and Promise of Philanthropy’ with which the serious business of the Summit kicked off the following morning. The tasks for the session were two:

To identify what foundations as a sector can do to have even more impact, collectively, in the future.
To explore how they want the next US President to work with the philanthropic sector.

The outcomes were affirming rather than surprising. ‘Create strategic partnerships/collaborate across sectors/Get egos out of the way’ was selected as the top priority for having more impact by 22 per cent of those voting, using ‘polling keypads’, followed by ‘Find ways to impact public policy’ and ‘Take risks/Be bold/Invite innovation while supporting excellence’, both favoured by 15 per cent.

For me, as is so often the case, the journey was more interesting than the destination. Before voting participants discussed their recipes for greater impact around the breakfast tables. The conversation at my table vividly illustrated the potential conflict between foundation independence and collective action. Although the benefits of collaboration were recognized, fears were voiced about having one foundation in charge, the possibility of coercion. Anxieties surfaced about government wanting more control over the philanthropic sector as it gets richer. ‘Don’t let policitians in the door because they will tell you what to do.’ ‘The only thing we want is assurance from the President that government will not interfere’ was one unambiguous view.

This anxiety was reflected in the messages to the next US President, with 15 per cent choosing ‘Allow us to innovate/don’t micromanage and over-regulate’ as the key message. But there was also a concern that governments should respect the role of philanthropy and recognize that philanthropic funds cannot replace government funds. ‘We are not about picking up the shortfall’ was the top message for 22 per cent.

Human rights for all

‘Why should anyone care about human rights?’ was moderator Gara LaMarche’s (Atlantic Philanthropies) opening question for the panel at Monday’s lunch plenary – the first ever Council on Foundations plenary devoted to human rights. His question was addressed head on by panellist Anthony Romero of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). ‘As Americans we tend to think of human rights as something we export,’ he said. But he urged people to see ACLU is a domestic human rights organization. Darfur and food riots are not part of his job, he said. It is about good education and health care for all Americans, about the right of everyone to live with dignity. ‘This is not a liberal left agenda,’ he insisted, ‘it's a matter of common values’ – a statement that has particular resonance in light of the aftermath to Hurricane Katrina, with the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Fund leading an advocacy campaign to make sure all citizens of New Orleans do receive their full human rights.

With all this talk of social and economic rights, it must not be forgotten that civil and political rights can no longer be taken for granted either. The war against terror is undermining democracy and core US values such as the right to counsel and being considered innocent until proved guilty, warned Romero. Seven years ago it would have been impossible to admit to using waterboarding or holding prisoners without trial. The war against terror is also one reason why foundations are so reluctant to fund human rights, said Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, but there are ways of doing due diligence well enough to avoid problems, she insisted.

Foundations and the economy

If you’re going to be sitting in one place for six hours with no coffee breaks and half an hour for lunch, the content of the sessions had better be good. Luckily, at the mini-summit I attended, on ‘Foundations and the Economy’, it was.

In difficult economic times, should foundations be playing it safe and guarding assets or should they be doing more to help organizations in crisis? This was one of the key questions posed by this mini-summit. With returns on corpus likely to be lower and government having fewer resources, said Former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, there will be a lot of pressure on foundations.

Ellen Schuman, Carnegie Corporation Chief Investment Officer, expressed many foundations’ commitment to perpetuity. Quoting Andrew Carnegie's first letter of gift: ‘My desire is that the work which I have been carrying on … shall continue during this and future generations’, she talked about how the Carnegie Corporation has maintained its asset value and spending levels over time. Smoothing out patterns of spending and a diversified portfolio seem to be the key factors.

Interestingly, Schuman made no mention of mission-related investing, though this was the focus of a later session where Charles Piller of the Los Angeles Times and Leslie Lowe of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation exhorted foundations to use the power of their portfolios to pursue their missions. It seems a pity that MRI was not part of the earlier session on investment of assets. The general argument made by foundations is that doing good is for grantmaking and earning returns is for investing. The barriers to MRI therefore need to be tackled within the context of a discussion of investment.

The day was rounded off by Matthew Bishop of The Economist, talking about the contribution that philanthrocapitalism can make to the coming ‘new golden age of philanthropy’. With such huge social problems to be solved and governments that are unlikely to expand much, philanthropy will have to play its part. Bishop outlined some business models that could usefully be applied to philanthropy that have not been seriously tried so far. He ended by looking at the threat to democracy of so much power in the social sphere being wielded by the mega-wealthy. How we avoid plutocracy is an issue we should take seriously, in his view.

Just a few engaging sessions from among the 80 plus concurrent sessions, 6 mini-summits and 6 plenaries plus site visits and Advanced Practice Institutes on offer at the Council on Foundations’ ambitious and successful Philanthropy Summit.

For more information
www.cof.org

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