
Fall 2013
Over the last decade, philanthropy’s response to research on generational transition in the nonprofit sector has ranged from panic – “Who will carry on when the Boomers retire?” – to a big yawn – “These generational transitions always take care of themselves.”
For those of us living the transition, either as Boomers or as younger leaders, the research is up-close and personal. During my tenure at the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation,[i] investing in new and emerging leaders for social justice work in the Southeastern United States was a personal priority for me. My experience guides me to two conclusions for funders:
Studies of social impact and our common sense tell us that leadership is a major determining factor in success or failure of specific efforts. People make things happen – and not only people with designated “leader” titles. Leadership is activity that can come from a community resident, a program manager or a CEO. For the sake of clarity, I focus here on people in their 20s through early 40s who are moving into significant roles in social justice work. They are creating new, more networked organizational structures and filling mid- to top-level roles in existing organizations and networks.
Younger social justice advocates are inclined toward shared leadership models that rely on contributions across a spectrum of roles. They urge funders to invest in younger talent beyond the “rock stars” who have already made it and whom foundations love to “cherry pick.” To make this point, the new Talent Philanthropy Project[ii] helpfully reframes and expands funders’ responses to generational leadership transition into “investment in nonprofit talent.”
The trite phrase “they are the future” is profoundly relevant to organized philanthropy’s current and future impact. Having grown up in a networked, more diverse world, many younger leaders exhibit the qualities required of today’s leaders, as articulated in current leadership literature. See sidebar for examples.
Sidebar:
Effective Leaders in Today’s World:
Typical foundation practices and processes match up poorly with this list of leadership characteristics. For the most part, foundations are stuck in old-style hierarchical, bureaucratic, slow, non-adaptive leadership patterns that are ill-suited for impact in today’s world. Foundations need to be in active, mutual-learning relationships with new social justice leaders, who can help funders develop the institutional and personal leadership capacities listed in the sidebar. In mutual relationships, younger leaders can provide experience, advice and inspiration. In turn, funders can offer emerging leaders hard-earned wisdom from history, along with connections to influencers, moral support and last but definitely not least, financial support.
This more mutual relationship challenges the existing balance of power in typical funding relationships. From our experience at the Babcock Foundation, I can say that developing more open, trusting and mutual relationships with some grantees over time is demanding, delicate work – and possible. Core values of respect and transparency must be rooted and alive in the entire foundation, including the board. The foundation must hold itself accountable for mutuality in relationships with grantees, for example with the foundation demonstrably incorporating grantee wisdom into its decisions and grantees acknowledging value added by the funder beyond grants.
The perennial reality of “money = power” is inescapable in philanthropic relationships. However, as the number of younger nonprofit, foundation, government and business leaders grows, we will hopefully see more breakthroughs toward mutual, networked, inclusive partnerships for social change. These breakthroughs will require new funder practices that are natural to many younger leaders.
The menu of ways that funders can engage and support emerging leaders is rich and diverse; there’s something here for all types of funders.
First, what do emerging leaders say they need? The following themes appear in national research and two unpublished reports to the Babcock Foundation that capture the voices of approximately 30 Southern leaders. They say they need:
Funder responses can be organized around four key principles essential for mutual relationships: Engage. Listen. Connect. Support. These flow and are nonlinear. Simple examples make this point: engagement is more satisfying when the parties listen deeply to each other. Connecting younger leaders to management training opportunities might require financial support for their participation. Hiring or promoting younger people into executive positions requires support for their success.
ENGAGE: Funders can get informed, build relationships and be active with emerging leaders. Ideas for funders:
LISTEN: We are probably really listening when we say less than the person to whom we are listening and find ourselves surprised, our thinking challenged or our heart stirred. Unfortunately, a common critique of funders by our nonprofit partners is that we don’t listen well. Ideas for funders:
CONNECT: Within our foundations, we can apply what we learn from engaging and listening to improving our own practices. We can also use our social, intellectual and financial capital to help emerging leaders build their professional networks. Ideas for funders:
SUPPORT: Money matters. So does activating your foundation’s influence and supporting young talent on your staff. Ideas for funders:
The generational transfer of leadership will indeed happen, with or without funders’ intentional responses. However, to sit this out would be a huge missed opportunity for emerging leaders, funders and the communities we serve.
Gayle Williams is former executive director of the Mary Williams Babcock Foundation
[i] See http://mrbf.org/.
[ii] See http://www.talentphilanthropy.org/.
[iii] See http://www.buildingmovement.org/reports, http://www.epip.org/, http://leadershiplearning.org/ and http://geofunders.org/.
[iv] See http://www.effectivephilanthropy.org/index.php?page=grantee-perception-report.
[v] See http://www.rockwoodleadership.org/, http://www.stonecircles.org/, http://www.couragerenewal.org/programs/academy-for-leaders and http://leadershiplearning.org/.
[vi] See http://www.barrfoundation.org/fellows/program-detail/ and http://www.haasjr.org/what-were-learning/resource/21st-century-fellows-program.
[vii] See http://frontlinesol.com/aboutHPJfellowship.html and http://www.abfe.org/abfe1.asp?PageURL=26.