A growing movement to spark philanthropic giving from a community on behalf of a community, where “community” is defined by race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.

The U.S. population is changing, with ethnic and racial groups growing faster than the overall population. Not surprisingly, the face of philanthropy is changing along with it.

The report found that 63 percent of Latino households now make charitable donations, and blacks give away 25 percent more of their income per year than whites.

Concurrently the definition of philanthropy is expanding to encompass contributions of any size from people of every income bracket and ethnic background. And, the report shows how these new philanthropists are pooling their money—in increasingly organized ways—for greater impact.

The report challenges funders to consider ways to collaborate:

• by providing seed support and other forms of assistance,
• by embracing identity-based funds as critical partners in the sector and forging stronger connections within communities of color,
• by diversifying the leadership of mainstream philanthropy to reflect changing demographics and
• by shifting practices to reflect what communities of color are teaching about the future of giving and how funders can positively impact the country’s most vulnerable children and families.

MCF agrees that grantmaking is most effective when grantmakers reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.

For local information on the subject, check out our 2011 Working Towards Diversity IV report, which paints a comprehensive picture of the demographics, policies and practices on diversity and inclusion of Minnesota grantmakers. Review our diversity resources, and visit the websites of our strategic partners:

• Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP)
• Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP)
• Minnesota Blacks in Philanthropy and
• Native Americans in Philanthropy

It’s important work. W.K. Kellogg Foundation president and CEO Sterling Speirn puts it this way, “We believe that understanding and supporting this emerging area of philanthropy is essential for any foundation, funder or donor who wants to drive social change.”

- Susan Stehling, MCF communications associate

CC Photo: KellyCDB

When planning the launch of Minnesota Philanthropy Partners, we knew creating a video about our grantmaking work was an important component. As we unveiled a new name for our network of 1,600 funds, foundations and organizations, we wanted to reassure nonprofits that the grantmaking for three of our anchor foundations,  The Saint Paul Foundation, F. R. Bigelow Foundation and Mardag Foundation, remained the same.

Video is also a great way to make our grantmaking processes more transparent. We hope that an insider peek into our practices will help nonprofits be more informed when working with us, which would then result in more powerful collaborations. Our program team wants to work closely with nonprofits. We welcome conversations with organizations to learn about their work and understand if their programs and objectives fit with our funding priorities and commitments.

Ultimately, this new grantmaking video, along with other communication efforts like our Nonprofits to Know^TM  video series and MNSights magazine, is intended to help strengthen philanthropy in Minnesota. We hope the outcome of the new video is that more great programs find our foundations and that our community is the better for it. Have a look and let us know what you think!

[Economics professor Scott Page] made a remarkable discovery, subsequently elaborated in his 2007 book, The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Not only did diverse teams comprising members who each thought differently about the problem outperform less diverse teams, but they often did so even when the less diverse teams had better individual problem-solvers as members. As Page concluded, diversity trumps ability.

This struck a chord for me because it can be so easy to think of diversity as a laudable goal, but one that competes with other priorities instead of supporting them. We can hire the most qualified candidate, or we can hire one that will make us more diverse. We can take some time to do a diversity training, or we can get that work done that’s piling up our desks.

The research mentioned above is a powerful reminder to me that these are false choices. Increasing diversity in an organization is a plus for job candidates precisely because it can make them the best choices, by adding new perspectives and experiences that wouldn’t occur to a more homogenous group. An organizational focus on diversity is valuable because it produces better results, by getting us all to consider those different perspectives and inform our work through them.

If you appreciate those reminders about the value of diversity like I do, I encourage you to give the full thing a read. MCF is committed to the principle of diversity in philanthropy, and released a Diversity and Inclusion Action Kit for grantmakers earlier this year.

On a related note, I was glad to see an announcement this week about monthly Diversity and Inclusion Networking Lunches, sponsored by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and Charities Review Council, and hosted by a variety of organizations doing good work on this issue in our community.

-Chris Oien, MCF web communications associate

For those of you who have been following our recent article on 2009 arts giving trends, you know that arts giving in 2009 in Minnesota fell to its lowest level since 2003, but there is hope on a national level for a rebound in 2011. According to the article Arts Giving is Up, But Hold the Applause by Joel Rose from National Public Radio, charitable giving for the arts was up 5% so far in 2011. The star example of this mini renaissance is the Metropolitan Opera which had a fifty percent increase in donations this year, a record campaign bringing in over $182 million dollars.

