Gates Foundation grant funds women's philanthropy research

• Date: 01 October 2020
• Published date: 01 October 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30848

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Vol. 373 October 2020

The Next Crisis: Nonprot Leadership Exodus

By Kris Putnam-Walkerly

Nonprot leaders are exhausted. Many were plan-

ning to leave even before the start of 2020. There were

the white boomers trying to retire, the young leaders

of color trying to navigate cultures not ready to put

them in power,1 and the many in-between “ready to cry

uncle” because of the never-ending steep uphill climb.

These are the people on the front lines of your mis-

sion, people who philanthropy and society needs. So,

in addition to providing emergency COVID funding

and supporting longer-term recovery, what can you

do to support the people we desperately need to lead

this work, so that they ascend, stay and thrive? Here

are ve ways—none of which leads with spending

money—taken from my new book, Delusional Altru-

ism: Why Philanthropists Fail To Achieve Change and

What They Can Do To Transform Giving.2,3

1. Lead with an abundance mindset. The philan-

thropy sector generally leads with a scarcity mental-

ity, hindering talent, stalling creativity, and hijacking

opportunities to create systemic change. And it seeps

into just about every aspect of philanthropic giving. A

scarcity mentality leads to reports like the Nonprot

Finance Fund’s 2018 State of the Nonprot Sector

Also in this issue

Conferences & Events: Exponent Philanthropy Meet

the Experts workshop; Philanthropy Southwest

72nd Annual Conference; Governance Institute

Leadership Conference ..........................4

Industry News: Software can target needs of ‘deskless

workers’ in nonprot sector ......................5

Fundraising: Nonprots struggling with switch to

virtual peer-to-peer campaigns ....................6

Industry News: Pandemic leads to surge in DAF grants 7

Put board members to work thanking donors ........7

Resources: Charityhowto.com webinar explores donor

engagement with LinkedIn; Webinar offers intro

to fundraising planning; Candid to host proposal

writing boot camp .............................9

Employment Law: Legal cases that impact nonprots . 10

News: Briefs from around the sector .............. 12

Gates Foundation grant funds

women’s philanthropy research

The Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the

Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philan-

thropy will use a $1.9 million grant from the Bill

& Melinda Gates Foundation to support research

under its Giving By All initiative, which is focused

on growing giving, and helping donors give more

effectively and strategically.

The WPI’s research under this initiative has

focused on a wide range of topics, from retirement

to impact investing to giving to benet women and

girls, the group said. The new Gates Foundation

grant will allow the Institute to expand this research

and provide a deeper understanding of gender

differences and their effects across philanthropy.

Upcoming research will explore giving patterns

among millennials and Gen Zers, how women and

men engage with crowdfunding and more.

The grant will also support the WPI’s work to

translate research ndings to practice, including

developing materials for practitioners, presenting

to relevant audiences and working with partners

to gather case studies and best practices, the or-

ganization said.

For more information, visit https://bit.

ly/3jfR0Ul. ■

(See EMPLOYMENT on page 2)

Survey,4 with the majority of responding organizations

experiencing a rising demand for services, struggling

to offer competitive pay to their employees, and citing

“nancial stability” as a “top challenge.” With such a

climate in 2018, how can we expect them to meet any

bumps in the road, let alone the challenges dished out

in 2020? Instead of expecting everyone to get by on

a shoestring, nonprots need funders who lead with

abundance. This means focusing on strengthening rela-

tionships, talent, technology, capacity and operations.

It means offering unrestricted, multiyear funding.

It also means understanding that it’s not just about

spending money. Funders need to think big and foster