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• What
it Takes to Get the Work Done
• Beyond
Skills
• A
Growth Opportunity
• Occupational
Hazards
• Special
Opportunities
• Setting
Your Course
• It
Takes Time
• Quiz
• Study
Guide
Appendix
• Council
on Foundations (COF)
• AffinityGroups
• Regional
Association of
Grantmakers
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The scope of your authority to approve or
deny grant requests can also prove a tricky area. At times, you
may be charged with the power to make a final decision, although
it is usually to deny a grant. More frequently, you occupy a middle
position between the grantseekers and the decision makers—a
hazardous posture in itself. You must shuttle information between
parties, keeping your board informed of the nonprofit’s plans
and achievements, while relaying your board’s intentions
to the applicant. In the best situation, you are a broker of crucial
information. In the worst, you are somebody caught in the middle.
Be clear when communicating with grantseekers about the decision
making process. Let them know who makes the final decision and
when to expect that decision.
Nonprofit expectations also rise in accordance
with the amount of time between the submission of a proposal and
the date you finally respond. That does not mean you must render
an immediate decision to every proposal crossing your desk. But
do not allow weeks to pass before you let the applicant know when
your full internal review process will conclude. Frequent contact
will also raise the grantseeker’s expectations, whether each
encounter strengthens or erodes your interest. Consider the plight
of the applicant whose hopes are pinned on your fateful decision.
Be swift, timely, considerate. Also review your guidelines frequently
and take the advice of grantseekers about how to improve them.
Occupational Hazard
4: Isolation.
As the months and then years pass, and you gather experience and
expertise in your job, you will become more and more a denizen
of the foundation world and less an actor of the nonprofit service
sector that may have spawned you. As a result, you will no longer
be privy to the same kind of information; the background music
of many nonprofit projects, places and people will fade from your
ears. Lodged in the rarified domain of money and power, you may
find yourself starving for fresh insights, perspectives, a sense
of the street. You can get what you need, but you will have to
be sufficiently disciplined to extricate yourself from the comfort
of your office and step out into the world of nonprofit action.
Visit new programs; converse with former colleagues; read books,
articles and studies to stay abreast of developments within your
foundation’s areas of interest. Take very seriously your
duty not to become a philanthropic dinosaur.
Over time, you may also get the sense
that the world is passing you by—or at least, you will notice
an awful lot of new faces showing up at your door. That is because
employment in the nonprofit sector is exceedingly volatile. According
to several recent surveys, the tenure of nonprofit executives
has been steadily declining. At present, we can expect a nonprofit
executive director to stay on the job for an average of three
years.
This sector-wide instability has implications
for your own work. Most pointedly, you will find yourself frequently
apprising new executive directors about the aims and policies
of your foundation. In doing so, you may grow impatient, frustrated,
bored. Be aware of this danger and strive to make your contact
with new grantseekers an opportunity for fresh mutual exchange.
Try always to learn something about their history, their organization,
the field at large. Look for opportunities for exchange with colleagues
in the funding community. Learn from their experiences, explore
their perspectives on issues you have been dealing with. You may
be surprised to find a rich array of approaches modeled for you.
You may even find a partner to share your explorations.
Occupational Hazard 5:
A workload that can bury you.
By definition, your job supports a crushing weight. Everybody
wants something from you and they are willing to take as much
time as you will give. Oftentimes, you will feel pulled between
the never-ending demands of your board and your grantees. To complicate
matters, the more conscientiously you dispatch your duties, the
more opportunities will arise for further achievement and the
cycle of endless effort renews itself. (There are always more
programs to learn about, changing needs that must be reassessed,
planning, convening or background reading to complete.) In short,
your work lacks finality and closure. There is not a day when
you can raise your hands to heaven and proclaim, “There,
we did it, job accomplished.”
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