By Andy Carroll, ASF
Rural Harford County, MD
What would it look like for a family foundation to convene citizens of an entire county to develop a vision for the future?
This is what ASF member The Dresher Foundation did in November at Connect Harford, in partnership with Maryland’s Harford Community College. I attended the event to witness this striking example of leadership by a small-staff foundation. The Dresher Foundation has about $50 million in assets and employs one staff person.
By Andy Carroll, ASF
ASF’s Andy Carroll talks leadership with conference attendees
When we see people in philanthropy speak out, advocate, and mobilize communities, it’s natural to assume they are inherently different from us. We marvel at their boldness. We assume they are extroverted. Full of charisma. Fearless.
Yet we now understand that deciding to act boldly is the culmination of a journey that, for the individual or foundation, began months, years, or sometimes decades ago. All the passion, listening, sense-making, analysis, and insight that ultimately moved the leader to act is invisible to us. We only see the action.
ASF has talked with dozens of you over the past 2 years in a listening project on leadership. We affirmed that small-staff philanthropists provide leadership on critical issues, especially in local communities and at the state level.
This is exciting and important. Continue reading
By Elaine Gast Fawcett on behalf of ASF
ASF member Janis Reischmann shares her lessons learned
When it comes to learning about important issues and moving the needle in the right direction, convening is a low-cost and high-impact leadership tool you can’t overlook. In fact, many consider it to be a funder’s most underrated. In part 1 of a 2-part series on convening, hear how an ASF member foundation uses convening to reach its goals.
The ASF member Hau’oli Mau Loa Foundation (meaning eternal happiness in Hawaiian) started convening 10 partner grantees with two goals in mind: to provide a space where they could share and learn from one another, and to help them feel excited and renewed.
“It started as a way to bring partners together. We thought there would be value in them sharing experiences, challenges they face, and successes they see,” says foundation executive director Janis Reischmann. “Someone reminded us that grantees get caught in the day-to-day of their work, and, if we could do nothing more than to re-inspire and re-energize them, that would serve them well.”
Still, the foundation stepped in with caution.
By Andy Carroll, ASF
This post, based on research by ASF Senior Program Manager Andy Carroll as part of ASF’s Leadership Initiative, was originally featured on the Bolder Advocacy blog. An initiative of the Alliance for Justice, Bolder Advocacy equips nonprofits and foundations with the knowledge and tools to advocate effectively.
People who believe in advocacy as a strategy for change wonder: “How can we encourage more foundations to use advocacy?’”
The experiences of small-staff philanthropists offer new ways of thinking about this challenge, and can spark ideas and inspiration. The defining characteristic of small foundations is their unique approach to philanthropy, which is agile, responsive, passionate, and grounded in their communities.
Some small-staff foundations arrive at advocacy after years of frustration funding direct services and not seeing progress. They shift to advocacy because they’re passionate about their chosen issue, have followed it upstream to understand the role of policy, and feel a sense of urgency to make impact. Funding organizations that advocate and lobby becomes a natural next step.
By Andy Carroll, ASF
One of ASF’s goals in developing a portrait of leadership in small foundations is to identify funders that provide leadership. The Sunflower Foundation in Kansas is one such leader in our field.
According to ASF’s research:
Small foundation leaders have passion and use their foundation’s freedom and access to become knowledgeable about issues they want to influence.
Small foundation leaders take time to analyze the knowledge they gather to identify solutions and strategies.
The foundation considered its options and concluded that to break the impasse, it was necessary to organize a grassroots campaign to bring citizen support for a ban to lawmakers’ attention. With its ear to the ground, the foundation knew conditions were right for action.
Small foundation leaders develop a vision of the future and a roadmap for how to get there.
By Andy Carroll, ASF
Last month, I interviewed Nan Pugh of Pugh Family Foundation for ASF’s Leadership Initiative. She was amazing—smart, enthusiastic, committed, curious.
One of the themes Nan talked about was that foundations are leaders because they set agendas and set directions. An example she offered was that her foundation is concerned when they receive multiple proposals for the same work, or same kinds of work, from different organizations. For example, in one grant cycle the foundation received seven applications for financial literacy work in its rural community.
The week prior, Scott Brazda of The Stuller Family Foundation e-mailed me to ask about guidance for foundations that see redundancy among nonprofit work and wish to encourage certain grantees to merge or collaborate. I offered a little guidance and recommended Scott post to ASF’s Discussion List.
But Scott’s post—and an influx of great responses from fellow ASF members—came later. Back to Nan.
A few moments later in our interview, Nan mentioned a colleague named Scott Brazda as “a visionary.” She said Scott was concerned about redundancy in their community and was trying to figure out ways to address it. Nan said she wanted to think more about the issue of redundancy and work with Scott and others on it.
I then realized Nan and Scott are both in Louisiana, and it turns out they are good colleagues.
By Andy Carroll, ASF
Leadership can be defined in literally hundreds of ways. This is why ASF knows we can’t take an “off the shelf” definition of small foundation leadership.
Instead, by taking time to explore leadership in small foundations, ASF will be better able to validate, nurture, and celebrate it. And, by nurturing leadership, our hope is that small foundations will make even more impact and serve as catalysts and changemakers.
In my first post on ASF’s Leadership Initiative, I described why ASF is exploring leadership in small foundations, and how we’re doing it. This post offers a look at the portrait of leadership that is emerging through our almost 40 interviews.
By Andy Carroll, ASF
ASF is launching a Leadership Initiative.
Does it sound like it’s about being a trustee of a small foundation, or top executive? That is part of it. But our look at leadership is even bigger.
For one thing, we believe every individual working at a small foundation can lead, including founders, trustees, staff, family members, and advisors. We also believe that leadership can happen on an ongoing basis, or for brief periods of time—a month, a week, a day, or even in a moment.
And we believe foundation leadership isn’t about formal authority. When you think about it, a foundation large or small can’t make anyone do anything. And yet, a foundation can have huge influence. Foundations have the freedom to take risks, experiment, speak out, and address the toughest issues facing communities and society.
So ASF is asking fundamental questions: What is the essence of leadership? What does leadership mean in philanthropy? What does leadership mean for small foundations? How do small foundations provide leadership in communities, in their fields, and in society?
Why are we doing this?
