Foundation boss gives fundraising insight
Howard Lake | 12 October 2005 | News
Atlantic Philanthropies Chief Executive John Healy has given an insight into the Foundation’s policy on fundraising and sustainability in a recent interview with Alliance magazine. In a survey earlier in the year Atlantic was listed as one of the biggest foundations by grant size in Europe.
Three years ago a decision was made that The Atlantic Philanthropies would spend down their then almost $4 billion endowment over a period of 12-15 years.
Healy said that the decision was not taken lightly. ‘The timescale that we have decided to operate within means that we are looking to do things where we can potentially have a very substantial impact within a limited period of time. And whatever we do, a judgement will be passed on the organization. There are certain problems or issues that we have considered taking on but have decided not to because we believe they would require a longer period of sustained investment than we’re going to be able to give them. If you have a limited life ahead of you, there are certain things that it’s probably best that you don’t get into.’
Advertisement
According to John Healy, sustainability is now a much more important issue than it was before. ‘When we are contemplating entering into a grantmaking relationship with a non-profit organization, we’ve got to start thinking right up front about how we exit, because we know that we will not be around for a long period. This is a little bit counterintuitive,’ he admits, ‘but it’s nevertheless necessary. We also feel it’s necessary to be absolutely candid with grantees and remind them that we are only around for a certain number of years and they won’t be able to rely on us thereafter.’
Helping grantees in their fundraising seems to be a key thing here, according to Healy. This might involve discussing with them ways that we can help them secure support from a wider base of supporters or brokering meetings or relationships with other funders for them, Healy says. ‘We’ve always been willing to do that but we’re doing it more now.’
More unusually, it might in some cases involve investing in fundraising departments ‘which might not be as strong as they could be.’ These are investments that are not typically very attractive to foundations but we think that in our circumstances they make sense,’ he says. They are, of course, just the sort of investments that a ‘high-engagement grantmaker’ or a venture philanthropy fund like New Profit Inc would make.
Of course it is not just the sustainability of the grantee organization that Atlantic is concerned about, he says. ‘We want our impact to be sustained as well. What we would like to think is that the work that we do will continue to have impact after we’ve closed our door.’
Healy says the discussion of sustainability leads naturally to the question of risk. While he agrees that this is something ‘we have to guard against’, he also points out that the spend-down itself is ‘a huge risk’. He likens it to ‘a big bet’. ‘We’re betting our endowment, if you like, and that’s a massive risk. Our bet is that we can have more impact – or our grantees can have more impact, because that’s really the important thing – if we invest very heavily in them over a short period of time as opposed to providing them with a lesser volume of funds over longer periods of time. In the future our typical grants will therefore be rather larger than those made by the average foundation.’
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.