Giving Compass' Take:

• Vu Le calls for the philanthropic sector to reevaluate standard philanthropy practices to create better and more efficient practices. 

• How can funders support real change in philanthropy practices? Which practices are most in need of reevaluation? 

• Read about the five best practices of extraordinary grantmakers. 

If you think about it, so many of the things that we do are done a certain way because that’s just how someone else told us things should be done. There are few legal requirements. Which means most systems and practices are traditions that we pass down, and after a while, we just accept that that’s how we do them.

For instance, boards. Boards, the way they are traditionally structured, let’s be honest with ourselves, are some of the most harmful forces in the sector. Dedicated volunteers who see 1% of the work and barely reflect the community but get trusted with vast power and decisions over the whole organization? With great appreciation to the awesome board members we all know and love, but how the hell does this make sense? I know I’m not alone in thinking about how destructive the traditional board structure is. I’ve talked to amazing colleagues, like Vanessa LeBourdais of DreamRider Productions, on different board structures, and will elaborate in a future post.

Another example: Grantmaking. One of the biggest and most time-wasting headaches in our sector. Seriously, we need to get a handle on this, because the communities we serve can no longer afford for us to collectively waste millions of hours to fulfill the whims of various foundations each year. Why do we do it this way? There’s no law requiring foundations to have burdensome applications, or any applications at all. Yet we still cling on to this weird, archaic, Hunger-Games-based system for resource allocation.

Yet another example: Leadership. We inherited a fish-drawing example of how leadership should be structured, a hierarchical system with one person at the top of a pyramid who has outsized power over everyone, including people who have way more knowledge and experience on certain things than this person at the top. Why did we accept this to be the norm? Why can we not try some different structures?

As much as I love our sector, there is a lot that we need to improve on. Unfortunately, we have so many philosophies and practices that we have learned that may have worked once, but are now ineffective or, worse, harmful to the people we serve. The way we do fundraising, for example. Our scarcity mindset. Evaluation, hiring, capacity building, etc. We need completely new ways of thinking and doing things.

It is 2020, and it’s time to directly challenge the archetypes that we were given. We must reexamine every philosophy and practice. Our guiding question has been “How do I make this slightly better?” Now it needs to be “Who came up with this system/process, and why the hell do we keep using it?” We must be as relentless as a 3-year-old who constantly asks “why?” Why are boards structured this way? Who says the ED/CEO should have so much power? What gives foundations the authority to set priorities for the sector? Why shouldn’t we invite donors to a conversation on undoing racism? Who says we can’t give 10-year grants? Why don’t nonprofits send thank-you notes to job applicants for their time?

Read the full article about reevaluating standard philanthropy practices by Vu Le at Nonprofit AF.