Bob Buford's Musings About His Own
Activity in Philanthropy
November 1999
Possible consequences and implications for The Buford Foundation and Bob Buford:
- Invest in 100X leaders and ideas not in "institutions."
- Building long term relationships that build organizational capacity and confidence, not 1 or 2 year programs only.
- I don't want to be seen as just another big donor to be humored, persuaded and manipulated. The Grantor/Grantee relationship doesn’t seem to be a healthy one. It is like colonialism -- The colonies never stand for being presided over by a "superior power." The relationship is one of patronage and resentment.
- I want to facilitate what is trying to happen, what is going to happen anyway whether I'm involved or not.
- I want to ask 100X Social Entrepreneurs "What can I do to be useful to you?" I want to back their ideas, to facilitate their success. We should hold the same mission in common but I don't want the 100Xers shaping a proposal to get my money and to be the "carriers of my ideas."
- Always ask, "What do I bring to this deal besides money?" The answer to this question should define our major contribution. Money is not the main thing. Foundations seem too preoccupied with money (versus contribution).
- Perhaps The Buford Foundation should not be a grant making foundation at all? Bertelsman isn't and they're big. Perhaps our functional contributions should be:
- Convening
- Consulting (or hiring great consultants)
- Finding and subsidizing development experiences for 100X entrepreneurs
- Creating new knowledge
- Documenting success
- Encouraging 100Xers
- Distributing ideas broadly
- Seeing the vision of the whole
- Understanding the social ecology and the relationship of the parts
- Providing organizational capacity
- Networking 100Xers to peers, money, knowledge, consultants
- Idea shaping and stimulation
- Foresight -- seeing the futurity of present events. Standing outside the fray.
- Transfer of innovation from business, other sectors outside 100Xers' normal horizons
- Discovering best resources -- those whose stuff works most every time
- Altering their mental geography so that they see their work in different ways, from new perspectives
- Imagination
- Board membership
- Recruiting partners and Board members
- We can use The Buford Foundation money to pay for these activities -- on a matching basis where we need to establish value.
- Perhaps "we" (who exactly is we? -- Bob, The Buford Foundation, Leadership Network, Leadership Training Network, FaithWorks ??) should be professional friends, encouragers and all around resource finders.
- Tom Tierney, of Bain & Company, spent $3 million studying the nonprofit / foundation field. He discovered:
- They are followers: "I will go if they will. I'll go second, but not first."
- They respect appearances and opinions more than fact.
- They are slow (cycle time)
- It's hard to know who decides the trustees, the CEO, the program officer
- They have a short term project focus
- They like novelty Vs building organizational capacity for the long term
- I don't want any of this to characterize me and those I work with.
"There's a huge difference about the ability of the foundation to change when the founder is alive." -- Tim Gill
I want to invest now. To move fast and fluid passing the funds and responsibility on to the future when the opportunity is now, and the future is unknowable is not what I want to do. If feels irresponsible to me.
- This is a very personal enterprise. A calling is personal. God doesn't call Foundations. He calls individuals. The responsibility is personal. The money and the organization are an extension of the person. They enlarge personal capacity.
- You begin without knowing all the answers. "Many of the projects we do have unintended consequences that are success in themselves but are different than those we planned." -- Gary Walker
- William Bridges wrote: "The most important outcomes are always byproducts and side effect of what you thought you were doing."
This is another reason to build organizational capacity behind 100X leaders. They will figure out the best opportunities in the course of their work, which could not have been predicted in advance. And the "project officer" isn't on the scene to adjust for the unforeseeable opportunities and problems. Only the entrepreneur is there.
- Build trust. Convey trust. Trust is the coin of the realm. If there's no trust, get out.
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