Caring, Causes, & Connections

How many of us describe our communities as being filled with really special caring people.  I hope we all do, because that gives me greater hope for our world and future.  Over the past couple weeks I’ve been reminded over and over just how true that is here in Lorain County. 

Last Friday, we celebrated the life of Fannie Moore-Hopkins.  Fannie was a former Board Member and helped found the African American Community Fund here at the Community Foundation.  I listened to story after story of how this strong confident woman left a mark on so many in our community and I was proud to have her as a friend.  This Monday we received the news that another donor, Mary Elizabeth Keller passed away.  She was quiet and reserved and had a heart as big as gold. 

Yesterday, our staff toured the Lorain County Tropical Greenhouse and Museum and learned of the lifelong passion of Dr. Eren and his single-handed efforts to preserve and share the beauty and wonder of plant life.  The gleam in Dr. Eren’s eyes was descriptive enough of the love and care he offered each plant in his greenhouse.

And I’ve also had the pleasure to induct the first seven member of the League of Mentors.  Each of these individuals have had an endowment fund created in their name by local donors to honor their contributions to the community and impact on the donor.  The recipients include developers, attorneys, businessmen, a bank president, a manufactoring executive and a former CEO of this foundation.  Some have held positions of great influence and others have contributed in a more quiet and subtle way.  The recipients could all easily be descibed as legends but in each case they accepted the honor in a humble way as if it was undeserved. 

There is no one mold for these extrodinary people and they are as unique and different as the wonderful diversity we treasure in our community.  But what they share is a sense of hope and responsibility for the future.  In each case, these individuals dream of a tomorrow that is better than today and they are compelled to take action to help create that tomorrow.  Knowing people like this is certainly one of the fringe benefits of being involved with an organization like the community foundation.

I recently took a much appreciated vacation of the best kind - I had nothing major to do.  It was the first time in a long time that I took time off work and didn’t have a trip, home improvement project, or something else major planned.  I was able to pretty thoroughly unwind and was eager to return to the foundation.  I highly recommend this tactic!

But while I was “away” our community didn’t stand still.  A local hospital announced a major cutback of support for a community project, and our papers were filled with several examples of the violence of which we humans are sometimes capable and more people lost jobs.  Our community doesn’t take vacations!  But I was able to finish my well deserved respite because of the fact that our community foundation doesn’t take vacations either. 

As CEO it was a relief to know that our very capable staff were at the helm and steering the foundation to be a continual and constant resource for our community.   I had absolute trust that our donors, grantees and community were receiving the highest possible service regardless of who’s on vacation.  Our Board, staff, donors, grantees and volunteers each contribute time, talents, and/or treasures to energize this engine for community building.   It doesn’t stop, rest or take vacations.  24/7 someone associated with the Community Foundation of Lorain County is making our community a better place to live, work, learn and play.  I take comfort in that.  I hope you do also!  

One of our staff just floored me with a simple story that happened today.  A gentleman stopped by the foundation office.  He is the father of one of the members of our Youth Fund Advisory Board and the staff figured that he had a question regarding his daughter.  Quickly the staff realized that his visit involved something quite different.  It seems that he is a Vietnam Veteran and is on a committee to commission a new Vietnam Memorial for Lorain County.  As he and others were working through logistics for the commission ceremony, he found himself reading the names on the monument, both of those who lost their lives in the war and of those whose support made the memorial a reality.  With obvious emotion in his eyes and voice he said how he read the name of the Community Foundation of Lorain County in the stone monument and wanted to stop by and to tell us “Thank You” for the grant.

We certainly don’t do our work for recognition or appreciation.  But I can tell you that a simple “Thank You” like the one received today warms my heart and can make all the hard work of community philanthropy seem worthwhile. 

A friend recently announced that he had given a relatively large amount of money for a crisis relief cause and that he was so pleased that “100% was going directly to help those in need”.  My friend was taken back when I said that I was surprised that he didn’t mind that the money might be poorly used, misused, or even stolen.  “What in the world to you mean” he shot back.  I explained my belief that many are under the misconception that non profit organizations don’t need any overhead and in fact can effectively run on a very tight shoe-string.  I responded “So you’d be satisfied if your generosity is entrusted to someone with minimal or no skills, oversight, or resources for deployment and accounting”.  That stopped him pretty cold.     

