Posted By Sidney on October 12, 2009

This is a repost of an October 6 entry in the Council on Foundations, Fall Conference of Community Foundations blog.  In his book, Tribes, bestselling author, speaker, and entrepreneur Seth Godin argues that lasting and substantive change begins with a group of people connected to each other, to a leader, and to an idea. A close look at the most successful movements of our time validates this notion.

In philanthropy, community foundations are uniquely qualified to own the space in the minds of local/regional residents, civic leaders, public officials, and others synonymous with making a difference in the issues they care about. Community foundations can cultivate relationships between those who have common agendas in social change and create a movement based on the idea that when people give and work on behalf of causes they care about it lifts an entire community.

To occupy this space, community foundations have to be great managers of data about causes and donor interests while serving as listener, connector, and community leader. But, is there room in the business model for this work? Can the work of movement building around the idea of lifting the community add value and generate sufficient revenue for the work of philanthropy? Will it lead new donor prospects to the foundation? Can it lead to unrestricted gifts to address the changing needs of a community?

Instead of asking IF this can happen, what if community foundations focused efforts on creatively determining HOW it can happen–especially since they are uniquely qualified to do this work.

Categories: Commentary
Tags: change, community foundations, community philanthropy, movement, social change, social sector