Transforming Philanthropy: 10 Lessons On Giving & Getting

We're happy to share the end of a very invigorating exchange of ideas to really solidify the topic of giving and getting. This is the closing Keynote Speech by Jennifer McCrea.

Transcript

Hi,

Good afternoon.

Great to see you all and wonderful to have this opportunity to close out this conference.

And I know I'm between you all and cocktails,

So I'll make this quick.

We're going to have about 20 minutes of remarks and then if there's any questions and answers,

I'm happy to entertain them.

So let me just start by saying that my theory of change in my life's work is that there are ample resources out there to get all the work done.

We want to get done in the world.

And that's been a constant theme of this conference.

And by resources,

I never just mean money.

I mean people's time,

Which is of course our most valuable resource,

Our networks,

Our creativity,

Our life experience.

So there's ample resources to get all the work done.

You all want to get done,

But they get stuck because of the obstacles that we put up around them.

And so what I want to share with you today in these 10 quick practices is some ways that we put obstacles up and how we might consider seeing them so that we can let resources flow.

So I started as a fundraiser 26 years ago.

I used to tell a joke that,

You know,

I know what you're thinking that I started 14 years,

When I was 14,

But nobody laughs anymore.

So I just say,

People think I've been doing this a long time.

Anyway,

I started a long time ago.

I was working for my tiny little college in Pennsylvania in America.

And I was very lucky because my college president was a seasoned fundraiser himself.

And he said,

We're raising money for a new science building.

You cannot raise money sitting behind a desk,

Which is the truth.

You've got to be out there meeting with people.

Here's a blueprint for the science building.

Go.

Go make 300 face-to-face.

Face-to-face visits this year.

And so,

You know,

Being,

Oh,

And by the way,

He said you're covering New York City.

And I had barely ever left Pennsylvania.

So,

You know,

Undaunted,

I threw myself out into the field and would meet with alumni and parents and friends,

And I'd sit in their office,

And I'd make some small talk and try to create rapport.

And I would pull out the blueprint and say,

You know,

Here's the new science building.

Your name goes here.

What do you think?

And I was getting no response.

I mean,

Zero.

I wasn't even getting second meetings with people.

And so I remember about halfway through the year,

And this moment is absolutely emblazoned in my mind.

I was walking up Fifth Avenue back to my nonprofit sized hotel room.

And I was walking,

It was the 80s by the way,

So I remember visually this like big 80s hair and shoulder pads and this like briefcase with my little blueprints in them.

And I walked back to my hotel room and I sat down on the bed and I said,

This is horrible work.

I absolutely hate fundraising.

I have to get a new job.

And I was a philosophy and English major in college.

I thought,

What could I do?

What could I do?

And I had this epiphany though because I remember thinking something is not adding up for me.

You know,

I know the people with whom I'm meeting care about education and science and innovation and the leaders of tomorrow.

And I also know that I cared about those things too.

So what was the disconnect?

And it really was this epiphany moment that the disconnect was,

I was putting money at the center of the relationship.

And as soon as you put money at the center of any relationship,

There's a power dynamic that's inherent in that,

That whoever has the money has the power,

Perceived power,

And whoever is looking for the money is in the supplicant position.

So I made a vow from that day forward,

Never ever,

Ever to put money at the center of any relationship.

And instead keep the work itself in the center of the relationship.

And in that way,

Money becomes the gas in the car,

Not the car,

Not the driver,

Not the destination.

And if we keep money in its proper perspective,

There's the ability to go in and talk about these resources that are needed to get all this good work done.

But we can go in standing up,

Right?

Never kneeling down,

Because I think there's this perception when we're looking for resources that we kind of have that begging bowl out there.

And when you're proud of the work you're doing,

There's the ability to just absolutely embrace looking for partnerships.

And let me say,

I don't demonize money,

It's just one resource,

But I think money is one of the most challenging issues in all of our cultures.

And so one of the things that I really practice and I teach is,

You know,

Just think about,

Consider what values are you infusing in money?

Because if you're infusing the values of scarcity and control and power and manipulation,

Of course it's going to be something that's difficult and challenging to have conversations about.

But if you're infusing money with values of justice and courage and commitment and change and love,

There's a whole,

Which I think is something that Andreas was talking about from his,

You know,

Opening,

Very opening remarks,

There's a different quality of the conversation.

I did a workshop on Monday where I had a bunch of philanthropists and nonprofit leaders and social enterprise CEOs who got together.

We did a day-long workshop and I had them do an exercise where the philanthropists and had to pair up with the social enterprise or nonprofit leader and they had to solicit each other.

And we just randomly pulled out $10,

000.

And it was such an interesting conversation because every one of them,

Even the most seasoned fundraisers,

Could talk with great clarity about his or her work and why they were passionate about it.

But we're stumbling over the ask.

And so we unpacked and spent a long time talking about why is it that we get stuck.