What does the “hold the applause” refer to? The majority of money given went to serve audiences that are whiter and wealthier than the American average, and to large organizations that primarily serve Western European culture, like opera houses, art museums and classical music groups. The majority of foundations give to arts organizations with yearly budgets exceeding $5 million.

Now, I personally love the Minnesota Opera and would be thrilled to see it also have a blockbuster fundraising year, and as an individual I have every right to support what fits my tastes. But what about large grantmaking organizations? What obligations do they have to ensure an equitable, inclusive and diversified field of grantees get funding?

One solution to increasing the diversity in arts grantmaking may be to make grants available tailored to the needs and capabilities of small arts organizations, which tend to be more diverse.  Some grantmakers already offer small grants to promote community art and multi-cultural or ethnic art initiatives. At MCF member The St. Paul Foundation, the Asian Pacific Endowment specializes in funding community-based organizations and informal grassroots groups with budgets under $500,000. In 2010, this endowment funded projects that used culture, including the arts, to address social issues that affect the Asian Pacific Islander community in Minnesota. One example of the grant projects that the Asian Pacific Endowment funded is the Bon Odori pictured above, performed annually at the Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival in Como Park. Initiatives like the Asian Pacific Endowment are first steps towards ensuring that arts funding in Minnesota diversifies, truly serving the common good.

- Kaitlin Ostlie, MCF administrative assistant

Photo courtesy of the Japan America Society of Minnesota

GrantCraft asked their readers how they think about time and how they manage it. More than 1,400 of their subscribers replied. Their general consensus was:

What matters is how people use time to learn and make sense of learning, individually and across a team or organization.

As one respondent put it, “Work never ends, and so we need to learn to manage our time to include learning on the job.”

Four lessons came out of the survey. Each is listed below with one reply illustrating how a respondent incorporates the lesson into their everyday work.

Lesson 1: Establish a culture of learning by building learning into routine processes.

Build in opportunities for learning as you go. Sometimes there isn’t time to do a long reflection process at the end of a project, but there can surely be steps along the way where everyone takes time to observe the knowledge exchange that is happening.

Lesson 2: Raise the profile of learning by noticing when it happens and naming it explicitly.

Start and end meetings with questions like, ‘If there’s one thing you’d like to say to others doing a similar thing, what would it be?’ – in other words, quick things that force people to be analytical.

Lesson 3: Cultivate personal habits of learning that work for you.

I drive to site visits a lot, so I use the time to reflect and think about ideas to explore when the pace allows. It may be a small thing, but turning off the radio and focusing thought on the work can be useful.

Lesson 4: Try new activities – but choose wisely and keep things simple.

Time is always a challenge. To help overcome it, we institutionalized some set-aside time for learning. For instance, we have a monthly book club-like discussion group session with recommended readings and discussion guides…

Find out much more about these and other ideas for learning when there’s no time to learn in the four-page survey summary from GrantCraft. 

Photo CC Dalo_Pix2

- Susan Stehling, Minnesota Council on Foundations

Gaining Perspective

One of the things I enjoy the most about working within the nonprofit and philanthropic sector is that we have a culture of openness, a willingness to share successes so that others may replicate “bright spots” for their constituents.

But what about the not-so-bright spots? The pot holes on the road to progress are very instructive, yet many nonprofits  and foundations alike do not always feel comfortable charting them.

Fortunately, there are those organizations that have the gumption and the commitment to transparency to share bright spots as well as lessons learned. One such organization is the Northwest Area Foundation (NWAF).

NWAF, an MCF member, shares insights on a recent 10-year undertaking to reduce poverty in a new FSG report titled Gaining Perspective: Lessons Learned From One Foundation’s Exploratory Decade.

In 1998, NWAF set out to solve one of the most pernicious and wicked problems facing communities —  poverty. The foundation laid out a bold new approach to addressing poverty over its large, eight-state region. It was an ambitious undertaking, and results varied.

However, instead of hiding pitfalls the foundation experienced on the road to results, NWAF has generously shared those insights with us, so that the field, and ultimately communities and families across the nation, may benefit. The FSG report and executive summary can be downloaded at fsg.org.

If you’re attending the national COF conference, NWAF President Kevin Walker will be referring to the lessons learned outlined in this report during his session. See the conference website for details.

Join the Conversation: How do you think we can create a culture of openness and continual improvement among foundations and nonprofit service providers? Do you have any other examples to share of nonprofits or funders using different strategies to increase transparency? Please leave your comments below.

