By Kris Putnam-Walkerly, Putnam Consulting Group, originally featured on the Philanthropy411 Blog
About a year ago, I wrote a newsletter article about grantmaking with an abundance mentality rather than a poverty mentality. That sparked a good bit of interest, some speaking requests, and an article in the December 2015 edition of GMNsight (a publication of the Grants Managers Network) about how an abundance mentality can help foundations streamline almost every process to boost efficiency, productivity and morale.
In the GMNsight article, there are several examples of what a poverty mentality looks like and how it hinders effectiveness:
- Understaffing that subjugates networking and knowledge building with administrative tasks
- Lack of investments in technology or policies that prohibit its most productive uses (such as working remotely)
- Over-done board meeting preparation that overwhelms all staff
- Vendor bid processes that waste time and don’t save money
In most cases, foundations that succumb to a poverty mentality truly believe they are doing it for the right reasons – a perception that may be driven by what they see in practice around them or by what they interpret as thrift. But, in all cases, adopting a poverty mentality prevents foundations from doing their best work and becoming more effective.
Foundations that see beyond the poverty mentality and recognize the value of their own abundance allow themselves to do things that significantly increase their effectiveness, such as:
