WRM Cohort Call held
November 6, 2008

 

 

Topic: A New Era for Giving

(email announcement of call)

 

By the time we talk on Thursday, let's hope we all know the U.S.
election results. Regardless, what with these economic times, a new era is upon
us. What does it mean for giving? Let's get into it on this call. We'll start
with a brief check-in (like 1 minute each). In which quadrant do you want to
check-in? What would you like to share with the cohort: update on your plan, a
practice you've been exploring, perhaps something from consulting with your
cohort partner since the fall meeting? 

 

Then Tuti will summarize her experience at the Donor Retreat
held in NYC the day of the big market tank. She'll reflect on the conversations
that took place, how donors are engaging in the economic climate, and so on.
Julia will follow with some reflections on the 2007 Giving USA report and other
sources that are taking a look at the impact of the times.

 

Then we'll open for discussion.
What conversations are you having in your fund? We look forward to hearing
strategies and practices that you are employing and what you're learning. As
always, I expect the sharing will be a lift for everyone on the call. Talk to
you Thursday.

 

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Cohort members on call:

Eve Powell,
Colorado

Leanne
Moss, Seattle

Mia
Herndon, Third Wave

Marjorie
Hutter, Western Massachusetts

Carla
Oleska, Western Massachusetts

Brigid
Doherty, Buffalo (WNY)

Shahnaz
Taplin, Global Muslim WF

Marcia
Cone-TIghne, Rhode Island

Elaine
Maly, Milwaukee

Suzanne Musikantow, WFN

Plus WRM team members:

Elizabeth
Seja Min

Julia
McGuire

Tuti Scott

Sherrie Prasad

 

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Note: Following are raw notes Elizabeth took during the call.
Apologies to any she did not capture completely or correctly. Please feel free
to edit as appropriate.

 

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*

 

Check-ins / updates from cohort members

 

Eve: endowment goal of 15M, at
10M, 2 million$ asks out there, going into community phase, exhausting all MJD
avenues we can.

 

Leanne: having donor brainstorm
dinner to talk with half dozen about their ideas, remember that one of our role
plays re challenge fund, so presenting that vision and getting their thoughts,
working with Julia on plan, working donors 1:1, it’s mixed response, trying not
to be too nervous, key in continuing stewardship with faithful few, after
dinner will talk to 3 key women in more depth.

 

Mia: all is well though lots in
transition, working hard, finished recent convening of grant partners and board
meeting, campaign approach is collaborative with other NYC funds (Ms, Astrea,
NYWF), on 10/23 had meeting with 10 donors who fund 2-3 of funds or more, got
their ideas on our joint platform around economic justice, got good feedback,
donors inspired about us working together in non-competitive way.

 

Marjorie: working on parallel
tracks of building infrastructure, launching new web site with great giving
section to boost ongoing giving, conversion of DB keeps going, MJD program is
developing, first house party went well going out with our campaign message, another
party on hold as host felt not right time to do, continue to cultivate top 3-5
donors to determine when best to approach.

 

Carla: encountering with MJD as
I’m sitting with them “my lifestyle is not going to change but my giving will
because my giving is directly connected with my investments” (heard a couple
times), now working on engaging original donors who have been somewhat
disconnected, planning to approach them as a group for a visionary gift
($Million).

 

Brigid: had a great summit with NY
funds, fabulous, interesting to go from WRM to summit as we’re third largest in
state, there was a focus on smaller gifts and more tactical, also had Barbara
Dobkin speak at event with 75 attending including men, she talked about having
to extend some of the commitments she’s made due to stock market, also watched
WMM video at board meeting (several cried in talking about how they feel about
philanthropy), now starting conversation about how board could make a million
gift collectively.

 

Shahnaz: moving well with our
team, developing a strategic business plan and 1-pager for donors, challenge is
how our messages will translate in the Muslim world, what I worked on in WRM
will resonate in non-Muslim world, but it’s more complicated and nuanced with
Muslims (scholars concerned that we could be marginalized or sabotaged by more
orthodox groups in Muslim world), so we are going to have scholars as advisors
to work with us to ensure that our messages appeal the way we want, another is
fact that government through Condeleeza Rice has launched a $100M initiative
for Muslim women around world, we met with them and they said they’ve launched
but don’t know what they’re doing, ($60M earmarked USAID), opportunity is to
partner with them, but liability is too closely associated with Bush, so
weighing that and concerned with how perceptions might undermine us – but one
advisor said there will be a moment where perceptions will change about US –
that’s the moment to dive in.

 

Marcia: tonight is our big event,
added a pre-event book signing with Swanee to cultivate some new MJD, will make
a podium ask for the first time by board chair, led up to tonight with a good
PSA that aired on prime time, as result getting contacted by many including MJD
we want to cultivate, also had a founding board member pass, so raising for a
fellowship in her name, very busy but making steady progress in plan to engage
new donors.

 

Elaine: busy as well, calling,
visits, having FR coach very helpful in staying focused and on target, hearing
laments from those who usually would have committed by now “wait and see,”
focused on hanging onto current donors at levels they have given before, it’s
rough, big event coming up, stepping up mail activities, but I’m worried.

 

Suzanne: been working hard to get
out proposal for a multi-million gift which is unbelievable in economic
downturn, got it out an organization-wide effort, hope it’s realized
(individual foundation), got annual appeal ready to go ahead of the game, don’t
have a robust individual giving staff so wrote a proposal for funds for that to
a donor so hope to add a staff person in 2009 so we can focus on individual
giving, for now we keep working the list.

