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The following is excerpted from Collaborative Grantmaking: Lessons Learned from the Rockefeller Family's Experiences. This introduction was written by Eileen Growald, chair of the Board for The Philanthropic Collaborative and the Rockefeller's Family Philanthropy Committee. INTRODUCTION Upon reading the monograph, Collaborative Grantmaking: Lessons Learned from the Rockefeller Family’s Experiences, I was reminded of a discussion among our family on shared values. As part of one of our Family Philanthropy Committee discussions, I had asked members of the Cousins and Fifth generations present to brainstorm on philanthropic values. In reading those now, I realize that many of the values listed are present in our funder collaboration efforts. They read as follows: · Think long term The case studies and experiences expressed in this monograph demonstrate how these values translated into action. All of the collaborations focus on areas of great interest and passion for certain members of our family. The Philanthropic Collaborative (TPC) offers a structure through which we can best manage our collaborative efforts and invites all family members to learn more about these issues. TPC funder collaborations provide the opportunity to actively participate in hands-on decision- making, enable our grant giving to have greater impact, and to leverage our leadership roles in those grantmaking areas. Why did we choose funder collaborations as a way to exercise our philanthropic values? Through TPC, our family funding collaborations are a structured, more formalized way for us to put these values into practical projects of limited time duration. With a family as large as ours, now numbering over 200, we needed a mechanism that would help us engage other family members without constant solicitations by each other for every cause and issue of importance to any one of us. By using TPC’s collaboration format, we, as family members, are provided with a structure to seek partners and like-minded people to work together on any given topic; the format also assures us that the topic has been thoroughly researched and that there will be staff to provide support services with the necessary follow-through, facilitation, and access to the best professional expertise needed available. The collaborations allow family members to assume a variety of levels of leadership, responsibility, and stewardship and to enhance our other personal and institutional ways of contributing to make a better life for humankind. In summary, our funder collaborations: · help us to actualize our values and core beliefs with projects that are time and scope defined; · provide a structure to manage family involvement in our diverse interests and passions; · give opportunities for active, hands-on participation in grantmaking; · enable greater impact in grantmaking by attracting a number of donors; · leverage the family’s historical role in philanthropy. There are a number of lessons we have learned through collaborative funding. We can: 1) work well together, 2) deepen our love and respect for each other in the process, and 3) contribute significantly to the causes and passions of our family members to make our world a better place. We hope the recounting of our experiences will help the readers in their own explorations of the many satisfying ways one can participate in collaborative philanthropy. Eileen Growald
© 2003 National Center for Family Philanthropy. All Rights Reserved.
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