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One guard against this hazard is the cultivation of excellent time
management skills. Read the best books in this field; sign up for
training. To serve your various constituencies with rigor and zeal,
you must be able to set priorities and juggle myriad tasks so that
you can feel sane, secure and satisfied on the job.
Be strategic in the use of your time. Set
priorities and, whenever possible, write them down. Strive for an
alignment of your vision, strategies, systems and tasks precisely
as you encourage grantseekers to do. Do not always respond to the
squeaky wheel. Cultivate your capacity for making difficult decisions.
Actively seek the advice of colleagues, experts and grantseekers.
Occupational Hazard
6:
The curse of unintended consequences.
Grantmakers are frequently asked to intervene in complex systems,
such as public education, healthcare delivery or conservation efforts.
In doing so, they may help solve one problem only to exacerbate
or create others. Think, for example, about how our nation’s
failed public housing programs of the 1960s were based on good intentions
bolstered by presumptive logic about maintaining urban areas through
new high-rise construction. It was simply not foreseen that large-scale
public housing would actually destroy community and replace it with
unlivable domains of crime and violence: concrete failures of public
policy.
Grantmaking with the intention of systemic
change is a decisive break with traditional notions of "charity"
that once characterized philanthropy. Funding in pursuit of change
demands clarity about ultimate ends and credible evidence that the
visionary improvements of today will not transform themselves into
the equivalent of hulking housing project failures of the future.
In considering our potential for precipitating damage as well as
good, we might remember that interventions in complex organizations
are likely to produce untoward results unless the system is thoroughly
understood. For this reason, we should proceed cautiously with any
visionary project that intercedes in complex systems.
In short, we must embrace a “do no harm”
philosophy by cautiously endorsing any changes that could prove
irreversible. The results of our interventions, whether a success
or a failure, may take years or even decades to surface.
Sidebar... Are
You Arrogant?
Special Opportunities
Lest your job begins to sound like
an endless road of travail and hazard, let us not forget the unique
advantages that will also come your way.
To begin, you will discover that you now
enjoy widely expanded access. The money and power that create
personal obstacles also generate extraordinary opportunities in
terms of professional contacts. Key individuals and institutions
in your community now relate to you as a peer. Staff people at
larger, more established foundations embrace you as a colleague.
The mayor’s office, or even the mayor, returns your phone
calls with alacrity. Your ability to get in the door and make
your case has been magnified by a colossal factor.
Of course, the performance
of your foundation and your professional reputation will determine
over time whether these doors remain open. But from the start, you
will enjoy the good will of many people who genuinely want to further
your development as a grantmaker.
Beyond access and influence, you will find
that your new role can also aid your education. If you need to learn
something about a particular field, organization or individual,
knowledgeable people will now gladly help to inform you. By sustaining
your curiosity and willingness to learn, you will guarantee that
you almost never have to operate from a position of ignorance.
The other great boon of foundation work is
leverage. As a grantmaker, you now have the ability to bring powerful
people and organizations to the table in order to solve important
problems through collaborative effort. This can take place in several
different ways.
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