 

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*

 

Tuti reflected on WMM Donor Retreat held 10/3 New York

 

Had 18 women for 6-hour retreat,
first shorter period (not weekend). Audience mostly self-made women, many of
them had worked around Wall Street, highly financially literate group, held
first day of market dip. Acknowledged that.

 

Amazing that all leaning forward
in their chairs, wondering how they could bring their financial acumen to the
table: how to build financial literacy, what are power tools needed by
generation-culture-class and how could be deployed, went through five shifts
and had homework to go home to map out shifts and figure out how to allocate
resources, they wanted to use for broader analysis as well. Chris brilliant at
explaining the women effect and how women in room could build philanthropic
time and resources at the table.

 

Agree about pause button on
philanthropic focus. Here in New England, it’s a time of getting ready for
winter, psychic time of reflection while riding high of election excitement.

 

After a lunch (of watching their
assets disappear) women were still fully present to be in conversation with
Helen and Barbara and Chris. They were excited to find other like-minded women.
They reflected the isolation and wanted to be part of something bigger.

 

à Suzanne: another retreat planned Jan 23-25. Helen
opening up Abiquiu home, great opportunity for building community with other
donors.

 

 

Julia reflected on larger giving landscape in U.S.

 

World-wide situation impacting
organizations through many channels: personal assets, government funding,
foundations, etc. Plus facing increased demands as organizations providing
services have increasing needs.

 

The good news is, not to minimize
current situation, but to put in context: there was a decline of 49% in S&P
in 2002, this October decline in the 30s, in 2002 decline was 5% of GDP, this
time 3.2. What’s important to remember is that giving has increased in all the
recessions, which happen every 10 years.

 

Advice we’re (Campbell Company)
giving is to acknowledge what’s happening, both in your world and in donor’s
world, affirm your mission, use this time to dialogue/communicate/prepare for
turnaround in future/listen, don’t be afraid to ask. We find people are indeed
taking longer to make a decision. They may need more time to make commitment a
reality. It’s not work as usual, but work that can be done.

 

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 *

 

Discussion

 

Leanne: Marcia, re event with
Swanee. Swanee is consummate asker. If you can engage her to make an ask, do
utilize her.

 

Marcia: We are going to have a
conversation. She may do or join in when we can talk. (She’s been out of
country.)

 

Tuti: Have heard donors taking
time to think about next generation in family foundations, using time to have
legacy conversation, taking advantage of excitement in the U.S., chance to
contribute to change legacy of this country. Find other ways to invite them to
talk, they would like to be asked to talk about situation. Back after 9/11,
Women’s Sports was first charity to have the gala event in October (everyone
else had cancelled), we had to pick up the phone, it was hard. Find authentic
entry points you can offer to the conversation. And stand up when you call (you
need all the chi you can muster).

 

Suzanne: Yes, after 9/11, we had
luncheon event at Chicago. We hesitated, but went ahead with a lot of outreach.
It ended up as most successful ever, people needed to come together as
community and to be together. Makes me think that must be happening now and
people want to talk about it. Listening is so important.

 

Shahnaz: What wisdom do you have
for us as we converse with donors?

 

Tuti: I cannot underestimate the
new energy in U.S. Use this time to acknowledge you’re following the energy
Obama has put forth—the galvanization of people who want democracy—there’s a
movement there and we would be silly not to intersect with that. This is a time
for global change, etc. Any intersection your work plays in. We feel this is
the time, etc. Leverage that, use this time. Quote from Barbara Jordan: “A
government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping
the future of this nation.” Think it’s so relevant for women’s funds.

 

Shahnaz: Good idea. Change
dialogue to pull back from U.S. to a more global context. Leverage election.

 

Mia: We are thinking about
leveraging election and campaign’s social networking strategy. We need to
increase the opportunities to ask for the visionary gift, but also want to use
energy of Obama campaign for next phase (millions of millions). We’re learning
from those who engineered the social networking piece of the campaign. Have
done research on how much came from each sector of folks. Will be happy to
share what we learn.

 

Tuti: Just led class on
power-privilege at Smith, talked about all the work to rewrite the memos on so
many issues coming up. Like is there a president’s commission on women’s
leadership and democracy? So much energy around it, tremendous potential.
Highest number of women in Congress as well.

 

Leanne: On MSN.com, looking for
women’s names for cabinet, did not see them, a bit startling.

 

Suzanne: Watching on CNN same
thing, not a single women and no people of color either.

 

Marjorie: In paper today, saw he’s
considering Sheila Baer for Treasury.

 

Shahnaz: How to best share with
one another what we’re learning?

 

Sherrie: we have
password-protected discussion group on the WFN site. I will have Marcel send
link around. It’s a discussion group on the WFN site.

 

à Will everyone be sure to login and determine if this
will work all right? If not, we will come up with a fix so we can stay
connected with learnings, ideas, postings, etc.

 

Final question

 

Mia: Is anyone else considering
collaborative FR around million$ gift? Donors are doing an even split between
the four funds. We’re asking that we’re not in competition, getting advice on
messaging, Ms is serving as fiscal agent (still figuring it out). Case is: opportunity
to work at multiple levels, local/national/regional, have diverse
constituencies represented, bridging movements, a new model of visionary
collaboration and movement building, encouraged at grantee level and need to
see it happen at donor level. 

 

-end-