Social Impact Investing – Government Review

Posted on February 12, 2017 by ozphilanthropy

socialimpact_graphic-480x248Not a lot of time for this one.

The Federal Government has announced a review into Social Impact Investing – calling for submissions by Monday 27 February 2017.

Key areas for response are:

  • the potential role of the Commonwealth Government in the social impact investing market;
  • principles for social impact investing to guide Commonwealth Government involvement in the social impact investing market; and
  • possible Commonwealth regulatory barriers to the growth of the market.

As social impact investing is a growing field impacting on the not for profit sector, I encourage anyone with views to put in a submission.

Enquiries to :

Email: socialimpactinvesting@treasury.gov.au

David Crawford +61 2 6263 2757.

 

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Women Moving Millions

Posted on November 17, 2016 by ozphilanthropy

women-moving-millionsThe Australian Women Donors Network has just completed the “Power of Women” tour introducing Women Moving Millions in Sydney and Melbourne.  Women Moving Millions was started in 2005 by Helen LaKelly Hunt and Swanee Hunt, who wanted to “raise the bar on women’s giving” by making big and bold gifts for women and girls. It now has a membership of 262 women around the world who have pledged to commit $1,000,000 over ten years to projects supporting women and girls, promoting gender equality.

Carol Schwartz, one of three Australian members of Women Moving Millions,  committed to the network through the establishment of the Womens’ Leadership Institute Australia. Carol spoke of her passion for supporting projects for women and girls, which was catalysed by learning that only 12 cents in every philanthropic dollar goes towards women. When Carol first heard of Women Moving Millions, the only funder specifically supporting women in Australia was the Victorian Women’s Trust, while in the US there were around 250 – 300 women’s funds.

Carol’s pledge for Women Moving Millions is to promote women in the media, to grow women’s power, influence and decision-making over time (reminding us that just three years ago there was only one woman in Cabinet in Australia).

ann_lovell_foundationwmm

Ann Lovell

Carol introduced Ann Lovell, a founding director, former Vice President and current Board President of Women Moving Millions, and Jacki Zehner, their Chief Engagement Officer who were “interviewed” by journalist, Catherine Fox.

Ann told us that between 2007 and 2009, Women Moving Millions members contributed $182 million to organisations and projects promoting women, and have created a community which learns from its members through their Circles, Speakers and Writers programs.  These cover topics such as anti-pornography, anti-trafficking, refugees and impact investing.  Since it was formed, Women Moving Millions has catalysed more than $1 billion in working to change policy around women and girls.  And it is “oh so much more fun to give together”.

jackizehnerwmm

Jacki Zehner

Jacki Zehner was youngest women and first female partner at Goldman Sachs, where she worked on culture and leadership, thinking about why there were so few women in senior roles and what could be done about it. For Jacki the personal became political. Jacki believes in championing women’s leadership and announced a partnership between Women Moving Millions and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a leadership curriculum around philanthropic strategies.

Ann and Jacki reflected on recent events in the United States, noting that there will be opportunities women funders can respond to and that they want to be ready to unpack the “locker room” conversation and think about how to turn that into action in men’s’ lives. They also talked about the power of creative tools to stage an intervention in particular issues, through film and projects like Good Pitch.

wmm

a visual summary of the discussion by Devon Bunce from Digital Storytellers

Questions at the Melbourne session:

Q. Why are corporates and senior figures standing up now for family violence but not other gender equity  issues?

A. When the personal becomes political people wake up, and the Rosie and Luke Batty story has been a strong catalyst.  Issues have heroes and good storytellers create echoes and ripples.  While poverty and violence have been around forever, creating a “standing ovation” effect, catching the zeitgeist, and making the personal public is key to catching the attention of the crowd. Consider the Vagina Monologues,  the Good Men Project spearheaded by Michael Kimmel, Tony Porter,  and Jack Myers, talking about what it means to be a man, and The Mask You Live In, and Tiffany Schlain’s 50/50 (there have been 50 elected female prime ministers and presidents – can we name them?).  Moving out thought from scarcity to abundance.  With awareness comes responsibility, emotion and empathy affects us.

Q. Examples of where Women Moving Millions gifts go?

A. Women Moving Millions are not funded directly by the members, some gifts are deeply personal, some support microfinance in Liberia and India, some donors support one project, some take a portfolio approach.  The issue areas cover 100s and 1000s of organisations.

Q. Is there a global map of projects being funded?

A. Resources not available to itemise and locate every gift and some donors are quite private – the best use of the network is the exchange of ideas and the importance of advocacy and its effect on legislation.  When members get together they gain value from learning from each other and are free agents to invest where they choose.

