William Schambra , started the ding dong with a provocative address in which he suggested that foundations in general and the Hewlett-Packard Foundation in particular were preoccupied with "whiteboards and herbal tea". Well that wasn’t precisely what he said though it's amongst the memorable phrases. What he was arguing was that there is a trend, in foundations especially, toward applying scientific models and metrics. This, he says, threatens to usurp actually going to the frontline and listening to the wisdom and experience of those working at achieving the objectives of the grant seeking charity.
In response Paul Best, the head of the Hewlett-Packard Foundation paints a picture from an imagined past. What if, he says, 19th Century philanthropy had ignored newly emerging medical research into bacteria and accepted frontline advice based on past practice and local wisdom? Would serious problems have been tackled? (Note, that he has conflated the original argument into a defence of science as a whole, rather than Schambra's example which referred to a particular use of a specific scientific approach to foundation decision making).
The initial argument, it is acknowledged by Schambra, actually was made in an article Letting Go in Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR). It presents a real life case study of a foundation (Hewlett-Packard funnily enough!) which funded, entirely off its own bat, a program that failed in its objectives. A little while later some people closely involved with the intended beneficiaries of that funding came back to the foundation with a much better considered proposal. A proposal designed from the perspective of the beneficiaries, in the knowledge of their specific circumstances and conditions. It was funded and it was a success.
Now I am a fundraiser not a philanthropoid. For me, resonating through this argument is a more important one for fundraisers. When you are making your case for support or when you are running stewardship programs, are you taking your donors or potential donors to the frontline? Are you introducing them to the people for whom their support makes a difference?
Creating a case for support in my experience is one of the hardest things a fundraiser has to do. It requires you to take a leap out of your world and into the wider world where your beneficiaries and your donors are. You will have to talk to beneficiaries and learn their needs, wants and aspirations and turn these into stories, using sounds, feelings and pictures.
Of course, there's another strategy that you can use. How much time are you actually spending time in the frontline yourself. Working alongside your program staff and the beneficiaries of your work. Or at the very least interacting with program staff, asking them questions and showing interest in what they do.
In fact by building rapport with your program staff, spending time in their shoes you will be able to do a much better job of selling your case for support and dealing authentically with your donors and prospects
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