Arrogance in the Name of Vision

To the Editor:

Taking potshots at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has long been a favored pastime in Kansas City’s nonprofit sector (“A Divided Vision,” October 2).

By far the largest philanthropy in the region, the foundation built a veritable palace on the banks of Brush Creek in the heart of the city’s cultural district. It was created with a dual focus on positive youth development and entrepreneurism, yet the two halves of the organization seemed to operate wholly independently and without internal connection. The early executive ranks were filled largely by associates of Mr. Kauffman’s from Marion Laboratories and others who brought a corporate background and no previous foundation or nonprofit experience. From the outside looking in, their decision making was typically opaque and inscrutable.

It’s fair to say that the foundation has earned a share of criticism over the years but equally important to note that they learned from their efforts. Initial foundation executives had built a world-class pharmaceutical company. They were smart and knew how to think big. Social problems existed, in their view, because nonprofits were run by well-meaning individuals who weren’t as smart and didn’t think as big.

So the Kauffman Foundation organized itself as an operating foundation to develop and manage its own interventions across a range of issues affecting youth development.

As the years went by, the foundation began to disengage from program development and management, choosing to work with nonprofit partners in the pursuit of its goals. By last year, what the board saw was a large staff awarding grants to the same nonprofit partners year after year, making a measurable difference in the lives of low-income families, but generating few “breakthrough” solutions.

The board’s answer was to select a new CEO who had a willingness to clean house and refocus the foundation’s mission. During his short tenure, Carl Schramm has done just that. He has made clear that entrepreneurship now takes precedence for his attention over youth development. He has repackaged one strand of Mr. Kauffman’s interests, K-12 education, as the sole definition of positive youth development and has signaled that a huge chunk of the current local grant-making will disappear. He has retained former business associates and other consultants at enormous expense. But the salt in the wound is the way that Mr. Schramm has communicated, in both word and deed, that he does not respect the contributions of nonprofit organizations.

Sometimes it takes a while for national corporate trends to trickle down into the philanthropic arena. Today, we can see evidence nationally of a similar fixation on the “cult of the commanding CEO” in the philanthropic domain that has produced its share of corporate governance horror stories in American businesses. At the Kauffman Foundation, we now witness arrogance offered in the name of vision, disdain masquerading as humor, and a personal agenda supplanting the organizational mission. Sadly, the Kauffman Foundation has yet again earned the potshots that are being lobbed across its bow by former board members, nonprofit groups, and longtime observers of the Kansas City nonprofit scene.

Mark Shapiro
Principal
In Focus
Kansas City, Mo.