Q. Evaluation, impact, evidence?

A. Each member supports 1 to 100 organisations, the Circles programs discuss strategy and issue areas and information is shared at all levels, but not publicly.  The benefit of Women Moving Millions is in its informal leveraging of relationships.  Unfortunately, they don’t have an easy way to make what they have learned more accessible.

Q. What is the impact of small grants?

A. The level of funding needs to relate to the needs of the organisation being funded so yes, small grants are important and effective.

Q. Relationship to sustainable development goals?

A. Women Moving Millions is looking at different ways to express impact, and donors don’t always have the time, energy and resources to measure to specific targets.  Sometimes impact is a judgment call rather than statistics. When trying to change social norms, it will take a long time and you may not meet these specific goals.  While the goals are a powerful framework, they need to be relevant for smaller donors and it is a challenge to incorporate them into the conversation.

Finally, everyone in the room was asked to consider what each of us can do to make a change for gender equity, and what action we would commit to, continue or ramp up as a result of what we had heard.  This led to further discussion and ideas.

Julie Reilly concluded the session with a reminder for people to check out the genderwise toolkit, and Ann and Jacki spoke of how enlightened they had been by their trip to Australia, and how the were moved by how engaged we are here, our energy, commitment, and interest.

What do you think about funding projects for women and girls?

What are your ideas for how best to address inequality?

 

ozphilanthropy attended The Power of Women Melbourne event as a guest of the Australian Women Donors Network

 

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Giving Australia 2016 – a preview

Posted on November 13, 2016 by ozphilanthropy

generousThe Giving Australia 2016 report is being launched on 1 December.  It’s been just over ten years since the last major survey of generosity and philanthropy in Australia was undertaken.  Both these reports were initiated by the Prime Minister’s Community Business Partnership.

The new iteration has been painstakingly worked on for more than a year by a research team at the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at QUT in collaboration with the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne University.

We were given a little taster of the report at the Centre for Social Impact Swinburne’s annual Alumni, Students & Friends Professional Development Day.  Dr Christopher Baker and Professor Jo Barraket presented some overarching findings based on more than 6000 surveys to households, 24 focus groups and 9 one-on-one interviews with engaged donors that they have conducted over the last year.

There have been some significant changes in the philanthropy landscape since 2005, not least being the growth of Private Ancillary Funds and the global financial crisis.

Anyway, here for your reading pleasure are some headline results which I found interesting:

  • Volunteering has increased
  • Business giving is greater – particularly through partnerships with not for profit organisations
  • There is a trend towards the democratisation of philanthropy (giving circles, peer to peer fundraising, crowdfunding, online technologies supporting giving) – but there is no hard evidence of the changes this is creating – the trend has been reported anecdotally and is considered “aspirational”.

The key insights from the report relate to what matters.  Here’s the list:

  • Culture matters – the underlying norms and values of our communities
  • Family and community matters
  • Mechanisms for giving matter
  • Impact matters – that is, the idea of making a difference, having agency and being able to play a part in things which matter, seeing the fruits of one’s labour and giving while living – not SROI, outcomes, evaluation or statistics.
  • Ease and access to giving matters (some PAFS commented on barriers to giving and the need for legal advice in order to operate within the regulations).
  • Infrastructure matters

and here’s a new acronym for us: EAST – easy, accessible, sociable and timely – where giving is made simpler and makes more sense, it attracts more support.

A few more thoughts on changes since 2005:

  • Capturing the diversity of giving and the giving experience is still a challenge.
  • There is more emphasis now on impact
  • Donors are more open to longer term investment
  • There is strong interest in transparency and evaluation
  • Donors want to engage with their communities in co-creating  solutions
  • Donors want to understand where their money lands.

The report has noted some perceptions of generational shifts in that younger people and retirees are more likely to volunteers while middle-aged people are more likely to give (reflecting their time availability). Younger people also want to align their giving with their careers, creating meaning with their work. (I hope to have a post on Effective Altruism up soon which pushes this idea very strongly).

There is a strong sentiment among those who do give that everyone with the capacity to do so, should do so.

There is strong support for broader accessibility to giving structures like private ancillary funds.

So what does the report tell us about the future of giving in Australia?

There is a strengthening culture of giving, there is support for diversity in giving platforms, people want to encourage collaborative efforts (between communities, philanthropists and government) and there is strong support for innovation such as matched funding, more policy to boost giving and greater transparency.

I look forward to reading the full report once it is launched, and to hearing your comments and reactions.

