Philanthropic Test Case: Helping to Revive Motor City

Much as Haiti can serve as a test case for philanthropic efforts to rebuild a country destroyed by natural disaster, Detroit is emerging as a model for renewal domestically.

Carol Goss of the Skillman Foundation pointed out the promise in Motor City in a March 26 article in the Detroit News: “We can be a model of how to turn around a city and a region.” Skillman is just one of several foundations collaborating to rebuild and rethink all aspects of the city, from its residents’ educational needs to city planning to the arts.

Philanthropic efforts to revive the city’s arts – particularly in establishing a “creative corridor” downtown – are drawing extra attention. “If we could ever try out all these ideas we’ve been cooking up about the arts as an engine of urban renewal – and really do it – this is the place to do it,” said Andras Szanto of AEA Consulting in a March 29 airing of WNYC Radio’s Soundcheck. The show’s host, John Schaefer, compared Detroit to  New York some three and four decades ago, when first punk music and then hip hop culture emerged as vibrant art forms and breathed new life into the city before becoming global cultural forces

Detroit does indeed offer a promising case for foundations: The city was struggling more than most American urban centers before the recession. And its nonprofits have long been too dependent on the severely depressed automotive industry.

But the clock is ticking: The Kresge Foundation’s Rip Rapson told the News that the philanthropic effort has about 18 months to achieve its goals. And alarm bells are already sounding. The News quoted several community leaders skeptical of the efforts, seeing the work as a “takeover” from what appears to be an emerging, unaccountable “fourth branch of government.”

The ever-astute Bruce Trachtenberg wrote in a March 26 post to the Communications Network’s blog that such concerns testify to the still large gap between the public’s understanding of what foundations do and what motivates them – something the Philanthropy Awareness Initiative documents. Independent foundation consultant Bob Hughes wrote in an April 6 post to the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s blog that it’s not just that foundations need to be more open about their activities. A sustained conversation is also required so that the public and organized philanthropy can be aligned. 

It will take the whole village of Detroit – as elsewhere – to bring about true social change.

Jane

Jane Wales
President & Co-Founder, Global Philanthropy Forum

COF 2010: Networks, Not Ideas, Drive Innovation

Despite popular perception, it’s not one single product, epiphany or “a-ha” moment that drives innovation. From Thomas Edison’s light bulb to Apple’s multi-functional personal devices, innovation happens when a network adapts and executes using a new approach or technology.

Those were key lessons imparted by Andrew Hargadon of the University of California-Davis, speaking on April 25 at a mini-plenary session on social innovation and philanthropy at the start of the Council on Foundations’ 2010 Annual Conference. This was the kickoff to the conference’s social innovation track, which also included sessions with Chip Heath, co-author of the book Switch, and Gabriel Kasper of the Monitor Institute.

Also at the conference Kasper, co-author of the 2008 Kellogg Foundation report Intentional Innovation: How Getting More Systematic about Innovation Could Improve Philanthropy and Increase Social Impact, noted that there are five steps to getting to innovation: from establishing a culture that embraces it, to identifying opportunities for focus, to diffusing and sharing with others in the field. Both Hargadon and Judith Rodin of the Rockefeller Foundation shared specific ideas for and examples of foundations advancing innovation. So did one audience member, who volunteered that philanthropy can be the driver to lead innovations in fields struggling to adapt to a rapidly changing world, most notably K-12 education and print journalism.

More generally, though, Hargadon said foundations should take advantage of their already established networks and connections to look for and advance innovations. They should also invest in individuals and organizations with the potential to build or expand a network around new ideas, helping them to take root.

Rodin said that philanthropy, long a field focused on innovation, needs to re-imagine its approach in the 21st Century, focusing as much on innovations in organizations, markets and processes as on ideas or individuals. In this century, innovators don’t need a laboratory, according to Rodin: Everywhere is and can be a laboratory for innovation. She also noted that the best innovative ideas are to be found as a result of collaboration and partnership — in other words, networks of foundations, as well as partners in other sectors, working together.

Jane

Jane Wales
President & Co-Founder, Global Philanthropy Forum