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

However, there’s been other recent news regarding The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that you may not have heard. As I read today in this post on the Philanthrocapitalism blog, a recent Center for Effective Philanthropy Grantee Perceptions Report found that the foundation is facing communications challenges with its grantees.

The report is based on a survey of 1,544 of Gates’ grantees. On the positive side of the ledger, it found that the foundation is perceived by grantees as having a profound positive impact on work in the grantees’ fields, particularly in the areas of knowledge building, public policy and creating effective practices.

However, the assessment of the Gates Foundation’s communications was not so rosey. Grantee partners reported that the organization’s goals and strategies are unclear, and that similarly they felt that the foundation had a poor understanding of their goals and strategies. Respondents also noted confusion about the foundation’s decision-making and grantmaking processes and expressed frustration over program officer turnover.

As you may know, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a member of MCF. So you may be wondering why we would report on one of our members performing poorly at, well, anything. The truth is, although the report found that the Gates Foundation has a need for improvement, its transparency about those challenges is admirable and should serve as a model for those grantmakers that value transparency and accountability in their work, both key tenets of MCF’s own Principles for Minnesota Grantmakers.

The Gates Foundation has been very open about its involvement in the assessment process and the results, posting the findings here on its website, along with the audio from a number of grantee community calls. The foundation also has been clear that it will be addressing these shortcomings by reevaluating its communications and creating new strategies for enhancing cohesion and clarity between program managers and executives at the foundation and its grantee partners.

That’s why I salute the Gates Foundation for being upfront about the challenges that it faces. It’s through this process that the organization will be able to enhance its relationships with grantees, and ultimately the impact of its grant giving.

As physicist Tom Hirshfield once wrote, “If you hit every time, the target is either too big or too near.” Philanthropy is a bold endeavor with high stakes. By learning from our collective mistakes through accountable and transparent practices, we can capitalize not only on success, but failure too, and ameliorate the world-changing work that we all share, while at the same time affirming the public trust.

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

Google Moderator, it's like the suggestion box for the 21st century.

This phrase succinctly states the importance of community engagement in the work we do as philanthropists, and the words come echoing back to me like an idiomatic boomerang every time I recognize a new tool for grantmakers to engage their grantees and community stakeholders.

Today I’d like to share with you one of those tools, Google Moderator, and discuss how using it to crowdsource decisions can help you tap into the communities you seek to serve.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term crowdsourcing, let me give you the quick explanation. Crowdsourcing is when you use an online platform such as a website or a web application to allow people to do an activity, like donate to a cause or create and rate solutions to a problem. Minnesota Idea Open is one such example of how a foundation is using crowdsourcing to determine how to solve pressing social issues and, in turn, who should receive its grant money.

Google Moderator is a free online tool that allows anyone who has a Google account and something to talk about to start a discussion. It allows the moderator to post a question in text or now in the form of a YouTube video and solicit feedback in the form of ideas, suggestions or questions. Anyone who has a free Google account, like a gmail account can submit a response. Once a response is posted, it can in turn be rated by other users for quality, so that best input gets pushed to the top.

To see an example of Google Moderator, you can view this discussion that I just made on the topic of using tools such as Google Moderator to crowdsource philanthropy (I know, it’s so meta!) While you’re there, feel free to give the platform a test drive by posting your own thoughts.

One of the most obvious limitations of the tool is that there’s no way to pick the crowd that you’re sourcing. Currently, if you create a discussion, anyone can participate. So, if you’re a grantmaker looking to engage a very specific community, then there’s no way to ensure that you’re engaging only your target population.

However, despite limitations, it’s exciting to think how grantmakers, policymakers and nonprofits can use tools like this to partner with communities in problem solving.

For grantmakers concerned with upholding the principles of transparency and the engagement of diverse communities, figuring out how to harness these online tools effectively to support grantmaking decisions will be where the rubber meets the road, and support of these values translates to action in the 21st century.

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

Image CC Peter J. Bury

It’s about governance, transparency, donor intent and the interpretation of these principles by people who are entrusted to act in the best interest of the foundation.

Over his lifetime, Dr. Albert Barnes amassed an incredible collection of art at his foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, unrivaled by many of the large, prestigious art museums in the United States, including the nearby Philadelphia Museum of Art.  But Barnes did not amass this collection to be viewed extensively by the general public; he established the foundation to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts.”

