posted on: Friday, September 11, 2009

By Aaron Dorfman

NCRP Board member Marjorie Fine just released a fantastic new book: Change Philanthropy: Candid Stories of Foundations Maximizing Results through Social Justice. Alicia Epstein Korten is the author, and Margie, in her role as director of the Linchpin Campaign at the Center for Community Change, was the project director.

I reviewed an early draft of the book, and just got a chance to look through the finished product. The great thing about Change Philanthropy is that it tells stories; it doesn’t make an argument with statistics. The stories – case studies, really – bring to life the real challenges and exhilarations of grantmaking that seeks to address critical social issues of our day. Program staff and trustees of foundations will find new insights for their own work, and nonprofit leaders and fundraisers will get a rare and candid look inside the inner workings of grantmaking institutions.

The ten grantmakers featured in the book range from very small to very large and include independent foundations, family foundations and grantmaking public charities. They are:

• Discount Foundation
• Schott Foundation
• Needmor Fund
• Jacobs Family Foundation
• Ford Foundation
• Open Society Institute
• Liberty Hill Foundation
• Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
• Global Fund for Women
• Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health

So if you’re looking for a good book on social justice philanthropy this fall, pick up a copy. It’s available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books-A-Million. (And, no, I don’t get any royalties for making this pitch!)

Are there other books on social justice philanthropy you’d recommend? Please share in your comments!

Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP).

posted on: Monday, June 08, 2009

By Lisa Ranghelli

Where I live in Western Massachusetts, tapping maple trees is a livelihood for some and a hobby for others. During the fleeting weeks of sap season, I look forward to putting a tap into a tree and seeing the clear sweet liquid immediately begin to flow into the bucket. The work to collect that sap and turn it into syrup is a labor of love, but there is nothing more satisfying than pouring your own maple syrup over pancakes hot off the griddle.

Tapping individual donors also requires hard work and persistence, but the payoff is equally gratifying, and no doubt more lasting than the time it takes to swallow those delicious bites of syrup-laden pancake.

After all, that’s where the money is: three-quarters of all charitable giving is done by individuals, dwarfing foundation grantmaking. As nonprofit recipients have pointed out, there tends to be a lot less paperwork and more flexibility involved with private donations compared with institutional grants. Yet, a survey of progressive individual donors found that while the vast majority does support organizing, 42 percent of them focus less than 25 percent of their giving on community organizing.

Here enters the Linchpin Campaign. Linchpin, a project of the Center for Community Change, is the brainchild of NCRP board member Marjorie Fine, who is determined to help organizing groups raise more funds from major donors. Fine has extensively surveyed progressive donors about what they fund and why. Now the Linchpin Campaign has released a guide that draws on these survey findings and the collective wisdom of donors and fundraisers to help social justice organizations access individual wealth. Untapped: How Community Organizers Can Develop and Deepen Relationships with Major Donors and Raise Big Money was written by Joan Minieri, an award-winning community organizer and author. The guide has hands-on tools to help organizers apply their organizing skills and knowledge to the task of donor cultivation and engagement.

Untapped reinforces some of NCRP’s own findings about institutional philanthropy – that many donors believe it is difficult to measure the impacts of organizing. And even though donors want to make a difference, they may not see organizing as a cost-effective strategy to achieve tangible results. The guide offers practical advice on how to alter these perceptions. Fine believes that now is an excellent time to fundraise, despite the economy:

There is so much heightened awareness about community organizing and civic participation right now, and whether economic conditions are up or down, people with wealth have money and they continue to give. Untapped resources for community organizing lie with individuals—individuals who want to give and who are looking for opportunities where their dollars can make a real difference.

Like so many maples trees lining a country road, individual donors are waiting to be tapped …

Lisa Ranghelli is senior research associate at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) and co-author of Strengthening Democracy, Increasing Opportunities: Impacts of Advocacy, Organizing and Civic Engagement.