Charity Leaders Say Antipoverty Efforts Need to Be Higher Priority for Nonprofit World

The responsibility of the charitable world in fighting income inequality was among several key topics discussed at this year’s Independent Sector conference here, which drew roughly 1,000 people from some of the country’s largest charities and foundations.

The three-day meeting, which wrapped up on Tuesday, sparked discussion about whether the field is doing enough to help poor people and minorities, a question that several members of Congress have raised in recent months.

“When there are mega-wealthy people living in Silicon Valley who are being privileged by tax treatment and are able to direct their money in a much less-egalitarian way than if it went to the government, it becomes a very vexing problem for the philanthropic sector to say whether or not all philanthropy is equal,” said Kelvin Taketa, president of the Hawaii Community Foundation. “We have to have that debate. Are community foundations going to say to their donors, Whatever you do is fine with us and we are going to watch Rome burn?”

Brian Gallagher, president of United Way of America, said that unless the charitable world does more to fight poverty, poor people may start demanding changes through violence. “The problem has gotten so big that if it sustains, it’s going to threaten civil society, including civil unrest,” he said. “I have a feeling that if we don’t respond more aggressively, more quickly, then communities are going to fight it for us.”

Tax-Break Debate

Before the conference formally opened, Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat from California, met with Independent Sector member organizations and urged them to direct more resources toward minority and impoverished communities. Congress has floated the idea that the tax code could be restructured to provide extra incentives to donors who give contributions to help the neediest individuals.

While many people at the conference said they were reluctant to see changes to the tax code, they viewed Rep. Becerra’s statements more as a wake-up call than a suggestion that legislation was imminent.

Representative Becerra “is not talking about legislation right now,” said Patricia Read, senior vice president of public policy and government affairs with Independent Sector. ”He’s challenging our sector to do a better job of thinking about how we represent communities in color, in particular, but also how we serve the disadvantaged.”

However, many people here remained worried that Congress is increasingly seeing the nonprofit world as a vehicle for redistributing wealth, rather than advancing public good. They cautioned against defining philanthropy too narrowly, or dividing the field into distinct groups based on perceptions of benefits.

“We’re very concerned about the slicing and dicing of the sector,” said David Thompson, director of legislative affairs with Independent Sector. “We’re trying to change the debate so that all the work we do is understood, the fact that it’s interrelated is understood, so the work of museums is important as well as the work of soup kitchens.”

Other speakers at the conference argued that nonprofit leaders have to be far more effective advocates, particularly in tackling divisive political issues such as tax policies, globalization, immigration, and health care.

Matt Miller, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, said that charities have a unique opportunity to shatter what he called the “myth” that higher taxes hurt the economy. As baby boomers age, Americans will face a higher tax burden, he said, yet too few people understand that increased taxes will be both necessary and won’t have a detrimental effect on economic growth.

“The nonprofit sector can do a lot toward legitimizing the discussion that higher taxes are still consistent with economic growth,” he said. “The nonprofit sector is probably the only one that can put these ideas front and center on the American agenda.”

‘Unsustainable’ Changes

Globalization presents another challenge that the charitable world has a responsibility to tackle, said Stewart Kwoh, president of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California.

Mr. Kwoh said that globalization has been advancing in an “unsustainable” manner. “It has created billions of poor people, we are losing the middle class, and we see a few more billionaires being created,” he said. “The nonprofit sector has to put this on its agenda. For nonprofits to think globally and act locally is passé.”

But to influence the debate on these and other issues, charities need to stop shying away from advocacy, speakers said.

“We need to start seeing dramatic changes in policy, yet we are seeing so many in the nonprofit and foundation worlds saying how they’re going to direct resources oftentimes targeted on different things,” said Janet Murguía, president of National Council of La Raza. “That can help, but what we really need is a
 strong voice. We need leadership when it comes to changing policies that we know will open up more doors of opportunity. And yet I still see so many who are afraid.”

Future Leaders

Other discussions at the conference centered on the challenges that nonprofit organizations face in attracting leaders and preparing young people for leadership roles. The Bridgespan Group has estimated that 640,000 senior-level managers will leave the their jobs over the next decade, but many charity leaders say the field isn’t doing enough to bring in younger people to fill those vacancies.

J.D. Hokoyama, president of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, urged his colleagues to be more conscious about how they groom younger employees for leadership. “You have to think about giving people more responsibilities earlier, or else you’re going to lose them,” he said.

He also said that charities should be much more willing to hire from within, as a way both of strengthening their own organizations and the field by giving younger people a chance to lead.

Speakers also offered advice to young nonprofit workers as they try to earn respect, find mentors, and advance their careers.

Gregg Behr, executive director of the Grable Foundation, suggested that young people be more conscious of the language they use when they seek out professionals to coach them through their careers.

“When someone comes to me and says to me, Will you be my mentor, I suddenly imagine, Oh, dinner every Friday,” he said. “But I’ve never once turned down a request by someone who says, Can we get coffee and talk about what’s going on. The word mentor might conjure up something that someone with a very busy schedule just isn’t able to accommodate, even if they want to.”

Vanessa Kirsch, who started the charity Public Allies when she was in her 20s, said that young people should also be pro-active about seeking out mentors and that youth can be an advantage.

Ms. Kirsch said that she won her first grant after driving from Washington to Colorado in hopes of bumping into someone from the Macarthur Foundation outside a conference. She offered the woman a ride to the airport and gave her pitch during the drive.

“She became my greatest mentor,” said Ms. Kirsch. “Being young is an asset. You can use your vulnerability to your advantage.”

In addition to attracting young workers, charities often struggle to retain the top leaders they do have because of the low pay and high stress that characterize so many nonprofit jobs.

Michael Watson, senior vice president of human resources at the Girls Scouts of the USA, argued that good management is the biggest factor in improving retention.

People who respect their bosses are far more likely to work harder and to remain at their jobs, he said. His organization has taken steps to improve retention by evaluating employees not only on their results but also on how they treat their colleagues and subordinates, and by providing coaching to managers.

“People who have a knot in their stomach on Sunday evenings are going to leave their organizations,” he said. “Organizations will lose their best and brightest, and they’ll lose them first because those people have the most options.”

While foundations are often reluctant to make grants aimed at improving retention, Sylvia Yee, vice president of programs at the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, said her organization has had success in helping its grantees hold onto their top staff members.

Her foundation has invested $4.3-million over 3 years to provide leadership support at 15 of its grantees. The program invests not only in the executive director, but also in other top staff members and trustees, so that workload — and the responsibility of shaping the organization’s mission — is shared among more people within the organization.

Meanwhile, for all the talk about the leadership deficit, speakers said it wouldn’t be harmful if the nonprofit world lost a few organizations because they couldn’t attract new leadership.

“If the organization is so dependent on one person that they can’t find anyone else to fill that job, then it’s not necessarily a bad thing that it goes away,” says Frances Kunreuther, director of the Building Movement Project, which supports social-change groups. “Just like we can’t say failure, we in the sector can’t say ending.”