Being Grantmaker of the Year 2013
Posted: 2 October 2012 Filed under: grantmaking, philanthropic sector | Tags: AIGM, Australian Institute of Grants Management, Grantmaking, Our Community, philanthropy Leave a comment »It’s all about visualisation!!….
The Australian Institute of Grants Management (AIGM) is a professional network linking grantmakers, grant managers and grants administrators from philanthropic, corporate and government grant making. It provides support, advice and inspiration to people involved with all things grantmaking, with the aim of helping practitioners to achieve excellence.
In 2012, the AIGM inaugurated its Grantmaker of the Year Award. The award aims to find out from those working at the coalface what they think could be done to enhance and improve grantkmaking in Australia. It aims to find the leaders of our field and have them share their great ideas with their grantmaking peers and what’s really important is that it aims to give recognition to the great skills and professionalism that exists in Australian grantmakers.
The first award was given to our own Egg 1 (well done Caitriona!!) and the search is now on for someone to fill her award-winning shoes. Anyone who has worked for at least six months of this year as an Australian Grantmaker can apply and if you’re the winner, you’ll be paid handsomely for sharing your grantmaking pearls of wisdom ($5,000!). I’ve heard mention so many great ideas about best practice and next practice, and how we can improve what we do. Now’s the time to share them. And be paid for the privilege!
To nominate, you just need to complete the online nomination form at www.grantsmanagement.com.au/award
Entries are open until midnight on Tuesday, December 4, 2012 and the winner will be announced in March 2013.
You can follow the musings of Claire Rimmer on Twitter via @ClaireMRimmer or the blog via @3eggphil
What the?!
Posted: 25 September 2012 Filed under: philanthropic sector, Philanthropy Australia | Tags: ACNC, Artsupport Australia, NFP sector, philanthropy, Philanthropy Australia, transparency Leave a comment »When the news broke a few weeks ago that Deborah Seifert, CEO of Philanthropy Australia, had resigned after being in the post barely two years I was really surprised. I was even more surprised when it was announced more or less simultaneously that the Director of ArtSupport Australia, Louise Walsh, would be stepping into her shoes. After initially being a little bit puzzled at the seamlessness of it all, I began to think about the possibilities that having Louise at the helm might represent and things felt quite positive. Interesting, even.
But what has unfolded this past couple of weeks has left me a little cold. I really don’t know what to make of it all. Which is not being helped by the fact that PA is revealing nothing to its membership. Where is the communication? Where is the transparency? Consequently the rumour mill is running wild and people are not happy about the whole situation. Certainly, if the rumours are true there are big changes on the horizon which, if they are to be accepted, need to be managed (which they haven’t to date). And so, what was an air of possibility has now become a distinctly bad smell.
All this and then the Opposition’s opposition to the ACNC. Obviously I can’t pretend to know the whole of the NFP sector, but what I can say is that I haven’t heard the same wide-ranging doubts and concerns that Kevin Andrews, Liberal spokesman for families, housing and human services was recently quoted by Fairfax Media as having heard. However if there are doubts and misgivings, it’d be great to hear them….
Philanthropy, the Next Generation
Posted: 22 September 2011 Filed under: culture of giving, Philanthropists, Uncategorized | Tags: Art Support Australia, Danielle Caruana, Dr Sam Prince, Emagine Foundation, Jurlique, The Australia Council, The Seed, Thora Klein-Gibaud Leave a comment »The Australia Council’s Artsupport team held two private events last week in Sydney and Melbourne, to launch an initiative targeted at cultivating a new generation of giving in Australia. I went to the Melbourne event as an interested philanthrocrat, wanting to hear the stories of the three panellists (more about them below). But my interest was mainly sparked by a desire to know what’s being done to encourage greater giving in Australia, given the ongoing negative press about wealthy Australians’ meanness. It’s a common talking point, as our blog attests.
Artsupport’s purpose is to grow cultural philanthropy in Australia. It began in 2003 with just two staff members in Sydney but now has representatives in every state and territory (except Tasmania). It’s estimated that, so far, the initiative has facilitated more than $50 million of new philanthropic income to around 200 Australian artists and 600 arts organisations – as their page of the Aus Co website says, this is a strong outcome for a government investment of nearly $5.2 million: providing a return of nearly 1,000 per cent.
The two events last week are billed as stage one of a three-year ‘New generation of giving’ plan to build a community of young philanthropists, aged between 28-39 years, with inherited or self-generated wealth; through panel sessions, dinners and other networking events (a field trip to the US was mooted…..). The younger generation, where better to start?
