An Expert on Philanthropy Takes Think-Tank Job

The Aspen Institute, a think tank with headquarters in Washington, conducts public-policy research on two dozen topics, including poverty, the environment, and the Middle East.

But the institute’s leaders fear that, as happens so often in similar organizations, each research department is becoming its own insular entity, neither fully sharing information it has gleaned nor benefiting enough from the findings of fellow researchers.

Breaking down those barriers and building connections among research priorities was one of the main charges given to Jane Wales when she was recently hired as the Aspen Institute’s vice president for philanthropy and society, a new position that was created specifically to focus on those concerns.

Another main focus, says Ms. Wales, will be ensuring that the institute’s work is based on the concerns and interests of philanthropists, so that the research is eventually put to use instead of simply filed away.

Creating Ms. Wales’s position is “a continuation of what we’ve been doing, but accelerating the trend of focusing on public and private philanthropic partnerships,” says Elliot Gerson, Aspen’s executive vice president of policy and public programs. Unlike many other think tanks, Mr. Gerson notes, Aspen has always been more focused on such partnerships, rather than on influencing lawmakers with policy prescriptions.

Ms. Wales will also serve as the executive director of the institute’s nonprofit-sector and philanthropy program. Alan Abramson, who formerly held the job and is a professor of public and international affairs at George Mason University, will remain at Aspen as a senior fellow.

Ms. Wales, 58, is chief executive of the World Affairs Council of Northern California, in San Francisco. The council, created at the time the United Nations was formed in the late 1940s, is designed to get the public involved in debating and understanding international issues.

She is also co-founder of the Global Philanthropy Forum, an offshoot of the World Affairs Council that helps philanthropists find the best ways to achieve their charitable goals. She will remain in those positions and commute between California and Washington.

Her annual salary at the Aspen Institute is $150,000, and she will continue to make an equal amount for her job at the World Affairs Council. She will also remain as host of the nationally syndicated National Public Radio international-relations program It’s Your World.

“What Jane brings is a real seriousness and depth of understanding that we think will continue to change the whole philanthropic sector,” says Mr. Gerson.

Ms. Wales founded the Global Philanthropy Forum in 2001 to bring together high-net-worth philanthropists concerned with international issues. Many are relatively young people in midcareer who want to be engaged in the giving process and want to learn from others’ successes and failures so that their giving will make a difference. Ms. Wales said the complementary goals of the forum and the Aspen Institute will benefit both the donors and the social problems they hope to solve.

In an interview, Ms. Wales discussed how she will approach her new job.

What is one of the most prominent areas of research in philanthropy, and what are its challenges?

The question of applying private-sector metrics to social-change goals, what some people call “philanthrocapitalism,” is an area of a good deal of debate with the philanthropic community right now. The philanthropic sector is the only sector that is able to take risks and make long-term investments without fear of public outcry. They provide risk capital. And the last thing philanthropists want to do is reduce that willingness to take risks. Philanthropists want both themselves and their grantees to be more strategic, but they don’t want to eliminate risk from what they do. The whole question is how do you get that balance? So we need to look at case studies of the way social change has occurred. We need rigorous research.

What will be your greatest challenges?

In any institution, the challenge is to avoid the silos, right? To avoid a situation in which research is being conducted in one realm and practice is being conducted in another and never the twain shall meet. That’s one of those recurring problems in all institutions.

What is the current state of philanthropy?

It’s too early to see the effects of the economic downturn. Having said that, we have to anticipate them. Not only anticipate that endowment assets will shrink, but also that governments at all levels — state and city — are facing dramatically shrinking budgets at the same time that they face increased needs as portions of the population tumble into poverty. I think looking forward we will see a combination of much greater need in many areas at the same time we see shrinking resources.

What that suggests is that the transformation already under way needs to accelerate, and this is the convergence of public, private, and philanthropic sectors.

An exquisite example of really smart leveraging is in the health sector. Understanding that the research and development capability in the health sector is in private-sector organizations, the Rockefeller Foundation in the last several years has made equity investments in pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms that are willing to do research into diseases of the poor. There isn’t venture capital for that, because the poor can’t buy the product. It’s not an investment the market naturally makes. And then at the other end, the [Bill & Melinda] Gates Foundation has stepped in and said, We will make an advanced market commitment; we will assure that if that product is developed, we will buy it at a large-enough scale to justify its production. That is just a brilliant example in my mind of leveraging the private sector.

You work with many living benefactors. What are you seeing with them?

What’s most striking about the new philanthropy, about the young living benefactors, is that they’re problem solvers. They recognize that no matter what their wealth, the kind of large problems they want to take on will not be solved by one sector or one foundation. So they seek to leverage their resources.

What are some of the main questions that philanthropists have?

Their overarching concern is always to find the answer to the question of, how do I achieve my short-term objective while laying the basis for a long-term cure?

Take, for example, the food crisis that exists right now. As a combination of rising demand from India and China and misguided subsidies for biofuels, the price of food has risen dramatically, causing tremendous shortages — and not only a hunger crisis, but also a political crisis, as you’re seeing riots in Africa and in the Caribbean.

This is a legitimate short-term humanitarian crisis that needs to be addressed; food must be provided. But how do you do that in such a way that you do not undercut long-term efforts to build and advance sustainable agriculture throughout the developing world? So the question tends to be, how do I look past the short-term crisis at the long-term needs and ensure that I and others address the long-term needs?