Diana R. Sieger is the president of the Grand Rapids Commmunity Foundation. For more information, visit Diana's President's pages or view her biography.

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President's Point of View: Diana R. Sieger's Blog

Deja vu all over again!

June 30, 2008

The other day I was digging through my files in my office and lo and behold there was a file that held the notes from a presentation I wrote back in 1981! (Yes - I am a pack rat … I better start clearing out files NOW before the big push to move to our new home.) The presentation was to an audience of United Way planning and allocations staffers who were struggling with what to do when the unemployment numbers and rate (this is Michigan!) were soaring. I worked at UW at the time.

The name of the presentation was “Creative Strategies in a Difficult Economy”! Well does this sound like a timely topic … . standing the test of time 27 years later?!!! Back then General Motors was laying off employees and we had started a program called the Care and Share Food Program for GM workers and others. We organized an effective program in Grand Rapids.

Gleaners was a new organization in our community at the time (now is Second Harvest Gleaners covering a huge area of Michigan) but the need created by the Care and Share Food Program helped get it on the map! We created boxes of food for a family of four for distribution every week. This went on for months - plus an emergency program to help with utility payments as well as the blossoming days of what is now “411”. Plus so much more. The Emergency Needs Task Force was created by Ev Vermeer the then Director of the Kent County Department of Social Services now the Department of Human Services which led to various task force groups that exist yet today!

So now it is 2008 - - - and even after the energy crisis of the 1970’s that led to building smaller cars for a short period of time, we saw the rise of SUVs and trucks. Now with gas prices hovering around $4.10 a gallon, hybrid cars are looking quite good!

The stock market is shaky however I am hopeful! I’m dusting off that presentation - after 27 years it is just as important as it was back then. I’m sorry that it has remained a relevant presentation!

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"Cushy" - "retiring" - hardly!

June 23, 2008

I realize that there may be a perception that I have a cushy job and that the pace of what I do may be seen as not terribly frenetic and may border on leisurely. I try, through this blog, to provide some insight as to the background of our decisions and how this Foundation operates. The more transparent we can be then greater understanding I hope will emerge.

This brings me to last Thursday evening when Juan Olivarez was honored and “roasted” on the occasion of his leaving the Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) as president. As noted in a previous blog entry, Juan is moving into the president’s role at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation as Jack Hopkins retires. I was honored and pleased to be asked to be one of the roasters. I have known Juan for more than 25 years and he is an exceptional leader and will continue to provide this tremendous leadership in Kalamazoo and throughout the state!

In my presentation I laughingly referenced the fact that if Juan thought he was going to a cushy job running a community foundation, that he had another thing coming! Community politics, knotty issues, keeping tabs of legislative and regulatory changes affecting philanthropy, raising awareness along with financial support, and a long list of other items fill the days of a President of a community foundation - far from a relaxing job but it is an exciting and frankly the best position to hold in any community!

There were lots of laughs as many of the presenters enlightened the crowd with wonderfully humorous stories and references to Juan’s very successful career at the GRCC. He is a beloved leader in Grand Rapids and will be missed here!

As the presentations were winding down, a friend asked me why I thought Juan was moving to the position in Kalamazoo. I was a little stunned and just said it was a good move and something Juan will likely enjoy. My sense was that this was a “fishing expedition”. The next thing this person said was that it seems like a job that was like retirement. I glowered at this comment and was really offended. To add to this, this person has known me for years. Knowing I was not happy, there was much stammering and a slew of words followed which essentially noted that Juan was moving to a less demanding job. My comment is that the work is just different work.

First of all, this is no job for folks thinking they are going to coast to get ready for retirement. I was 35 years old back in 1987 when I started at this Foundation and it was hardly a time for relaxing! It still isn’t a time for relaxing. I simply love what I do and I’m passionate about it and the Foundation! I am honored to be in this position and at the GRCF, all the staff make the most of every moment we have to strive for the betterment of our community! It is exciting and challenging work!

