RDVP Seminar: Peter Tavernise, Cisco (4/27/2005)

I had the sense that Peter Tavernise (see his Omidyar Network Profile) sees things a bit differently than the rest of us. He is a Senior Manager at Cisco Systems Corporate Philanthropy and Senior Program Officer at the Cisco Foundation. At times, I was prepared to dismiss what he was saying as looking through a biased, distorting lens. But at other times, it seemed that his comments were based on keen insight, because he's observing more closely than we are.

Certainly he came to the seminar better informed about the fellows' projects than most speakers. He had created an issue map that showed how he felt the different projects fit together within the overall context of disaster aid. He invited us to refine his draft.

As different topics came under his magnifying lens, he spoke his mind, but with such speed and assumed shared context that I often felt like I was trying to keep up with all the allusions of a rant by Dennis Miller.

His criticisms of the foundation/philanthropy world, especially as an insider, were eye-opening. His views that technology could help, and that it should be up to the funders to seek out and actively support the leaders of organizations that could effect needed change, were encouraging. He wondered why, after so much effort was made to select the best 5 to 7 projects in each of key program areas through the Tech Laureate awards, why all but one are sent home empty-handed? He criticized the stingy payout policies that lead some foundations to consider themselves perpetual memorials to dead people rather than active organizations addressing a key societal need. He pointedly asked why a small organization like Acumen Fund's A to Z Textiles' bed nets could be so much more effective than efforts funded by multi-lateral organizations for years with so much more money. He hoped that as technology permitted donors to recognize which organizations were being effective and which were not that donor-citizens would see that they should care about how organizations were using their money. Out of a $250B sector, Peter said that some $20-80B is being spent/wasted on overhead, redundant and ineffective organizations. The emerging trend of joint for-profit/non-profit models is innovative, but requires further exploration to figure it out, supported by legislation and tax and accounting reform.

Peter also talked about some successes (including the bed nets mentioned above). Global MapAid, incubated at the RDVP, was one. Using handhelds with GPS, collection of accurate GIS data in disaster situations helps aid workers better understand what they are facing. He said that Kofi Annan personally visited the Global MapAid offices during the tsunami relief effort, not for PR purposes but to get his hands on the maps they had!

A second was Active Voice which uses its VoIP and messaging service to provide voice mail boxes to people in need (homeless, job seekers, victims of domestic abuse) these Community Voice Mail services are available across the country and make a huge difference for the people receiving them.

He also mentioned The Foundation Center as a valuable resource for those of us looking to raise money from foundations. He also recommended 3 books:

1. Don't Think of an Elephant
   
2. Finite and Infinite Games
   
3. Confessions of an Economic Hitman