Foundation-Financed Office in Liberia Seeks to Build and Guide Philanthropic Efforts

This month about two dozen philanthropists will trek to the West African nation of Liberia to witness firsthand the deep scars left by 14 years of civil war and learn how they can play a role healing these wounds.

While visits to Africa by American donors are not unusual, what is unusual is how this trip was organized. The four-day meeting is the product of several nonprofit groups working with the Liberian Philanthropy Secretariat, a government office entirely financed by foundations. The secretariat’s goal is to coordinate philanthropic efforts in the fledgling democracy of 3.4 million people.

The office is widely considered the first of its kind in Africa, and some grant makers involved with the project hope the idea can be copied to assist other nations recovering from armed conflict.

For Liberia, the secretariat is a sign of a growing optimism about the nation’s future. The overthrow of the brutal dictator Charles G. Taylor and the 2005 election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president in modern history, have created an unprecedented opportunity that could benefit the whole region, say grant makers.

“There’s a hope that Liberia can be a success story on the African continent, that it can have a spillover effect,” says Mike Boyer, a spokesman for Humanity United, a Redwood City, Calif., foundation that is providing $75,000 to the secretariat and an additional $21,000 for this month’s meeting of donors. “It can be an anchor of stability in West Africa.”

Giving People a Voice

The idea for the secretariat began in earnest at the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative, the former president’s annual charity conference.

After meeting about 40 nonprofit leaders privately, Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf in a speech urged them to collaborate better in her country and elsewhere.

“If you want more bang for the buck, you’ve really got to get together,” the African president said.

Donors listened. The Daphne Foundation, Humanity United, the McCall MacBain Foundation, the NoVo Foundation, and Wellspring Financial Advisors committed money to create a project that evolved into the secretariat.

The philanthropy body opened its doors in April. With an annual budget of about $200,000, the two-person secretariat is officially part of Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf’s executive office and is overseen by Natty B. Davis, a senior adviser to the president.

Mr. Davis is quick to point out that the secretariat is a coordinating body; it does not tell foundations what to do. Grant makers “interact with my office largely to get a feel for if they are on the right track in terms of considering such-and-such project or program,” he says. “We give them feedback, but we try not to say, ‘You can do this, you can’t do this.’”

He has urged philanthropists to work with the country’s official antipoverty plan and to build an educated and informed citizenry.

We want to “strengthen people’s voices and people’s ability to be able to engage with public officials,” he says.

The office has also created a Web site, http://supportliberia.com, to introduce potential new donors to the country. “The level of need here is just staggering. There’s definitely a need for more philanthropic support,” says Dan Hymowitz, an American who is the program manger of the secretariat.

The site lists international aid charities operating in the country, projects grant makers are pursuing, and informative films and books about Liberia.

Brokering Partnerships

Foundations that work with the secretariat describe it as a handy guide through a region hobbled by rampant poverty and where shoddy roads and poor communications infrastructure make it hard for a donor to get information from people and groups working directly with Liberians.

“To his credit, Minister Davis has done a good job trying to broker partnerships while keeping the foundations doing what they do best, which is flexible, independent projects that can be quicker moving than some of the bilateral donors and government resources,” says Rory Eakin, associate director of investments at Humanity United.

Adds Yvonne L. Moore, executive director of the Daphne Foundation: “The work that the secretariat is doing is to encourage funders to stay focused on what Liberia’s goals are. It just makes sure we’re all on the same page.”

The Daphne Foundation, which was founded by Abigail E. Disney, the grandniece of Walt Disney, is providing $30,000 over three years to the secretariat. Ms. Moore says Mr. Davis and his staff members have connected the New York grant maker with worthwhile charitable ventures.

For example, after meeting the Liberian agriculture minister last year, the Daphne fund started supporting work to clean rivers and swampy lowlands from snails and leeches, which will allow farmers to grow rice again in those areas.

While the secretariat is still young and its list of accomplishments short, some philanthropy experts hope other troubled nations can learn from it.

“While our current focus is on Liberia, our objective is to test a model of philanthropy in a post-crisis setting and to see whether this model can be exported to other states emerging from crisis,” says Jane Wales, president of the Global Philanthropy Forum, an association of donors that is helping to arrange this month’s meeting in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital.

Some caution that the Liberian model may have limited possibilities beyond the country’s borders. Sudan, for example, has considered setting up a similar office, but it could just be a way of asserting control over nonprofit work there, say philanthropy leaders.

“Issues of corruption, how money might be used, and who your interlocutors are, and so forth, are issues you’d really want to vet,” says Ed Marcum, Humanity United’s director of investments. “There are some unique circumstances in Liberia that allow us to have a real high-level of comfort with it.”