The Philanthropic Collaborative: Highlighting Philanthropy’s Vital Role in the Economy
Inside Washington
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.
It may not be too much to say that Robert Egger runs an anti-hunger and job training conglomerate and that he is a one-man antipoverty think tank as well. His conglomerate goes by the name of the DC Central Kitchen (DCCK), but it is not a "soup kitchen," and it does far more than just feed the hungry. Indeed, it consists of eight different programs.
One, "First Helping," provides not just meals but counseling, referrals and a voice mail system for the homeless to stay in touch with families. Another, "Food Recycling," collects and re-prepares more than a ton of surplus food every day from area food service firms. A third, the "Culinary Job Training" program, prepares unemployed, underemployed, former prisoners and homeless adults for food service careers. Culinary graduates, moreover, often go to work in a fourth program, "Fresh Start Catering," which serves both public and private clients, including several Washington social service agencies... (more)
What:
Introductory Luncheon with The Philanthropic Collaborative
Where: The Cornell Club, 6 East 44th Street, New York, NY
When: 12:30pm, Dec 14th
Come learn how TPC is educating lawmakers about the economic value of
private and community foundations. Please join us on December 14th to
learn how you can add your voice to these important efforts. RSVP to mmchugh@philanthropycollaborative.org
Philanthropic Awareness Initiative finds how influential Americans view Foundations 11/19/2009 If
you want to help foundations better connect with engaged Americans, like us,
then the Philanthropic Awareness Initiative has good news and bad news for you.
The bad news you might already know: philanthropy faces a sizeable awareness
deficit among these citizens. Most simply aren’t aware of foundations,
their work, or their impact. The good news is captured in PAI’s latest
report, High Expectations, High Opportunity, based on a Harris Interactive
survey of these engaged Americans. The survey suggests three communications
opportunities to make better connections with these citizens. The report
can be found on PAI’s website at http://www.philanthropyawareness.org/
TPC Study Referenced in Washington Legal Foundation Paper 9/30/2009
A new paper published by The Washington Legal Foundation is supported by the findings of TPC's Broad Benefitsstudy. The new paper, Public Philanthropy?: The Unpersuasive Case for More Government Control by Suzanne Garment & Leslie Lenkowsky, concludes that, "the real measure of foundation performance - as Swagel's report suggests- ought to be the help actually delivered to the under-served." Please take a moment to read the informative paper available here.
In Letter to President, TPC Highlights Foundation Grants in Health 9/9/2009
As the nation awaits President Obama's address on health care reform to a joint session of Congress, The Philanthropic Collaborative (TPC) sent today a letter to the President seeking his support for the efforts of private and community foundations in the field of health.
To view the release on Reuters, please click here.
Updated Economic Data 8/9/2009
UPDATED:Please find economic data reports for the nonprofit sector in various states. Click on the on the link below to view a map containing information on select states. This map can also be found under the Resources tab.
"Philanthropy This Week" features Sandra Swirski 8/5/2009
The Chronicle of Philanthropy features TPC's Sandra Swirski in its Philanthropy This Week series. The most recent episode, Update from Washington: The Charitable Deduction and the Social Innovation Fund examines topics facing the Obama administration, including its proposal to revise charitable deductions and its Social Innovation Fund. You can listen to the interview at here.
