Entries For: October 2007

Patty Stonesifer was the opening keynote speaker at our SVP International conference last weekend. There’s nothing better than someone that gets your conference off to an invigorating, inspiring start. It was a rather profound experience to sit and listen intently for an hour to a person that sits in that kind of role at the world’s most important philanthropic institution. Kind of like a really good movie, several afterthoughts have continued to roll through my mind –

• Someone in her position has to practice her speeches and comments a great deal. And yet, Patty came across as very authentic and passionate about their work. I don’t think you can practice (or fake) any of that.
• When Mr. Buffet settles his estate someday, the Gates Foundation has ten years to spend out his remaining wealth. So at some point in the next 1-30 years, they will wake up one day and have several billion dollars extra they must spend out annually. They will go from maybe a $3 billion annual payout to $7, 8, 9, 10 billion annually. In addition to the awesome potential to make the world better, can you imagine the management, leadership, organizational, people challenge that presents??
• And concurrently, where does all that capital go? There are not enough “distribution channels” today to handle that kind of investment, at least in third world countries. I’d imagine that developing the channels is going to be an important part of their work over the coming years.

Lastly, some people in the philanthropic world are concerned about so much money flowing through one foundation. Something like one of every seven foundation dollars in America will go through the Gates Foundation in the next few years. Certainly that poses risks and challenges, but frankly, I think it’s great and it’s time to see what happens when we put a lot of financial (and human) capital in one place and see what kind of positive change can happen in the world. It hasn’t been done before so let’s see how much more poverty can be alleviated, lives saved, etc.

Very exciting stuff and it’s all just up the street from us. Good luck, Patty and everyone at GF. What do others think about the Gates Foundation, what they’ve done so far, their potential for the future, risks and opportunities it presents, etc.??

Paul S

At the SVPI conference last week (www.svpi.org) there were several books floating around. I thought I’d point out a few of them:

• Jim Collins’ “Good to Great and the Social Sectors.” I especially like Collins’ Level 5 Leader concept and how it applies to philanthropic and civic leaders, as well as private sector CEO’s.
• Randy Ottinger is a Partner and he just wrote a new book called “Beyond Success” that I think will resonate with many of you.
• And David Bornstein’s book about “How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas.” I wonder if readers have comments / posts about social change books they want others to know about??

Paul S

So I walk into a local Starbucks at about 9am this morning, a little early for a 9:30am meeting with a past Partner. Another former Partner walks in shortly thereafter and she tells me all she is up to – working on a new national org called www.standwithus.com and other significant work. And she tells me how SVP really helped get her going. Her meeting (the pronouns will eventually get too confusing, but that’s the point) is with the mother of a current Partner, whose son is on an upcoming grant committee, and also who gives me a quick update on her daughter who is now a national program director for a non-profit out east that SVP has collaborated with.

When the past Partner gets there at 9:30, I get to listen in on another awesome conversation with someone that is ready to step up to leadership roles and to play at a more systemic, advocacy role. Part of what she talked about is how significant her early SVP experiences were in forming her philanthropy and in helping her realize where she could be most effective (she has since co-founded a local non-profit group too). She likes the K-12 Advocacy / Policy group, might like the Environment grant committee, etc. She and her husband re-joined (of course). Within the next five minutes, another current Partner walks in to meet with that former Partner I mentioned above about a joint community project they are both spearheading. One more current Partner walked in a few seconds later because she was also a part of the meeting.

Get it?!

Paul S

We just finished our annual SVP International (www.svpi.org) get-together. Over 200 Partners and Staff from over two dozen cities across the USA, Mexico, Canada, and Japan were there. We heard world-class keynotes from Patty Stonesifer and Paul Brainerd. It is a guaranteed once-a-year shot of adrenaline, ton-of-fun, and chance to reconnect with a bunch of “smart, cool, soulful” people as Bob Wright from Dallas described the network. After 3-1/2 days of staff, Board and conference meetings, dinners, and conversations, my most lasting impression is of the people and their VALUES.

I know that sounds cliché and perhaps self-serving (so my apologies if so), but it is a network of people that resonate humility, responsibility, authenticity, integrity, heart. The longer I am a part of this work and SVP, the more and more HUMILITY seems to me to be perhaps the most important value of all. Most of us are familiar with Jim Collins and his “Good to Great” work. He has another concept about people he calls “Level 5 Leaders.” SVP is made up of lots of real and many aspiring Level 5 Philanthropic & Civic Leaders. To Paul B and all of the local SVP founders, ya did good.

Paul S

After that first blog, I’ve had a lot of good feedback, some of it offline so be sure to pipe up and post your comments online too!

One thought that Garrison Kurtz’s (www.thrivebyfivewa.org) post raises for me is this issue of “risk” and what it means in a nonprofit / philanthropic context.  SVP was asked to submit input for an upcoming issue of Alliance Magazine (www.alliancemagazine.org), which is a very good publication covering international topics. The magazine issue will address risk from a number of angles, including: Do foundations actually take risks as they claim to be able to? How are these risks assessed?  What are the reasons for taking risks (innovation is only one of them)? Do systems for measuring performance and/or impact limit innovation and risk-taking? 

Risk: it’s a term that has lots of different meanings and contexts. The piece SVP submitted to Alliance begins like this … “Words like “risk,” “innovation,” and “outcomes” get bandied about by for profit and nonprofit management and boards alike.  The for profit world has defined and measurable parameters for risk.  Understanding risk and how it affects a business can be measured—the service or product either makes money or it does not. In the nonprofit world, risk, measurement, and outcomes are more ephemeral—we aren’t as sure what failure is because we don’t have as clear a method to measure success. If we are unsure of how to measure success, it is difficult to assess risk." 

And is risk even relevant when the ultimate purpose is more positive social outcomes, whatever the risk? I wonder what others think about risk – how you define it, what it means, how you use it?

Paul S