Just a head’s up: this post is a rant cleverly (or not so cleverly) disguised as a helpful professional development blog post.

I have been to too many meetings, informational coffees, and phone conferences in the last few months where someone has asked to meet or talk with me, probably for a very specific reason, and I have left the conversation being really unclear about what they want me to be, think, or do. Did they want a grant from Headwaters? Maybe. Were they looking for a new position and wanted some advice? Possibly. Did they want me to buy into their nutrient drink pyramid scheme? I don’t know because they never made the ask.

Not every conversation or coffee meeting has to have an agenda or a specific ask but many are intended to. If you want something specific to happen from a meeting, properly prepare:

Clarify for yourself what you are looking for. What end result would make you ecstatic? What is the reason that you wanted to have a conversations with this person, instead of the many others that you could have met with? What special skills, experiences, or connections do they have that would help you or your organization?

Do your research. If someone suggestions that you meet with someone, find out why. Do some online research, look for natural overlaps in interests, use LinkedIn or Facebook to see who else this person knows. Are they a connector that could open up a whole new range of contacts for you? Are they a member of the basket weaving society that you are trying to get into?

When you request a meeting make your purpose clear. Tell the person why you think it would be in both of your interests to meet. Give them a few questions that you would like for them to answer. For example: “My long-term goal is a career in philanthropy and am considering getting a Master’s degree to help me reach that goal. Was your M.B.A. a help or hinderance when you applied for your position?” or “I’m new to the state and trying to increase my professional contacts, would you be willing to have coffee and give me your perspective on the nonprofit sector here?”

Make the ask. Small talk is great but make sure after you have covered the necessary pleasantries, that you ask for what you came to ask for. Don’t wait until the last 2 minutes that you have scheduled to meet to ask your 14 part question, just get in out there early on. That means that the person you are meeting with can keep that purpose in mind throughout the conversation and be as helpful as possible to you throughout the meeting (hopefully).

This rant is over but the conversation is not. What tips do you have for making these types of conversation useful for both parties?

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I have a good friend who really wanted a job in philanthropy. When she finally got a position in philanthropy she promised that she wouldn’t be like other Program Officer and constantly complain about how busy she was. She reasoned that this was the job that she wanted, busyness shouldn’t be an issue. A few minutes after she told me this, I asked her how work was going. She sighed and said “busy”.

There are many, many reasons why foundation staff are so busy, but I think that most of those reasons can be boiled down into a few self-created reasons.

• We don’t delegate because someone might do it better than us. Fear of being replaceable is a very real but you are more likely to be replaced if you are running around like crazy, trying to be Wonder Woman, Martha Stewart and Michelle Obama rolled into one. None of us can do it alone. Let go a little bit.
• Foundations are process driven places and we often rely on lots of paperwork, rather than a little bit of good judgement to make grantmaking decisions. Maybe if we spent less time requesting duplicate copies of 990’s and specialized logic models, we would have a clearer head to figure out if the program is actually a good idea.
• Foundation positions are seen as cushy jobs, so easy that anyone could do it. How hard could it be to give away money, they ask. Very hard actually, but I think many of us have internalized this criticism of the field and insist of telling everyone near and far how extraordinarily busy we are. Lest someone assume that we are expendable. Enough already.

I’m done with it all. I am the master of my outlook calendar and I have a lot of say in how my foundation interacts with grantees. I’m sick of us all being too busy to enjoy the richness of this work and the wonder of what generosity can do to strengthen communities. I’m declaring a moratorium on busyness. Who’s with me?

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Ellen Friedman, VP at Tides wrote a recent post  at the Huffington Post asking that individuals find alternatives to starting new nonprofits. From Ellen:

The nonprofit sector is a sector of innovation, creativity, and people working for the common good. More than 14 million Americans – 11 percent of American workers – are employed by or volunteer full-time in the nonprofit sector; more than the financial industry and the auto industry combined.

In a recent article entitled, “Charities Rise, Costing U.S. Billions in Tax Breaks,” Stephanie Strom of the New York Times raises concerns about an out of control nonprofit sector that is flooding the IRS with frivolous new applications to establish new public charities that will deprive the federal budget of billions of dollars.

