IFC Roundup: Major Donors — The Personal View
[Chris Carnie is founder of Factary, Europe’s only consultancy focused on strategic funders — major donors, foundations, companies and government. It operates from bases in Spain, Belgium and the U.K. At the 27th International Fundraising Congress, which took place in the Netherlands last week, Chris and colleague Martine Godefroid presented a session titled Major Donors — The Personal View. Here, he presents a synopsis of that session.]
It’s hard to start a major-donor program if you don’t know what a major donor looks like.
That’s why we invited a philanthropist and an advisor to philanthropic families to give us their personal views at last week’s International Fundraising Congress in the Netherlands. Our objective was to bring together fundraisers and donors so that each could learn from the other — an objective accomplished, to judge by the comments of both parties.
The advisor
Our advisor started his career in investments and trading, first as a commodity trader and later as head of sales and managing director of the largest Dutch commodity brokerage company in the late 1980s. He now is a philanthropic advisor to families and foundations, and currently on the board of four foundations, including a donor-advised fund, a development cooperation foundation and a microfinance initiative.
We asked him to talk to us about the kinds of people who become philanthropists in Europe. His view is that the emergence of new wealth in Europe is helping to create new philanthropists, but that also there is a shift in opinion, with philanthropy becoming something that some people, particularly younger people, can talk about. Older families, particularly in Holland, tend to be very modest about their philanthropy — to the point that one of the foundations he manages is completely anonymous, with the founder invisible even to those who work there.
By contrast, he was concerned about transparency and accountability with nonprofits. Despite the existence of fundraising control bodies such as the Dutch Centraal Bureau Fondsenwerving (www.cbf.nl), the Central Office for Fundraising, he wanted to see more and better information on nonprofit finance.
He has traveled extensively, particularly to Africa where his foundations fund a number of projects, and he stressed the value of site visits. But he also warned that increasing numbers of philanthropists were funding overseas projects directly — a conclusion that we had reached, too, in a recent Factary study on major gifts in the Netherlands. Nonprofits had to demonstrate real added value if they were to survive.
He was, surprisingly for some participants, not so concerned about administrative costs. So long as the operation is efficient and delivers what it promises, it didn’t matter that it spent money on administration.
The philanthropist
By contrast, our philanthropist was very concerned about administrative costs and, in fact, is unlikely to fund any organization whose representative arrives at his Brussels office by taxi. (There is an efficient and cheap metro.)
Our philanthropist is French, and had lived for a number of years in the U.S., working with Microsoft. He is now retired. He is a significant donor to his graduate school and gives to cultural and other causes.
He described the social circle enjoyed by the better-off in Brussels — with a number of social charity events and frequent opportunities to give. He also described learning to say “no” so that he could concentrate his giving on a few causes that he can support thoroughly. He would rather be “a decent donor to a few than a poor donor to many.”
His giving is linked to his personal interests, and he is particularly careful in his selection of nonprofits. He likes to meet the people involved and asks himself, “Would I have hired this person?” Like our philanthropic advisor, he is concerned about transparency in nonprofits and will not support a program that cannot provide reliable numbers.
For most Europeans, philanthropy is a private affair, something to be discussed with your family but not in public. But both our presenters were unusual in being ready to talk about their philanthropy. They told us about defining personal moments and human values that led them to want to give back to society.
The audience
The fundraisers in our audience developed the debate, focusing on the levels of service that donors like to receive and how they like to be asked, and presenting their own nonprofits’ material in case studies. Above all, they learned that the world of major donors is a world of individuals, each with their own experiences and viewpoints. The emerging European movement of major donors is no place for mass marketing.
You can reach Chris at Chris@factary.com or through the Web site www.factary.com. For more information on the International Fundraising Congress, go to www.resource-alliance.org/ifc.
