Be sure to check out the new publication from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best: Benchmarks to Assess and Enhance Grantmaker Impact. The report “provides grantmakers with the tools to ask themselves some long-overdue, perhaps difficult questions.”
NCRP proposes three criteria - Values, Effectiveness and Ethics - along with relevant strategies for foundations that aspire to practice philanthropy at its best. Some of the strategies are not surprising - for example, maintaining policies and practices that support ethical behavior. Others are more controversial, such as the recommendation that foundations provide at least 50% of their grant dollars as multi-year grants.
These criteria have been endorsed by a number of philanthropic leaders and scholars including Paul Light, Pablo Eisenberg, Bob Edgar, and Kim Klein. Foundations such as The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation have also joined the effort. The NCRP recommendations have the support of Representative Xavier Becerra (D-CA), senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, who has described nonprofits as being "more nimble and creative" than the government. Rep. Becerra has also noted the need for accountability, transparency, and fiscal responsibility in the nonprofit sector and acknowledged the oversight role of Congress.
The report will likely be widely circulated and is sure to spark lively discussions at conferences and online. Reviews have already appeared in The Chronicle of Philanthropy (3/3/09) and The Wall Street Journal (3/3/09). It is also noted in Philanthropy News Digest (3/4/09)
Take a look at the report and tell us what you think. Will foundations sign on?
"Only one Ohio foundation — Cleveland's Eva L. and Joseph M. Bruening Foundation — gave at least half of its grants for the disadvantaged, according to last week's report by the watchdog National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy of Washington, D.C."
Read more: http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2009/03/09/ddn030909mathile.html
Posted by: Cynthia Bailie | March 09, 2009 at 01:51 PM
Dayton's Mathile Foundation singled out for praise in the report for funding "what the committee called "marginalized populations," including minorities, disabled people, senior citizens, crime victims and the poor."
Read more: http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2009/03/04/ddn030409mathileweb.html
Posted by: Cynthia Bailie | March 06, 2009 at 04:07 PM
Paul Brest, president, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, calls the report's "hierarchy of ends breathtakingly arrogant." Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-brest/ncrp-at-its-most-presumpt_b_172086.html.
Posted by: Cynthia Bailie | March 06, 2009 at 02:25 PM