By Henry Berman, ASF
The natural state of philanthropy is underperformance.
Tom Tierney, coauthor with Joel Fleishman of Give Smart: Philanthropy That Gets Results, shared with me why—and what donors can do about it—in ASF’s first podcast.
Hear Tom’s thoughts on timeless truths in philanthropy and what matters most in achieving philanthropic results.
Here’s an excerpt:
The natural state of philanthropy is underperformance.
We thought hard about that phrase, Joel and I, and we absolutely conclusively agree that all the data, all the research, all our experience suggests that’s true. Why?
First, because lots of times people don’t choose results. They’re giving money away for reasons other than results. The second root cause is that excellence is self-imposed. Achieving excellence in philanthropy is really hard. And most folks, most of the time, don’t set that bar quite high enough. Take those two reasons and the reality that it is harder to change a life than make a widget. It’s just hard. There are very few easy social problems. The easy ones seem to all have been taken care of already.
So the very nature of philanthropy means that most of the time, it underperforms. Most of the time, our philanthropy does not achieve what it could otherwise achieve.
But great philanthropists are not going to settle for Bs and Cs. They’re not going to settle for satisfactory underperformance. They’re going to say, “I want to do, with my scarce resources, the best I can do. I owe that to myself. I owe that to society.”
Do you agree? Share your comments.
And stay tuned for Part II of my interview with Tom, exploring how donor–grantee relationships influence philanthropic results.
Tom Tierney, chairman and cofounder of The Bridgespan Group, is a recognized leader in serving the nonprofit sector. Tom frequently speaks and writes on a variety of topics related to nonprofit leadership and philanthropy. He lectures at Harvard Business School and the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and chairs the Harvard Business School Initiative on Social Enterprise.
Henry Berman became ASF’s CEO in 2010, previously serving as acting CEO, board member, and committee member. Through his experience as a foundation co-trustee and ASF member since 2003, he brings a firsthand understanding of the needs of ASF members to his role. Berman’s early career included positions as an independent communications consultant and director, writer, and producer of film, video, and multimedia programs for education, motivation, and fundraising.