There are plenty of reasons for concern about the federal budget, but singling out the nonprofit sector in this way overlooks some important points.

Not only is this sector working on innovative ways to make the world a better place and connecting people with a sense of common good, nonprofits also contribute billions in tax revenue through employee payroll alone.

Moreover, in an age of dwindling public resources, when the role of government in addressing social problems is feverishly debated, the American public is taking matters into their own hands. This heightened wave of community activism, volunteerism and social entrepreneurship needs to be celebrated, not discouraged. In a time when Facebook and Twitter make broadcasting your ideas and passions part of daily life, we should not be surprised that communities are finding new ways to match their values with their time and pocketbooks.

Is there potential waste in creating thousands of new nonprofits every year? Undoubtedly yes, but the problem is not people’s motivations. The problem is that not enough people know about the alternatives to establishing nonprofit organizations; alternatives like fiscal sponsorship and donor advised funds that exist to create greater efficiencies and cost-effectiveness for charitable activities.

Read the rest here.

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Below is a post from Mary Galeti, who is a fellow member of the Council on Foundations’ Next Generation Task Force. I know all of us have beenaffected by the images coming from Haiti and the unimaginable need that is coming from our neighbor. These are the times where philanthropy needs to be at its best to alliviate sugffering and help Haiti develop a better future out of this tragedy. From Mary:

I have been rapt by the devastating images coming out of Haiti. What I have found particularly interesting is the outpouring of support—not only on television, but also on Facebook and Twitter.

Organizers have created opportunities for people to give via text message. People are also posting messages and tweets about what organizations are doing and what events are being organized to collect goods and funds. While these are all good actions, I’ve realized that it’s hard to do good due diligence in such short order.

As the Family Philanthropy Conference approaches, I’m struck by the role that families can play as leaders in moments like these (noting in particular Steve Gunderson’s closing thought in his post “Philanthropy’s Response to Haiti”). Perhaps we, as a field, should think about the best ways to communicate what works, what’s needed and maybe even be a conduit to get the public support to the people and places in need. We can be organizers and leaders during times of trouble and turmoil—connecting those who want to help with key stakeholders on the ground.

Read the rest here.

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Many of us find our way into philanthropy because we want to be on the “resource side” of social change – to help get money to where it needs to go. And foundations certainly control a lot of money – The Foundation Center reports total giving in 2007 reached almost $43 billion.

But once we start doing this work, it can feel like our grant budgets are never big enough, especially in today’s context. We’re deep in an economic crisis where 50 million Americans are living in poverty. Communities face tremendous need while at the same time foundation giving has declined. Even those of us on the “resource side” of the equation are finding ourselves looking for more resources.

So where will the money come from?

In philanthropy circles, this conversation often moves to one about fundraising. Growing the donor base is critical, and groups like Resource Generation and Bolder Giving are playing a necessary role in this by challenging new givers to not only give more, but to direct that giving to address the root causes of social, economic and environmental injustices.

But in order to make a fundamental shift in the amount of resources available to communities, we also need to bring taxes into the conversation.

 Here are three reasons why the philanthropic community has a stake in the tax policy debates in 2010 and beyond:

1) Tax policy has the ability to increase the dollars available to foundations, since the higher the taxes for high-income and wealthy families, the more money that is given to philanthropic foundations. More progressive tax rates increase the resources available to the nonprofit sector.

2) By the same token, tax policy has the ability to decrease the dollars available to our sector. In fact, it’s happening right now. With the disappearance of the federal estate tax for 2010, we’re likely to see an estimated decline in charitable giving of $13-25 billion. And this is just the latest in a whole series of tax cuts for the wealthy that has shifted the tax burden to wage earners.  

