2011 Seed Fund Grantee: BACE Timebank
February 29, 2012
By Catherine Covington
As a child, I remember making my mom “coupons” for her birthday that committed me to dusting the living room furniture or vacuuming the carpets whenever she chose to cash in on my handmade voucher. Given everything she did to take care of me during my early years and beyond, that is definitely the least I could do to try and give back to her some of the time she had given me! What if for every hour you spent doing something for someone in your community, you could earn one hour of someone else’s time to have something done for you? That is the premise behind the Bay Area Community Exchange Timebank (BACE), a Bay Area community of reciprocal exchange that was a 2011 Seed Fund grant recipient.
Timebanks have actually been around for thousands of years in different forms. During the Great Depression, thousands of people right here in California organized to meet their needs through hour exchanges. The result was the creation of foundries, mills, schools, clinics, etc. The most recent examples of Timebanks have been around since the 1980’s, and there are currently over 300 communities in 22 countries that are using this “pay it forward” system to help their communities grow and thrive. In the U.S., the most successful are St. Louis MORE at Grace Hill, Dane County Timebank, and Hour Exchange Portland. A key part of Timebanks’ philosophy is that everyone’s hour is equal. Timebanks are known for providing needed services for the monetarily poor, and they encourage and reward social and environmental service work that is often undervalued by traditional markets.
BACE is an almost entirely volunteer-run organization that provides a free online directory of services and goods available in the Bay Area. Once a member sets up an account and profile, he or she can request a service or good or make an offer to share a good or service. An example would be if I wanted to start a small garden in my backyard, I could create a request for a local green thumb (as plants have not tended to fare well under my care). BACE currently has over 1,000 members and about 10 organizational partners. The latest organizational member BACE welcomed is Biketopia, a community bike shop and youth program in the East Bay. The Founder, Zack Cohen, saved up hours volunteering at the Bicycle Kitchen in SF and has used around 25 of his Timebank hours to get help with graphic design, a business plan, publicity, and recruitment of volunteer board members in order to get Biketopia up and running with little funding. Earlier this year, BACE received enough funding to pay someone 10 hours a week to train seniors and people living with disabilities on how to use the Timebank.
BACE is focused on creating a resilient web of relationships between individuals and community service organizations in order to foster a new kind of community that encourages a spirit of oneness, trust, giving and cooperation rather than fear, greed and competition. The idea is that a caring community of trust can provide more long-term support and resiliency than money in a bank account. Given the fact that the formal economy is and may continue to be unstable for quite some time, the opportunities BACE is creating to strengthen communities through the informal economy is something RSF is proud to support.
To learn more about the RSF Seed Fund and how you can help support new and inspirational projects like this one, click here.
Catherine Covington is Senior Program Associate, Philanthropic Services
Do You Know Who Makes Your Clothes?
February 24, 2012
By Jillian McCoy
In my work here at RSF, I consciously try to embody our values. One that stands out among these is Trust—ensuring that our work is direct, transparent, and personal, based on long-term relationships. This week I was struck by the outstanding display of this value by RSF community member, Indigenous Designs.
Indigenous Designs is a pioneer in ecologically and socially conscious apparel. Since 1994, Indigenous has provided high quality fair trade organic cotton clothing produced by a network of over 1500 highly skilled artisans and knitting cooperatives in the developing world. The company is committed to supporting fair trade wages and artisan cooperatives, utilizing organic and environmentally friendly materials, and increasing consumer awareness of eco-fashion. In 2010, RSF provided Indigenous with a PRI loan to create the very first standards and procedures for US apparel and home goods Fair Trade Certification.
Over the last 2 years, Indigenous has accomplished this and much more. The company piloted the first Fair Trade Certification program 2010, and received their Certification from FairTrade USA in 2012.
And last week Indigenous, embodied the direct, transparent, and personal nature of their work with the release of the Fair Trace Tool™, a mobile enabled web-technology using QR codes. In sharp contrast to the hidden doors and dark realities found in much of the fashion world supply chain, Indigenous invites consumers to experience the origins and stories of any garment they purchase and the artisans behind the work with the simple click of a button.
“The Fair Trace Tool™ is one more way that Indigenous is raising consumer awareness of the vital importance of fair trade fashion to artisans in the developing world, and to the environment. It is part of our commitment to create fashion that honors the people who wear it, and the people who produce it,” says Scott Leonard, Indigenous Designs Co-founder and CEO.