The Melbourne event was held at Comme, a swanky bar in Melbourne’s CBD and a favourite after-work haunt of the be-suited ladies and gentleman of the city. A smart choice given the invitees, if we’re to go purely on stereotypes that is. In fact the choice of venue called to mind my blog ’Giving is Sexy’ which explored UK research findings into why donors give and non donors don’t.
The three panellists were:
- Dr Sam Prince, Founder of the Emagine Foundation and Zambrero Fresh Mex Grill Restaurants
- Danielle Caruana, aka Mama Kin, co-Founder and director of The Seed (previously known as The JB Seed)
- Thora Klein-Gibaud, Former Director, Jurlique International and someone whose passion for music is lived out through Ngaringa Farm Arts Foundation.
Each had a very individual story about what inspired them to give, how they chose the focus of their philanthropy, what they aim to achieve through their giving and, in a good reality check, some of the problems they experienced along the way. It was inspirational stuff and I hope the intended next gen philanthropists left the evening duly inspired, with a sense of what is possible, and a better understanding of the drive, determination, motivation and nous they will need if they decide to step up to the plate.
I was certainly inspired by Danielle’s story. To me it was the most accessible of the three (I am neither an entrepreneur, nor someone with inherited wealth). The Seed’s philanthropy was born on a very small scale, using collaborations which drew on Danielle and her co-Founder, John Butler’s, networks in the music industry to amass enough support to create a fund to “help Australian artists from any background, creating art and music across any genre, to establish themselves as self-sustained, professional artists”. It has since gone on to grow and grow, supporting more and more artists. In essence, it was a great idea which met (and still meets) a need and was able to galvanise people around it. Food for thought. If you’re interested in knowing more about The Seed, this little youtube video will give you a great insight:
The New Generation of Giving initiative has good potential and I’ll watch with interest to see how it develops, because it is of inestimable importance to encourage and nurture the next generation of philanthropists.
You can follow the musings of Claire Rimmer on Twitter via @ClaireMRimmer
Lucky you!
Posted: 19 July 2011 Filed under: arts, Australia, grantmaking, Uncategorized | Tags: due diligence, lottery, Tamara Winikoff 3 Comments »I read an article in Arts Hub last week which shook me in my grant-making boots when I got to the final line – “There are certainly some ground rules, but if you think that getting a grant is not a lottery, I wish you luck”. The article, Heads or Tails? Getting that grant, was written by Tamara Winikoff (Executive Director of NAVA, the national peak body for the visual arts, craft and design sector). She writes regularly on the arts for Arts Hub and various other publications and, given her extensive knowledge and experience of the sector, she has an opinion which carries quite some weight. I think that’s why I was so surprised and disappointed when I read what she had to say.
Perhaps I’m an idealist, but I like to think that every funding decision I’ve ever helped a Board or Committee make has been a fair one, based on a set of known funding objectives and with a clear rationale. Will the project meet a clear need or demand? Is it viable? Is the organisation viable? Is project planning and management adequately well considered?
And no, it hasn’t been possible to support every good project – usually due to budgetary constraints – but in this instance the project that appears to offer most to its audience and the applicant organisation, and will deliver most strongly against my organisation’s funding objectives is the one that will be supported. And yes, funding rounds are hard work and can be draining, but the decision-making process is a multi-layered one where each recommendation is seen by more than one pair of eyes.
Before coming to Australia I worked as a Grants Officer for a UK lottery distributor. Part of my job was to review draft press announcements prepared by grantees about their newly awarded grants. I was forever having to edit out lines like “lucky lottery win for xxx!” and “what a stroke of lottery luck!” because it was considered that they gave the wrong idea: getting a grant wasn’t in any way about luck or lottery, it was about a lot of thought and hard work. Every decision was a very robust one which had to be transparent and accountable to applicants and the lottery-ticket-buying-public because, after all, them buying the tickets was what enabled support for these projects to be considered in the first place.
I have to admit, reading Heads or Tails, I really got the sense that I was reading the words of someone who’d reached the end of their tether; jaded by a few really tough weeks at work. I could be wrong. If I am, perhaps I have to take solace from Tamara’s recognition that there are ground rules to grant-making and hope that others have faith that getting a grant is not a lottery.
I feel like I might have co-opted Caitriona’s high horse….