TPC Highlighted in Health Affairs: GrantWatch 7/30/2009
Innovative Ideas: Foundations, Charities, and Cities Are Working Together was the title of a workshop sponsored by the Philanthropic Collaborative (TPC) and Grantmakers in Health (GIH) in June 2009, in Providence, Rhode Island, during the National Conference of Democratic Mayors. The event was held to tell mayors about TPC’s economic study on health grant making (see GrantWatch Online, 17 June 2009); to have three grantees describe their work and its results; and to “honor select foundations for their vision and commitment to healthy cities and communities,” Mike McHugh of TPC said. Also, Denver’s mayor John Hickenlooper and representatives from other cities discussed health challenges in their areas. TPC awarded the Philanthropic Collaborative IMPACT Award for Excellence in Health Grant Making to the Duke Endowment (Charlotte, North Carolina); the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation (West Hartford, Connecticut); and the Rhode Island Foundation (Providence). The grantees participating in the workshop were the Nurse-Family Partnership, which receives support from the Duke Endowment (and other funders); the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement, which is part of the Yale (University) Center for Clinical Investigation and includes the Donaghue Foundation among its funders; and the National Council of La Raza’s Institute for Hispanic Health. Grantees and foundations described their “work in communities and cities around the country that drive[s] down health care costs while expanding access to quality care,” said an e-mail alert. The foundation leaders “shared their insights into how cities can help meet the health needs of their residents by partnering with private philanthropy.”
The Foundation Center as released, Social Justice Grantmaking II, which provides an in-depth look at current attitudes and giving patterns of social justice philanthropists.The study, an update of earlier work, examines changes in grantmakers' strategies and practices based on late 2008 interviews with 19 leading funders and 8 advocates/ practitioners. It also documents trends in giving based on actual grants awarded by more than 1,000 of the largest U.S. foundations.
Based on TPC’s study, The Social and Economic Value of Private and Community Foundations, that showed that each dollar in foundation grants produces an estimated $8.58 in direct, economic welfare benefits, social justice giving by foundations generated close to $20 billion in economic activity in 2006!
The Foundation Center’s study can be found here.TPC's study can be found here.
Invitation to Comment 7/10/2009 TPC invites you to read the article Dueling Research on the True Beneficiaries of Foundation Grants, and add your comments to the discussion.To do this, after reading the article, please type your name and thoughts into the provided space at the bottom of the article.If you have any difficulty, please email me.
Thank you for your contributions!
Challenge Industries Highlights Time, Talent and Treasure 7/9/2009
One of TPC’s members, Challenge Industries, was recently featured in our Time, Talent and Treasure series. Challenge Industries has highlighted our feature in their Spring 2009 newsletter, The Challenge Connection. Below is a screen shot of the newsletter.
Founded in 1968, Challenge Industries is a not-for-profit, vocational services organization offering employment and placement opportunities to individuals otherwise facing barriers to employment.
TARGETING GRANT DOLLARS BY POPULATION GROUP: THE DEBATE CONTINUES 6/29/2009
(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.
MAYOR DAVID CICILLINE OF PROVIDENCE OPENS TPC ROUNDTABLE 6/12/2009
As the Mayor of Providence and the Co-Chair of the Leadership Council to The Philanthropic Collaborative (TPC), I would like to extend a warm welcome to the cities, charities, and foundations joining us today for Innovative Ideas in Health.As you know, America’s health care system will undergo a series of sweeping changes, inevitably affecting each of our communities.Through the course of these reforms, it is important we do not lose sight of the non-profit community’s valuable contributions to advance health in our cities and communities.
Today’s workshop is an informal forum for key community leaders to learn about highly impactful health care initiatives that are driving down health care costs while at the same time improving access to quality health care in cities and communities across the U.S.All of these initiatives are "shovel-ready" and can be scaled to different size cities.
Later today, TPC will be release an economic study that builds on a previous study showing a huge rate of return on health grantmaking -- for every $1 of foundation grants made to health and wellness programs $5 of economic benefits and cost saving were returned to the cities and communities served.
But the story gets better.In the economic study to be released today, we will learn those private dollars going to health initiatives are aimed at the right people – those that are underserved.This information will prove invaluable as the debate surrounding health care reform continues, and foundations and charities alike can better explain how much “bang for their buck” cities and communities receive from all that they do.
Ultimately, the success of further research into the economic benefits of grantmaking depends on a vibrant, diverse array of interested organizations.I once again welcome your interest and participation today, and thank Grantmakers In Health for co-sponsoring today’s workshop.
Sincerely,
Mayor David N. Cicilline
Co-Chair of the Leadership Council to TPC
Spotlight
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.
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...
