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Notes for
the by Paul Pribbenow, Ph.D. |
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Philanthropy is a journey. Let JGA be your guide. Johnson, Grossnickle and
Associates LLC
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Volume
Two, Number Three (February 2001) ****** "What we have loved, others will love, and we will teach them how." (W. Wordsworth, from "The Prelude") NOTES FROM READERS >>What you think<< Greetings in the new
millennium. Thanks to all for your good responses to the last issue of
Notes. I received some
especially thoughtful pre-holiday posts.
Folks resonated most with W.H.
Auden’s wonderful claim upon us to redeem the time being.
I also was struck by a new reader’s comment that she never
expected to find opportunities for reflection in the fast-paced world of
online newsletters. There
is a fine tension there that energizes me.
Even as I take the time to piece together my bi-monthly notes, I
know that they will come crashing into your office or home, somewhat
unannounced, perhaps at an inconvenient time.
Will there be time for reading and reflection?
Is it possible to integrate contemplation and action?
We continue to trust and hope so. I also was struck by
new reader Jack Sigel’s helpful reminder that Wendell
Berry’s call to the domestic arts is closely linked to Aristotle’s
observation that wisdom resides in the knowledge of causes.
Mr. Sigel also suggests that Yeats’
“Among
School Children,” which considers the interrelationship between
dancer and the dance, offers another appropriate analogy for thinking
about what it means to teach and to practice philanthropy.
Many thanks. Reader Dree Thomson-Diamond, a faithful Canadian subscriber, wrote to describe a difficult professional transition and suggested that I might consider addressing how those of us who are professionals in the philanthropic community treat each other. What are the links between professional status and respect? How do we balance our various professional and personal priorities when a transition is upon us? A powerful set of questions, some of which I have thought a good bit about. A few years back, I wrote a column (when my Notes appeared in “Chicago Philanthropy”) entitled “Civility in Transition: Some thoughts on the ethics of coming and going.” I’ve recovered the text for that column and will revise it for the next issue of Notes. Thanks, Dree, for prompting my continuing reflection on an important topic. More next time. Occasionally, I (or my colleagues) refer to items from previous issues of Notes. If you have not been a subscriber previously, and wish to review our conversations, past issues of Notes are available on-line at www.jgacounsel.com. The website version of Notes also includes helpful hyperlinks to sources for purchasing or subscribing to the various publications mentioned in Notes. I thank my friends at Johnson, Grossnickle & Associates for their abiding support for our reflective practice. ****** REFLECT
ON THIS >>From
data to information to wisdom—the ‘sin’ of terrific plans<< I am convinced that the
daily challenges of managing and leading an organization are summarized
in the process described by the phrase, “from data to information to
wisdom.” In our age of
data and information overload, it is too easy to get bogged down in the
details, the minutiae, the sheer quantity of data and information, and
to forget the values, the stories, the metaphors, and the principles
that show us the way to wisdom, to what is really important. Management consultant
Eileen C. Shapiro, in an excerpt from her “The
Seven Deadly Sins of Business” (LPC Group/Capstone Publishing,
1998) entitled “The ‘Sin’ of Terrific Plans” (in “Perdido:
Leadership with a Conscience,” Fall 2000), makes a similar point
when she proposes that we need to be much more deliberate about creating
strategy and ensuring that our organizations know what our strategy is.
Otherwise, strategy gets created in ways that do not serve our
best interests or values. In
fact, she says, strategy gets lost in terrific strategic plans—and
that is a sin. Ms. Shapiro makes
several strong points about strategy:
Here’s to agility,
perhaps the most underrated of organizational characteristics.
I often quote Martin
Luther, who said that education was about creating individuals of
“wondrous ability, fit for everything.”
Perhaps that same claim could be made of organizations that are
always learning. >>Remembering
why (2)<< Here is another in my
series of meditations about our work and how they relate to broader
goods and purposes—all of us need words and ideas and values that
bring us back to why we do what we do, who we do it for, what difference
it makes…Some of you may have heard or read my story before, but many
have asked to hear it again, and it is a privilege to tell it again and
again. Gathering grain and
common work
My earliest memories of
philanthropic activity begin early on a Saturday morning some 30 years
ago, when my father, a Lutheran minister, and I hopped into a borrowed
pick-up truck to commence a day of work on behalf of the Church
World Service’s CROP program.
Though most of you probably know CROP today through its annual
“walks,” in rural areas CROP has long sponsored the grain
contribution effort we helped with that day. For eight or nine hours
that Saturday, my dad and I drove from farm to farm in our southern
Wisconsin community gathering contributions of grain from generous
farmers. When our pick-up
truck was full, we would drive to the local grain elevator to unload.
At the end of the day, our various contributions were totaled by
the elevator operator and the contributed grain was transported to the
Church World Service barge or flatbed, ultimately ending up in Africa or
Asia as part of U.S. efforts to alleviate world hunger. On that Saturday, my
dad and I were grain-gatherers. Along
with the grain donors (the farmers), the grain-storers and counters (the
elevator operator), the grain brokers (Church World Service), and the
grain recipients (the hungry of the world), we participated in the
common work of a philanthropic community where each member did his/her
part, helping to relieve a need, building a healthier world. It is a simple picture
of a complex set of dynamics. It
is, however, a picture that defines who I am and what it is I care about
in my work. I was called to
be a grain-gatherer. I live
out that vocation every day in my professional life.
From my early experience, however, I know well that my work makes
no sense outside of the community of grain donors, counters, brokers,
and recipients, who share my commitment to a more humane and responsible
world. It is about common
work—celebrating all of the ways in which we join together to live out
our most deeply held commitments and values.
