Make New Mistakes

I’ve heard it said that if you want to learn how to golf well, you should hang out with great golfers. I believe the same is true for those who wish to engage in highly-strategic philanthropy. During my four-year tenure as senior program officer at the Chicago Community Trust, I was one of those young whipper snappers who thought smarts and experience as a nonprofit youth agency director would immediately translate into solid grantmaking. What I learned is that great philanthropists are made, not born.

Discerning donors interested in getting the best social bang for their buck are right to bring the skills and experience they have honed, most often in the corporate sector. But as I also learned after four years making grants to seven disenfranchised Chicago communities, many of the principles that make for successful giving are counter-intuitive.

Ralph Smith of the Annie E. Casey Foundation began his tenure as second-in-command by promising to “make new mistakes.” In order to do that, he had to listen and learn from others who had enough experience as grantmakers to gain some sense of what works and what doesn’t. I recall that he and his boss, Doug Nelson, came to meet with me in Chicago to gain my sense of what had worked and what was not.

PhilanthroMedia intends to spend even more time harvesting lessons learned from both foundation staffers and individual donors. We invite your input.

Susan Herr