Strategic Philanthropy for the Everyday Philanthropist

The Philanthropic Initiative considers Strategic Philanthropy a continuous cycle of assessment, strategy and implementation.  In other words, how do you go from feeling good to doing good and knowing you are?

Last week, Peter Karoff and I facilitated a panel on Strategic Philanthropy for our Katherine Harvey Fellows. Our panelists included Martha Harmon from the Santa Barbara Foundation, Laurel Anderson from Orfalea Foundation, and Erik Talkin from the Foodbank Santa Barbara County.  They did an amazing job of explaining how their organizations interpret and use strategic philanthropy.

This was high level, valuable insight being shared and it makes perfect sense for a grant maker, but what about everyday philanthropists?  I've spent the last week thinking about how everyday philanthropists can use the concept of strategic philanthropy.

One of the central ideas that came out of this session was the importance of identifying gaps in addressing community needs. But, identify the gap isn't enough.  How do you know it's a gap worth investing in?  Our panelists explained things they looked for in addition to the gap such as:

• leadership
• cross sector involvement (nonprofits, government, private corportions)
• political will
• solvability
• measurability
• community interest

This week also happened to be the week of the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara Awards Luncheon. Just before the awards were given, they explained their criteria for deciding to propose an agency for an award.  This criteria sounded a lot like the list above!  

As I listened to their criteria, I realized here was a room of 300 plus everyday philanthropists actively involved in strategic philanthropy via the collective giving model that defines the Women’s Fund. These everyday women had given approximately between $250 to $2500 to be part of the vote on how to award $525,000 in funds.  These women were not grant makers they were everyday people involved in strategic philanthropy!

Besides joining the Women's Fund (which I hope you do), what are some questions you could ask when deciding to support a nonprofit:

• Does the nonprofit have a destination and not just a mission?
• Does there seem to be a synergy between the Executive Director and Board Chair or is there a sense of discourse?
• Do they collaborate with other partners?  This could be other nonprofits or with entities like government and private corporations.
• Are they aware of what else is going on in the space besides what they are doing?
• Are they creating pathways or do they just have programs?
• Do they have any plans to create any revenue stream and not just depend on donations? 

The content of this article was compiled from information provided by Peter Karoff, Martha Harmon, Erik Talkin, and Laurel Anderson at the Katherine Harvey Fellows session on Strategic Philanthropy in April 2013.