Here’s a blog entry from over a year ago that tried to dispel the myth of the “simple life” of a foundation executive “giving away all that money”. I wish Juan the best of everything and look forward to working with him as I have in the past. As he moves to his new position in Kalamazoo, I know he will relish the demands of the position and will be rewarded for the great job he will do!

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Financing the nonprofit sector - current methods may be short sighted and inadequate

June 12, 2008

I just read in the online edition of today’s Grand Rapids Press that the Public Museum of Grand Rapids was denied funding from the Downtown Development Authority to expand and update their kitchen facilities to increase their ability to host larger catered events. This may increase the museum’s revenue which is needed to help offset the gap in their budget created when the facility transitioned from a city operated one to a private nonprofit organization.

The reasoning behind the denial had to do with using public funds that would be used to potentially create competition with other for-profit catering services and the museum was encouraged to explore those options first.

My purpose here is not to comment on this decision but to underscore that a great of deal of writing and thought has been put into how the nonprofit sector is financed particularly in the past five years. Trying to find revenue sources is increasingly challenging and I question if we are tying the hands of the sector by limiting our notions of funding mechanisms that may or may not help keep organizations healthy and vital. All funders - governmental, foundations, and others - need to take more seriously the challenge that befalls the nonprofit sector in its efforts to find sustainable revenue sources - which is actually an oxymoron these days!

In Jim Collins’ monograph entitled Good to Great and the Social Sectors (with the subtitle that is important here: “Why Business Thinking is Not the Answer”) he made many astute observations but one notion in particular has stayed with me since I first read the monograph back in 2005. (This publication is available on Jim Collins’ website.)

“I find it puzzling how people who clearly understand the idea of investing in great companies run by the right people often fail to carry the same logic over to the social sectors … social sector funding often favors “time telling” - focusing on a specific program or restricted gift … But building a great organization requires a shift to “clock building” - shaping a strong, self-sustaining organization that can prosper beyond any single programmatic idea or visionary leader… If an institution has a focused Hedgehog Concept and a disciplined organization that delivers exceptional results, the best thing supporters can do is to give resources that enable the institution’s leaders to do their work the best way they know how. 1

Clara Miller, the president and CEO of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, addresses another interesting aspect of this in an article entitled The Equity Capital Gap found in the Summer 2008 edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review . (A subscription is required to read the article.)

Ms. Miller explores the premise that current methods of revenue generation for nonprofits are short sighted. These methods may include traditional grants, debt financing, and donations. She is encouraging funders like this foundation to find ways to tackle this challenge collectively. As she states, “Creating an equity capital equivalent - and an equity ethic - for nonprofits is a critical first step in this process.” 2

As I stated before, all funders - governmental, foundations and others - need to THINK harder about what we can do to strengthen the financial standing of the social sector. This has been on my mind for quite some time and I am still trying to grasp how to address this challenge.

1 Jim Collins, Good to Great and the Social Sectors (Jim Collins, 2005) 24-25.
2 Clara Miller, “The Equity Capital Gap,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Summer 2008): 41-45.

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Award winning communications - strengthening philanthropic leadership

May 31, 2008

I am an avid reader of anything relating to social and economic trends, philanthropy, leadership, popular culture and strengthening communities. Okay so popular culture seems out of place but in truth it isn’t! It provides some amusement and diversion and mostly provides a handle on what various outlets view as “hot”!

This then gets me thinking about how does an idea, a person, a business, a community, a product, or anything for that matter get to be in the “hot” category. Watching the CNBC show The Big Idea with the host Donny Deutsch, does provide a glimpse at how “something” may be in the spotlight. Actually making sure that an idea - product - business has staying power is what is really crucial!

All this said, I try to make sure that this community foundation continues to be relevant, is in the forefront of key issues and uses the collective brainpower of our great staff, board members and volunteers - AND our donors to be innovative in our approaches that may or may not attract the attention of people locally or beyond West Michigan. It is the impact that is important - not the accolades. But the accolades are appreciated!

Which brings me to critical roles of marketing, public relations and communications and how GRCF has been fortunate to have the leader on our staff to successfully communicate complex ideas and at times intangible information. This leader is Roberta King who is our Vice President for PR & Marketing. This past March we were informed that this foundation won an unprecedented SIX communications awards from the Council on Foundations through the Wilmer Shields Rich Awards program.

