I’ve been thinking about this post for a couple of days. I wanted to find something cheery to write - something in the holiday spirit. Our office is full of such: Christmas trees and wreaths, menorahs and holiday sweets. My inbox is full of sparkling, gold-edged holiday cards sending good will.
I appreciate all of that and am definitely looking forward to the holidays and having some time to spend with family and friends. But I’m having trouble with the upbeat message as I’m struck by how many of those year-end cards are being sent to chase down a last few donations - desperately. I know I should expect this given the headlines and economic reality that have defined 2010 (for details on that, see the results of a recent Chronicle of Philanthropy survey), but I think that what has caught my attention is not only the quantity of these pleas, but the tone of them. For quite a few, it’s clear that this isn’t just about trying to get a few more dollars into the bank, but it’s really about saving staff jobs, programs and, perhaps, even the organization itself.
But, that’s not what I’ve been mulling over. It’s really that I’m torn about what the appropriate response is. Of course, on a personal level, I’d like the Foundation to be able to give to each of these nonprofits. I’m absolutely sure that every single one of them is helping someone who needs help, making a community stronger or giving voice to a forgotten cause. As everyone in philanthropy knows, though, we shouldn’t make grants scatter shot; we have to be focused, aligned, strategic.
On a professional level, I completely agree with that - we invest in nonprofits that can work with us strategically to make significant impact in our communities. As we reach the end of our fiscal year, we’ve managed our budget so that we’ve granted all that we have to give - we have to make our numbers work too. We aren’t set up to respond to these kinds of spur of the moment requests, nor do I think that we should be.
It still doesn’t feel good to send out the letters declining these requests. But with my personal year-end donations, I plan on spreading my gifts among a number of organizations, some of which I haven’t supported before. I guess that I’m not along in that, as one respondent to the Chronicle survey said he was seeing the number of donors giving to his organization going up even while the dollars are down. I’m lucky in that I can have it both ways - I’ll let my head rule at work, but my heart wins at home.
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