5 reasons to Deepen the University-Foundation Conversation
Posted By Sidney on March 4, 2009
Photo by Rishi Saikia
Every year, local and regional foundations review proposals to support local university initiatives. In many cases, these initiatives are the products of knowledge and expertise gained through rigorous, thorough research. While I support this fully, I have also come to believe that the foundation-university relationship needs to be revamped and expanded beyond the typical grantor-grantee relationship (which is centered around the grant proposal process). All too often, universities are advancing efforts to address the same community issues that foundations seek to impact with grants to nonprofit organizations. Yet, the work of foundations and universities largely occur in separate silos until the university development office is given the charge to seek funding. What are the benefits of deepening the relationship by collaborating to address major community issues before the funding ask is made? My top five reasons the philanthropic sector and academic sector should collaborate are:
- Local and regional foundations hold a great depth and breadth of knowledge regarding community issues gained through convenings, grant proposals, and third-party research;
- Universities possess research and development expertise on a level that is generally unavailable at foundations;
- Foundations and universities have an interest in if not a mandate for evaluating the impact of their efforts and therefore can learn from each other;
- Universities often host summits, lectures, and other speaking events that headline thoughts leaders for issues important to the philanthropic sector; and
- Local and regional foundations can offer unrestricted and field of interest fund support to leverage additional funds from national foundations and public funds.
All of this requires a highly integrated collaborative relationship beyond the grantor-grantee relationship. I believe that embracing this deeper relationship would produce significant advances on the major issues facing our local communities.
I think that this needs to be a three-way conversation at minimum, with university, foundation, and community based organizations talking together. I say, at minimum, because the business community, and the people who are to be served by whatever action is to be funded, should also have a way to participate in the discussions and brainstorming that leads to funding commitments.
In my http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com group you can see some efforts to engage universities by engaging students and alumni.
I agree with this especially as far as social innovation is concerned. The overall mandate is cross-sector partnership beyond grantor-grantee relations.
Hey, thanks for using my image. Would love it if you could link back either to my blog (www.rollon.in) or to my flickr stream.