As consumers, it is our common responsibility to know and value the sources of our goods. Thank you to Indigenous Designs for opening the door to such a connection and for setting such a strong example of transparency in the apparel industry.
Check out this video to learn more about how the Fair Trace Tool™ works.
http://youtu.be/aKFs28bZUgQ
Jillian McCoy is Senior Associate, Communications at RSF Social Finance.
Seed Fund Grantee, The LCA Trust: Emergency Funding, Legal Defense, and Advocacy
January 30, 2012
“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” - John Muir
By Ellie Lanphier
There are many organizations dedicated to land conservation, but not many are founded with the intent to act quickly when action is needed. In 2011, the RSF Seed Fund provided start-up funding for The Land Conservation and Advocacy Trust (LCAT) of Framingham, Massachusetts. LCAT was founded by lawyer and environmentalist Steve Meltzer with the goal to protect and preserve natural spaces. During his time spent as a real estate development lawyer, Meltzer watched local land interests struggle and repeatedly fail to raise funds on short notice to protect their natural spaces. LCAT seeks to meet the need for immediate action and ready means to defend the environment from unrestricted, profit-driven development. Able to provide emergency funding and legal support within 48 hours, LCAT also promotes smart-growth ideals that foster land conservation values in the long term.
Cattails have many lives - Photo by Steve Meltzer, LCAT Founder
Of the many programs LCAT facilitates, the RSF Seed Fund grant specifically supports the Community Food System Project and the Neighborhood Revitalization Program. Following their mission to preserve natural spaces, The Community Food Systems Project intends to turn a vacant land parcel in Boston’s MetroWest area into a year-round, sustainable garden. Hoping to involve the whole community, the project promotes employment of respite center clients, community volunteers and students from local schools. The garden’s harvest will remain in the community, being sold to local restaurants and farmer’s markets. The Neighborhood Revitalization Program is working with local banks to review bank-owned properties that may be appropriate for donation and intends to partner with the local community to turn these properties into micro-parks or community gardens.
LCAT is playing an important role in ongoing struggle to preserve natural spaces. To find out more about LCAT, visit their website, blog or Facebook page. You can also follow Steve Meltzer on twitter @preserveland.
To learn more about the RSF Seed Fund and how you can help support new and inspirational projects like this one, click here.
Ellie Lanphier is Receptionist and Administrative Assistant at RSF Social Finance.
What Does Money Have To Do With Freedom?
January 23, 2012
I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.
[From Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Norway, 1964]
By John Bloom
Freedom is such a challenging word. It stands for a political view encompassing civil liberty; it stands in for the aspiration of the human spirit. What freedom means to me is personal. It informs how I go about the day as an individual and make my decisions, and it governs my communications and relationships as first principle—a capacity to respect the inner freedom of others even as I practice my own. Understanding what freedom means to others, as a right bestowed or limited by the state, as democratic practice, or as an inwardly determined guide to being, is fundamental to healthy relationships.
Given this brief background, I was bothered by a thought written by Harold Bloom [no relation], the esteemed author, in a recent New York Times article entitled, “Will This Election Be the Mormon Breakthrough?” [November 13, 2011, Sunday Review p.6] He wrote: “Obsessed by a freedom we identify with money, we tolerate plutocracy as if it could someday be our own ecstatic solitude.” If you have read the sentence a time or two, perhaps you are with me in my disturbance. Do we identify money with freedom? Is tolerance even a fair way to characterize our feelings about being ruled by the wealthy? And do we tolerate it because each of us secretly desires or imagines we could one day be wealthy enough to join the ruling class? I cannot think that participants and supporters of Occupy Wall Street share this implied aspiration. In fairness to Harold Bloom, the next sentence in the article links the experience of freedom with religious solitude. While it seemed to me either a non-sequitur or a leap based on unspoken assumptions, the swift shift is a microcosmic example of the muddled or manipulated boundary between politics and spirit. That blurring has allowed the political to pollute the domain of the spirit, and for spirit (or religion) to be used in the name of the political. Inserting money only further complicates the mix.
How can we possibly identify money with freedom, really? Money is an emanation of the material world moved by the inner forces of need and intention. While it has many and varied forms, money is a function, not a thing; money’s meaning is embedded in its service to economic life, that is to say as it supports the circulation of goods and services. When we treat it as a thing and tie our self-worth and identity to how much we have of it, we add to the complex that creates and “tolerates plutocracy,” and part of the complexity that sustains it. Money is no more a commodity than freedom. One cannot have money and be free of anyone else, because money in its true function holds or marks a value that is created through our economic interdependence. Freedom serves an important role in relation to economic life but should not be mistaken as an outcome of it.