 

 

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Generosity Forum – Chris Cuffe – a philanthropist’s “voyage”

Posted on May 30, 2016 by ozphilanthropy

Chris Cuffe Loise Kennerleyb

Photo: Louise Kennerley –  Australian Financial Review

I can’t adequately capture the tone of this highly amusing session at the Generosity Forum.  As we had heard so many stories of journeys, Chris told us he was going to talk about his “voyage”.  He was interviewed by Angela Catterns who asked Chris a series of quite cheeky questions about his life, career, generosity and philanthropy, and he answered with humility, authenticity and as someone very at ease with his choices, his direction and his giving. Here’s the essence of it.

Chris says he had an unremarkable first part of his life, though living in regional NSW in Griffith from when he was 5 – 10 years old did have an impact on him.  He grew up with his mum and dad, two siblings, went to school and to uni and thought he was fairly normal.

Chris knew early in the piece that he had entrepreneur genes.  When a tooth fell out and he was rewarded a sixpence, he went out to a back paddock sheep graveyard armed with a hammer, and promptly filled a jar with sheep’s teeth.  The tooth fairy wrote him a note saying she could tell the difference between a sheep’s tooth and one from a little boy.  He also thinks his love of finance could be related to his passion for monopoly, or his family’s vocation as accountants.  Commerce, he said dryly, was in the blood.

Chris didn’t consider that his family was especially generous as far as he was aware, though his mother worked at the National Trust.  But in the country, everyone is fairly generous with their time.

Chris gave an entertaining and self-deprecating summary of his career, concluding that mostly he had been in the right place at the right time.  I won’t recap it as you can get the gist of it from these two articles: here and here.

Where his story gets really interesting is when he started his Private Ancillary Fund (PAF).  At the time, there was not a lot of information about them and they were very clunky vehicles for philanthropy.  You needed tax, accounting and legal advice to set one up.  It cost a lot to put one together (though not as much as it costs today).

The process lit a spark for Chris and inspired him with a passion to do this better.  At the time, no one was really looking at inspiring philanthropy through planned giving.  His idea was to provide a one-stop independent shop for donors.  Chris formed Australian Philanthropic Services as a not for profit entity to provide advice on giving through Private and Public Ancillary Funds and grantmaking.  They now service 200 clients with a view to connecting better with the 1700 wealth management advisers in the country.  Chris hopes that planned giving will one day be as well known and commonplace as self managed superannuation funds.

Chris feels that his connection to philanthropy and charitable organisations has been through “strange” organisations.  He describes Australian Philanthropic Services and Social Ventures Australia as enablers rather than typical charities, and he also supports Primary Ethics, which teaches ethics in public schools when kids don’t engage in religious instruction.

There is a perception that wealthy Australians are not as generous as their counterparts overseas, but Chris doesn’t accept that as a starting proposition, noting that the US system of giving has been strongly influenced by death duties and taxes, and that US philanthropy has been around for a much longer time, and there is the legacy of the Rockefeller and Ford families and foundations which have created a greater awareness around philanthropy, whereas the history in Australia is much shorter.

Philanthropy is evolving in that some people are being a lot more thoughtful and strategic about their charitable giving, but some people just get a kick from the act of giving and responding to whoever knocks on the door.  Chris acknowledged the importance of the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission and the push for greater transparency – that people are more aware of philanthropy now and more willing to talk about it.  He also noted that they had named their PAF after him because he was well known in the finance industry and he wanted to use his notoriety (or fame) for good.

Public recognition is not high on Chris’s agenda.  He has been through the experience of being hounded by the paparazzi when he left his job at Commonwealth Bank with a supposedly controversial bonus.  Chris feels he has become well known by accident and that he could have chosen to drop out of public sight or to use the fame/notoriety constructively, which he chose to do to help him in the world of philanthropy.

Chris established Third Link Growth Fund as a socially responsible investor where all management fees are donated to charitable organisations.  Eight years later that venture has been able to distribute $120,000 per month in grants to children’s charities.

Chris wouldn’t necessarily tell people about his interest in philanthropy and he doesn’t call himself a philanthropist as he is not so comfortable with the word and its connotations of “being up with the rich people”.  He feels more like the guy next door who likes to give $20 when the Red Cross comes knocking.

This piece also appears in Generosity: the online resource dedicated to nurturing, promoting and inspiring a greater culture of giving in Australia.  Generosity held its first forum in Melbourne last week.  I attended with a discount on my conference fee in exchange for some writing.

