Hewlett-Packard out of a garage, the reasons he and his wife Lucile began their foundation, and the values of their family. It was a terrific way to help preserve the legacy of the family and foundation among the hundreds of employees who would play important roles in the foundation over decades.Another donor, however, embraced a scarcity mentality when designing the legacy of his family foundation. A successful business leader, he was generous when it came to giving back to his community. In designing his board members' succession plan, however, he didn't just outline the role of family and nonfamily members on the board. He named specific people who would be asked to join the board if there was a vacancy, and in what order. And he put it in the foundation's bylaws.Fast-forward to today: The donor has passed away. Among the individuals he named, most have little awareness about or interest in the foundation, and many are retiring. I can appreciate that he wanted to ensure that his foundation would be stewarded by people he trusted. But his fear of losing control of donor legacy is preventing the current foundation leadership from developing the board they need to guide the foundation into the future.
Fear Masked as Guilt
You feel guilty because you have access to wealth others don't have. You feel, therefore, that you shouldn't invest in yourself. You say to yourself, “How can I justify hiring an executive coach, investing in a communications plan, or getting help to implement our strategy when people are starving, girls are being kidnapped and sex trafficked, and we have an epidemic of drug addiction?” What you're doing, though, is letting your guilt get in the way of logic.
When you ask yourself, “How can I justify these expenses?” the right answer is, “How can I not?” After all, your role is that of champion. Your job is to help your cause by any means necessary, and that includes the “unconventional” approach of strengthening your organization's knowledge or infrastructure.
Sometimes the Fear Is Justified
It's also important to recognize there are fears in our world of philanthropy born from the very real dangers we sometimes face.
In 2018, Open Society Foundations had to move 100 employees out of their office in Budapest to Berlin, because of the repressive and hostile environment created by the Hungarian government's arbitrary interference.5 Richard and Rhoda Goldman created the Goldman Environmental Prize to honor the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists from around the world. Many of the prize winners faced harassment, physical abuse, intimidation, false criminalization, unjust arrests, and jail sentences (two were murdered after receiving the prize).6 Activist donors who accompanied human rights leaders during El Salvador's civil war in the 1980s were often at physical risk for their safety.
Similarly, several globally recognized philanthropy leaders were happy to be interviewed for this book but were unwilling to be acknowledged or quoted, out of fear. Some work in countries with shrinking space for civil society and feared negative political and professional repercussions for sharing certain opinions.
The danger that some funders face can become tremendous obstacles to doing good in the world.
But these situations are by far the exception and not the rule.
Don't Hold Yourself Hostage to Your Fears
Make no mistake about it: We all feel fear from time to time. Sometimes this fear is rooted in reality, and sometimes it's not. Regardless of its source, we're the ones who choose whether we'll allow fear to become an obstacle that gets in the way of achieving our goals. We have the power to overcome our fears and bring about transformation. As Jean Case, philanthropist and CEO of the Case Foundation, shares in her book Be Fearless, “I am always inspired by people who challenge themselves and those around them by asking the question: What would you do if you weren't afraid?”7
We need talented philanthropists like you to step up, take risks, and make a difference. We need you to banish your scarcity mind-set and embrace a mind-set of abundance. We need you to put your own oxygen mask on first, so that you can help others and change the world. We're counting on you. Your community is counting on you. The world is counting on you.
Notes
1 1. http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/odonnell-it-time-question-tom-sellec.
2 2. Author interview with Meredith Shields, August 29, 2019.
3 3. Interview with Charles Keidan, August 12, 2019.
4 4. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2014/11/20/control-why-so-many-funders-fear-general-support-and-cant-st.html.
5 5. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/newsroom/open-society-foundations-close-international-operations-budapest.
6 6. https://www.goldmanprize.org/blog/fighting-for-their-lives-goldman-prize-winners-under-threat/; https://af.reuters.com/article/drcNews/idAFL8N1HR5DK.
7 7. J. Case, Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019).
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