In fact, GRCF won 4 Gold awards and 2 Bronze awards. The Gold awards were for our website, our 2006-07 Annual Report, a special report honoring the 10th anniversary of the Lowell Area Community Fund and our quarterly publication Current. The Bronze awards were for a special marketing piece entitled the Elements of Planned Giving and for a very unique public information campaign involving our Youth Grant Committee.

This is not just the standard run of the mill “hey aren’t we something because we won these awards” commentary. Community Foundations many times do not have the resources that other types of foundations or businesses do to produce high level publications, sophisticated public awareness campaigns and the expertise to sustain a well thought out marketing program. I have found that when I study how other foundations are communicating their messages through the lens of this awards program, I am exposed to great ideas for sharpening our approaches that I would not have been aware of otherwise. Thankfully, we have the talent to accomplish this remarkable feat and not necessarily the financial resources in our budget that others may.

Roberta and along with PR & Marketing Associate Amanda St. Pierre have done this extraordinarily well and they are indeed exceptional leaders whom I admire and applaud!

This past Thursday evening, Roberta and her team were honored once again receiving 5 PRoof awards from the West Michigan Public Relations Society of America. One Gold award was given to the publication Current and 4 Silver awards in areas that were given awards in the previously noted program with honor also being given to the year long awareness effort that Roberta orchestrated for our 85th anniversary in 2007. The PRSA program involves businesses, major corporations and nonprofits - all pooled together - so it is competitive to say the least.

Congratulations to our “hot” marketing staff of Roberta and Amanda and their entire team!

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Well-heeled or assuring the best for our community? You be the judge!

May 18, 2008

I’ve written about our plans for our building both here on my blog and in our newsletter - Current. There is a new blog on our website accompanied by pictures of the progress being made that is being maintained by our award winning Communications and Marketing team. I will write more on the “award winning” part in a future post!

One of the concerns I’m picking up around our community is the thought that the GRCF is pretty well set and is “well-heeled”. In fact, this notion was amplified during a session this past week with an opinion expressed by a community representative that we didn’t deserve to receive a grant from a particular source because we are a “well-heeled organization” not “poor” like other nonprofits and don’t have the same level of risk at being successful as a for-profit business.

Here’s a little known fact - a nonprofit corporation is not all that different than a for-profit corporation. Trying to address the “too rich” concern is not all that tough. The Community Foundation is this community’s endowment - which means we raise resources that will be invested and will grow so we can spend the income for many projects and programs in and around the greater Grand Rapids community. So the more that the GRCF grows through the generosity of our donors, the more we are able to support the multiplicity of programs and organizations into our community! Pretty simple!

We serve all of Kent County and a small corner of southeast Ottawa County and support our affiliate in Ionia County (that is always going gangbusters by the way!). The GRCF, while primarily an philanthropic endowment not tied to any particular entity but is for the entire community, is a nonprofit corporation that seeks its support from many sources and we need community support for this building as well.

Does this community deserve a “well-heeled” and supported community foundation? YES! We all deserve a resource that can fulfill the dream of our founder Lee Hutchins who stated proudly in 1922 that he wanted the community to be a millionaire 50 years hence! What he meant was he wanted a resource for the entire community and for it to grow so it could address many of our area’s issues, programs and great ideas!

For me a grant from a non-philanthropic source - which this grant is - also helps us in our quest to NOT be in competition with other nonprofits that are raising money for capital efforts or other efforts. And any amount of money that can be tapped for our “new to us 104 year old” building is so appreciated and needed.

In the next few weeks, we will be announcing our campaign plans and our goal. We have great plans for this building. But this building is not just a community foundation asset as it is also our deeply rooted commitment to this city, to our entire county and to place a more visible stamp on our belief that the greater Grand Rapids area is indeed a wonderful place to be!

A resourceful, dynamic community foundation is just what this community deserves! We promote philanthropy and are proud of what the generations of people have supported through us in the past and are inspired by what the future promises!

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