It’s virtue signalling for philanthropy executives to oppose a system for which they owe their very existence.

In recent conversations, I have increasingly heard voices from colleagues who squarely reject the market economy and despise its underlying societal goal – to generate the wealth and prosperity upon which our livelihoods depend. Sometimes, it seems, that the more aggressive the company behind a philanthropic foundation, the more progressive, utopian, and even anti-capitalist the foundation and its staff are.

Why is that? What is so special about foundations that their executive staff rebel against the market economy in their views – and often their programming – while they undoubtedly owe their own economic existence to it?

Social change and a better world – that’s exactly why we all chose to work in the foundation sector, didn’t we? I am no exception here. After starting my career, it took me years to understand why ‘my’ first CEO toned down certain decisions for institutional or political reasons or vetoed projects that were excellent in my eyes. Nobody told me why that was, neither during recruiting nor during onboarding. And I argue that this is what often leads to the wrong people joining foundation teams and, eventually, burning out.

In many foundations, indeed there seems to be a dynamic of ‘progressive’ staff proposing projects that alarm the more ‘conservative’ board. Perception among the staff often is that the board unduly slows them and their programs down. Floating in between is the CEO, whose intimidating task is to find a middle ground between team and board.

This remains a very poorly managed problem in many places. Sometimes even Foundation CEOs themselves fall prey to this problem. And I fear this might be because very often they have to speak different languages inside and outside of their foundation, concealing their real opinions or philosophies (and those of their teams, as it were) when talking to their boards. Such a lingering philosophical dissent between management and board paralyzes a foundation. It can surely be managed for some time, but ultimately, it leads to a serious conflict that the CEO can only lose, as we have seen more than once during the past years.

Also, it needs to be said again, too much time is spent in so many foundations to polish PowerPoints, building Potemkin’s Villages, rather than on preparing and leading open, strategic discussions with the board. Again, this creates a cognitive dissonance between board and team – and CEOs in between – that will in the long-term lead to institutional failure.

Can – and should – philanthropy oppose a system to which foundations owe their very existence? If we are honest with ourselves, the answer must be ‘no.’ And if that’s our aim, we should probably not work for a foundation.

Read the full article about the source of philanthropy's wealth by Simon Sommer at Alliance Magazine.