 

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Generosity Forum – a collective giving conversation

Posted on May 27, 2016 by ozphilanthropy

As you know, my focus recently has been on giving circles and collective giving. So I was very happy to attend the Generosity Forum: Conversations in Changing Philanthropy this week to hear Tom Hull from the Funding Network, Gillian Hund from the Melbourne Women’s Fund and Rikki Andrews from Impact100 Melbourne in conversation about collective giving.

melbb womens fund

Melbourne Women’s Fund was started by Gillian Hund and Pat Burke, who met while studying the Masters of Social Investment at Swinburne University.  They were inspired by hearing Colleen Willoughby, from the Washington Women’s Foundation,  who is  known as the mother of giving circles in the US.  Colleen was in Australia as a guest of the Australian Women Donors Network in 2012.  After one year of planning, the Melbourne Women’s Fund launched and now has 120 members.

funding network

The Funding Network grew out of an idea developed in the UK where a group of four philanthropists met in 2002 inviting people with early stage projects to come and speak to them to help them make decisions about how to allocate their funds.  The Funding Network enables people to become involved in philanthropy without being a high net worth donor.  Organisations pitch and the audience pledges support.  The model was brought to Australia by Lisa Cotton and the Funding Network has just celebrated funding their 101st project.

impact-100

Impact100 Melbourne was established after inspiration from James Boyd’s visit to the US researching collective giving, which led to  the creation of Impact100 WA.  In 2012,James spoke at a Swinburne Philanthropy Alumni event. A group of young people working in the philanthropy area liked the idea, got permission to use the Impact100 model, and decided to  jump straight in.

Collective giving makes philanthropy more accessible, enabling people to become engaged through learning about philanthropy and charitable organisations.  Technology facilitates collective giving by allowing people come together to support projects through sites such as Kiva and StartSomeGood.

Collective giving is great for younger people, particularly those in their 30s to 40s.  It gives people a major donor feeling and for some people a $1,000 contribution to a giving circle (both Impact100 Melbourne and Melbourne Women’s Fund have a $1,000 membership contribution – tax deductible) is a major personal gift.  In a way collective giving enables people to practise philanthropy so that they will be well informed and well educated in their giving in later years when they may have more disposable income.

Impact100 Melbourne’s model is to raise $100,000 each year for one significant grant.  In some years this amount has been exceeded through support from generous donors, which enables smaller grants to be made to other applicants.  Rikki noted that Impact100 South Australia has 230 members, so is able to make more grants (and in the US some of the Impact100 groups have 1000 members and make 10 large grants each year).

Tom noted that the burgeoning interest in collective giving is part of a continuum for example 10 x 10 requires a commitment of $100, live pledging at the Funding Network can be $100 – $200, and then giving circles have a minimum $1,000.  Collective giving is thus open to people at different stages in their capacity to give.

Tom also noted that there is both competition – or perhaps the better word is choice – and collaboration in the sector.  Many members of Impact100 Melbourne are also members of Melbourne Women’s Fund and vice versa.

While the Funding Network is set up as a charitable organisation with paid staff, most of the giving circles in Australia are run by volunteers.  Gillian said it is important to share the load so that founders don’t get burned out, and that it is like running a small enterprise.  It is important to attract membership who want to be involved and to make it enjoyable to keep them involved.  Melbourne Women’s Fund has a considerable number of women who want to join their committees and this is important for sustainability and succession planning.  There are opportunities for leadership – and Rikki mentioned that everyone who had been part of the initial founders of Impact100 Melbourne have now moved onto more senior roles in the sector.  There is a time commitment – Melbourne Women’s Fund asks members for a three year commitment though they now have one life member.

Aspirations for collective giving include finding more corporate friends who might be able to get their staff and clients to come on board or encourage workplace giving and matched giving.

The Funding Network can’t rely on philanthropic trusts to keep their organisation going, and are considering licensing their model.  They currently retain 10% of the funds raised at pitches and now offer a pitch coaching service as one form of revenue.

Collective giving in Australia has a connected and collegiate feel to it.  Rikki talked about the other Impact100 groups here, noting the recent launch of Impact100 Sydney, and the Brisbane group, Women & Change.  She felt it was a bonus that now if people are moving interstate, they can move from one collective giving group to another, as there are groups now in WA, SA, VIC, NSW and QLD.

Gillian noted that there are members in common across the giving circles which is an indication of how well they are working together, and the interface between them is not competitive.  Tom also noted that there is collaboration in finding organisations to support.

