Many individuals and small foundations have limited resources to invest in giving or in designing a strategy for giving. Neither do they desire to make the act of giving into work. The standard solution is to give in response to those who are best organized and skilled at asking for assistance. This, in turn, is one of the reasons that so many gifts go to organizations large enough to have professional development departments. If you’re visited enough times by someone representing your university, eventually you are likely to say yes.
This is not to suggest that giving to large institutions is bad. Of course not. But there is a “rich-get-richer" dynamic at play in the nonprofit world that creates disadvantages for those who are new or excluded from certain social circles.
That’s why we have great hope for the new ways that individuals and small institutions can seek cooperative advantage by giving to one of the growing number of institutions that now play a brokering role between givers and receivers. If you’re a relatively small giver—individual or institutional—you can plug into an expanding infrastructure that allows you to essentially “outsource" the strategic work of giving by tapping knowledge and networks that amplify your own.
This is nothing new, of course, and it’s why community foundations and giving federations, such as United Ways, flourished in the twentieth century. What is new is the stunning growth of options that far exceed the traditional ways and places these federations have been utilized. In the past generation, the number of community foundations in the U.S. has tripled. On top of that base, many communities now have women’s foundations, giving circles designed for various racial and ethnic groups, or pooled funds around a particular issue or set of values. In the late 1990s, venture philanthropy funds created yet another intriguing option.
These collaborative philanthropic institutions can enable you to become much more strategic in your giving—to practice great philanthropy—without taking the time and expense to do the work by yourself. Some of the new aggregated giving organizations also help you use your time in more effective and strategic ways if you care to be engaged in your giving beyond writing a check. Regardless of which option you choose, consider shifting some of your giving to the “brokers" that can get your resources to organizations that are new and innovative, on the margins, or outside your personal network.
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