(This post is from Bradford K. Smith, president of the Foundation Center. It originally appeared in PhilanTopic.)
"I
live in a rural community where the Tea Party dominates, no new taxes
can be passed without a super majority, and government is cutting back
on everything. The other day someone asked me how I can help the fire
station find money to buy a new fire truck. What do I tell him?"
I was recently asked that question by a librarian in Cleveland at "Network Days,"
an annual live/virtual gathering of the librarians, nonprofit resource
center administrators, and community foundation leaders that are the
human face of the Foundation Center's Cooperating Collection Network.
In all fifty states and fourteen countries around the world, CCs help
struggling nonprofits, those who want to create nonprofits, and people
who want to work in nonprofits connect with the resources they need.
Except when there are no resources to be found.
Despite being president of the Foundation Center, the world's largest
source of information on organized philanthropy, my response to that
librarian's question was pretty feeble. All I could really muster is a
few words to the effect that, around the country, there are small, local
foundations which, on occasion, are willing to contribute to the
purchase of a fire truck, an ambulance, emergency medical equipment, and
the like. You can find some of them through the Foundation Directory Online or by searching 990-PF tax returns. Most of them don't have Web sites.
Another librarian asked me what she could say to the five hundred
people who will lose their jobs next year when a factory in town closes.
On that one I was able to muster a slightly less feeble answer, in that
there are more foundations willing to fund job training, enterprise
creation, and advocacy than there are foundations willing to contribute
to the purchase of a fire truck.
Every day, these librarians ask people, "How can I help you?" And in
return, they get questions like these. Of course, they listen, they
empathize, and they struggle to come up with good answers. But good
answers are increasingly difficult to come by. My job is all about
philanthropy, not about business or government. I know foundations are
concerned about government continuing to retreat from education, health
care, and social services, and that legislators and many others expect
philanthropy to pick up the tab. On the face of it, that's
preposterous: the resources of even the largest American foundations are
a rounding error in the federal budget. And channeling foundation
dollars into basic service provision would kill off the independence,
creativity, and risk taking that makes philanthropy so valuable to
society.
But as much as I would loved to have seen the fire truck question put to
President Obama and Governor Romney in the debates, it didn't happen. President Obama will
now be faced with deciding what government will not fund, as an
over-leveraged economy struggles through an anemic recovery. Meanwhile,
the private sector will continue to shutter factories, locate them
overseas, or create new ones at home that are heavy on technology but
light on workers.
So that leaves philanthropy. The good news is that philanthropy, in
the U.S. and around the globe, is a growth industry. The world economy
is manufacturing billionaires at a record pace, and thanks to efforts
like the Giving Pledge,
more of them are embracing the notion of giving back. But those of us
who work in philanthropy need to do more than just wring our hands
over concerns that government may start telling foundations what to do
with their money.
What, you ask?
First, foundations can fund more advocacy.
Great Recession notwithstanding, there is still a lot of money sloshing
around the public sector, and every year some of it goes to pork and
some of it flows to organizations and causes championed by special
interests. As Bill Clinton was fond of saying, politics is a contact
sport, and advocates interested in public support for vital community
services need resources to stay in the game.
Second, foundations can support and even lead efforts to foster broad public dialogue
about how best to piece together a social safety net that works and is
sustainable. Until the paralyzing rhetorical divide between the
ideologies of "big government" and the "magic of the market" is bridged,
families and communities will continue to crash through growing gaps in
the frayed social safety net.
Third, foundations can support sustained social innovation.
Now, innovation alone will not solve all the large-scale societal
challenges we face, but it has the potential to create breakthroughs
that lead to entirely new and less expensive ways of addressing those
challenges.
Fourth, foundations can be more forthcoming with data
and information about the good work they do. If nothing else, this will
make it much easier for a rural librarian in Idaho or Arkansas or
Wyoming to help the local volunteer fire department locate resources to
buy that fire truck. And it will also make it easier for foundations to
see what others are doing so that there can be a lot less duplication
than exists today and a bit more impact.
Fifth, foundations can support local libraries. Libraries have been the information backbone of this country for more than a hundred years, and librarians, the original data scientists,
take their responsibilities seriously. America is filled with people
who still believe that hard work, optimism, and cooperation can save and
improve their communities. When librarians have the courage to ask
them, "How can I help you?" we need to be sure they have good answers at
hand.
-- Brad Smith
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