Two little BIG words
Posted: 6 July 2011 Filed under: Australia, culture of giving, disadvantage, grantmaker/grantee relationship, Philanthropists | Tags: disadvantage, giving, Howes Family Learning Potential Scholarships, Peter and Heather Howes, philanthropist, philanthropy, QUT, The Howes Family Gift 3 Comments »I hate it when people don’t say thank you. Maybe it’s my upbringing? Whenever we were given anything Mum would always go – “what do you say?” – and me, my brother and sister would chime, “Thank youuuu“. After Christmas, birthdays, or any other occasion which involved us receiving a gift from someone, we’d be sat down to write thank you letters to let people know we’d got and liked their gift. The importance of saying thank you was instilled in us to such a degree that these days if I hold the door open for someone, for example, and am not thanked, it’s not entirely uncommon for me to say slightly sarcastically “no, problem, it’s my pleasure”. Or maybe it’s nothing to do with my lovely Ma and it’s just Curmudgeonly Claire rearing her head again?!
One of the things I love most about my job is when I get to tell someone they’ve been awarded a grant. If I’ve been in contact with an applicant during the review process, they’ll know when a decision’s being taken on their application and they’ll be expecting a call. There’s usually a nervous, anticipatory silence at the other end of the phone which, if I was sadistic, I’d draw out before letting them know the decision, but I’m not so I try to cut to the chase as soon as possible (and because I’m excited to tell them!). It’s so lovely when you hear a delighted “thank you!”. Makes all the hard work so worthwhile. I can’t tell you how disappointing it is to call someone to let them know they’ve been given thousands of dollars if I get little reaction and no thanks.
I’m not saying grantee gratitude is the be-all and end-all in the decision making process. Of course it’s not. A poorly conceived project isn’t going to be supported simply because an organisation said thank you for a grant in the past. But it is important, and it is remembered. It comes back to that all-important grant maker/grant seeker relationship again (How to make friends and influence philanthropy and Too much or not enough?).
And it seems I’m not the only one that notices when someone says thank you. The June/July edition of Fundraising and Philanthropy Australasia had a story about a donation of $1m to Queensland University of Technology, recently gifted by Peter and Heather Howes.
The Howes’ have a long association with QUT: both are ex-QIT students (QUT’s immediate predecessor) and have a daughter who graduated from QUT; both were lecturers at QIT; and Peter was a member of QUT‘s School of Management Advisory Board. They first contributed financially to QUT in 2009 and 2010 in its annual alumni appeals, when they gave relatively small amounts of money in support of the Learning Potential Fund – an endowment fund to support bursaries and scholarships for QUT students in financial need. They began discussions with the University about the potential for them to make a larger gift after July 2010 when they sold the very successful human resources consultancy business they had jointly founded in 1982 (the sale giving them greater capacity to consider giving more significantly to QUT). Before the year was out, these discussions came to fruition in the form of The Howes Family Gift: a $1m donation which was added to the larger LPF endowment, but to be used to fund discrete Howes Family Learning Potential Scholarships for disadvantaged students.
One of the factors behind the Howes’ decision to increase their philanthropic engagement with QUT was the phone calls they received from LPF fundraising staff thanking them for their 2009 and 2010 appeal gifts. Apparently this was the first time they’d got such personal thanks from an organisation they’d given financial support to. As a consequence of this very simple gesture, the very neediest of QUT students can now apply for annual scholarships of $5,000 to support the cost of their study (more than standard LPF scholarships and bursaries offer), and there is also talk of the Howes contributing more money to QUT in the future to enable more scholarships to be offered. I wonder if LPF fundraising staff had any idea how powerful those two little words would be?!
While we’re on the subject of saying thank you…. thank you!! Since we launched 3eggphilanthropy back in April, we’ve had almost 2,600 views of our site and enjoyed some fantastic thoughts and opinions on the blog site, and on Twitter and Facebook. We’ve also had some amazing contributions from fabulous guest bloggers which added so much to the conversation. It’s been a fantastic first couple of months and we look forward to everything that’s to come. Scrambled, boiled, or poached…. Thanks again!!
If you haven’t subscribed to the blog yet, why not do it now?! That way you’ll be first to know when our latest musings have been hatched!
Giving is sexy!
Posted: 23 June 2011 Filed under: culture of giving | Tags: Carol Fiennes, giving, Global Cool 12 Comments »Following all the chat among 3egg and co recently about the lack of giving in Australia and the offering of thoughts on what might be done to encourage it, I have something to throw into the mix!