First and foremost, Barnes thought of his foundation as a school for artists, a place where sincere students could view important and influential works of art away from the tourism of art museums.  Henri Matisse said the Barnes Foundation is “the only sane place to see art in America.”   Barnes was explicit in his trust documents that the collection should not be sold, moved, or loaned for any purpose, unless those demands became unreasonable or impossible due to unforeseen circumstances.

Therein lies the crux of the struggle to control the Barnes collection.  While Barnes loyalists say that to remove the collection at all would be a direct contradiction to Barnes’ original intent, several powerful people and institutions in Philadelphia, including the former Governor of Pennsylvania, several well-known philanthropists, and the Pew Charitable Trusts, have vied to move the collection to Philadelphia, where it would be more accessible to the general public (and a huge tourist attraction for the city.) They claim that The Barnes Foundation is financially unstable and has no other choice but to move the collection.  The film chronicles this fight, leading up to the dramatic decision as to the future of the foundation.

The Art of the Steal is definitely a movie with an agenda and a point of view (read this New York Times article for a full review of the film).  Funded and produced by several former students and teachers of the Barnes, the film is one-sided and paints the other side in an unflattering light.  Many of the people that the film accuses refused to participate in the movie, but some have made statements in response to the movie, including the Pew Charitable Trusts and Bernard Watson, chairman of the Barnes Foundation board of trustees.

No matter on which side of this argument you fall, The Art of the Steal provides an excellent case study on the topic of ethics.  Whether you have heard of this controversy before or not, you will walk away from the movie questioning how people can ensure that foundations and nonprofits maintain accountability with the public and whether a controversy like this could have been avoided.

At the Minnesota Council on Foundations, our members created, endorsed, and do their work by the Principles for Grantmakers & Practice Options for Philanthropic Organizations to prevent situations like this from happening.  Updated in 2009, the Principles are a how-to of principled philanthropy. Not only do they outline what philanthropic organizations are legally required to do, the Principles are also aspirational, encouraging foundations to reach for more than what the law says is necessary.  All MCF members are required to subscribe to the Principles.  In the preamble of the Principles, it reads:

“We acknowledge the fundamental roles and responsibilities of engaged individuals and the public, private and nonprofit sectors in a just and equitable society.  As a community of grantmakers, we embrace philanthropy’s role in a civil society.”

It is controversies like the one depicted in The Art of the Steal that remind those of us in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors that we must work daily to uphold the public trust.  We must take responsibility for the privilege of sustaining a just and equitable society.  We must respect and honor the people who turn to our organizations in search of support and guidance.  And we must appreciate the opportunity to assess ourselves against written and unwritten standards of ethical principles and practice, and value the chance to reach for a higher standard.

The Art of the Steal is playing now at the Landmark Edina Cinema.

- Stephanie Jacobs, MCF member services manager

The program, which you can listen to on Rosetta Thurman’s blog, was a response in part to the Council on Foundations report titled Career Pathways to Philanthropic Leadership, which found that only 20 percent of successful candidates for leadership positions within the philanthropic sector are from racially diverse backgrounds.

During the show, the panel speakers talked about the importance of having diverse leaders at the top level in the independent sector, not only because a diverse staff affects organizational decision making, but because pitfalls can occur when nonprofits and grantmakers attempt to serve constituents that are not represented within their organization.

As Tamar Cloyd responded during the interview, “Don’t do something about me, without me.” Shawn Lewis also shared insights from his experience working within the sector. He stated that generally much of the progress that he’s seen in creating better recruitment practices has come from board or committee members who advocate strongly for better, more inclusive practices within organizations.

Stephen Bauer suggested that one of the best strategies for increasing the likelihood of hiring someone of color is to be willing to search again for diverse applicants if, after an initial collection of applicants, it’s revealed that the pool of people you’re considering does not have enough diverse candidates.

If you are interested in learning more about how your organization can recruit people of ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds, check out the recording of this interview at Rosetta Thurman’s blog. Then, after you’ve listened to the interview, visit the MCF Diversity Resource page to access the free, downloadable resources that we’ve created and collected to assist MCF member and non-member grantmakers to create better diversity practices within their organizations and fulfill the MCF Diversity Principle.

If you are currently searching for candidates for a position in your organization, you may also find the Minnesota Ethnic and Community Media Directory (pdf) produced by Twin Cities Media Alliance a helpful resource as you look for publications to advertise your job openings.

Join the conversation: Do you think that your organization is doing enough to recruit diverse candidates for leadership positions? Do you have any strategies or practices that you’ve found have been successful in encouraging people of color and other minority groups to apply?