After the Tsunamis: What Charities Must Do

To the Editor:

Articles The Chronicle has published in its opinion section in the wake of the tsunamis would seem to raise more questions about the role of American philanthropic leaders and their organizations than about that of the American public. While it is easy for philanthropic pundits to say what Americans of generous spirit should do, how might American nonprofit groups encourage more donors to become global social investors? Here are some suggestions.

• Think globally, but invest locally. Private philanthropy and international development organizations have helped local communities to launch a good number of successful microdevelopment programs, which can be and have been widely replicated. However, it is unreasonable to think that the private sector alone should provide effective “macro” solutions when the public sector often cannot do so. American development organizations need to engage the interested donor more fully in the excitement and promise of microdevelopment models.
• Successful development projects are good news. In the popular press and media there are 10 stories of violence, disease, and corruption in the developing world for every story about progress and successful community development. InterAction and its leading members would do well to expand their public-information campaigns to emphasize the growing value of effective international development cases.
• What is an efficient international development organization? When trusted financial media sources give their best ratings to those nonprofits that simply report the lowest overhead figures, how can the American public gain a more insightful understanding of the business of international nonprofits? Injecting some M.B.A. sophistication into news-media analysis of international charity efficiency should be a key priority of InterAction and the public-affairs efforts of “brand name” organizations.
• A venture-capital approach to funding long-term development. The American public responded to TV-propelled stories about the tsunamis and Ethiopia, because they understood and reacted with passion to the desperate life-and-death needs of the most vulnerable. The worsening crisis in the developing world is one of desperate life-and-death needs in constant, slow motion. Yet, donor fatigue for the masses sets in very quickly. Long-term private funding for international development does not occur through spontaneous generosity, but in most cases requires continuous nurturing and education. After years of presenting the case for international development, one can only conclude that in the general population only Peace Corps alumni and related others have a natural understanding of the complexities involved. Therefore, regular, personal communication and carefully planned learning experiences are essential to success with key prospects.
• It’s about relationship building, not the Internet. Long-term investment in worthy community-development programs is about capital campaigning and not mass appeals. Therefore, the proven tactics of capital fund raising will inform the best investment-raising efforts.
• Raising capital for long-term community development requires new institutional investment. Successful capital efforts require proactive budgeting, with the rule of thumb being a 10- to 15-percent cost ratio for mature programs. During the Ethiopia crisis, one organization in particular used an appropriate percentage of overhead revenue to build a formidable national major-gifts and planned-giving program. Although the fund-raising strategies of many international relief and development organizations have traditionally been driven by short-term imperatives, this is changing. Long-term community development requires fund raising and capacity building for the long term.
• The value of an informed historical perspective. The post-tsunami leadership strategy of American philanthropy will certainly benefit more from an informed sense of history than from the ethnocentric idealism prevalent in some circles. We have had our own human-rights abuses and rampant poverty and disease. Need we be reminded that Western development witnessed slow and painful steps over the centuries before its recent acceleration? Nonprofit groups need to provide a more reassuring historical and cultural context when making the case for investment in promising international projects.

Experience has shown that the natural momentum of spontaneous, mass philanthropy lasts a month or two at best. The public mind is far from thinking globally. And the popular media is already searching for the next disaster.

What American philanthropic leaders do in the coming months will in large part determine whether the most visionary, compassionate, and generous among us “gain the full message of the waves.” Donors will heed a focused message of thinking globally and acting and investing locally. The potential of American philanthropy in international development will only be approached when more of our fellow citizens know the exhilaration of helping local people across the globe to save one child, one family, and one village at a time.

W.C. Austin
Consultant
Global Philanthropics
Sarasota, Fla.