3) Philanthropy can’t be a substitute for what the public sector can provide. In 2009 Congress allocated $54 billion for food stamps (known as the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program). Without increasing payout, all foundations working together would be unable to meet the funding needs for just this one program. While we can – and should – debate where our federal resources go (and fund advocacy groups that are putting on the pressure!), philanthropy is no match for the government’s ability to fund the safety net, infrastructure, health care, and education.  Our government relies on revenue from taxes to invest in these vital programs and that money should be raised from those with the greatest capacity to pay.  Reversing the Bush-era tax cuts for high-income households is an important place to start – with the potential to raise over $43 billion in revenue a year.

Many people view philanthropy as an alternative to taxes, but our sector is inextricably linked to the tax code. There will be many opportunities in 2010 to work toward more progressive policy. The funding community can’t afford to be absent from these debates.

Alison Goldberg coordinates Wealth for the Common Good and is co-author of Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The Next Generation.

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I’m not one of those “mantra” people that looks into the mirror every morning and says “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it people like me.” (That man is now my Senator) but every once in a while I come up with a short statement that helps me remind myself of the big picture and helps to keep me on track. My new statement is:

I have the time, energy, and clarity of purpose to make big things happen.

I’l break down why this is so helpful for me.

Time: A common excuse of mine is that there is too little time in the day to accomplish whatever needs to be done. Then I’ll read some newspaper article about a woman with 6 kids who is running for U.S. Senate, teaches astronomy at MIT, is writing a book about her around the world sailing trip and has an organic raspberry farm. Her and I both have 24 hours a day, so I don’t have any real excuses about why I can’t accomplish my goals, besides the fact that there is an awesome “Man Shops Globe” marathon on the Sundance channel that is taking my attention away from whatever I’d really like to accomplish. Aw, I love that show.

Energy: Another excuse is that I am too tired to work toward whatever my next big goal is. Life has inertia and if I sit around thinking about how tired I am, I just feel more tired (and watch more of the “Man Shops Globe” marathon). If I start moving and working on a new blog post, cleaning out my closets, researching that cutting edge fundraising strategy or training for that 5K I suddenly find that I do have energy, I just wasn’t harnessing it.

Clarity of Purpose: This is a tough one. It’s really easy to move through life going through the motions. You deal with whatever comes at you and feel this innate sense that there is probably something better out there for you. Something that has worked well for me is to be a “practical dreamer”. That means thinking about the best possible outcome for your afternoon, career, family, finances, whatever. Think about what you would actually like things to look like. The more detail the better because then you can recognize the opportunity to achieve that goal when it is looking you right in the face. You hate your job? Fine, what would your dream job look like? If you don’t take the time to think about your ideal, you miss the opportunity when the job announcement comes to your in-box.

Big Things: Most people come up with goals this time of year and they are usually pretty mediocre. “Lose 10 pounds, try to pay off some debt.” This year come up with some seemingly unreachable goals. “Make $1million dollars this year, give away $1 million this year, end homelessness, become a New York Times writer.” Those are the types of goals that will get your adrenaline pumping and will become a burning desire in your life. You start to use a different part of your brain because they seem impossible, you have to start thinking differently to get there. Others want to help you do it because it seems so amazing. Suddenly an unreachable goal is much more attainable than a mediocre one because you are willing to do what it takes to get there.

What are your unreachable goals for 2010?

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I’m in the middle of a two week vacation from the hurriedness of work. The first week was spent celebrating Christmas like crazy, with every possible branch of the family. This week is going to be downright Zen by comparison. I’ve been taking this quiet time to do some long term thinking about my life and how I’d like to spend it and money is part of this thinking. Before some of you get all social justicey on me and say “Trista, you have committed your life to the nonprofit sector and to eliminating economic injustice, money is just a tool of the Man. You don’t need that!” Let me just say, yes I do! I’ll even add yes, you do, too. I do the work that I do because I love it, not because of the paycheck. But if I don’t have my financial house in order it increases the amount of time that I am stressed about money and makes it more likely that I make career and life decisions based on dollars and not based on passion or where I can make the biggest difference.