May all of your work be practiced in common. [Discussion questions:
As a fundraising professional, what obligations do you have to
involve others in the common work of philanthropy?
Do you have autobiographical stories that offer you and others a
glimpse into your calling? What
are the obstacles to common work in our culture?
What would the common work of philanthropy look like in your
organization? Who are the
other participants in your organization’s philanthropic community?
How do you encourage their participation in that community?] >>Great,
good places<< Here at Wabash
College, we have been involved over the past several months in the
planning and design for a new conference center on campus.
We have had a wonderful time imagining together how the new
building would be a welcoming, hospitable place for our guests.
We have spent long hours discussing how space illustrates mission
and values. I hope you all
have such rich conversations in your organizations. During those planning
conversations, I had occasion to return to one of my favorite sources
for thinking about places that encourage lively conversation and good
company, sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s “The
Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffeeshops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors,
General Stores, Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You Through the Day.”
(Paragon House, 1989). In his book, Oldenburg
diagnoses the problem of space in America and the growing absence of
informal public life. He
then suggests that we need to recover the important role of “third
places,” his generic designation for a great variety of public places
that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated
gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home (the first place)
and work (the second place). Third places, he tells
us, have certain common and essential features.
They are on neutral ground, places where people come and go as
they please, no one hosts, and all feel at home and comfortable.
They are levelers, inclusive, democratic, egalitarian, oblivious
to worldly status. The main
activity in third places is conversation, talk that is good, lively, and
engaging. They are
accessible and accommodating, helping us to overcome loneliness and
boredom and the frustrations of daily life.
There are regulars in third places, fellow customers who make the
place come alive. Third places are plain, keeping a low profile, not trying to
impress anyone. The mood of
the third place is playful, not too serious for too long. Third places are homes away from home, places that root us,
that are ours, that restore us, that allow us the freedom to be, that
have genuine warmth. Where are your third
places? As we survey the seeming cafeteria of passively arrayed
settings and experiences in our lives, Oldenburg enjoins us to proclaim,
“It doesn’t have to be like this!” ****** PRACTICE
THIS >>
Creative benchmarking << Dawn Iacobucci and
Christie Nordhielm, both professors at the Kellogg
Graduate School of Management at Northwestern
University, write in a recent issue of “Harvard
Business Review” (November/December 2000) about their work on
creative benchmarking. It
is a fascinating article, full of good common sense ideas about how to
compare our organizations and agencies with those whose businesses do
not resemble ours. They start from the
customer’s point of view. First,
list each step of your customer’s (read: client/student/member)
experience from the initial recognition of need to the final follow-up
after the interaction with them. Next, determine which
factors most influence the customer’s perception of value at each
step. Finally, identify
companies or organizations that excel at each factor—no matter what
industry they’re in. This process helps you identify relevant companies to study. I recently asked a
group of workshop participants to think about how people are welcomed to
their organizations. I then asked what examples they could think of where
welcoming guests was done well. One
participant said that she thought churches did a good job of welcoming
people (ushers meet guests and distribute programs; formal greeters
often add to the welcome; someone may help you find a place to sit).
We then explored how the best of what churches did to welcome
guests could be replicated in our own organizations.
And there you have a point of reference for creative
benchmarking. Simple advice for those
of us who are always looking for best practices—no matter the source! >>The
art of philanthropy<< “The
Utne Reader” (September/October 2000)—a sometimes edgy journal
of the alternative press—recently reprinted this provocative
list of 15 ways to practice the art of philanthropy, originally
proposed by William Wimsatt in his “No
More Prisons” (Soft Skull, 1999).
No matter which side of
the philanthropic ledger you occupy, you might find here artful lessons,
good reminders, provocative challenges for a lifetime of loving
humankind. ****** PAY
ATTENTION TO THIS >>Some
new resources<< A few new potential
sources for your reflective practice. Several readers
confirmed my original sense that a new website is worth mentioning here.
Go to www.collegevalues.org/diaries.cfm
to read the diaries of various college presidents commenting on the
ethical aspects of their daily work.
Powerful testimony to reflective practice. I received a review
issue of “The Nonprofit Quarterly: Featuring Innovative Thinking in
the Nonprofit Sector,” published by Third Sector New England (www.nonprofitquarterly.org)
and found it full of rich articles about our work. The issue I reviewed was all about technology.
Future issues are to address public policy issues for the
nonprofit sector. Worth a
read, I think. I am pleased to report
that both Volume
I and Volume
II of “Serving the Public Trust: Insights into Fundraising
Research and Practice,” which I edited, are now available as part of
the New
Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising series published by Jossey-Bass
(www.josseybass.com).
The papers in the volumes, originally commissioned as part of a
Think Tank on Fundraising Research addressing public trust and public
policy issues in fundraising, are well-crafted and worth having as a
part of your philanthropy library. >>Manifesto<< Wendell
Berry, my oft-quoted Kentucky farmer, essayist, and poet, offers
this powerful verse (of which I include only excerpts--click
here for the full text). “Manifesto: The Mad
Farmer Liberation Front” Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know. So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. *** Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. So long as women do not go cheap for power, please women more than men. Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to
bear a child? *** Be like the fox Who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection. >>Subscription
information<< Subscriptions to Notes
are simple to establish. Send
me an email at pribbenp@wabash.edu,
ask to be added to the list, and you will receive a confirmation from
the mailserver at Wabash College
that you are on the list. Please
feel free to forward your email versions of Notes to others—they then
can subscribe by contacting me. I
also am happy to send Notes as an MS Word attachment to an email, if
that would make reading it easier for some of you.
Just let me know. The
current and archive issues of Notes
are available on-line at www.jgacounsel.com. >>Topics
for the next issue (April 2001)<<
(c) Paul Pribbenow, 2001 |
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