A Charitable Edge – Do Your Proposals Have One?
Sarah S. Brophy

She sat stunned, staring at me with disbelief.  “I can’t image why a foundation, after giving me its money, would want me to give anything away!” 

I had just recommended to a think-tank like discussion group that to successfully compete for grants, there are times when a non-profit should extend the impact of a foundation’s gift by sharing that gift with others – providing a charitable edge. My audience was not entirely impressed.

Here’s what I mean, though: if your institution has just received money to buy a fabulous electron microscope for its conservation lab or research department, making that microscope available, on occasion, to area non-profits without a lab of their own, is an easy way to extend that benefit. That offer, in your proposal, gives you a charitable edge over the competition. 

The amazed development officer felt that protecting a hard-won gift was her responsibility, and that sharing that wealth (giving it away) was highly inappropriate.  Well, yes and no.  If a donor funds your new concert hall because its mission is to support development of revenue stream, free use of the hall would not be a motivator.  She’s perfectly right that not all donors are interested in extending impact beyond the recipient, but for those funders who are interested, creating a charitable edge makes a difference. 

Many foundations, corporations and government agencies already encourage extension of the grant when they ask recipients to articulate how discoveries can be disseminated or the project can be replicated:

• They want you to share your discoveries with similar organizations either in a presentation, report, or on-line newsletter. 
• They want that emergency preparedness program you develop and provide for your staff with their funding to be repeated for or shared with the small historical societies in the area who cannot find, create or fund this training on their own.
• Let the community foundation know that the display cases its funds for your group’s exhibit at the local library can be used by others in between your installations.

However, it’s time to do more than use grants to repeat yourself; use them to help others, too. The opportunity may already exist; you just need to articulate it and follow through. 

• If the donor supports the cost of the Circus, can’t you offer more than a few free performance tickets to the local Boys & Girls Club? If the foundation supports a summer arts camp, did you budget for some tuition-free camperships?
• When you operate that free clinic on Saturdays with foundation support, invite other support agencies to send staff who can offer your clients access to their services. 
• Finishing the interior of the second floor means you finally have meeting space of your own. Since you know what a disadvantage it is work without meeting space, offer free-use to local non-profits on the first Mondays of the month. 
• Explain how the paved path the foundation is underwriting will give your guests lighted access along the road and from the parking lot to the building, and the neighborhood will have a safe route in that tough spot where the town has not yet installed a sidewalk. You could wait for the town to get to it, but you have recognized an institution-community need and feel neither should wait.  

Granted, each of these takes staff time to arrange, and some mean forgoing income so you will have to make strategic decisions on which charitable edges to hone. Creating a management nightmare or waiving crucial or major income opportunities would be irresponsible. Yet if the benefit to local organizations outweighs the time it takes you to pre-approve three of them to use the microscope three Sundays each year, or to invite three service-providers to alternate use of the corner table during clinic hours, you will have extended the donor’s gift, created alliances in the community and improved services for more than just your little world.

Copyright © 2010 bMuse, Sarah S. Brophy