The Philanthropic Collaborative (TPC) represents key participants in the world of philanthropy -- foundations, charities and elected officials. The Collaborative's mission is to ensure policymakers fully understand the important role foundations play in improving America's communities and, specifically, how foundation giving generates substantial and widespread economic and social benefits for all Americans.

Even before the credit crisis unfolded, policy makers were contemplating major changes to rules governing the for-profit and non-profit communities. The ballooning deficit, the growth of entitlement programs, and the sunset of major tax provisions have imposed tremendous pressure on policymakers to increase revenues coming into the Federal Treasury. With major reforms to the tax code under consideration, it is more critical than ever for the charitable community to join together and ensure that policymakers understand the critical role foundations play in our everyday lives.

The Philanthropic Collaborative is the only organization in Washington, DC keenly focused on educating policymakers on the important economic contributions by the foundation sector and works hand in hand with the other important groups representing the interests of the non-profit community.

Time, Talent and Treasure: Everybody Wins! DC

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Starting in second grade, her lunchtime reading partner on Tuesdays gave Jasmine Harrison "someone to want to do well for and make proud," she says. Her partner certainly was proud. Indeed, Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the partner, has been exceedingly proud not only of Jasmine - who is now a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University - but also of his overall participation in Everybody Wins! DC, the largest literacy and mentoring program in the Washington area.

Senator Kennedy read with Jasmine once a week for five years at Brent Elementary School, six blocks from the U.S. Senate. He rarely missed the hour of poring over fun books, keeping a log of words Jasmine didn't yet know, and discussing her days, interests and concerns.

He has been one of thousands of volunteers - including other members of Congress, congressional staffers, government employees, toilers from law firms, defense corporations, the media world, communications companies, education groups and elsewhere - who have helped thousand of students acquire a love of reading and learning each week at lunchtime during the school year... (more)

Mayor David Cicilline of Providence Opens TPC Roundtable
6/12/2009

(From PHILANTOPIC: A blog of opinion and commentary from Philanthropy News Digest)

By Larry McGill, the Foundation Center’s senior vice president for research.

Ah, dueling research studies!  Each making use of data from the same source -- the Foundation Center -- and each drawing different, yet not incompatible, conclusions. How can that be?

Published earlier this year, the NCRP report Criteria for Philanthropy at its Best analyzed available grants data coded by the Foundation Center as having benefited "marginalized populations" (as defined by NCRP using existing Foundation Center population group categories). The report noted carefully that it only counted grants explicitly targeted to serve such populations.

More recently, the Philanthropic Collaborative's Broad Benefits: Health-Related Giving by Private and Community Foundations analyzed both available grants data coded by the Foundation Center as well as a random sample of two hundred additional grants without population group coding. This allowed Phill Swagel, the report's author, to estimate the total benefit to marginalized populations of foundation giving in the field of health, whether or not these populations were explicitly targeted by grantmakers.

Both analyses make important points. If foundations aren't explicit about the intended beneficiaries of their grantmaking, then we can't know for sure that specific population groups have in fact been strategically targeted. NCRP argues that such strategic targeting is important.

On the other hand, even if foundations don't strategically target specific population groups, such groups may still benefit from their grantmaking. This is what TPC demonstrated in its report.

The third possibility, of course, is that foundations may not be telling us as much as they could about the population groups that benefit from their grantmaking. And that is surely true, as well.

And, by the way, let's remember that not all grantmaking should or even can be targeted to benefit specific population groups. NCRP's report recommends that grantmakers try to allocate at least 50 percent of their grantmaking to benefit marginalized populations, not all of it. That's an implicit acknowledgement that grantmaking cannot be reduced to simplistic equations such as “Grantmaking to Specific Population Groups = Good; “Grantmaking Not to Specific Population Groups = Bad.”

Fortunately, neither NCRP nor the Philanthropic Collaborative reduce the issue to such absurdities. My hat is off to both NCRP's Aaron Dorfman and Phill Swagel for the ways they have so effectively marshaled available data in the service of their respective causes. This is exactly the kind of conversation the Center's data on beneficiary populations should be generating.

New Study: Economic Benefits of Health Field Grants Building on the success of our first study, TPC commissioned economist Dr. Phillip Swagel, a former Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of Treasury, to answer the question “who benefits” from foundation giving. Dr. Swagel analyzed a representative sample of health-related grants to determine who benefited from this grant making. The study finds that 2 of 3 grant dollars in health go toward benefiting underserved populations. This study expands our knowledge of how grants in the health field impact all communities, including low-income and minority populations. You can see the study here. Read our press release.

Foundation Dollars: An Economic Multiplier On December 3, 2008, the Philanthropic Collaborative released a ground-breaking study by Dr. Robert Shapiro measuring the direct and indirect benefits foundation giving has on the America economy. Read more here... Download: Report | Executive Summary Press Release | Remarks Video: Press Conference