In the Obama era Washington is looking to foundations to drive “social innovation.”
That was the message delivered Tuesday night by someone who knows a lot about both the foundation world and the halls of power.
The speaker was Steve Gunderson (on the right in photo), a retired 16-year Wisconsin U.S. representative who currently serves as president and CEO of the 2,0000-member Council on Foundations.
Gunderson offered his overview to 200 people convened at the Lawn Club Tuesday night for the annual meeting of the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven (CFGNH).
“It is said that giving, like music, gladdens the soul,” said the evening’s host, William Ginsberg, president of the CFGNH (pictured with Gunderson).
“Once the [federal economic] stimulus [program] is over, there will be more limited resources. So the old paradigms will not work,” Gunderson explained.
The new paradigm he advocated: an unprecedented partnership among the public, philanthropic, and government sectors. Private foundations will “build capacity,” communicate, and make connectionsamong innovative idea creators, private funders who want to help, and government.
Gunderson called attention to the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. The Obama administration hopes the office will serve as a headquarters for the new model, in which innovation will be the sine qua non for doing more with fewer resources.
The previous paradigm, which he described as “competitive grant making,” will no longer cut it in an era of diminished dollars.
To New Haveners Gunderson hailed “what your community is doing in school reform” as an example of the impact local government and philanthropy can have when investments are made together and strategically.
In his remarks, CFGNH’s Ginsberg said New Haven has high hopes for serious federal dollars coming to town for school reform, especially from the stimulus. But he noted that in any case local philanthropists have lined up behind the city’s call to be a long-term partner.
“We can’t look to Washington or to Obama alone. No matter which way the political winds [blow], this community must look to itself,” Ginsberg said.
The foundation board recently passed a resolution to support school reform and to devise programs that will be a model not only for New Haven but for the other 19 towns the foundation serves, according to Trish Caldwell, CFGNH director of communication.
The school reform initiative has garnered the most enthusiastic support from the CFGNH’s board of any that he has seen in his nine years heading the foundation, Ginsberg said.
The new programs are only now taking shape now.
According to Senior Philanthropic Officer Lee Cruz (at left in photo), CFGNH may seek to bring together the foundation’s designated donor funds in connection with “The Promise.” That’s the part of the school reform that promises scholarships for college or post-secondary training to all eligible high school graduates.
While programs are still preliminary, they would have to strike a balance between “incentivizing the school system” and holding it responsible, he suggested.
Asked what he thought of President Obama’s recent shout-out about the New Haven teachers union contract and its advancing school initiatives, Gunderson hailed the city’s achievement but added a cautionary note.
“People seek national attention,” he said. “But when you get it, you better produce.”