How do you define your role in the economic crisis?

Deciding whether funders need to shift from "grantmaking as usual" in the ongoing economic crisis is probably a foolish question - clearly, grantmaking as usual just won't cut it in the months and years ahead.

But figuring out exactly how you plan to shift your focus in the light of so many new (and not so new) pressing needs is easier said than done. Just a few of the questions grantmakers are asking themselves:

How do we reach out to local providers, policymakers and state agencies to best understand the rapidly shifting sands of our region's support networks?

What advice and guidance, if any, do we share with these groups?

How do we think about the messages we send - and the forums we use to convey these messages - to our local providers, policymakers, or the general public?

And, perhaps most importantly: Can we afford to sacrifice long-term goals for short-term emergency fixes?

One foundation that is thinking deeply about this issue is the New Hampshire Charitable Trust.

Last week, the Trust's president, Lew Feldstein, sent out a letter to its broad network discussing the hard choices it is now making in its approach to the crisis and why, for the most part, it has chosen to keep to the long view. Lew writes:

I once likened the Foundation to an earthworm.

Some winced at this decidedly un-heroic metaphor. They would have preferred a lion or a hawk, a mighty mountain, Hercules manning the barricades.

I get that – I too hear the trumpets, the fife and drums. All of my instincts in times like these are to rush to the walls. To position the Foundation as a great and mighty force resisting the ravages of recession. Helmeted, with a huge fire hose in one hand, bags of cash in the other. Throwing ourselves into the breech, filling the huge service holes caused by imminent state budget cuts and reductions in private giving to our agency colleagues. A philanthropic “Walter Mitty.”

But that’s not who we are.

Yes, the Foundation can marshal emergency help in crises. We did it with the 2003 closing of the Berlin mills, the 2006 floods in southwestern New Hampshire, “Stay Warm NH” just this winter. We will do so again.

And yes, the Foundation was among the first in the state to fund programs to address AIDS, child abuse, homelessness, and payday lending – in most cases well before there was public support. And will continue to do so.

And yes, the Foundation does provide significant annual support to hundreds of nonprofits that provide basic human services, and we remain the largest single source of scholarships in the state. And will continue.

But the highest and best use of the Foundation – and the broader charitable sector – is not to underwrite basic services. This is not our role even in good times, and we certainly don’t have the resources to take it on in hard times.

The nonprofit sector simply doesn’t have the firepower to meet the overwhelming needs emerging in this recession. That job must be led by government.

Think of it this way. Nonprofits and government are in the same business – helping to move citizens to a better life. But if government is a bus or a train, we are a motor scooter. They carry far more people and do the bulk of the work. But we can start and stop faster, and take the turns more sharply.

At the same time – and here is where the earthworm metaphor works – the Foundation’s job is to build the soil, to enrich the ground in which the state’s thousands of nonprofits work, to have the truly long view that asks, “What will the ground look like when we come out of this? Still fertile or scorched and sterile?”

So what does that mean for our work in this deepening recession?

It means we must …

• Sustain our grantmaking capacity as well as we can
• Focus investments in high performing change agents
• Make changes to better support the nonprofit sector as a whole
• Encourage donors to dig deeper than ever
• Strategically advocate long-term public policy solutions to systemic
  problems.

And that’s what we are doing.

(Read the rest of Lew's letter: The Foundation's Role in Troubling Times)

While there are no easy answers to the challenges our communities now face, and while there are no easy answers to the most appropriate role for funders, we think that Lew's sentiments may provide a good starting point.

On March 4th, Funders Together will host an Audio Conference for its national network of funders to discuss the topic of "Responding to Crisis." If you're a funder and would like to participate, please sign up here. Others are invited to provide their comments and suggestions - rest assured, we are interested to know what you think.

Taking Apart the $819 billion Stimulus Package

While the exact numbers have changed since it was initially created, this recent graphic from the Washington Post provides a fascinating look at the distribution and timing of the 2009 Economic Stimulus Package.

Click on the image below to view a larger version of the graphic.

Funding Principles Slide Show

Learn more about Funders Together's mission, goals and approaches, including a brief presentation of our Funding Principles for Ending Homelessness. (To view a full screen version of this slideshow, click on the button in the lower right-hand side of the image below).

Homelessness is a Solvable Problem

"So, does anyone else wonder how many more years the Melville Charitable Trust will be looking for a solution to Homelessness? Every night I hear on NPR that it is funding "All Things Considered" and working on finding solutions to homelessness? So, how is it going for them on this quest for the Holy Grail? Have they found a solution yet? Homelessness has increased every year for the past 20 in Cleveland, so the solutions have not made it to the Midwest..."

"...I have to wonder that all the money spent on staff, advertising, shelters, permanent supportive housing projects, National Alliance, and NPR would have helped more people by just providing a family a housing voucher for one year. They could have paid for an entire year of housing for 1,000 people in Cuyahoga County over the 10 years if they had just given away $6.5 million dollars to us. That would have doubled our Shelter Plus Care program and increased our Voucher program by over 7% with $6.5 million."

(Read full post).

-- Brian, clevelandhomeless,

We recently came across this critique on the blog for the Coalition for the Homeless in Cleveland. Melville staff member Aimee Hendrigan offered the following clarification of the Trust's overall strategy.

What do you think, either about the critique or Aimee's response? Please add your comment below.
_________________________________________________________

Hello Brian,

As a staff member of the Melville Charitable Trust, I read your comments with interest. Allow me to jump in and offer my two cents.

I think we agree that homelessness is a solvable problem. The Trust focuses on the creation of supportive housing as a key solution, one that can be used throughout the country. The Trust has spent over fifteen years funding supportive housing solutions in Connecticut (the Melville family’s home state). This focused investment in the state has contributed to significant results (thousands of units of housing) and a strong group of leaders who advocate for real solutions to homelessness, including funding for ongoing services (a very big challenge as you acknowledge).

We would be the first to say that this type of change does not happen quickly. It can be frustrating, but for us it is worth the consistent investment. You can visit one of our key grantee partner’s sites to learn more about the advocacy we support: http://www.ctpartnershiphousing.com/.

When you suggest that we might have better used our funding to pay for an entire year of housing for 1,000 people, that’s where we seriously disagree. Philanthropy cannot and should not be the direct funding solution to the nation’s housing crisis. It is not sustainable; frankly, we would run out of money – and pretty quickly.

To be most effective in addressing major social issues such as homelessness, foundations can work to leverage their funds. The Melville Trust does this on a national level when we support the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and the Center for Budget Policy and Priorities, among others. Their legislative advocacy has a tremendous impact on the federal and state allocation of funding for housing and homelessness priorities throughout the country (if interested, you can find a list of all of our grantees from the past five years on our website http://www.melvilletrust.org/).

We also work to facilitate relationships with other funders, again with the aim of leveraging funds as well as sharing ideas. The Trust is a founding member of Funders Together, http://www.funderstogether.org/, a national network of funders dedicated to ending homelessness.

Our ongoing support of NPR underwrites their tremendous contribution to airing stories about housing and poverty – important reporting you don’t hear in many other places. It is our hope that our tagline might offer encouragement/inspiration for those working in the field or impacted by homelessness, as well as awareness for others who think homelessness is an unfortunate constant in our society.

I appreciate the forum to respond and would be happy to discuss any of these issues further through the blog or otherwise.

Sincerely,

Aimee Hendrigan
Senior Program Officer, Melville Charitable Trust