The focus for each of these groups is slightly different.  The Funding Network supports organisations that have income of less than $1,000,000 who are trying to affect social change.  Impact100 Melbourne has a different theme each year –  this year it is “Melbourne – Diverse and Inclusive” while the Melbourne Women’s Fund consistently looks at health and wellbeing for women and their families.

One issue raised for discussion was the idea of dissent.  The general consensus was that giving circles are about democracy and that they try to be as transparent and open as possible.  People understand that they are member-driven and that they can be involved as much as they like.  With Impact100 Melbourne, all of the members vote on where the grants are distributed (though a selection process is undertaken by a grantmaking committee –which is open for any member to join).   With the Melbourne Women’s Fund, people come with an open mind and are able to champion their passions and interests, but these must fit the profile for the grantmaking.

The aim for the Funding Network is to raise at least $10,000 for each organisation which pitches at their events and all of their organisations are grassroots, with incomes less than $1,000,000.  So far, the smallest amount they have raised has been $40,000, and the largest, helped with matched giving has been $270,000.

This year Impact100 Melbourne is on track to have raised $500,000 since 2013, and the Melbourne Women’s Fund will be giving out their signature and nurturing grants in July which will take their collective giving since they started to $200,000.

Do you belong to a giving circle?  What do you think are the benefits and disadvantages?  What do you think about the fact that they have been springing up all over the place in the last three years? Is there something in the water? Let me know your thoughts.

This piece also appears in Generosity: the online resource dedicated to nurturing, promoting and inspiring a greater culture of giving in Australia.  Generosity held its first forum in Melbourne this week.  I attended with a discount on my conference fee in exchange for some writing .

 

 

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Giving circles gain momentum

Posted on May 10, 2016 by ozphilanthropy

Play it forward giving circle

Play it Forward giving circle logo (Lynn, Massachusetts)

Collective giving through giving circles has been growing in Australia over the last four years. Since James Boyd introduced the Impact100 model to Western Australia in 2012, four more Impact100 groups have sprung up in Australia – Impact100 Melbourne (disclosure – this year I have joined the management and grantmaking committees), Impact100 SA, Impact100 Fremantle, and launched just this year, Impact100 Sydney.  Women & Change in Queensland is also based on a similar model.

The basis for the idea is to gather 100 people together to each make a donation of $1,000 which will then be paid out as a high impact grant of $100,000 to a small not for profit charitable organisation – creating a transformational and significant change for both the community and the charity.

The Impact100 groups work closely with community foundations to administer their funds and comply with tax and legal requirements.

The democratic and participatory part of the Impact100 groups is that the members decide on a theme or focus for granting, and after a shortlisting process, every member votes as to where they want the funds to go.

This year’s focus areas are:
Impact100 WA – arts & culture, education, environment, family & community or health & wellness
Impact100 Fremantle – creating a culture of connection
Impact100 SA – strengthening families
Impact100 Melbourne – Melbourne – Diverse and Inclusive (including health/education/environment)
Impact100 Sydney – making a positive difference to the lives of Sydney’s young people
Women & Change -social welfare and/or education support.

If you are a grantseeker, check out the websites for information on deadlines, how to apply and grant guidelines.

If you are interested in becoming a member/donor, the websites have information on how you can get involved too.

So what do we really mean by impact?  The launch of Impact100 Melbourne’s theme for 2016 was held recently.  Bridget Allen, Big Impact for Women Project Manager at McAuley Community Services for Women, the recipient of the 2014 grant, spoke about how $100,000 made a significant difference to their organisation.

Funds from the 2014 grant went towards a homelessness program which provides accommodation and support for women who are homeless as a consequence of family violence or mental illness (the Big Impact for Women Project).

In 2015, McAuley Community Services for Women helped around 1,000 women and children to rebuild their lives, supporting them on their journey towards independence and safer futures.

McAuley House provides a safe place to stay, intensive case management support and support to develop independent living skills for a safe sustainable future beyond McAuley.

Big Impact for Women Project focused on enhancing internal operations and processes across the organisation.   This was achieved by improving their case management processes, redesigning their skills development program, and being innovative in their approach using a model of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation.

This resulted in a new best practice case management framework which is client focussed, streamlined, individually tailored and reduces duplication, new client assessment tools and new client driven goal planning tools.  Funds from the grant were also applied to strengthening the suicide response procedure, new exit feedback procedures , a new practice manual, a peer / buddy support system and a paperless system.

All of this has led to the capacity for the organisation to have a broader reach and deeper organisational impact, greater staff capacity building, the ability to focus on projects and not be reactionary, the opportunity to reflect and grow, and the possibility to replicate and create a ripple effect from the success of the program.

