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Grantmaking Isn't Supposed to be a Grind
Book examines roles of philanthropy. Grassroots Philanthropy: Field notes of a maverick grant maker by Bill Somerville. ISBN: 978-1-59714-084-3
by Vic Chapman
Bill Somerville is a nationally recognized expert on creative grantmaking with over 300 community foundations in the US, UK and Canada under his belt of successful operations that he has structured. Grassroots Philanthropy is a compilation of “field notes” of his forty years in non-profits.
Non-profit, charitable and civic organizations are responsible for a great social power in the world according to Somerville, who details many of the organizations he’s been part of. Like any bureaucracy, non-profits tend to draw a kind of crowd that is used to proceeding slowly, San Diego’s Coffeehouse & Newscarefully and with a greater sense of arrogance and noblesse oblige than Somerville thinks they ought to allow. Grassroots is a call to action by the granddaddy of organizational social empowerment toward a new, leaner and above all, faster method of doing some good in the world with their power.
Among the elements that Somerville favors as ways to speed philanthropic effectiveness are keeping the paper trail short and speeding the decision process. Paperless organization costs less, moves faster and robs bureaucracy of slowness in functioning. Fast turn arounds in decision making—sometimes Somerville cuts to the chase in less than two days—not two years—and this gets help to those who need it in time to keep wheels turning. Above all, Somerville likes to make givers more human by reminding them that they have it incredibly easy; no one demands endless interrogatories from them, or justification for their actions, or even explanations of their decisions. People who work in non-profits and philanthropic organizations have lots of benefits and few of the problems that others face daily, and they ought to give back in efficiency, speed and grace.
Grassroots gets excitig when Somerville talks about money as energy. Money, he says, justifies its existence when it’s plugged into worthwhile endeavors—like taking a second look at the assumptions society makes about some people and overcoming them to help end a cycle of poverty and broken homes. Somerville’s Philanthropic Ventures Foundation went out of its own way to find problems to solve and in the case of a neighborhood of troubled Oakland teens, it succeeded by breaking through the isolation of teen girls and getting them to confront some of the problems they faced as a whole. By establishing a sense of community as opposed to individual isolation, girls found some strength to take their lives in their own hands. None had a second child. Somerville counts this as a success.
The reader will be energized to learn more about how philanthropy can be used to shape a better world; indeed, some Republican functionaries want to rid government of all entitlements and rely completely on the munificence of the private sector to provide for people. Somerville does not advocate anything of the sort in Grassroots, but his book might go far to establishing better forms of foundation giving that can become more important to more people in the future.
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