There Might Have Been a Stratgey After All

Before attending Heinz, I worked at a community foundation. These types of foundations are driven by a conglomeration of individual donations and the creation of various funds, unlike many typical foundations where inception is based on a single family’s or individual’s wealth. The foundation gives grants at the staff’s discretion, but also by the donor who create funds through it. This organization was a great place to be, though strategy never seemed to be the strong suit of the management staff there. There were many communication gaps, and though it seemed to be inclusive with our annual all-staff retreat, what seemed to propagate most was work that never became realized.

After the readings, I think I would classify the foundation in the Shaping category, unpredictable but able to change (even if slowly). We would never have control over the amount of money people inherit, people give charitably, and people choose to pay a 2% fee for service over Fidelity’s low rates and limited customer contact and expertise, but we could get our name out there and be a model for the work in the state. I think that is one thing that management staff realized and tried to push, and actually did in some cases. The organization was a leader in impact investing for quite some time, and has provided as an interesting model for engaging individual donors in local business endeavors. Looking back, this has actually been what I view as one of the main accomplishments of the organization, while the time we exerted into planning, retreats, and staff meetings fade into the background. Oddly enough, perhaps because this strategy happened by accident or emerged more naturally, we did not capitalize on how different that made us and how much that contact with the emerging business community may have appealed to donors. Also, after hurricane Irene, there was an extreme effort from the staff to push for increased grantmaking to hurt communities. I don’t know if it was the endless intent to be groundbreaking, continue doing work better, invest more money, or whatever may have fueled ideas and meetings with quiet and fizzled endings, but at least a couple times that strategy discussions seemed to prime staff members for real-time strategic decision-making.