McAuley Community Services for Women noted that “not many philanthropic trusts support sustainable projects that continue long after the grant has run out. Impact 100 does.“

Outcomes like this show that collective giving really can punch above its weight and that the fastest growing trend in philanthropy is not just a flash in the pan.

ozphilanthropy would love to share some of the other stories of the impact created through giving circles.  What are your experiences thus far?

 

 

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What the US gives US

Posted on April 7, 2016 by ozphilanthropy

usfoundationfunding Bradford K Smith, President of the Foundation Center, was in Australia in 2014 to talk about transparency in philanthropy and the Glasspockets project and the future of philanthropy.

He is back again, to launch a report developed in collaboration with Philanthropy Australia and the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, examining what funding flows into Australia from foundations in the US.

One of the key goals of the Foundation Center is to understand who is funding what and where.  This is very helpful for philanthropists who wish to engage in an issue, and not need to re-invent the wheel, but to learn from others already working in the same areas.  The Foundation Center was established in 1956 after some foundations were accused of un-American activity in the McCarthy hearings.

The then President of the Carnegie foundation, John Gardner, saw that “opaqueness” led to vulnerability, and that transparency in the philanthropic sector with sound standards for reporting would be of benefit in strengthening the sector.  The Foundation Center endeavours to understand philanthropy through transactional activities – that is, what grants are distributed – by whom, to whom, and their size.

Which brings us to the report.  U.S. Foundation Funding for Australia looks at grants of at least $10,000 from 1000 US foundations which direct their money to Australia or elsewhere in relation to Australia or Australia/US relations from 2011 – 2013.  Seema Shah, Director of Knowledge Services at the Foundation Center gave the following summary: In that period, 71 foundations distributed $95.1 million (US) to 208 recipients, mostly in health with $29 million coming from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Half of the grants were for economically disadvantaged populations (for example $1.3 million to indigenous programs) and one quarter of the grants not for a specific population or cohort (ie arts or environment) and12% of the grants went to organisations within the US who have an Australian focus or program.

The report outlines the top ten donors to Australia, key motivators for US donors to contribute in Australia (such as personal connections, corporate interests, regional interests or issue interests) and also notes that there is not yet much collaboration between US and Australian foundations.

The report also gives a state by state distribution spread – 25% of funding to Victoria, 23.8% to New South Wales, 23% to Queensland 5.3% to the Northern Territory and 3% or less to each of the other states and the ACT.

Stephen Heintz, President of the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, whom I wrote about in my previous post, concluded the launch of the report with a strong argument for transparency in philanthropy.  Beyond general accountability, foundations receive the privilege of a tax benefit, so the public has a right to know what has happened to these funds.  Transparency is also useful for communication to grantees so that they can know who is funding in their areas, and transparency is good for philanthropists so that they can cooperate and collaborate with each other on common interest areas – it is helpful for them to know who their potential partners are.

Stephen noted that transparency is a journey, and donors, philanthropists and foundations can be transparent without being self-promoting, or immodest.  While there is some argument and push back in Australia, particularly from Private Ancillary Funds about the need to maintain privacy and anonymity, transparency can be helpful for grantees even to know when their applications will not be accepted.  Communicating what is funded and what is not funded can help reduce irrelevant requests and will enable grant seekers to not waste time on applications and proposals which will not be funded.

Transparency doesn’t have to be all at once, and it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

Here are a few notes from the panel discussion and Q and A which followed the launch of the report.

Transparency adds to the “potential of philanthropy as an industry for good” – and enables the retention of knowledge held by individuals within organisations.

Most “causes” have no idea how much money is being contributed to them across the board – transparency can help with this.

Philanthropists want company, they don’t like to be alone on issues for too long – so transparency can help everyone see who is doing what.

Some of the larger foundations see transparency as a way of promoting their grantees and the work they are doing, rather than promotion of the foundation.

The journey from privacy to transparency needs to move at a pace that people are comfortable with.  It would be difficult for the regulator (the ACNC) to impose transparency requirements on foundations – information is currently held by the Australian Tax Office as a custodian for the community.  This last led to the idea of Philanthropy Australia acting as an honest broker of information (and for a representative of a PAF who wants privacy to agree that they might be comfortable sharing their granting information in an anonymous setting).

There are two immediate tangible outcomes of this report:

  1. for Australian philanthropic organisations to identify potential funding partners
  2. for grantseekers to find new sources of funding

The only downside to this report on US funding in Australia is Sarah Davies’ (CEO of Philanthropy Australia) comment: “The fact is we know more about the granting practices of US foundations and their Australian grant recipients than we do about Australian foundations.”

