Venture Philanthropy Version 2.0 Now Schooling Traditional Foundations
When venture capitalists crashed philanthropy’s ball during the dot.com boom, staff at foundations everywhere were outraged. Okay, I admit it. I was among their ranks as a program officer at the Chicago Community Trust. The last thing we were going to do was learn from neophytes. When the boom ended and venture philanthropists disappeared from magazine covers, 'I told you so’s' filled the air. That was what I call Venture Philanthropy Version 1.0.
Stephanie Strom’s article in this Sunday’s New York Times entitled, “Charities Try to Keep Up With the Gateses” affirms that Venture Philanthropy Version 2.0 has arrived and that executives at major foundations like Carnegie, Rockefeller and Ford are the ones taking notes.
I’ve been conducting a literature review of venture philanthropy and have identified a variety of differences between Versions 1.0 and 2.0. For example, venture philanthropists in the first phase focused on building the capacity of organizations, often meeting massive resistance from nonprofit executives. Those in the second phase focus on innovations rather than organizations.
From Strom's article:
The foundation’s (Rockefeller) Web site no longer solicits detailed grant applications but instead asks for ideas that the institution can turn into projects. 'We seek high-impact ideas the potential to make a difference in the lives of large numbers of poor or vulnerable people and we require some results to be measurable within three to five years.'
In a further departure, I’m thinking Rockefeller may not require the source of those ideas to be only the Nonprofit Sector. Your best ideas may, in fact, be welcome. One more signpost pointing to the end of philanthropy as usual.
Posted at 7:59 AM, Jan 17, 2007 in Philanthropic Strategy | Permalink | Comment