Stanford Social Innovation Review - Winter 2010 Issue - Post # 1

“The Wrong Risks” by Sheela Patel.

For those of us who run foundations, it is uncommon to hear experienced based and uncensored criticism from the nonprofit grantee world. But a great example of just that is found in "The Wrong Risks," an article by Sheela Patel in the most recent issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review. Sheela worked in a community service center in Mumbai, looking for answers to the entrenched poverty of the “pavement dwellers,” the poorest of the poor in the region. Through years of trial and error, social activism, provocation and dedication, her organization - the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) - found real answers and actually moved the needle for her clients and constituents.

However, were she to start SPARC today, she believes she would never find the funding to run it. Why? Because in the intervening 20 years, foundations have become risk adverse, preferring to protect themselves rather than to take the risks inherent in confronting unjust social structures. And because foundations have become arrogant, perceiving themselves as experts in the field and therefore authoritative, rather than facilitative, partners with their grantees. She says “…foundations today are increasingly treating organizations like ours not as innovators, but as contractors who are hired to deliver their visions.”

Nonprofits are afraid to tell this truth because they need foundation grants. The power imbalance in the relationship between foundations and their grantees weighs in favor of the grant maker and tends to stifle open dialogue.  So I can't help but feel that this article is a gift and presents an opportunity. The new season and new year is a good time to ask: Are we being risk adverse? Are we being arrogant? What is the highest and best use of this Community Foundation? 

Just asking the question opens up a space between thinking and organizational behavior.