Let’s hope that work of this nature will stimulate the appetite for Australian donors, funders and foundations to embrace the idea of transparency and information sharing, for the benefit of the whole sector.

What do you think? Is our culture of giving so different to that of the US that we can’t stomach the idea of replicating this kind of data collection, or is there an opportunity for us to share more information?

I look forward to your comments.

 

 

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Giving for the Common Good

Posted on April 6, 2016 by ozphilanthropy

stephenheintzThe Wheeler Centre hosted Giving for the Common Good, a talk with Stephen Heintz, President of the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation (which shouldn’t be confused with the Rockefeller Foundation), facilitated by Peter Mares.

The Rockefeller Brothers Foundation was established in 1940, has a corpus of around $790million USD and focuses on three areas: strengthening the quality of democracy, sustainable development, and peace building.
The Foundation made a commitment to divest from its investments in fossil fuels in 2014 and freely admits the irony of this given they are a foundation whose wealth was built on the oil industry. Now 50% of their grants  go towards preventing climate catastrophe.  Their change in investment approach started as an ethical question and moral debate which was strengthened by the work of one of their grantee organisations, the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a London based think tank on the carbon economy.

For the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, philanthropy is about where their assets are invested as well as where their grantmaking goes.  This is important given there is around $55 billion USD given away by foundations in the US each year, which is a large amount, but small in relation to the scale of national budgets in the trillions of dollars.

Stephen spoke about sincerity in philanthropy, especially in organised philanthropy and the importance of transparency where private wealth is used for the public good on an institutional scale.  He also pointed out the level of transparency on the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation website which has a searchable grants database, the investment and divestment policies readily available, governance policies, and full biographies of staff and trustees.

Impact is an area even large foundations are careful about taking credit for.  Given the large number of players working across various issues, Stephen emphasised the importance of the need to be careful about attribution and causality – (not saying “because of our grant we achieved ‘x'”). However, he acknowledged the need for qualitative evidence and independent assessment of grants and their effectiveness.

He also talked about the importance of leveraging support through strategic philanthropy and working in collaboration with other donors.  He gave a quite clever metaphor of business and government as large ships of public and private policy being led in the right direction by the tugboats of philanthropy.

In concluding, Stephen returned to the theme of transparency and argued that when people see what philanthropy can do, then others will be more interested and enthused by it (for example the Giving Pledge). He also reminded us that philanthropy can and should be bold, as it is an opportunity to take risks, to test new concepts and even to fail some of the time.

Questions from the audience covered new and hybrid forms of philanthropy such as social enterprise and venture philanthropy, how the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation works with governments, the essential practices and attitudes of philanthropists – values, compassion, caring, humility and sincerity, and how to know when to stop funding something.

Stephen said that philanthropy can be bold and humble at the same time.  I felt that his talk and presentation embodies that ethos.  It was a stimulating talk reminding us of the power of the philanthropy and the role it can play in society.

What are your views on some of these issues like transparency and mission related investing?

I look forward to your thoughts.  Please use the comments box!

 

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Cause Report – 20 years of (r)evolution

Posted on March 2, 2016 by ozphilanthropy

john mcleodJBWere and NAB have launched John McLeod’s “The Cause Report – 20 years of (r)evolution in the nonprofit sector” which is the first major statistical analysis of the charitable and non profit sector since 1996.  The report will be available on the JBWere website from mid-March 2016.

John has sifted through masses of information from both the ACNC and the Australian Bureau of Statistics to collate an up to date financial snapshot of the sector, and how it contributes to our economy and society.  The report also captures information on government controlled not for profit entities such as public schools and hospitals which do not report to the ACNC and the ABS.

The report addresses the question – what does the not for profit sector look like as a whole? and continues the work of the 1996 Third Sector Report by Mark Lyons.

While there are acknowledged to be around 57,000 charitable organisations in Australia, there are also about 500,000 small and unincorporated not for profit entities.  The sector employs 8% of Australia’s workers and generates $200billion in income annually.  At the moment 10 new charities are registered daily, and the number of charities is doubling annually.

