Philanthropy Class (10/12/2004)

We spent the first half hour of class introducing ourselves. There are only a handful of grad students, and I was surprised at how many of the undergrads had experience in working at non-profits and foundations. Of the roughly 40 students, it seemed as though about 3/4 had some form of non-profit experience. A couple had worked at foundations that will be presenting at later lectures.

The case study for the day was the Broad Foundation, focusing on their strategy and grant making process, as well as its organizational structure. The case was "hot off the press", having been completed in August 2004. Dan Katzir, the Managing Director, had spoken at the Venture Philanthropy conference in September. Their focus is on improving K-12 education, especially in urban settings. They focus on making changes at the district level, working with superintendents, union leaders, and principals. By improving the governance, management and labor relations they hope to have a dramatic effect on the resulting education.

The class talked a bit about the assumptions of the foundation (that a knowledge worker had a more fulfilling job than a service worker) and the hazards of evaluating education quality by standardized tests. Also, a student from Oakland had first hand knowledge of the conflict that Broad-backed Oakland superintendent Randy Ward had faced. The Broad Foundation is unique in that it doesn't have an external board, and Eli Broad himself signs off on all of the grants. While this finesses the question of donor intent, it also raises some questions about succession. The Broad Foundation, like the man himself, has a reputation for being very demanding--the evaluation process is a big investment for both the donor and donee.