Influential Reading

In each newsletter, Philanthropy UK invites influential people from the philanthropy sector to tell us what books have most inspired and shaped their approach to philanthropy.

Our ‘influential reader’ in this edition is John R. Healy, who was President and CEO of The Atlantic Philanthropies between 2001 and 2007. He is currently adjunct professor at the Centre for Nonprofit Management at Trinity College Dublin, and a consultant on foundation strategy. He can be contacted at healyjr@tcd.ie.

John says,

When I entered the world of philanthropy in 1990 I searched for books that would help me understand the strange landscape of which I was now a part. I quickly discovered that such books were rare.

But I was fortunate to pick up a second hand copy of Waldemar A. Nielsen’s The Golden Donors, which had been published in the mid-eighties.

Nielsen, who had worked for the Ford Foundation early in his career, was an acerbic observer of American foundations. He described them as “aristocratic institutions living on the privileges and indulgence of an egalitarian society; aggregations of private wealth, which, contrary to the proclaimed instincts of Economic Man, have been conveyed to public purposes.”

Nielsen lifted the veil of secrecy that had concealed the work and inner workings of foundations. And he performed a valuable, if unappreciated, service to the American foundation world. Although there have subsequently been a number of studies of US foundations (most notably Joel L. Fleishman’s important The Foundation: A Great American Secret), none have surveyed the foundation landscape as shrewdly and cogently as Nielsen. He is still worth reading.

In The Golden Donors Nielsen lauded John D. Rockefeller as one of the pioneers of scientific philanthropy, in that he advocated dealing with the causes of social ills rather than ameliorating their symptoms. Rockefeller receives scant attention these days in comparison with his fellow robber-baron Andrew Carnegie. Yet Rockefeller included in his turgid (and probably ghost-written) autobiography, Random Reminiscenses of Men and Events an interesting chapter entitled ‘The Difficult Art of Giving’ in which he laid out the principles which underlay his philanthropy. 

Anticipating the haphazard pursuit of immortality by many newly rich givers, Rockefeller sternly stated that “no really constructive effort can be made in philanthropic work without…a well defined and consecutive purpose.” Rockefeller showed that he understood the limitations of wealth (“the mere expenditure of money for things…soon palls upon one”) and he urged his fellow members of the aristocracy of wealth to “cultivate a taste for giving where the money may produce an effect which will be a lasting gratification.”

Scattered among Rockefeller’s predictable defences of nineteenth century capitalism are many nuggets of wisdom which are relevant to modern philanthropy. One which today’s foundation professionals should heed is his clarion call for pro-active grant-making. “We have not been satisfied with giving to causes which have appealed to us”, he wrote. “The mere fact of a personal appeal creates no claim which did not exist before, and no preference over other causes more worthy which may not have their appeal.” He noted that where he had not been able to find organisations capable of pursuing his philanthropic goals, he set about creating them.

Helping non-profits to become stronger and more sustainable is a core responsibility of the modern foundation. When I assumed the leadership of The Atlantic Philanthropies, and had the opportunity to prepare that foundation for the end of its limited life, I came across an article about another foundation which made a deep impression on me. The foundation was the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF) and the article was a Harvard Business School case study written by Allen Grossman and Daniel Curran, entitled EMCF: A New Approach at an Old Foundation.

The case study describes how a foundation long wedded to the reform of public sector systems concluded that such reform was beyond its resources. Instead, Michael Bailin, the Foundation’s President, steadily, and often painfully, guided it towards concentrating on one single field – youth development – and devoting most of its resources to the growth of a small number of youth-serving non-profits which had demonstrated effectiveness and had the potential to undertake significant growth. In effect, the Clark Foundation developed a new theory of change for its grant-making.

The case study describes how the Clark Foundation established rigorous due-diligence criteria, provided grantees with support for business planning, moved towards making fewer, larger grants, and re-defined the staff competencies that would be needed to implement the new strategy.

For foundation professionals interested in improving the effectiveness of their philanthropies, the Clark Foundation case study makes sober reading, but it provides a road map towards a better future which is as relevant on this side of the Atlantic as it remains in the US.