Paul Light, in his book Pathways to Nonprofit Excellence, describes three forces pressing increased accountability on the sector.  First is the cry to be “more businesslike” in our day-to-day operations.  If nonprofits would just adopt business practices, the theory goes, all would be well.  Kicking it up a notch, others call for the adoption of Standards as an indicator that nonprofit organizations meet some level of common practice and a proxy for accountability.  Regulation and new legislation is the final solution when “someone” deems that nonprofits cannot regulate themselves.

I’m certainly a fan of accountability and, in fact, it is one of the strongest values of the Community Foundation.  Donor’s have a right to demand accountability for their contribution of time, talent and treasures.   But let’s face facts, most nonprofit organizations are doing a pretty good job with minimal resources.  One cannot deny that a small number of nonprofit organizations and foundations have done some not so ethical things, but they are a very small minority.  Along with accountability I’m also a fan of “reasonable and rational”.  Accountability must be commensurate with the size and scope of the organization.  And those contributing to nonprofit organizations must realize that there is a cost for accountability – a cost of time and money.  I can also argue the shortcomings of Standards, Regulations and certainly the call to be more businesslike as panaceas for accountability, but perhaps in a future article.

I also understand that donors want their contributions to “make a difference” but I think what we sometimes miss is what it takes to insure quality of service.   I’ve seen organizations that I believe to have inflated budgets, but I also believe that over time we’ve all been lulled into much lower standards for nonprofit agencies.  Its true that most people working in non-profit organizations are less motivated by money than by mission, and usually settle for salaries far less than they would make in the for profit world.   I think that has led to a false belief that non-profit work is less demanding or has less value than work in the private sector.   I consider the name itself to be demeaning - non profit - how many other sectors are defined by what they are “not”.  

The bottom line is that I think we are in dilemma that we have created.  For so many years we have pushed to keep nonprofit overhead at a minimum, pushed to use volunteers instead of paid staff, settled for antiquated computers and technology, and settled for “less than businesslike” practices as Board members.  I believe the time has come to demand more, but also pay for more.  It is also going to require significant change for nonprofit Boards and staff, because there isn’t enough funding or contributions to build every nonprofit organization to the required capacity.  Formal collaboration, shared back-offices and consolidation will be a mandate if we are to maximize quality services and accountability.  That level of change will require a paradigm shift for everyone. 

I took a call yesterday from a woman who was disappointed - no actually she was incensed - that the agency she works for did not receive a grant from the foundation.  She had just received our standard denial letter and she simply couldn’t understand why the grant had not been awarded.  She felt the proposal was well written, knew the needs were well documented and believed that the program would effectively make a difference.  The problem was that I agree with her.

Saying no to a good grant proposal is often the most difficult part of my job.  Sometimes the denial is based on judgment.  The Grants Committee might determine that the proposal is weak, incomplete, duplicative, too extravagant, unrealistic… But more times than not, the reason for the denial is just that we don’t have enough dollars to stretch.  This is true for all types of foundations, but particularly for community foundations because our grantmaking is restricted not only by the amount of available money but also by the charitable wishes of our donors.  Now don’t take me wrong, one of our three focus areas is to help build permanent legacies from the charitable dreams of our donors.  But the bottom line is that it’s difficult for us to make a grant if none of our donor’s are interested in a particular area.  Sometimes we have to pass on great opportunities because they don’t align with our resources.  Currently, 94% of the assets of the foundation carry some restriction, or put another way, are a legacy to the desires of their donors.  As we grow in size and age, we expect to receive more unrestricted bequests and restrictions on some of our Funds will ease.  In the interim, we’ve created funds like the Touch the Future Fund to encourage “community responsive” grantmaking.

I’m not sure the caller was satisfied with my answer.  I’m not sure I was either.  But situations like this illustrate why my job description includes both effective grantmaking and promoting increased giving.  As long as good grants have to be denied, we’ve got to continue to grow philanthropy in Lorain County.