Grand Rapids Community Foundation

Robust leadership needed right NOW!

March 9^th, 2009

Two weeks ago I wrote an email to the Foundation's Board of Trustees commenting on the economy and its impact on the Foundation and our community. The content has become the centerpiece for my article in the next issue of our newsletter Current. Here's an excerpt from the email:

"After spending the better part of the past three days with the CEOs of Community Foundations from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois in Lorain County Ohio, I came back not as full of hope as I had wanted. Stories of investments continuing to shrink dramatically, grantmaking, while taking a role of prominence, is not as robust as it once was along dealing with the uncertainty of how this country's economy and indeed the global economy will stabilize. Have I totally depressed you yet? I hope not because now more than ever before this board's leadership is paramount.

* How do we cope and hopefully thrive in this horrific environment?

* How do we actively grow our assets for the future of our community?

* How will we advocate for the dollars needed to flow into west Michigan and not become a "state divided" - east versus west?

* What role will the Grand Rapids Community Foundation play to be among the key forces influencing the ultimate recovery in our area?

Enough of the hand wringing! Lucy Bernholz, a person whose name may be recognizable to some of you more veteran trustees, influenced our last strategy plan with her ground breaking research on the future for community foundations written back in 2005 along with Katherine Fulton. I'll be referencing her work more as we move through this year. She was reading my Twitter entries (tweets)* over the past three days re: the meeting of foundation CEOs in Ohio and she recommended her blog entry from earlier this week and a blog entry by a Harvard professor Marty Linsky for whom I have a great deal of respect.

Rather than lamenting and wringing my hands and holding my head up with my hands, I thought I'd share this also with all of you as this is really the message I heard from all of you at our last board meeting. Both blog entries and the video embedded in them both are well worth the time to read, view and listen. I'll be interested in your reactions."

I included the following link in the message and do so for all readers of this blog:

Lucy Bernholz's blog entry from February 24th entitled: "It is restructuring not a recession"

I am not looking at the world through rose colored glasses though sometimes I'm tempted. This is about the leadership needed right now particularly in the nonprofit sector and indeed from this Foundation. This is not the time to hide - to hunker down - wither away. This IS the time to move forward looking to innovation beyond survival. As Dr. Linsky writes "The more courageous in the foundation community are using this crisis as an opportunity to encourage [their] grantees to make hard choices and to help them through . . . the trauma . . . as they contemplate mergers, starting innovative programs that might meet future needs and priorities . . .Those are reset ideas."

*Social networking sites like Twitter are increasingly important and not just for kids! Great way to share ideas.

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On my mind

February 16^th, 2009

I have commented previously on this recession and its impact on people in our community as well as the response from the area foundations in creating a fund that is connected to a long time collaborative effort known as the Essential Needs Task Force. This effort helps all the funders to join together yet continue to address our respective priorities. Bold community leadership and philanthropy are both so critical at this time!

Real accounts from around the country abound on the impact of the economic downturn on real people - real lives. I read an excellent but distressing investigative reporting piece from the February 9 & 16 edition of The New Yorker entitled "The Ponzi State" by George Packer. Daily local news reports chronicle the devastating impact on people in our community and the changing face of those affected by job loss and the need for the basics of food, clothing, shelter.

In today's edition of The Grand Rapids Press there is an article about the Grand Rapids Area to End Homelessness which is announcing a new model of prevention and rapid placement into homes with the lofty goal of ending homelessness by 2014. While this goal is challenging particularly in these times, I applaud this heartily and the Coalition members under the guidance of coordinator Janay Brower should be commended for their compassion and tenacity. The Foundation has played an active role in this coalition as well.

It is important to be connected with the "face" of what is happening given the recession. While reports abound re: the federal stimulus package, compensation packages of the Wall Street crowd, and the scrambling of all governmental entities trying to string together some semblance of a budget to keep things going, it is the impact on people that is critical to feel and understand.

I don't know the answer to all of this and frankly no one else does either in truth. President Obama announced this morning that he is appointing a Panel to respond to the auto industry crisis versus creating a "car czar" and further announcing an effort later this week to address the foreclosure crisis. Locally, many efforts are underway to address this crisis through the Home Repair Services (HRS), a coordinated effort creating a Community Foreclosure Coordinator through the Fair Housing Center (FHC) of West Michigan, the ICCF and other programs. The GRCF has funded HRS and the FHC and will keep working on this!

I hear from some who blame the greed of Wall Street or people who have lived off the value of their houses in better times - leaning on credit. Continuing to focus on "whodunit" has some value so we don't repeat our mistakes but we will. BUT playing the blame game distracts us from what we should be doing to move forward to counter all the devastation that is occurring.

Stemming the tide of foreclosures, meeting immediate needs of real people, job loss, and all things related to the impact of the economic times, is extremely difficult to resolve. It is proving to challenge all of us. It is definitely top of mind for me and this Foundation.

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The Blame Game

October 25^th, 2008

I found myself this past week wondering why Congress, the media and others are playing the blame game to find who is at fault for the credit and financial global meltdown. Okay - I understand we need to learn why the economic crisis is occurring so it won't happen again. Frankly that line of thinking would be good IF our collective memory would kick in occasionally but that doesn't seem to happen. We don't seem to learn from past lessons and it seems that these lessons aren't heeded decades later and are wiped clean from our memory!

It is necessary to find out if there has been any culpability of the part of the folks who have brought us to our knees. I understand that BUT . . .

. . .we seem to be consumed by the finger pointing that is playing out on the world stage! Alan Greenspan testified earlier this week admitting that he was surprised at the severity of the current global economic crisis. While our Congressional leaders and others are bound and determined to find the "culprit" and are taking the time to do just that, I trust that attention is also being paid to figuring out how to get us out of this deep hole!

I received an email from a colleague of mine who posted a question on one of the community foundation listservs asking if any of our investment consultants predicted this economic crisis as one of his Finance Committee volunteers wondered why the consultant community didn't read the signs better. I am taking some license on that as I am only assuming that was going through the person's mind.

Hmmm - perhaps that person should have asked that of our financial leaders two years ago - or four years ago - or . . . or . . . or! While there have been signs of this crisis, frankly I don't think many people thought it was going to be this severe. Our investment consultant did advise us that the credit and housing situation would continue to impact investments some time ago.

But I still don't understand why it is important to take precious time and energy right now to point fingers. I want to move forward and provide funds for projects that will help grow this community like the $500,000 investment we made in InnovationWorks a program of The Right Place, Inc! Like the investment we made in the building we bought and renovated over the past 10 months that is our new home. In this Heartside area, we believe in building the core of our city - investing for the future, and moving forward to strengthen the lives of all people in our grand community!

Philanthropy is always important and now it is especially important. I have faith that our community is up to the challenge to continue its support our area nonprofit community and the people served!

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