What would you say if I said giving is sexy? Would it appeal to you? Would it make you grimace? It made me snigger – philanthro-geek that I am – but it did get me thinking. It’s definitely not the sort of language that is normally used around philanthropy but a UK report written for the Philanthropy Review in April 2011 suggests that this small but significant change in how we frame giving could be the key which unlocks all those “hidden” AU philanthropic $$ that we keep talking about.
The study, The Aha: Why donors give, why non-donors don’t and what to do about it, written by Carol Fiennes (CEO of UK Climate Change Charity, Global Cool Foundation) suggests that the reason some people don’t give is because they simply aren’t motivated to: that the way that giving is generally talked about only appeals to a certain group within the population.
The study draws on the outcomes of research carried out by the UK company, Cultural Dynamics, Strategy & Marketing, to determine what drives people to do what they do. CDSM surveyed more than 8,000 people with over 1,000 questions and, with the data gathered, was able to identify a series of fundamental psychological needs that we as people are trying to satisfy – the needs which drive our behaviours and the vision of the person we want to become – and segment them. They called this the ‘Values Modes’ segmentation.
The segmentation identifies that there are three types of people:
- Sustenance Driven (SD)
- Outer Directed (OD) and
- Inner Directed (ID)
In a nutshell:
- SDs are socially conservative – they’re wary of change, keep to the rules and want to be directed by authority. Their key need is to feel safe and secure;
- ODs are driven by needing the esteem of others and want to be seen to succeed. They are a higher energy, fun-seeking group and are instinctive rather than analytical; and
- IDs are always questioning and looking for ethical and intellectual stimulation. They don’t find change worrying and see global issues as their issues. They’re more analytical than instinctive.
The ‘Values Modes’ segmentation’s been used successfully for over 30 years in over 30 countries – for purposes which range from selling soft drinks to determining voting behaviours – and has predicted Value Modes with over 97% accuracy. For more info on CDSM’s work, click this link to their website. CDSM
If you hadn’t guessed already, us Philanthro-niks (Fiennes’ word for us philanthropeeps and my favourite to date!) are defined as Inner Directed people. I did the survey and despite giving answers that I was sure would lead to me bucking the trend and being an OD, surprise surprise, I was categorised as an ID. If you’d like to do the short survey and find out which of the segmentations you are, click here: Value Modes Survey
Apparently much of the thinking in The Aha draws on Fiennes’ work at Global Cool, which is a charity that aims to get more people to adopt a lower-carbon lifestyle. Global Cool was looking into how to “sell” green lifestyles to people and realised that the way that they’d been doing it had resulting in them preaching to the converted: with campaigns developed by IDs which only appealed to IDs. They realised that their challenge was to make low-carbon living attractive to the OD and SDs of the world who they knew, generally speaking, were less interested in the issue. So they developed a series of campaigns to get people to make green lifestyle choices based on the things that motivate them. For example, one campaign works to entice people to turn down the heat in their homes by “turning up the style” instead – wearing beautiful, fashionable woolly jumpers to combat the cold with the added benefit of keeping their skin from drying out! Through the campaigns they seem to be capturing the broader imagination. Brilliant!
I have to be honest when I first read the report, I found myself curling my lip and rolling my eyes at the suggestions it makes to encourage broader giving (maybe that‘s because I‘m an ID….and a bit of a curmudgeon?!). It all sounded kind of patronising….“make giving fun & social“, “make giving easy“, “avoid people feeling that giving is a loss“, instead of promoting giving at music festivals or in a serious newspaper, do it at a yacht club or a glitzy event with business leaders. Essentially, diamond encrust the carrot that’s dangled and make the promise of a feature story in Grazia magazine (for the ODs at least). But with a track record as strong as the segmentation’s in terms of determining motivations and behaviours, I did a 360 and started to think it’d be well worth trying it. If this is all it might take to increase and broaden giving, why not?!
One thing that stood out when I read the report, which worried me a bit given all the negative press here just now around giving, is that rather than talking about the lack of giving we should instead celebrate giving: to normalise the notion of doing this rather than exacerbate the trend to not give. It makes sense, I think. Talking about a wealth of giving creates the feeling that there is a scale of investment which makes problems tackle-able, rather than making them feel too big and too hard to deal with, creating a desire to sweep them under the carpet.
So…the question is….what do you think? Should giving be ”sexy”?!
Giving like Herb and Dorothy
Posted: 27 May 2011 Filed under: arts, Australia, culture of giving, philanthropic sector, USA | Tags: arts, capacity building, education, empowerment, philanthropy, Philanthropy Australia 2 Comments »They weren’t born rich. They didn’t get rich either. Quite the opposite in fact. But they are major American philanthropists. They’re Herbert and Dorothy Vogel.
I hadn’t heard of the Vogels until a couple of weeks ago when I was scanning the shelves of my local video shop for something to watch (why do we still call them video shops?!) and a title caught my eye: “Herb and Dorothy. The incredible true story of a postal worker and a librarian who built a world-class art collection”.
Using Herb’s salary alone (they lived on Dorothy’s) the Vogels managed to amass what is described in the film as “one of the most important contemporary art collections in history”. They did this using just two selection criteria:
- they had to be able to afford the work, and
- it had to fit into their rent-controlled one bedroom apartment in Manhattan!
While the artists represented in the collection now reads as a who’s who of major Minimalist, Conceptual and post-1960s artists, the Vogels bought the works when no one else was interested, which meant they were able to buy them for virtually nothing. They bought passionately and compulsively for almost 30 years and by the early 90s their apartment was busting at the seams with works of art estimated to be worth millions of dollars.
In 1992, after being courted by some major art museums and made many lucrative offers for their collection, the Vogels gifted it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. But what motivated them to do this? Why did they gift it? They may have been asset rich but in real terms they had no money! They explain it as being because they’d both been government workers and they liked the idea of giving it to the American people. Gorgeous!
Amazingly, they then went on to continue to collect art…..mainly using the small annuity the National Gallery had given them as a token of thanks for their gift (I love their story!!). Once again, the artworks outgrew the Vogels’ capacity to properly look after them and they decided to make another major gift to the American people. Unfortunately the National Gallery was unable to accept any more works, so instead they brokered an initiative which in the last couple of years has seen the distribution of 50 Vogel collection art works to 50 art museums around the US. NY Times Vogel 50×50
Clearly it was all about the art and giving others the opportunity to gain as much from it as they had: learning from it and getting a huge amount of pleasure out of experiencing it. It’s such a human story and it’s so inspirational!
In the last week Australia has celebrated two major philanthropic gifts – one from John Kaldor and one from The Felton Bequest. The Kaldor Family Collection of 200 international contemporary art works was unveiled in its new home at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The collection, which John Kaldor gifted to the Gallery in 2008, is valued at AU$35 million and is the single largest donation of art to an Australian public gallery. John says that his benefaction was driven by the fact that he sees art as an essential part of life and that he felt selfish having the art in his own home where only he and family were able to see it. As he has demonstrated via his commissioning of major public art works in Australia since the 1960s, he has a deep commitment to enabling public to learn from, have access to and enjoy art. It’s a hugely important gift. ABC Kaldor Gift feature
The Felton Bequest was left to the National Gallery of Victoria by Alfred Felton on his death in 1904. He left £378,000 in trust (about $30 million in today’s money) for the NGV to use for the purchase of works and objects judged ”to have an educational value and to be calculated to raise and improve public taste”. Hmmmm. Since his death over 15,000 works of art valued at over $2 billion have been purchased, accounting for 80% of the NGV’s collection, and growing….the purchase and commissioning of a further 170+ art works was announced yesterday on the Gallery’s 150th birthday! It’s such a shame Felton didn’t give in his lifetime, so he could have seen the very value of his benefaction. In fact with such a categorical goal to improve public taste, I’m surprised he didn’t want to be around to know if he’d achieved it! NGV at 150/Felton Bequest
It is these gifts and those of the Rockefellers, Guggenheims, Besens, D’Offays and Duffields to name but a few, that give so much to the public in terms of their capacity to create opportunities to learn and give enrichment and pleasure. Long may they continue! The Vogel’s story makes it feel possible that it could be any one of us that can give a gift which makes all the difference. I wonder if I have it in me to “do a Vogel“?!
If you want to see the trailer for Herb and Dorothy directed by Megumi Sasaki, click here: Herb and Doroth 2008 movie
Arts funding – Federal budget follow-up
Posted: 20 May 2011 Filed under: arts, Australia, philanthropic sector, uk | Tags: arts, Budget, capacity building, philanthropy, pivot 1 Comment »Well despite all of the doom and gloom, the Federal budget wasn’t as dire as we were led to believe it would be. Included in the Government’s key pledges to the Arts were:
- $10m in new funding to the Aus Co to distribute (over five years) to artists across all artforms
- continuation of funding to support its Contemporary Music Touring Program to the tune of $400,000/yr (bad pun!!) and;
- $56m in support of TV and film production.
In terms of the new $10m funding, this will be used to support artists to produce new works, undertake fellowships and give additional presentations of their work to audiences around Australia. Grants of up to $80,000 will be made available for new work and up to $50,000 to support presentations. For a government with stretched resources to find an additional ten million dollars to support this kind of work is testament to the community value of the Arts in this country.
The shift in funding focus away from arts organisations towards individual artists appears to be a response to Aus Co’s 2010 Artist careers research. The research identified that for artists to create inspiring new work they need time, space and financial support. It also responds positively to the New Models New Money paper, launched in early 2010 by the Queensland Government and the Centre for Social Impact, which highlighted the value of the arts in Australia and the importance of the individual artist to the growth and health of the sector. For funders with an interest in supporting artists the New Models New Money full discussion paper is well worth a read.
This provides a good segue to an interesting recent development in philanthropic funding of the Arts in Australia…. the new Sidney Myer Fund Arts and Humanities funding model. Full details aren’t due to be announced until later in the year, but what the Fund has revealed is that from 1 July 2011 it will give about 15 artists from around the country $80,000 per year for two years, seemingly with very few ties and binds. For a funder that has for so long supported Arts orgs via commonly used grant-making protocols, this is a huge change in direction. It’s great to see a big philanthropic taking risks and changing direction. I’m sure many artists, arts organisations and grantmakers will be watching with great interest.
Going back to Government funding of the arts in general, though, this time looking to the longer term. I mentioned in my last blog ( Arts Funding: England vs Australia ) that in April this year Harold Mitchell was tasked with leading a major review of private sector support for the Arts in Australia. The review will report on current Government arrangements for encouraging private sector support for the arts, consider potential new models for encouraging private sector support and develop policy options in the context of the long awaited National Cultural Policy. It doesn’t sound too dissimilar to the type of stuff happening in the UK that I talked about last time, where government is trying to leverage greater private support to try to take financial pressure off itself. There’s been a broadly positive reception of their actions, and no doubt the same will be true here too. The review is scheduled to be reported on in late October 2011.
It looks like there are some interesting times ahead!
Knowledge and Conversations. A first musing from Claire Rimmer
Posted: 2 May 2011 Filed under: Australia, philanthropic sector, uk Leave a comment »I come to philanthropy in Australia via a very enjoyable four year stint at the Heritage Lottery Fund in the UK. The HLF distributes grants to projects which sustain and transform the UK’s heritage using money raised through the National Lottery (hello Scotland Team!). It’s the largest dedicated funder of the UK’s heritage, investing around £205million a year in new projects, and has gained a considerable body of knowledge over its 15 years of operation. It’s where I cut my grant-making teeth and where, through working with some great colleagues and following some exemplary training, my knowledge about and passion for grant-making was nurtured and developed.
I’ve now worked as a Program Manager for The Ian Potter Foundation and The Ian Potter Cultural Trust for about two and a half years. In this time I’ve learnt a huge amount about philanthropy in Australia and around the world, including that while a philanthropic sector has existed in Australia for a long time it is still relatively new and inexperienced. There’s a lot to learn. And there’s definitely a thirst to learn and to put these learnings into practice to help the sector grow and improve. It’s an exciting prospect – being part of a growing sector and the chances that this represents for people working in the sector to play an active part in the growth – but I feel that there are barriers to this happening.
I read a lot, meet with a variety of organisations, and have access to all sorts of sectoral networking opportunities. All of these things help me to expand my knowledge and provide a place to discuss ideas and share information and learnings, but I feel like there’s something lacking and that I could be doing more. In fact, I often feel like I’m working in a bubble because these conversations and this knowledge-sharing seem to start and end with the colleagues I work most closely with. In my view this is a wasted opportunity. I think that what’s needed for true learning and sectoral growth is an active, open dialogue, where ideas and issues can be discussed and shared. And I think a blog has the potential to pop the bubble, reducing the much-talked-about problem of silo working, making wider, more inclusive conversations possible and letting knowledge and information be shared more broadly.
I would consider another barrier to joining in with the dialogue that I’m saying is needed is a general lack of capacity. It definitely is in my case! I struggle to walk away from my ever growing porridge pot of work at a decent hour, to make the time for the wider reading and research that I love to do. I need an impetus to re-prioritise and I think a blog might just provide the impetus!
So there you have it. Me, one of the three eggs. Blogging from the Philanthropic shell. Follow us while we crack open the shell!!
Debra Morgan
Caitriona Fay
Claire Rimmer
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