And so I encourage each of you to really be thinking about your own experiences with money.

By the way,

I work with lots and lots of philanthropists who have as many issues and baggage around money don't want to be seen as just a giant.

I mean,

I have yet to meet a philanthropist who wants to be seen as a giant walking checkbook.

And nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs,

You know,

We all have our own biases around money.

So I encourage us to be thinking about that as we think about how we're building partnerships,

Not donor relationships.

I started a nonprofit with Quincy Jones,

The great music producer.

And,

You know,

We were,

It's an organization that was bringing music to kids.

And I remember us sitting there thinking,

What should we call this?

We knew we wanted to use Quincy's name.

But we decided to call it the Quincy Jones Music Consortium because the word consortium comes from the Latin word constari,

Which means to stand together.

And this is very different from the word client,

Which is how I think we often think about our philanthropic partners and donors.

The word client comes from the Latin word clientum,

Which means to lean against.

And if you think about creating a client relationship,

You're negotiating all the terms of the contract up front.

Right?

So you're saying,

Here's what we want to do.

Here's what we need you to do for us.

We're going to put,

You know,

This negotiation proposal together.

And then we got to fulfill the terms of that contract.

Well,

The challenge with that,

What I see with a lot of organizations is then we're not always so transparent because we want our donors to feel good.

And we,

You know,

I see this all the time in board meetings,

Where I see people putting up PowerPoint presentations,

Where you just see the graph,

You know,

Going up with good news.

And of course,

The challenges with that is how are we growing?

Are we changing?

Are we learning?

Are we being adaptive?

And the difference is if right from the start,

You're creating a consortium of people who are standing together to get work done,

There's a lot more risk capital involved.

There's the ability to recognize what went well,

What didn't,

Where can we make change,

Where can we be adaptive?

So again,

It's a different kind of experience.

And you know,

This is even true,

I think,

With so-called socioeconomic peers.

Now,

I would argue that peers aren't necessarily socioeconomic peers,

But I work with a great philanthropist,

A guy who I've worked with for many years,

A guy called John,

Who runs one of the biggest private equity companies in the world.

And he and I have worked for about 10 years together on extreme poverty eradication and global health initiatives.

And he's very passionate about it and very willing to go out and have conversations with people about joining with us.

And so he,

You know,

In the early days when we started working together,

He would meet,

You know,

Friends and business associates at Davos and other places and say,

I'd really like to come and speak to you about the great work we're doing in extreme poverty eradication.

And so he and I would go and have conversations and meetings and he'd make up,

He'd tell people a little bit,

You know,

Do the small talk thing,

Talk to them a little bit about the work we're doing and say,

So can you help me?

Can you help us?

And like the days of my blue pulling out the blueprint,

He was getting no response,

Even though these were business associates and peers of his.

And so after a couple of meetings,

We walked out and he said,

You know,

Why is that not going so well?

Why am I kind of getting a blank stare when I'm asking people to help?

And I said,

Well,

John,

You know,

The challenges when you're using the word help,

That power dynamic is back in the mix.

Even though you're socioeconomic peers,

You're asking for help.

So you're in the supplicant position.

So what if you just changed your language?

And we've talked a lot in this conference about how much language matters.

What if you changed your language just a little bit and said,

How can we work together?

And in that switch,

It becomes an equalizing,

Again,

Consortium of people who are taking responsibility,

Shared responsibility for shared purpose.

And I take this very seriously,

You know,

And I'm inviting people to join with me.

I never say,

Will you make 10 calls?

My language is we take responsibility for making 10 calls or whatever it is,

Because again,

There's a very different dynamic at work when you're inviting people to take responsibility and not asking them just to help you.

So,

You know,

We talked about a whole series of obstacles already.

Let me just tell you a little bit about another one that I see that's interesting.

So again,

I work with a lot of philanthropists and I have watched this kind of evolution of people's philanthropic journeys over the last 26 years.

When I see a lot of philanthropists enter the philanthropic space,

It's at a point in his or her lives where they've made enough or feel like they have enough and they can start giving back.

And what I see is very often they have kind of a social worldview.

And so,

You know,

I've made enough.

I can start to understand where I fit into this social structure by where I give.

And this is the place of,

You know,

Where is my table at the gala?

You know,

Where's my name on the letterhead?

Whose other names are on the letterhead?

Where does my name go on a building,

Etc.

?

Let me just caveat that with I absolutely fundamentally believe people should take a stand with their money.

That they should name stuff.

They should inspire others.

That we need tribe.

Tribe is incredibly important to who else is with us and our names on the letterhead matter.

But not if it's only egoic.

And the problem is with some philanthropists that it becomes an egoic practice of just that piece.

So just about the social piece of giving.

And that in the,

You know,

The business of fundraising often leads to what we call the gift that keeps on costing.

Where somebody gives,

You know,

A gift and if there's a lot of ego involved,

They just try to take your strategy a little bit over here,

A little bit over here.

