Grassroots Philanthropy: How to Make Grants to People, Not Organizations

holywood

By Joanne Fritz, About.com Guide

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Grassroots Philanthropy: Field Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker, Bill Somerville, Heyday Books, 2008.

"Fax grants for teachers" is the brainchild of Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, located in the San Francisco area.

Realizing that the problems in the local public schools were daunting, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation decided to give small grants directly to teachers to buy materials, provide a field trip, purchase equipment or art supplies. The foundation sent a one-page flyer to each of the Bay Area's 47,000 teachers, encouraging them to ask for up to five hundred dollars to spend on their classes.

The teachers faxed to the foundation a one-page request on their school letterhead, cosigned by the principal, along with documentation of purchase costs, such as copies of catalog pages. Each proposal was reviewed as it came off the fax machine and checks were mailed to the teachers within 24 hours.

The results included purchase of theatrical make-up for the opera a teacher's class was staging; a trip to the zoo for second graders who had never seen live animals; and fossils for a high school class who, after learning about them, took the fossils to an elementary school and shared their knowledge with the younger children.

Unusual behavior for a foundation? Yes, but common for this particular foundation under the inspiring leadership of Bill Somerville. How the foundation under Bill's leadership found its way out of the usual pomp and bureaucratization of most foundations is the meat of Somerville's book, Grassroots Philanthropy.

There are so many wonderful stories and lessons in this small book that it is difficult to pick only a couple to share. Somerville is an unusual funder, but his years of experience and entrepreneurial spirit have helped him to rethink old assumptions about foundation funding.

Somerville says that foundation staff are insulated from the real world and choking on paperwork. His foundation has become as paperless as possible and he and his staff don't sit in their offices waiting for nonprofits to approach them. They hit the streets to talk to people about their problems and to nonprofits about what they are doing.

A hallmark of the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation is the willingness to make small, discretionary grants to people in the community who are in a position to help individuals or small groups of people. An example is grants to judges who see a stream of disadvantaged youth in their courtrooms. Many times, a small amount of help to such an individual can make all the difference. Thanks to Somerville's foundation, the judges can make decisions and provide the funds needed immediately.

Somerville and his staff and donors are remarkable in their ability to think creatively and come up with new models of philanthropy. When one female donor expressed her wish that low income women could have a "day off," it led to a program that provided women, nominated by their employers or others, $200 to spend totally on themselves for a day. A small token but highly meaningful to the recipients.

Somerville proposes the following suggestions to make philanthropy "more effective, exciting, and fun":

   1. Get out of the office and into the field at least 30 percent of the time. Meet people undertaking important, creative projects and start building long-term relationships.
   2. Pare back the paper to a slim stack. Spend less time on proposals that are likely to be denied. Ask for the bare minimum of documentation from applicants.
   3. Speed up response time. Nonprofits should not have to wait months for an answer to their funding requests. Set up systems that allow staff to respond rapidly to proposals.
   4. Empower the executive to make grants without board approval. If the board has clearly articulated its mission, it should trust the executive to make grant decisions. It will save time and reduce bureaucracy.
   5. Establish a venture fund for riskier grants. A commitment to risk-taking within prescribed limits will energize grantmaking, encourage initiative, and attract more imaginative projects from applicants.
   6. Fund outstanding individuals engaged in important work. A foundation is not limited to providing grants only for 501(c)(3) organizations although most foundations do restrict their grants in this way. But they also restrict potential partnerships with highly motivated, entrepreneurial individuals working outside the conventional nonprofit structure.
   7. Link large foundations with smaller community foundations to pursue grassroots grantmaking. Large foundations that deal in national or global issues cannot address the smaller goals of local needs. But they can delegate by supporting well run community foundations whose staffs make an effort to really know their communities.

Somerville clearly enjoys his work and finds grantmaking a "joyous vocation." We can only hope that more foundations heed his advice to "Take risks, move quickly, and get out of the office and into the field."

holywood

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