So I’ve been getting my money right for the last few days. I’ve been using Mvelopes for the last few years for proactive budgeting (you set aside money for specific purposes before you spend it) and I just started using Mint.com to look at the bigger picture of our income and liabilities. Yesterday I took the next step and developed a ten year financial plan for our family. Yes, I know that is so nerdy of me and is making many of your cringe at my over planning, but whatever. Ten years gives me a clearer picture of the big things that we are working towards and makes small steps to reach those goals much more manageable. It also helps me and my husband stay on the same page when it comes to giving up small purchases now for big payoffs in the future.

Our plan includes our top 5 goals for the next 10 years, along with charts that help us track our progress on those goals. Here are the things that make the physical plan work for me:

• It includes accounts and hints on usernames and passwords so I can easily update
• The plan only needs to be pulled out once a year to update and to change our current financial practices to meet the goals (e.g. increase amount we put into 401K)
• It doesn’t just include dollar goals, it also includes things that get us excited like becoming a benefactor to causes that we are passionate about (more on this in different post)
• It includes pictures because it is more likely that I will look at it if it’s pretty (I love Mac Pages software)

I spent a lot of time in the past ignoring my financial state because I thought that the more I knew, the more stressed I would be. I have finally come to a place where I understand that ignorance is not bliss and that how I spend the money that comes into my life is an important part of who I am and how I want to change the world.

What are you tips for getting your money right?

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I’ve been posting most of my links to philanthropy gossip, nonprofit news, and social sector stuff on Twitter at twitter.com/tristaharris. Below are some of my most recent posts.

Click here to follow my Twitter updates.

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Open Society Institute grantees David Miller and Matt Stevens recently told me of a scenario that occurred in September: A 14-year-old boy returns home after 2 am on a school night. He and his mother get into a shouting match. The academic year isn’t a month old, and he’s already been kicked out of two schools and is dealing dope. The mother slaps him in fear she’s lost control. He reels and strikes her back, harder.

After she phones 9-1-1, the police come. So does social services. Her son is arrested. Her other kids are removed from the home. The next morning, the leader of her son’s gang threatens to kill her if she ever phones the police on her son again.

This scenario is reminiscent of numerous phone calls and messages (as many as 40-50) that Miller and Stevens receive per day from single-parent mothers around the country in greater or lesser degrees of peril. Read the rest of this entry »

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There is a lot of time spent by philanthropoids (people who give away money for a living) on stuff that really doesn’t make too much of a difference. There are the piles of paperwork, the endless meeting, and then more paperwork from the meetings. You are left with this subtle and sometimes not so subtle feeling that we aren’t fixing anything. Then, every once in a while, the clouds part and you have the honor in taking part in a project or working with a grantee that you are sure will change the world or your little corner of it.

For me, that project is the African American Leadership Forum.   I’ve been involved with this project, which is designed to bring African American Leaders together to develop a shared policy agenda for the Twin Cities, over the past year. The idea behind this project is that the African American community has all of the resources that it needs to be successful, already present in the community. The issue is that each of us has been hiding our special ingredient (talent, resource, knowledge) in the cabinet and haven’t pulled it out to benefit the larger community. The African American Leadership Forum is a method to pull those ingredients out and develop a promise to each other and the community that we will bring all that we have to lift each other up so that we can all be successful together.

Headwaters has recently taken over the project management of this initiative from the Northwest Area Foundation and I couldn’t be happier. It is one of those special instances in philanthropy where the role of the funders isn’t to write a check and walk away or stay around to dictate the future direction of the project. Our role is to support and learn from over 160 volunteers that are leading this project. That’s the best place for us philanthropids to be, in the background providing the resources for communities to determine their own solutions and their own methods.

Taking a back seat to community is also a sometimes nerve wracking place to be. You don’t get to determine the process from on high; without a centralized place for all information to go through, you sometimes get the telephone effect of mis-understanding and sometimes purposeful misinformation from those who don’t want to see a community-led process succeed; and instead of just being responsive to your board of directors, you report back to a whole community with competing priorities and preferences.

After reading all of those drawbacks, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were relieved to go back to the relative peace and tranquility of your desk. But, the purpose of philanthropy isn’t for us to be comfortable, it’s to make a communities a better place. So let’s jump right in!

What project of your foundation or organization makes you proud to be a part of the sector?

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