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July 13, 2009, 09:43 PM ET
Donors Focus on New Ways to Approach Giving
The economic crisis has prompted some positive shifts in attitude among donors and grant makers, says Ellen Remmer, president of The Philanthropic Initiative, a Boston consulting firm that advises individuals, family, community, and corporate foundations.
In the Philanthropy Journal, Todd Cohen, the news service’s editor, notes that Ms. Remmer’s observations suggest what might become the “new normal” for giving.
In an interview with The Chronicle, Ms. Remmer says donors realize they need to respond differently — that it’s not just the responsibility of nonprofit groups.
One change she has observed is increased collaboration among both government and private grant makers so that stretched resources have more of an impact.
For example, she says, the State Street Foundation in Boston recently brought together a group of corporate, government, and private grant makers interested in preventing youth violence so that they could share information about the issue and collectively set grant-making priorities.
“They didn’t see this as a time where they were going to raise the level of giving, so they looked at ‘how can we make giving to this issue more strategic?” says Ms. Remmer.
And among donors that do care deeply about supporting a specific project, she says, the precarious health of many nonprofit groups has led many to begin giving in installments so that funds can be quickly redirected should the group close and the project is adopted by another organization.
Are you seeing those kind of changes among government and private grant makers?
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