Dear Reader:

So you didn’t win the Powerball Jackpot.

The recent epidemic of Powerball Fever had many of us, gamblers and non-gamblers alike, lining up to buy tickets against clearly ridiculous odds. It was the triumph of fantasy over realism, to be sure. Each of us, as we succumbed to the mania, said to ourselves, “Well, what if I did win all that money? What would I do?”

As the jackpot grew, we faced the obvious fact that we couldn’t—not to mention, shouldn’t – think of spending only on ourselves. For many Powerball “investors,” this led to the question of how we’d use those riches to improve the world. We’d cure homelessness, help kids go to college, start a dance troupe that performed in public spaces. Imagining untold wealth let us daydream about doing good for countless others. We didn’t win, of course, but our experiment in philanthropy wasn’t for naught. Let’s hold on to our visions of how we can give, even in amounts smaller than $1.5 billion, instead of shredding them with the losing Powerball tickets. Maybe, just maybe, the fantasy itself is the payoff for us and for our communities.

Amy

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Amy Segal Shorey, a senior consultant at GMA, wrote this note to the readers of the Boston Globe on the morning after the $1.5 billion Powerball drawing. She can be reached at ashorey@gmafoundations.com

NPO Conversation on December 9 at GMA Foundations

We invite leaders of nonprofit organizations to join us each quarter for a brown-bag lunch discussion about issues, ideas, and concerns in the nonprofit and philanthropic community. The meetings are a time for us to move beyond the usual conversation between foundations and nonprofit organizations.

Each session focuses on a particular topic, and reservations are required. Guests will learn a little more about GMA and a lot about their peers’ perspectives on important issues.

Topic for Conversation: Succession and Sustainability

The pressures on leadership of nonprofit organizations are well known. Passionate about solving some of society’s greatest challenges, these executives are frequently faced with a shortage of funds, time and compensation, even if they possess abundant talent. How then does an Executive Director who works to build a strong organization ensure its successful continuity?

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Recently we witnessed a grant application from a small charter elementary school in an economically struggling port city spark a private foundation’s five trustees’ enthusiasm in an unusual way. What happened next affirmed our belief that the time funders spend working on process, clarifying their goals, and developing partnerships with their grantees leads to trusting relationships and confident philanthropic investment.

The program described in the application was a perfect fit with the foundation’s stated desire to help individuals realize their full potential while utilizing existing resources and leveraging the community’s strengths. Trustees saw strength in this low-profile independent program’s adoption of acknowledged best practices; the administrators relied on volunteers, collaborated with existing service providers to meet scholars’ needs, and targeted students and families least likely to seek enhanced educational opportunities on their own.

After making a grant at the requested level, the board invited the school’s founding director to their next meeting for a conversation about the school’s progress and plans. This candid discussion further solidified the trustees’ positive impression of the program. They also learned that the school had just launched a campaign to replace their facility, an aging former public school building.

Enthusiastic about the school’s results, the trustees acted immediately and decisively. Learning about the foundation’s unexpected $500,000 capital grant on his drive home from the meeting, the school’s director called it a “game changer.” Likewise, the trustees were elated.

What inspires a private foundation to move beyond business as usual? How do trustees recognize the right time and the right opportunity for bold action? How might a grant that is transformative for the recipient also affect the giver?

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