Before exploring money further, I would like to return to the boundary between freedom as it pertains to political life and the freedom associated with solitude. The democratic principle of freedom, one person one vote, is a system of governance that is the result of community agreement—such as a constitution. Democracy is essentially a non-hierarchical form in that each member of the community is an equal of the others. And, it requires an “informed citizenry” to function effectively. What exactly does this mean? It is the responsibility of each individual member of the citizenry to engage in educating him or herself, to develop capacities of discernment, to seek insight into the matters at hand in order to effectively contribute to the democratic process. It also assumes that every member of the community has the capacity, if not the desire, for self-development. This responsibility for self-development, and how each of us designs that process for him or herself, what each of us wants to undertake and define as accomplishment is the evolution of individuality and the locus of spiritual freedom. This, I believe, is what Dr. King was referring to as “freedom for their spirits.”
To squelch this inner freedom, to organize a society in such a way that some individuals matter more than others, especially in the body politic, translates into laming that society’s economic well-being. What self-governed inner freedom provides the economy is people’s fresh ideas and insights that can then be brought into service to the community as a way to earn a living. Each individual has a need for right livelihood to use the Buddhist phrase. It seems that this human capacity, left free, is an infinitely renewable resource for reinventing the economy, governance, and culture. But it requires trust in others and sharing of power, an education that brings us together rather than driving us ever further apart in the division of labor, and a sense that there is something more than the material world at stake. What we have not yet resolved is how to organize our society to recognize and support such a clarity of function and principle. But Dr. King certainly had the audacity to believe that we could and can. Our interdependent existence depends on it.
John Bloom is Senior Director, Organizational Culture at RSF Social Finance.
December 2011 Grant Making Activity with a Spotlight on B Lab and Pachamama Alliance
January 19, 2012
By Catherine Covington
So, you might know that RSF provides investing, lending, and giving services, but did you know that those services sometimes overlap, that a single organization and relationship can represent all three? We here at RSF are thrilled when such intersections present themselves in our day-to-day work as it helps us validate that our service areas are in alignment, making our goal to transform the way the world works with money that much more powerful. In December, we were reminded of the ability of different parts of our organization to work together when our RSF donor advisors chose to make grants to two RSF borrowers – B Lab and Pachamama Alliance.
Benefit corporations, or B Corps, are a new class of corporation that are required to create a material positive impact on society and the environment as well as meet higher standards of accountability and transparency. There has been lots of press about B corps in the news lately, particularly here in California, which became the sixth state to pass benefit corporation legislation in October of last year. What is not widely known is that there is a non-profit behind all of that work and positive press. That non-profit is called B Lab and they are a RSF borrower and grantee. B Lab has staff in Pennsylvania, New York, and San Francisco and is dedicated to effecting systemic change through three interrelated initiatives that not only includes promoting benefit corporation legislation, but building a community around Certified B Corporations and accelerating the growth of the impact investing asset class through use of the GIIRS Ratings and Analytics. RSF has had a longstanding relationship with B Lab, not to mention that our very own Don Shaffer was given a B Corp MVP award in 2010 for his significant support of B Lab initiatives.
Another borrower, investor, and grantee (we should have a special award for being all three!) is Pachamama Alliance, one of our fellow neighbors here in the Presidio. Founded in 1995, Pachamama is dedicated to protecting the Earth’s rain forests and the indigenous people who live within them. They seek to accomplish their mission by delivering educational experiences that are designed to inspire and educate individuals everywhere to bring forth a thriving, just, and sustainable world. The grant from RSF was specifically to support Pachamama’s Rights of Nature program, an innovative initiative focused on establishing a legal basis for protecting our planet. Building upon success in Ecuador, the first country in history to include Rights of Nature in its constitution in 2008, Pachamama helped form the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, a group of internationally recognized experts and leaders working for the universal adoption and implementation of Rights of Nature.
During the month of December, RSF’s donor advisors recommended 78 grants from their Donor Advised Funds for a total disbursement amount of $902,578! Donor Advised Funds are a unique charitable giving vehicle offered by RSF that allow donors to make tax-deductible contributions to RSF and then recommend grants from their fund to qualified nonprofit organizations of their choice. A donor can be an individual, group, family, corporation, trust, or a foundation, and they benefit from access to RSF’s innovative Impact Investment Portfolios. Unlike other Donor Advised Fund investment programs, a donor’s contribution is invested directly in enterprises and funds with core social and environmental missions to ensure greater mission-alignment and the deepest impact possible.
December 2011 Grantees:
Ecological Stewardship
American Himalayan Foundation
Earthfire Institute
Institut fur Stromungswissenschaften
Marion Institute
Ojai Foundation
Pachamama Alliance
Transportation Alternatives
Wildlife Conservation Network
World Wildlife Fund
Education & the Arts
Alaska Community Action on Toxics
Allgemeine Anthroposophische Gessellschaft
American Committee for the Weizmann Institute
Anthroposophical Society in America
Bainbridge Graduate Institute
Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training
Berkeley Public Library Foundation
Camphill Foundation
Center for Anthroposophy
Charter Foundation
Collective Heritage Institute
Cross-Cultural Thresholds
Detroit Waldorf School
Earth Island Institute
Family Planning Association
Fistula Foundation
Freunde der Erziehungskunst
Golden Courage International
GreatNonprofits
Homeless Children’s Network
Indiana University Foundation
International Media Project
J Street Education Fund
KQED
KRCB
Lionheart Foundation
Meadowbrook Waldorf Association
Mission Possible Kids
Muse Elementary School
Native American Community Board
Oberlin College
Pacific Institute
Peace Development Fund
Pine Hill Waldorf School
Proxy Democracy, Inc.
READ Global
Right to Dream
Rudolf Steiner College
School of Eurythmy
Seminary of the Christian Community
Shining Mountain Waldorf School
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
The Sonoma County Public Library Foundation
Threefold Educational Foundation
Triskeles Foundation
Trustees of Brantwood Camp
Union of Concerned Scientists
University of Central Oklahoma
University of Colorado Foundation
Waldorf Early Childhood Association
Walking the Dog Theater
Food & Agriculture
Growing Gardens
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association
Michael Fields Agricultural
Yggdrasil Land Foundation
Social Finance
Ashoka
B Lab
Other
Guide Dogs of America
STC Education and Leadership Fund
Catherine Covington is Senior Program Associate, Philanthropic Services at RSF Social Finance.
A Few Things We Accomplished in 2011…
January 5, 2012
By Jillian McCoy
Happy New Year!
It’s always such a good feeling to kick off a new year and we are really looking forward to what’s to come in 2012. But before we dive in, it’s worth taking a look back at what happened in 2011.
I pulled a few statistics on the past year and was very impressed with the results. We certainly experienced a flurry of activity in the last quarter, and although the dust hasn’t completely settled (stay tuned for our 2011 Annual Report for the final numbers – they could be even higher) this is a great indication of our work last year.
The most critical part of our work is the people we connect with every day in our mission towards transforming the way we work with money. So here’s a look at how we grew the RSF Community.
We welcomed…
13 new borrowers – Aquatics Informatics | Bare Fruit | Crown O’Maine | Estancia Beef | EVOL Foods | Good Earth Natural Foods | Guayaki | interrupicion* Fair Trade | Kuskokwim Seafoods | Summerfield Waldorf School | Uncle Matt’s Organic | Wild Planet | Waldorf School of Pittsburgh
Kuskokwim distributes sustainably sourced seafood caught by native Alaskan fisherman.
2 new Mezzanine Fund investments – Scandinavian Child | HappyFamily (via our Core Lending program)
241 new investors to the RSF Social Investment Fund and $19 million in new funds (surpassing our previous record of $15.6M in 2006!)
11 new Donor Advised Funds and $10.5 million in gifts, and
8 new RSF staff members (to help us do all of this amazing work!)
We also…
Made $5 million in grants from our Donor Advised Funds to 274 non-profits
Hosted 10 events, with over 1,000 attendees
Held the first RSF Shared Gifting meeting with a focus on Food & Agriculture in the San Francisco Bay Area
A Shared Gifting grantee, People's Grocery works to improve the health and economy of West Oakland through the local food system.
Published the innovative white paper “A New Foundation for Portfolio Management” with Leslie Christian and Portfolio 21, and
Celebrated Rudolf Steiner’s Sesquicentennial with 500 of our closest RSF friends!
Our friends from Small Vines Vineyard pouring biodynamic wine for festival guests.
Well isn’t that impressive! We’d like to thank all of our clients, partners, and friends who helped make this possible and we look forward to bigger and better things to come in 2012.
Jillian McCoy is Senior Associate, Communications at RSF Social Finance.
RSF Grantee Investigates Growth Structures for Social Enterprise
December 29, 2011
By Catherine Covington
There has been lots of buzz lately, on our blog and in many other places, about seeking alternatives to big banking. Amidst the activity that resulted from the Move Your Money campaign, including lots of new RSF Social Investment Fund accounts, I was excited to witness one of our donor advised fund clients take action to support the growth and development of community development finance institutions (CDFI’s) by making a grant to Southern Bancorp Capital Partners.
Southern Bancorp Capital Partners (SBCP) is a non-profit affiliate of Southern Bancorp America’s largest rural development bank (RSF has an existing relationship with Southern Bancorp, having made an investment in this CDFI from our Liquidity Portfolio some years ago). Southern operates community banks and development organizations that work together to promote comprehensive development in the Delta region of Arkansas and Mississippi. SBCP is a 501(c)(3) organization and a U.S. Treasury certified CDFI providing development lending services and technical assistance to entrepreneurs and small business owners and facilitating strategic community planning and development in selected communities. The mission of SBCP is to revitalize struggling rural communities by promoting comprehensive development. It does this by supporting quality educational opportunities for residents of all ages, restarting the local economy, rebuilding the civic infrastructure, fostering the emergence of new leadership, addressing health care needs, and creating new homeownership and affordable housing opportunities. SBCP has created and saved thousands of jobs and generated millions of dollars of investments in the communities it serves.
The grant from RSF was directed to a research project focused on exploring capital markets for CDFI banks and other social enterprises, which have historically faced growth and social impact restrictions due to the limited liquidity of their capital. While socially motivated investors may be willing and able to give up some financial returns on their capital, they are rarely eager to give up the return of their capital. This perceived and oftentimes real lack of liquidity related to CDFI’s can be a huge barrier for prospective investors, thus preventing the capital infusions and equity needed for anything beyond organic growth. The goal of the research project is to engage one or more experts with extensive experience in financial analysis of community banks and traditional capital markets to explore possible exit options for investors in CDFI’s and other social enterprises that can be offered without diminishing the organization’s social impact. Key topics to be addressed include maintaining control over social mission while broadening ownership structure, appropriate capital structure and blend of financial returns, the suitability of traditional markets for hybrid enterprises, implications for the entire field of social finance, etc. The goal for the research project is to devise a successful capital structure strategy that will further enable and allow organizations like Southern Bancorp to grow, further their impact, and act as model social enterprises.
This grant to Southern Bancorp was one of 59 recommended by RSF’s donor advisors from their Donor Advised Funds during the months of October and November for a total disbursement amount of $959,352.43!
Donor Advised Funds are a unique charitable giving vehicle offered by RSF that allow donors to make tax-deductible contributions to RSF and then recommend grants from their fund to qualified non-profit organizations of their choice. A donor can be an individual, group, family, corporation, trust, or a foundation, and they benefit from access to RSF’s innovative Impact Investment Portfolios. Unlike other Donor Advised Fund investment programs, a donor’s contribution is invested directly in enterprises and funds with core social and environmental missions to ensure greater mission-alignment and the deepest impact possible.
October and November 2011 Grantees:
Ecological Stewardship
Fossil Rim Wildlife Center
Nature Conservancy
Times Up
Triskeles Foundation
Education & the Arts
Artemisia Associate (AAMTA)
American Society for Technion
AnewAmerica Community Corporation
Aspen Waldorf Foundation, Inc.
Association of Waldorf Schools, North America
Austin Eurythmy Ensemble
Camphill Special Schools – Beaver Run
Camphill Village Copake Foundation, Inc.
Center for Anthroposophy
Charter Foundation
Community Supported Anthroposophical Medicine
Crosspulse
Daily Acts
eLib, Inc.
EPHAS Productions
Fielding Graduate University
Freunde der Erziehungskunst
Green Mountain Branch of the ASA
Hawthorne Valley Association
Heartbeet Lifesharing Corporation
Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy
LifeLong Medical Care
Maine People’s Resource Center
Marin Community Foundation
Marion Institute
Pacific Zen Institute
President and Fellows of Harvard College
Room to Read
Rudolf Steiner Fellowship
Rudolf Steiner Press
Shade Tree Multicultural Foundation
Sound Circle Eurythmy
Southeastern Branch of Anthroposophical Society
Spirit Rock Meditation Center
Suncoast Waldorf Association
The Nature Institute
Food & Agriculture
Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute
Open Space Institute
Slow Food U.S.A.
Spikenard Farm
Sustainable Connections
Sustainable Harvest International
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
Worldwatch Institute
Social Finance
Eyebeam Atelier
Root Capital
Southern Bancorp Capital Partners
Catherine Covington is Program Associate, Philanthropic Services at RSF Social Finance.
Sharing Biodynamic Practices at The Pfieffer Center
December 1, 2011
by Ellie Lanphier
I attended a book signing at the Ferry Building a few weeks ago. While listening to a short Q&A session led by one of my favorite cookbook authors and entrepreneurs, a man who has been at the forefront of good-food entertainment for over 30 years, an audience member asked for his view on organic food. He replied that if you want to be sure that you are purchasing really good, clean food that was grown in a way that nurtures the land rather than depletes it, your answer isn’t necessarily “organic” anymore. Rather, conscious consumers should start to pay attention to the word “biodynamic”, and keep an eye out for biodynamic CSA opportunities since biodynamic food on our grocery store shelves may still be a ways off.
The gardeners stock the Pfeiffer Center Farm Stand every Monday and Wednesday morning with fresh-picked biodynamic veggies from their many gardens.
As the standards for organic certification are increasingly called into question, the conversation about sustainable food and agriculture is frequently turning to biodynamics, making the work of 2011 RSF Seed Fund grantee The Pfeiffer Center even more important. Located in Chestnut Ridge, NY, the Pfeiffer Center seeks to teach and spread awareness of the biodynamic method, which they define as: agriculture and land care beyond conventional notions of sustainability that demonstrate actual improvements in soil vitality and the taste and nutritional value of produce. The founder of the Pfeiffer Center, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, believed that the human being, “who guides and directs the beginning, the course and the end of the natural growth process, is the strongest force of nature. His capacity is the final decisive factor.” The Pfeiffer Center reaches out to the youth in their community, in hopes of planting the seed of ecological responsibility and encouraging an attitude of reverence towards their environment through gardening and experiential education.
Youth experiencing an “Outdoor Lesson” at The Pfeiffer Center.
The Seed Fund grant will support its Neighbor to Neighbor Gardening Program, an afterschool program that bridges diverse communities through experiences in nature and gardening, as well as social activities such as games, projects, and guided conversation. In collaboration with Green Meadow Waldorf School and nearby public schools, the program pairs high-school students with middle-school students in a mentor-mentee capacity and guides educational and social outdoor learning experiences for sixteen weeks of each school year. The program brings together children who normally would not meet in other academic or social settings.
More information about the Pfeiffer center can be found at http://www.pfeiffercenter.org/. If you would like to find out more about the RSF Seed Fund, please visit http://rsfsocialfinance.org/services/giving/seedfund/.
Ellie Lanphier is Receptionist and Administrative Assistant at RSF Social Finance.
Philanthropology 3.0: Power Dynamics in Philanthropy
November 21, 2011
by Catherine Covington
On Friday, November 4, I traveled down to San Mateo to participate in a day-long workshop at the the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The workshop was designed by Emerging Practicioners in Philathropy (EPIP) a group I’ve recently become more involved with as a Steering Committee member. The workshop, titled “Philanthropology 3.0”, is part of EPIP’s new Philanthropology™ Program, a grantmaker education series. The day’s curriculum focused on power dynamics and spurred thoughtful discussion and ideas among the 20 participants in attendance. I left feeling even more energized about the innovative ways RSF is impacting the world of finance and philanthropy and how we seek to change and redefine traditional power dynamics related to grantmaking and investing.
One of the most powerful and interesting parts of the day was the ongoing discussion we had about the ways power dynamics affect and influence philanthropy’s potential for social impact. We each charted and then shared as a group the power relationships between various players in the philanthropic landscape, and almost everyone’s chart had private foundations at the top of the chain of command with individual donors, community foundations, non-profit organizations, and non-profit service recipients following in that order. The prevailing theme demonstrated that many people feel there is a direct correlation between money and power. We talked about why we all put private foundations at the top of the food chain and discovered the main reason is because there is a sense that foundations are the most autonomous and untouchable (except in rare instances of fraud such as the Bernie Madoff scandal) and “too big to fail” when compared with the relative vulnerability of non-profits. For example, if a non-profit, that a foundation previously funded in a certain program area, goes under the foundation is most often easily able to search and find another non-profit service provider to fill that gap. Life goes on as normal for most foundations while many non-profits come and go.
Another important part of our discussion involved defining and challenging our own notions and ideas about power by focusing on the 3 I’s – Individual, Institution, and Interpersonal. It is important to understand the dynamics of each player and their role across multiple systems and networks, recognizing that at any one time, there may be conflicting goals, values, language, and ways of working. It was a chance for many of us to reflect on our personal leadership styles, our relationships with our managers, and the ways in which we interact with people in positions of authority inside and outside of work. We engaged in valuable peer-to-peer learning by troubleshooting difficult situations that arise in our work lives and shared best practices and tips about how to deal with common challenges where power dynamics are involved.
An unexpected but welcome interruption from Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s CEO, Dr. Emmett Carson, generated even more discussion. Having authored more than 100 published works on philanthropy, Emmett has devoted almost his entire career to philanthropy and to being a catalyst for social change. He sat in and listened to our workshop for a while before we invited him to speak and share advice with the group. He emphasized the importance of acknowledging that people and institutions do have power in certain situations. For example, whether you are a CEO, board member, community foundation, manager, parent, etc., you have the power and ability to definitively say “yes” or “no” in certain situations. He suggested that when you do find yourself in a situation where you have the upper hand for whatever reason “own your power and be aware of it, and above all, make sure people feel like they are heard and respected.” His advice to a foundation or grantmaking institution was to “make sure that where you are focusing your power and influence is consistent with your mission, that you are transparent in your decision making, and that you do what you say you are going to do.” One of his closing challenges was for us all to ask ourselves how we can best exercise the positions of influence in which we find ourselves in a transparent and meaningful way that maximizes the potential for positive social impact.
While nothing I learned during the workshop was new or necessarily earth shattering, it was such a great opportunity to reflect on my position in philanthropy and the work of RSF. I kept thinking of RSF not as a “powerful” organization per se, but an organization positioned to make a deep and broad impact on the fields of philanthropy and finance. RSF is better described as “impactful” because of our broad and growing client base, the community we have created around shared values and interests, and the innovative ways we embody our mission through the products and programs we offer.
Two examples of the unique ways we at RSF seek to create impact are our Shared Gifting and Social Investment Fund programs. In both instances, we studied the traditional power dynamics involved in both the grantee/grantmaker and borrower/investor relationships and sought to experiment and shake things up. In Shared Gifting, we give the grantees complete authority and power to say “yes” or “no” to one another, and in our Social Investment Fund, we bring investors and borrowers together to talk about and decide the appropriate rates of interest during our quarterly pricing meetings. Talk about turning traditional power dynamics upside down! I am inspired because I feel that as our number of investors, borrowers, and grantees grows, the potential for greater, collective influence in partnership and collaboration with our client community will grow as well, creating a dynamic recipe for powerful and systemic impact.
Catherine Covington is Program Associate, Philanthropic Services at RSF Social Finance.
Finding Your Alternative to Big Banking
November 9, 2011
by Don Shaffer
For years, we at RSF Social Finance have been saying that today’s financial system is complex, opaque, and anonymous, based on short-term outcomes. Today, more than ever, we see that many people are in agreement with this analysis. There is incredible momentum building at a grassroots level, as more and more people publicly question this dominant financial system – from the encampments of Occupy Wall Street to last week’s Bank Transfer Day – people everywhere are looking for ways to voice their discontent, hold those responsible accountable, and, most importantly, find a new way.
At RSF, we create transactions that are direct, transparent, and personal, built on long-term relationships. Out of reverence for the planet, our communities, and our future we have built a strong community of investors, donors, and social entrepreneurs each working to create a new economy, one that values more than financial profits.
We all play a role in the system as we know it. By changing where/how we invest, we can align our money with our values and catalyze critical resources for positive impact.
I encourage you to take a moment to evaluate where your money is at work. If you are unhappy with what you find, make a change.
Find Your Alternative to Big Banking:
Invest in the RSF Social Investment Fund as an alternative to bank CDs or money market accounts – a great place for your savings – minimum investment: $1,000.
Find a Community Bank or Credit Union in your area as an alternative for your checking account.
Don Shaffer is President & CEO at RSF Social Finance.
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