Learning to Give
July 9, 2013
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From Maxwell Perspective...
Learning to Give
To understand how funding organizations evaluate potential grantees, undergraduates in PAF 410 field real requests and award real money.
For their site visit with Baltimore Woods Nature Center representatives, students in Philanthropy and You visited a Syracuse park where the center’s youth program takes place. Representing Baltimore Woods were Katie Mulverhill (top, left) and Patty Weisse (right). Students were (l-r) Zach Schreiber, Victoria Honard, Janessa Bonti, and Mat Mazer. (Photo by Keegan Barber)
Board members are discussing how they'll decide who receives the $5,000 they can award. They've received 23 grant applications, packets that beckon from across the room.
"I don't think we should each evaluate every application," suggests board co-chair Erin Carhart. They decide each board member will read eight applications, with every application having at least three readers.
"We're not going to be able to make 23 site visits," adds Victoria Honard, board co-chair. They decide seven feels like a good number, with as many members as available attending each visit. They'll create standardized questions, so similar information is collected, regardless of who attends.
They leave the board meeting armed with their packets and empowered with their task: improving the quality of life of Central New York residents.
The board members are actually students in an upper-level policy studies class, Philanthropy and You. The course, in its second year, provides an overview of philanthropy, including nonprofit board management and grant making. The goal is to teach students how they can strategically improve their communities via philanthropy — whether giving their time, treasure, or talent — while also exposing them to possible career paths in foundation work. The $5,000 is real, provided by donors to the class. (The lead gift for this year's grant was given by the Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation.)
Students comprise a nonprofit board — they call themselves The Council of Young Philanthropists — and elect officers. They research needs in Onondaga County and present those needs to the full board, which then votes on a theme for their giving. Last year it was health care; this fall, education.
They then structure an application process and invite Syracuse nonprofits who fit the theme to apply. All of this is supplemented with lectures from Carol Dwyer, their course instructor, and guest speakers on the history and importance of philanthropy, foundation management, and legal aspects of nonprofits.
On this particular morning, they were visited by executives from the Gifford Foundation, who provided advice on the grant-making process. "The organization with the best written application doesn't necessarily have the greatest need," Lindsay McClung, director of community grant making, offers. "Make site visits and follow your gut."
When they meet next, they'll narrow the pool down to nine applicants and conduct site visits over the following two class periods. The "process" is an important part of the course, designed to teach students to make informed decisions as philanthropists. "You can't just give to organizations for emotional reasons. You have to do some due diligence and know that they are good caretakers of the money that is given to them," says Dwyer, director of the Maxwell School's Community Benchmarks Program.
“You can’t just give to organizations for emotional reasons.”
— Carol Dwyer, Instructor, Philanthropy and You �
A week later, narrowing the pool proves to be difficult. Board members remind each other to stick to the selection criteria: the program should benefit those under 18, living under federal poverty guidelines, or benefit refugees or immigrants.
The site visits help sort things out. "There were some organizations I thought were home runs based on their applications," says junior Mat Mazer. "But when I got to the sites, I found some had exaggerated on their applications."
Others wowed the students. Senior Kara Jeffries was sold after her visit to an organization that hadn't appealed to her on paper. After meeting with the director and another employee, "I was deeply moved by the passion they displayed," she says.
Students also weighed financial ratios (indicators of the sound management of an organization) and how well the grant proposal aligned with an organization's overall mission.
Mazer was lobbying for a community group that sought funding for a healthcare training program. "It met all of our goals: working with refugees, working with an impoverished population, and education," he says.But ultimately the decision came down to financials. "We wanted to determine the financial risk of the organization we would be funding," he adds. The group he favored came up short on this score.
After thorough debate, the Council of Young Philanthropists selected Baltimore Woods Nature Center as their recipient. The $5,000 grant will provide a hands-on nature experience for city school children by taking them to various parks to learn science in a natural setting. The grant will be matched by Syracuse city schools and Onondaga County's Save the Rain Foundation. Total contribution: $13,200.
"The deciding factor was that the $5,000 we would give to Baltimore Woods would be matched," says Mazer, "more than doubling our investment. The more we discussed their program, it was a clear choice for all of us."
The students are unanimously excited about the class and their engagement with the community. "I will always look at philanthropy in a different light because of this experience," says Carhart. "It is so much more than giving. You are truly changing lives."
"My hope," says Dwyer, "is that community giving will become a normal part of their lives, not just something they do for a class. My second hope is that we are training future board members."
That's the argument Lisa Honan uses when seeking gifts to fund the class's grant. "It was not difficult to find people who were excited about this idea," says Honan, assistant dean for development.
Honan says Philanthropy and You fits the School's traditions in citizenship education — something donors appreciate. Judy Mower '80 MA (SPsy)/'84 PhD (SPsy) is one of them; her gift launched the course. "I'm getting double the impact with my money," she says. "I gave a little bit of money that's going to help students learn to become mindful, informed donors. And they're going to turn around and invest it in some very good organization in the community where I live."
— Renée Gearhart Levy