Strategic Giving: Frameworks for Decision Making
Social Enterprise Newsletter, Spring 2001
The next decade will witness the greatest transfer of wealth from one generation to the next ever seen. Add to that the vast new wealth created by the new economy and it is easy to understand why nonprofit organizations are beginning to carefully examine and study philanthropic behavior. At HBS, one of the Initiative on Social Enterprise's (ISE) primary intellectual domains for research and course development is in the area of social capital markets, which includes social venture capital and philanthrophy.
In March, the ISE and Harvard's Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations cosponsored the executive education course Strategic Giving: Frameworks for Decision Making. This three-day course, first held in 2000, is designed as a framework to enable individual donors or family foundations to create their own approach to giving, to the ultimate benefit of both themselves and society.
The course is an outgrowth of a meeting between philanthropists and foundation leaders that was hosted by the ISE in December 1998. The discussion focused on why, how, and to whom philanthropic money is given. The issues raised were personal and practical: how to find your giving mission, the pros and cons of simply writing a check versus becoming personally involved with your mission, balancing family wealth versus individual wealth, the "old money" versus "new money" habits of giving, and the philanthropic expectation of effectiveness. By building on this discussion and incorporating additional issues, faculty designed the Strategic Giving curriculum.
The program examines the key issues donors need to address in order to achieve a strategic perspective on giving that is aligned with their personal circumstances and goals.
The participants used study groups, confidential peer consultations, and classroom case discussions led by combined HBS-Hauser faculty (including Cochairs Christine Letts and James Austin, Diana Barrett, Jeffrey Bradach, Peter Frumkin, and Mark Moore) to explore the issues first raised during that 1998 meeting. Participants were challenged to think strategically and systematically about their giving, to consider different options for investing in social change, and to develop strategies to evaluate their own philanthropic investments.
As Andrew H. Tisch (MBA '77), a Strategic Giving participant in 2000 and an ISE Advisory Board member, explained, "Giving away money intelligently is a responsibility that has not been fully studied and understood. This seminar explores how to donate money with the same intelligence with which it was first acquired."