And so our work is really about working together to say,

All right,

How can we move out of this,

You know,

As a worldview,

To there are real problems to be solved.

And that's the evolution I see with many philanthropists is moving from,

You know,

Giving as a social exercise to giving is about impact and change.

And philanthropy has the possibility of creating real change.

Now the interesting thing about that is that while there are all these challenges that are real and that we need to solve,

The world is an unfinished opus,

Right?

There's always going to be challenges to solve.

And so the most sophisticated philanthropists with whom I've ever worked have really seen the opportunity to be philanthropists as a challenge of co-creation,

Of collaboration.

And that these challenges that we're trying to solve for aren't disaggregated.

And so it's,

You know,

Incredibly naive of us to think that HIV is disaggregated from global health,

Is disaggregated from clean water or from any of the other things.

Now I happen to work on HIV.

I work on eradicating mother to child transmission of HIV.

And I believe that that's an important point of entry.

That it's only a point of entry.

And so another obstacle we put up is the belief that we have to work on a specific issue.

You know,

Ideas really fragment us.

We think we're about our issues.

But the challenge is there are,

In the U.

S.

Alone,

There's 1.

8 million nonprofits.

There's 3,

000 new nonprofits created every month in the U.

S.

I do work all over the world.

There's more than 2 million nonprofits in India,

More than a million in China,

A million in Africa.

All of you have great ideas.

The problem is,

So how do you,

And this is one of the,

I think one of our other major obstacles,

Is this fear of rejection.

How do you go in and try to say my idea is more important than your idea?

I did a training for the Nature Conservancy,

And I'm not kidding.

The oceans people were fighting with the trees people,

Trying to make a case that one was more important than the other.

And so our opportunity isn't to necessarily go in and say my issue is more important.

Our opportunity is to go in and say if you join with me,

If you're joined with us and you're part of our consortium,

You're going to make a difference.

Because in the end,

Again,

Our most valuable resource is our time.

And if we're giving our time and our passion and our creativity and our money and our networks,

We want to see change happen.

And so I believe,

Personally,

There's very few issues that I could not mobilize resources for and build a team for,

Because I know that what I'm looking for isn't what's my issue.

Who are my people?

Who are those people that are going to join with me to create change?

So let me just say my last obstacle,

And there's many more.

And if we had more time,

We can unpack lots of these,

Because I really,

Again,

Believe resources just flow if we're mindful of these.

But I think our last obstacle is just this awareness.

This is really demanding work,

That it takes a lot of courage.

One of my colleagues at Harvard calls this work the work of the head,

The hands,

And the heart.

The head being strategy,

The hands being resources and how we're using our resources in new and innovative ways.

And the heart being about courage.

And again,

Andreas,

You talked about courage in your opening remarks.

And I think of courage being about the heart and the heart not being this sort of soft,

Gushy Valentine kind of thing,

But an instrument of vision.

And so how do we avoid burnout in this work?

And there's lots of,

I think,

Ways to do that,

One of which is to really remind ourselves and ask ourselves,

And I do this very frequently,

This exercise in my class that I teach at Harvard.

And it's really to ask ourselves constantly,

Why am I called to do this work?

It's a hard question sometimes for people to answer.

Of all the things I could be doing,

Why am I called to do this work?

And then why are we called to do this work?

And why does the world call us to do this work?

And why now?

Why now of all the times in our world?

What's the urgency,

And not urgency like the world's coming to an end?

I think this is often where the environmental movement kind of goes off the rails,

Is they're using fear to influence people versus a sense of possibility.

Urgency and what Dr.

King called the fierce urgency of now.

We have this opportunity to create change.

And so one of the exercises,

And I'll end with this,

One of the exercises that I use very often is to remind myself that there's a lot of meaning in the work that I'm doing and that we're all doing.

And again,

I do this exercise with boards I work with,

With my 13-year-old step kids,

With lots of people.

And it's an exercise that another friend taught me.

And it's really simply called SIM,

S-I-M.

And the practice is this,

Is to just think about today,

All that you heard today.

Think about a single conversation,

Whatever.

At the end of this conference,

Just reflect on something that surprised,

Inspired,

Or moved you.

SIM,

Something that surprised,

Inspired,

Or moved you.

Because we lead these lives of deep meaning,

But we forget about it because we're so caught up in the day-to-day,

And we're not present.

And if you can end each meeting or conversation or day with something that surprised,

Inspired,

Or moved you,

You're going to recognize how much you're doing day in,

Day out.

And it is an antidote to burnout and to keep the demands of this work really alive in your hearts.

And so with that,

I'll just end with one of my favorite quotes.

And that's from Proust,

Who says,

The journey of discovery begins not with new vistas,

But in having new eyes.

So thank you very much.

Reviews

Lends encouragement in how to make a positive difference in the world. 🙏🏼

Interesting and informative. Philanthropy as collective collaberation, beyond ego and mere donation - yes.