Here are a few tasters of what the report includes:

  1. The top four charitable organisations by income have not changed substantially in the last twenty years – the Australian Red Cross, World Vision and the Salvation Army top the list though their rankings might have moved slightly.
  2. The sector has an asset base of $350billion – with most of the assets held in education and aged care in property
  3. While the 80/20 rule seems to apply to the rest of the world, in the charitable sector it seems to be 92/8 – ie 92% of the funds are held by 8% of the organisations.
  4. The income mix has changed only slightly in the last 20 years, with philanthropy steady at 8%, government funding increasing from 30% to 38% and self-earned income dropping to 54%.
  5. The proportion of individuals donating to the charitable sector has remained steady, however the good news is that the average donation has increased.
  6. 8.5% of the workforce is in the charity sector.
  7. Volunteering is valued at $30 per hour.
  8. Margins in the sector are around 5%.

At the launch John provided a snapshot of three sectors within the nonprofit sector.

Arts and Culture reflect the broader sector most closely in terms of income and expenses and demonstrate a 13% profit marketing and 4.4 volunteers per employee.

Grantmaking – ie trusts and foundations show 8 volunteers per employee (which I imagine is mostly board members and trustees) and holds $15billion in assets.

International aid demonstrates the lowest profit margins with income most closely aligned to expenditure – and with 74% of income coming from donations and bequests, while the religious sector remains the single largest cause for philanthropic gifts (even non-tax deductible).

Once the report becomes available you will be able to examine John’s intricate graphs and data in more detail.

The launch concluded with a brief panel discussion with John, Sarah Davies, CEO of Philanthropy Australia, and Daniel Madhaven, CEO of Impact Investing Australia, facilitated by Shamal Dass, Head of Philanthropic Services at JBWere.  This touched on how Impact Investing can fit into the income mix for charitable organisations, what the role of philanthropy is given its 8% contribution to the not for profit sector, and the opportunity for “social risk capital”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in corporate social responsibility, donate, fundraising, impact and measurement, philanthropy, volunteering | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Philanthropy and the Arts – review

Posted on January 25, 2016 by ozphilanthropy

philanthropy and the artsPhilanthropy and the Arts is a new book by Professor Jennifer Radbourne and Kenneth Watkins (published in October 2015).

While it purports to be a best practice fundraising guide for arts organisations in Australia, it is more of a history of the development of fundraising within the Australian Ballet over the last twenty years, during Kenneth’s tenure there.

It is a fascinating read in terms of seeing how fundraising has changed and become more sophisticated over the years, and it emphasises the importance of aligning donors’ values with those of the organisation.

The key things that resonated with me were the importance of the role and value of the donor, the need to understand donors’ values, and finding a model of philanthropy that goes beyond fundraising to the essence of the intrinsic values held by donors.  This reflects Kay Sprinkle Grace‘s view that the purpose of fundraising is to enable donors to act on their values.  Philanthropy and the Arts recognises the challenges of competing for funds with so many other cultural organisations clamouring for the attention of donors, the slow growth of a culture of giving in Australia, and working against internal board resistance.  It notes the importance of small donors and that both asking and giving can be rewarding experiences.

While I did not agree with all of the authors’ views on leadership and desired attributes in fundraisers, it was great to read of their belief in the transformational role of the arts in society and their definition of philanthropy “as a voluntary action for public good”.

Ken Burnett, the guru of “relationship fundraising” would have been pleased with the acknowledgement of his approach.

The book highlights the role of fundraising and philanthropy in business and strategic planning, and notes that for fundraising to be successful, it must be given prominence (if not equal footing) with other departments within the organisational structure.

There was a little too much of what I call “fundraising speak” with terms such as “moves management”, “donor solicitation”, but overall the heart of this book lies in its commitment to the development of relationships with donors to make them feel an essential part of the Australian Ballet.

However, Fundraising in the Arts is not a how-to manual for every aspiring arts organisation in the country seeking to find that elusive dollar.  The Australian Ballet has had spectacular success in fundraising and philanthropy, due in no small part to Kenneth’s persistence and dedication (which we are very much reminded of all the way through), but it also has a different profile to most other arts organisations.  It also has a national reach, greater staffing resources and a much larger budget to allocate to its fundraising and philanthropy team. (and a 40 year track record in demonstrating its value and place in Australian society – though one could argue that the symphony orchestras should also be doing as well in philanthropy if longevity is one of the keys to success).

I tend to agree with Daniel McDarmid’s summary of the book in AskRight which states “If you seriously want to improve the fundraising in your arts organisation buy this book, and as an old prayer had it “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it.” Think about giving it to your CEO and board members. Think twice about giving it to donors beyond your board.”

While perhaps better titled: “Fundraising at the Australian Ballet“, Fundraising in the Arts is a timely and rare reflection on philanthropy in the Australian cultural sector.

Let me know your thoughts, and whether you would apply its wisdom to your own organisation.

 

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