Philanthropy411, in partnership with the National Network of Consultants to Grantmakers, is currently covering the Council on Foundations conference with the help of a blog team. This is a guest post by Mary Galeti, Vice Chair of the Tecovas Foundation.
By: Mary Galeti
Someone recently sent me the following quote :
The problem I have with philanthropy is that most people think of themselves as grant-makers. And if you think of yourself as a grant-maker, the tools that you have available to you to advance the mission of your institution are pretty much limited to making grants. – Jed Emerson
So what new terms should we, as grantmakers, be defining by? Are we change agents? Are we Access Enablers? There’s got to be another way to think of ourselves so that we’re not limiting the tools we give ourselves access to.
One of the concepts I’ve heard echoed over and over again throughout the conference has been “the long-view”. We need to be more intentional and comfortable with the long-view theory of change. Are we using all the tools we have available to us to implement on the long-view? What, besides our “grant-making” helps us make big, impactful change for the long term?
