Creative Philanthropy

1
Creative Philanthropy

• Helmut K. Anheier and Diana Leat

2
Creative Philanthropy

• Approaches to Grantmaking Foundations Roles
• How can foundations turn their weaknesses lack
  of democratic mandate and insufficiency into
  strengths?
• How can foundations contribute to rather than be
  in tension with democracy?
• What unique roles can foundations play that
  cannot be played by government, market or
  fundraising non-profits?
• How can foundations, given the paucity of their
  financial resources, contribute to sustainable
  change that goes beyond their immediate grantees?

3
Creative Philanthropy

• The Charity/Service Approach
• Services complementary to those of government or
  to fill gaps in provision
• Later - service demonstration added, expectation
  of take up
• Well suited to social and political contexts
• Weaknesses of the Charity/Service Approach
• Failure to Exploit the Unique Potential of
  Endowed Foundations
• Limited Impact
• False Expectations
• Lack of Sustainability/A Short-Term Difference

4
Creative Philanthropy

• The Philanthropic/Science Approach
• Dealing with causes rather than symptoms of
  problems
• Product of its time belief in power of science
  and social engineering
• Weaknesses of the Philanthropic/Science Approach
• Failure to Exploit the Unique Potential of
  Endowed Foundations
• Questionable Assumptions
• Limited Impact

5
Creative Philanthropy

• New Kids on the Block
• Strategic philanthropy etc modern descendants of
  the science approach
• Instrumentalist assumptions.
• Focus on processes rather than roles
• Managerialist/business models to foundation
  practices
• Focused on grantees and beneficiaries
  (customers)
• Ignore wider social change or work with a
  managerial model of change.
• Wider array of rationalist assumptions

6
Creative Philanthropy

• A Different Approach
• Small but growing number of foundations seeking
  to
• Exploit their distinctive characteristic of
  freedom from market and political constraints to
  make a unique contribution to democratic debate
  and enhance the problem solving capacity of
  society
• Maximise the breadth and sustainability of their
  impact

7
Creative Philanthropy

• Beyond Service Provision and Science to Creative,
  Constructive Conversation and Change
• Beyond Money to Credibility via Knowledge and
  Networks
• A Theory of Change
• The Power of Rich Networks

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Creative Philanthropy

• Planning A Work in Progress
• Show and Tell
• From Demonstration to Implementation
• From Evaluation and Performance Measurement to
  Risky Learning