Minnesota Council on Foundations Blog – Philanthropy Potluck

A year ago, as the economic turmoil was unfurling, looming questions of “How bad?” and “How long?” were top of mind. As we enter a new economic reality, grantmakers acknowledge that we won’t be returning to business as usual; we have to do our work differently.

How each grantmaker chooses to work “differently” is as varied as the number of foundations and corporate giving programs. Peter C. Hutchinson, Bush Foundation president, recently wrote about the challenges facing his organization: “Like others, we are pulled in competing directions. We want to do the right thing, but there are many right things we could do…The question is: Which right things are right for us?”

In our winter issue of Giving Forum, we highlight several foundations and how they’ve chosen to address the challenge of finding and then focusing on what’s the “right thing” for them to do during these tough times:

The Bush Foundation is keeping its sights on longstanding aspirations and its Goals for a Decade. Explains C. Scott Cooper, director of engagement and communication: “We have decided that the role we need to be playing in this economy is not to react to new problems, but to stay focused on the issues that we think are important – which are the same issues that were important to us before the recession – and to be held accountable for outcomes.”

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in the midst of developing a strategic framework when the recession hit, stepped back to look for new answers. “Our big ‘a-ha’ came when we decided that – as we sat here in Battle Creek, Mich., where the bottom has repeatedly fallen out of the job market – we needed new answers to grow the economy and to bring into our workforce development perspective entrepreneurship skills and the mindset and tenacity that go with them,” recalls Anne Mosle, vice president for programs.

The Minneapolis Foundation partnered with its donors to establish a Crisis Assistance Fund to assist individuals and families with food, heat and housing, and it matched additional funding from donor-advised funds to support workforce development, education, housing and other human and social service agencies.

The McKnight Foundation is maintaining its long-term focus to fight catastrophic climate change, among other priorities. “There is often a tension between responding to changing times and remaining focused on long-term goals, addressing the most critical issues with appropriate resources, urgency and creativity,” acknowledges President Kate Wolford. Over the course of 2009, Wolford reports that the McKnight board “sharpened our strategic focus in several priority areas, including accelerating the shift to a low-carbon economy, improving third grade literacy in the metro area, and implementing place-based strategies to increase opportunities for low-income residents.”

Land O’Lakes Foundation, in the enviable position of experiencing added funding due to the company’s record growth, launched its Feeding Our Communities initiative. “We looked at who owns us – we’re a cooperative owned by farmers,” explains Lydia Botham, executive director. “And, we looked at rising needs: people who never had to go to a food shelf before who now just can’t make ends meet. We felt that more needed to be done to address hunger, especially in rural areas, where it is somewhat hidden, but just as great as it is in urban communities. Feeding Our Communities is taking our ongoing support of hunger issues to a much higher level, using our expertise and resources locally, nationally and globally.”

Foundations’ responses to the hardships created by the economic downturn are not limited to decisions on funding priorities and strategic plans. Like the nonprofits they support, many also face tough administrative and operational choices. The wellbeing of nonprofits is always top of mind, though. For example, at the McKnight Foundation, “When looking at administrative reductions, a key goal was to minimize any negative impact on grantees,” Wolford says.

Articles in Giving Forum also address funders’ perspectives on the state budget plight, the advent of federal stimulus dollars and where they believe all this turmoil is leading.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate