Gonski calls to philanthropy
Posted: 21 February 2012 Filed under: grantmaker/grantee relationship, grantmaking, philanthropic sector, Philanthropists | Tags: capacity building, education, Gonski, Grantmaking, philanthropist, Philanthropy Australia, QUT, School 1 Comment »In the 24 hours since its release the public response has been mostly positive to David Gonski’s comprehensive report on the funding of Australia’s schools. The independent and catholic school systems, state education proponents and unions are all urging the Gillard Government to act on the recommendations of the report. With 5 billion extra dollars being earmarked by Gonski to fund his reforms it’s not all together surprising.
One of the big surprises falling from the report was the focus on the need for greater partnerships between schools and philanthropy. The recommendations equally acknowledge the role philanthropy plays in our communities and the need to better equip schools to access that funding. We’ve raised some of the issues facing philanthropists wishing to support schools in a previous post and it was great to see some of the important voices on the issue, Ros Black, Michelle Anderson, Philanthropy Australia, Brian Caldwell, Myles McGregor-Lowndes et al, referenced in the Report.
So let’s take a quick look at the recommendations the Report makes on philanthropy and school partnerships.
1. A fund to encourage philanthropic giving to schools in low socioeconomic areas
The report outlines this fund as a DGR entity focused on assisting schools to develop philanthropic partnerships. As a staffed organisation, the fund would be responsible for facilitation of school-philanthropy partnerships while also building the capacity of individual schools to better partner with philanthropy. We have seen a number of organisations working actively in this space. For example, The Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) has established the Tender Bridge with the specific intent of assisting schools to develop the skills and knowledge required to better access and work with philanthropic and corporate partners. ACER and Tend Bridge have also been the key drivers behind the Leading Learning in Education and Philanthropy (LLEAP) initiative that is investigating the impact of philanthropy in education with the aim of building knowledge and improving outcomes for schools and their philanthropic partners.
2. Capacity building
Access is a critical issue for many schools when attempting to interact with philanthropy and other potential donors.
- Access to philanthropy – understanding who is out there, how to approach donors and what a suitable partnership looks like
- Access to individuals – building and growing alumni with a view to keeping former students connected to their school communities for longer
- Access to DGR status– limitations around DGR funds, particularly for state schools means community partnerships must be developed with the non-profit sector
- Access to knowledge – understanding different types of grantmaking and sponsorship partnership and what reciprocal obligations, if any, they create
Building the capacity of schools to improve their access to all of the above is imperative in allowing school-philanthropy-business partnerships continue to grow.
3. Increase taxation incentives for donations to government schools
Seen by some as a soulless altruism, tax incentives have been highlighted as a potential means to increase donations to government schools. Debate is still hot on whether these incentives actually work but as highlighted in the Report they could at the very least be an important conversation starter between some donors and schools.
There is a good deal to do before the vision and potential of a more active philanthropy-schools collaboration is realised. Senator Jacinta Collins has been tasked by the Government with examining the Report’s philanthropy recommendations further and to continue a consultation process with the key stakeholders. The great thing however is that philanthropy has been slowly moving towards more sustained engagement with the school sector for some time. Organisations like the former Education Foundation and the Foundation for Young Australians have a wonderful history in this space. The development of the Business Working with Education Foundation is a further example of this movement as is the wonderfully engaged interaction of so many philanthropic funders with the Leading Learning in Education and Philanthropy (LLEAP) research project over the past 12 months. All of this serves as a reminder of the commitment many funders already have to finding better ways of working with schools. Let’s hope Senator Collins engages with them all.
You can follow the musings of Caitriona Fay on Twitter via @cat_fay or the blog via @3eggphil.
It’s a question of validity
Posted: 5 July 2011 Filed under: AEGN, NFP, philanthropic sector | Tags: AEGN, capacity building, Coding, education, environment, giving, Grantmaking, philanthropy, Philanthropy Australia, transparency Leave a comment »I’ve noticed lately a few really interesting and exciting surveys are circulating the philanthropic sector, trying to track how much and where Australian philanthropy is giving. I’ve enjoyed seeing an increasing research presence in the sector. It feels in many ways that it’s the next phase of sector growth and maturity, as we attempt to learn more about our giving practices as a nation.
Last week I attended the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network (AEGN) 2011 Conference. The AEGN is a great organisation supporting environmental philanthropy in Australia and the conference was a special day focusing on Indigenous environmental granting. Sitting at the conference among a committed band of environment funders I was reminded that it was not long ago that the AEGN launched the 2010 Green Philanthropy Report. The report, supported by a survey filled in by a a touch over 50 funders, demonstrated to the Board of the AEGN that they needed to up the ante in trying to attract philanthropists to environmental grantmaking. That is what capturing this basic information should do, it should inform our practices, our approaches and our priorities as a sector. We should be looking at areas to improve and grow but data is critical to understanding the current landscape.
It is this need for data that has got me thinking. What is the quality of the information philanthropy is currently capturing? Sure, it’ easy to talk broad figures e.g Foundation X distributes $1million in grants annually. But what if we wanted to scratch the surface of that giving a little more, is philanthropy in Australia currently equipped to provide accurate data genuinely reflective of its giving practices? I work for a Foundation that has spent the better part of the last 3 years trying to better ‘code’ or ‘categorize’ the grants we make. I can tell you it’s not been an easy process, there have been a lot of staff hours poured over what information we should capture and still we are left with the reality that the coding process is ultimately subjective. One persons ‘Youth’ program is another persons ‘Education’.
Thankfully Philanthropy Australia (PA) has provided an outline for a grant classification system that encourages funders to capture data using a common sector language. PA’s website states that The intention (of the classification guide) is to standarise the terms used across the Australian philanthropic sector as far as practical, so that grantmaking can be documented and useful statistics on philanthropy collected in ways that contribute to shared understandings. I highly recommend this document as a starting point for those philanthropists or trusts and foundations looking to better capture their data.
While I know the process that my organisation has undertaken to record and capture basic data, I am less clear about the practices and consistencies across the rest of the sector. And this is, in a lot of ways, the source of some of my discomfort. We as a sector need to be able to rely on the validity of the data that is being captured. Equally, if we want researchers to continue to take an interest in where and who we are funding, then it’s important that they too feel that foundations aren’t working to a guesstimate. Again and again I feel it comes back to the issue of philanthropy needing to invest in itself to improve it’s value and credibility to the not-for-profit sector.
I’d love to hear your views on how the sector might better capture its basline data. The work of organisations like the AEGN and Philanthropy Australia in undertaking membership surveys, is slowly helping to shape and influence practice. I just hope the we can provide them and our research partners with increasingly better quality data.
You can follow the musings of Caitriona Fay on Twitter via @cat_fay
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
Time for Open Philanthropy in Australia?
Posted: 18 May 2011 Filed under: Australia, philanthropic sector, Transparency, USA | Tags: ACNC, capacity building, open, Philanthropy Australia, transparency 2 Comments »I hinted in a recent blog that there was growing talk in the philanthropic sector about the need for increased transparency. At the recent Philanthropy Australia AGM, President Bruce Bonyhady AM, ended his yearly review asking philanthropy to look more closely at the role it plays in society. Two things stood out to me in Bruce’s speech, first was his belief that philanthropy could play a greater role in the advocacy space and second was that the sector needed to find more ways to be transparent. Both issues, that of advocacy and transparency, are important areas for consideration in Australian philanthropy today. We’ll be tackling both in upcoming blogs and today I’ll kick us off we a few thoughts on transparency.
The timing is right for Philanthropy Australia to push the need for greater transparency among trusts and foundations and not simply because so many are working to solve the same problems. With the announcement of the formation of the The Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission (ACNC) it is likely that we will see increased government interest in way the philanthropic sector is distributing its funds. Already established are minimum distribution requirements for private ancillary funds and a move to see the same placed on all their public ancillary counterparts. But to be honest, if the extending reach of government is the only incentive driving philanthropic transparency in Australia then we as a sector should probably be a little concerned.
The concept of ‘Open Philanthropy’ in the United States has been driving forward some interesting thinking and incentivising transparency in unique ways. The wonderful Lucy Bernholz (you must follow her blog) shared her modest manifesto on open philanthropy early last year and it really struck a chord with me at the time. Transparency improves our ability to address problems through the sharing of data, successes and failures but like all things in philanthropy the ‘how’ can be the really important bit.
The ‘how’ of transparency is something that the Foundation Center in the US has been looking closely at via the Glasspockets Initiative. The principle behind Glasspockets is, in the words of Janet Camarena, the Foundation Center’s project lead, “all about creating a culture of transparency within foundations”. But in this digital age transparent philanthropy is no longer simply about sharing how much we fund, it’s about how we communicate openly with each other and the broader public. Glasspockets is a true resource for the community and grantmkers alike, providing functions such as a Heat Map showing the frequency with which information is shared by foundations and a tool allowing foundations to submit and post grant data electronically in near real-time (called eGrant Reporting). Both functionalities are potentially important tools for grantmakers and the broader community, actively informing and mapping where philanthropy is working, who its engaging with and how engaged that conversation is with people at the coalface.
When I see the potential of initiatives such as Glasspockets for grantmaking I get a little excited. Imagine the possibilities. Imagine the potential for real collaboration and informed giving! We need to move away from a belief that transparency in philanthropy is simply about better reporting to government and the public via tax returns and annual reports. I get the feeling that if the incentives are right for increased transparency in Australian philanthropy then the results could be game changing. But an investment needs to be made by philanthropy into itself, and the capacity of the sector, in order to undertake these initiatives and really drive them forward. I hope that this active transparency model is something the ACNC and Philanthropy Australia encourage among funders.
You can follow Caitriona on Twitter via @cat_fay
Philanthropy? Musings from Caitriona Fay
Posted: 2 May 2011 Filed under: Australia, philanthropic sector | Tags: blogging, Philanthropy Australia Leave a comment »Philanthropy, or at least the word, is starting to get some press in Australia. And mainstream press to boot. In the very recent past philanthropy in Australia has been so poorly received and understood that the former Head of Philanthropy Australia, Gina Anderson, spruiked the idea of calling philanthropy something else all together! Desperate measures indeed.
I’ve worked in philanthropy for a number of years and more specifically in grantmaking in one form or another all of my professional life. After a stint in the UK I now find myself in my fifth year here in the philanthropic sector in Australia where I work as a Senior Program Manager for The Ian Potter Foundation. I still draw blank looks from people when I tell them what I do but increasingly I am noticing less awkward silences and more genuine interest. Perhaps I’m just explaining myself better. Or maybe the sector does have a genuine growing profile.
In the spirit of growing Australia’s philanthropic profile I was personally delighted to see Peter Winneke on the front page of The Age Online (4 April2 011) suggesting that more wealthy Aussies needed to ‘Cough Up’ money to good causes. Pete like Daniel Petre is passionate about the need for those who can give more to start doing so. I agreed with most of what Pete had to say in his article (check it out here), so I was a little shocked to see the level of vitriol dispensed at the notion of ‘giving’ via the comments section below the article. Surely the concept of philanthropy is not all that controversial?
What concerned me most upon reading some of the comments posted on The Age website was that there appeared a real level of distrust about the performance of the charitable sector in Australia. There also appeared a genuine belief from many posters that giving money to ‘good causes’ was akin to throwing money into a deep dark hole. After some thought and a bit of a debrief with my fellow philanthropy egg heads I came to a concerning realisation. What if what I took for trolling from a misinformed public is actually a true reflection of the concerns of not only the community, but those within the third sector? The question of who to fund, how to fund and how to measure impact is the stuff we in philanthropy grapple with daily. These conversations happen within board rooms and offices. The challenges of ‘giving’ are rarely discussed publicly and even if they were do, people even care?
The lack of public conversation around the role of philanthropy in the Australian community is one of the reason I’ve signed on to contribute to this blog. There are already a few great blogs and bloggers in Australia working in this space. We’re not here to add to the noise. Instead we hope that together with other blogs and bloggers we can build a beautiful crescendo that helps to keep pushing the issues and ideas within philanthropy forward. I see this blog as a great opportunity for those people working in philanthropy or interested in the space to have a conversation about the challenges and opportunities the sector is facing. Feel free to be critical and challenge the concepts and ideas we put forward. We’re here to start the conversation, not dominate it. We’d also love to hear from people who would like to suggest topics or act as contributors to the blog.
You can follow Caitriona Fay on Twitter @cat_fay
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