“ Do your little of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world”- Desmond Tutu
Effective philanthropy refers to what’s most likely to achieve one’s objectives while avoiding unintended harm to others.
While philanthropy is a complex and daunting undertaking, different donors pursue infinite number of goals motivated by their experiences; religious, political affiliations, moral beliefs as well as their greatest needs. All this with an aim of achieving their specific objectives as stipulated by their respective boards and/ or plans and policies.
Some imperative factors that greatly contribute to the attainment of effective philanthropy include;
Dialogue;
Philanthropies recognize the value of systemic inclusive dialogue between foundations, Governments and other development stakeholders. Therefore, these entities engage various stakeholders in Public-private partnerships, participation in policy making processes, development of frameworks, community dialogues , and civil society interests that are affected by the respective interventions.
Through dialogue, stakeholders create spaces for innovation and empower local actors in recognition of the vital role they play in addressing development challenges and provide lifelong solutions to communities.
Multi-level dialogue empowers stakeholders engaging in partnership to create, scale and impact in development and coordination between foundations, governments and others develop0ment stakeholders hence strategize purposefully within the global, national and regional context of development.
Through dialogue, philanthropies seek to complement and accelerate development efforts by focusing on comparative advantages of philanthropy including risk tolerance and responsiveness.
Partnership;
Partnerships are often difficult to navigate-but they are essential elements of effective philanthropy. And as a philanthropist, your results depend on choosing the right nonp0rofits to fund and on your ability to build effective partnerships with them
Philanthropic organizations are playing an increasingly important role in the achievement of the SDGs with prominent contributions to key sectors. Through collaboration, these organizations can achieve more.
Philanthropic collaboration takes place at different levels-specific local projects, multi-year programs, policy, advocacy-and through different building capacity of local partners, funding pilots, bridging initiatives with demonstrated impacts to scale, supporting research, and convening these levels and approaches offer vast potential for increasing impact and supporting effective philanthropy through effective partnerships.
Partnerships enhance effective philanthropy through tools including grants, programme-related investments, training and convening in support of profit and non-profit initiatives.
Philanthropies initiate and consolidate partnerships across sectors that enhance synergies and leverage the distinct comparative advantage of each of the partners involved -philanthropist, government and other development stakeholders- towards advancing a shared vision for an inclusive and sustainable world.
Knowledge sharing;
Knowledge has the power to spark change, but only if it’s shared. Philanthropists instinctively like the idea of sharing the knowledge they generate with others. However, in the face of competing priorities, a stronger case must be made for philanthropists to devote time and resources to sharing knowledge and data.
Knowledge sharing by philanthropic entities deepens internal reflection and learning, lead to new connections and ideas and promote institutional credibility and influence factors that greatly contribute to effective philanthropy.
Philanthropies derive immense value through the utilization of timely and accurate data to support better decision-making in operations and understanding organizational intentions and learning from success and failures.
Philanthropies share knowledge and experience across sectors in an effort to improve effective engagement among different types of organizations working to improve development outcomes.
While philanthropic organizations share data across sectors, they take into consideration what is wise and practical – privacy and confidentiality- within the local context.
By sharing knowledge, philanthropies aim to amplify the effectiveness of their efforts by working together closely with other foundations, governments and relevant actors on a broad range of inputs as well as other types of knowledge such as due diligence assessments, impact evaluations, problem analysis and context- specific evidence.
Effective Philanthropist
Every day, philanthropies work on the front lines to deliver critical services to those in need, advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves, educate the public on important issues for themselves, educate the public on important issues and improve unto lives throughout the world. Philanthropic dollars are critical to delivering this great impact.
Every stage in the philanthropic process- from sourcing of potential donors to fund, to the initial research into a potential grantee, to decisions surrounding how much money to give and what other support to provide, to how a donor evaluates the success of a philanthropic gift- can be an opportunity to enhance, or detract from, a strong donor-grantee relationship.
A complicating factor to this relationship is the vast difference in power between donors , who have the money, and grantees who need the money. Effective philanthropists are aware of the challenge and respond accordingly at each stage.
While according to Bishop Desmond Tutu, it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world, it is imperative that philanthropists conduct the right kind of research on potential grantees as one effective means to effective philanthropy.
Due Diligence;
It takes proper due diligence that is, leaning enough about the results, leadership, financials, and the operations of an organization while respecting the limited time of its busy leaders-to determine whether you and a potential grantee are likely to be a successful match.
Through such research, the philanthropists will be able to uncover key information such as their missions aligns to that of their philanthropic goals, aligns to their beliefs and practices and the partnership can successfully partner for the results they seek.
Through their research and evaluation of the above aspects, philanthropist are able to engage in effective philanthropy hence greatly contribute to sustainability in development.