Philanthropy and Society: the Speeches of Tim Brodhead

Reflections on Philanthropy and Society: The Speeches of Tim Brodhead The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation Reflections on Philanthropy and Society: The Speeches of Tim Brodhead Copyright © 2011 Tim Brodhead Contents This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Foreword ........................................................ 7 Brodhead, Tim, 1943- Reflections on philanthropy and society : the speeches of Tim Brodhead / 1. 9 Tim Brodhead. Volunteering and Leadership ......................... On adapting to change, volunteerism vs. engagement, and Includes index. ISBN 978-0-9867125-2-4 the value of the community sector 1. Humanitarianism. 2. Social action. 2. Grantmaking Leadership ............................. 25 3. Philanthropists--Canada. On identifying and supporting successful organizations, 4. Brodhead, Tim, 1943- I. Title. and measuring results BJ1475.3.B76 2011 361.7’4 C2011-905288-1 3. How do Environmental Grantmakers Lead? ...... 39 On the importance of funder collaborations, and the need “In Those Years”. Copyright © 2002, 1995 by Adrienne Rich, from THE FACT OF A DOORFRAME: SELECTED POEMS 1950–2001 by Adrienne Rich. Used by for capacity-building in the community sector permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 4. Philanthropy in the Era of Globalization ........... 53 “You Must”. Copyright © 2005 by Jon Anderson, from STOMP AND SING: POEMS BY JON ANDERSON. Used by permission of Northwestern University Press. On the role of philanthropy and foundations in the current “The Journey” from Dream Work, copyright © 1986 by Mary Oliver. Used by global environment permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. 5. Social Venture Philanthropy .......................... 67 Published by The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, On supporting systems change through social venture 1002 Sherbrooke Street West, Suite 1800, philanthropy, or “engaged philanthropy,” and social venture Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 3L6 514-288-2133 philanthropy’s potential to change the way philanthropy www.mcconnellfoundation.ca is understood and practiced 6. Convocation Address at Dalhousie University .... 79 12. Dancing to the Music of Now: On seeing the world clearly, battling cynicism and the University-Community Partnering ................157 fear of failure, and changing the world On collaborations between universities and communities and their ability to address today’s unique social challenges 7. Change, Connect, Imagine, and Inspire ............ 87 On becoming involved, building community, and seeking 13. Service-Learning inspiration and Compassionate Leadership .....................177 On the challenges facing youth (to not only improve, but 8. 105 Comments to Meeting of Foundation Partners .. also to restore the world), the importance of experiential On the origins of the Foundation’s focus on social learning, and the need for action innovation, and its shifting role as a funder 14. On Not Letting a Crisis Go to Waste ..............189 9. Speech to Annual Meeting On the implications of the economic downturn for of Engineers Without Borders ......................115 Canada’s community sector, and the new models and On the common illusions of international development, approaches required to ensure its health and EWB’s strategies to combat them 15. Learning as a 21st Century Survival Skill .........199 10. Remarks to the Leadership Conference and On the importance of continuously learning for a more Annual Meeting of the Kidney Foundation .......129 engaged, resilient society On innovating and adapting, and focusing on assets available rather than deficiencies at hand 16. Words and Actions: Creating a New Narrative for the Community Sector ..............205 11. The Health of the Non-Profit Sector— On creating a new narrative for the community sector, Is this Sector at Risk? .................................145 stressing social impact over charitable effort; collaboration On the importance of the community sector to a over isolated action; participation over volunteerism democratic society, and the challenges the community sector is currently facing Foreword Dear Reader, During Tim Brodhead’s tenure as President of the Foundation, one of the most popular sections of the Foundation’s website was the “President’s Corner” which contained the speeches that he delivered to various national audiences. The truth is, Tim often rewrote his remarks right up until the moment he gave them, only putting them into final form once he was back at the office. We have selected several to share with you in this book, as acknowl- edgement of his enduring contribution to our work. 10 FOREWORD The essays cover topics ranging from the environment to the economy, and from social inclusion to social innovation. If there is one theme that surfaces more of- 1 ten than others, it is the health and vitality of the community sector itself. As Tim himself might say, it takes a community to build a community. Volunteering and Leadership We hope that you will enjoy this volume, and that it will prove useful to you in your own work as a community leader. Sincerely, Lyn Baptist Chair, The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation At the Volunteer Development Leadership Institute, Cornwall, Ontario, March 2003 I want to talk to you today about the links which lead from volunteerism to engagement to leadership to community building. Let me begin with a confession: flattered as I am to be asked to come to speak to you today, I feel compelled to own up to the fact that I know much less about the topic that we are addressing than do most of you. Indeed as I was reflecting on what I might say, it occurred to me that after 35 years’ working in the so-called “voluntary” sector I have never thought of myself as a “volunteer”— despite having been involved as a staff member of sev- 12 TIM BRODHEAD VOLUNTEERING AND LEADERSHIP 13 eral not-for-profits, as a Board member of many others, the needy. Recently we have heard commentators like and as someone who has contributed time and money Robert Putnam talk about this as “social capital,” the to a great many others. Only in my first job was I called glue that holds society together, and even more recently “volunteer”—when I signed on with CUSO as a recent we have been told that it is eroding, that fewer people graduate and went to teach in Africa for what turned are participating in communal activities, that less time is into a five-year stint abroad. But those of us working being spent “volunteering”—which, as you know, is giv- with CUSO didn’t think of ourselves as volunteers, ing rise to some anxiety and hand-wringing as we con- though we were called that; and it is difficult to see in template the future of many worthwhile organizations what sense we were volunteers, as we received a modest dependent on a steady supply of committed volunteers. salary and lived in conditions similar to those of our Af- Sometimes the problem is presented to us as, “Ca- rican counterparts (and no one called them volunteers). nadian society relies on volunteers to meet a wide range We joined CUSO for many reasons—a sense of adven- of needs, and always has done so; but now, we see trends ture, a desire to experience the world, perhaps even a which portend a future in which fewer people are will- wish to do some good—but if “volunteering” implies ing, or able, to volunteer,” and this suggests a disastrous sacrifice of some kind, that was an insignificant part of situation for many bodies and the people who depend the motivation, and rarely a consequence. upon them for services or support. Faced with such a These reflections on my credentials for speaking scenario, the solution would appear to lie in redoubled to you today led me quite naturally to think about the efforts to recruit volunteers, to motivate them and to concept of volunteering, which we take so much for manage them professionally so that they are as “efficient” granted as part of what makes Canadian society what it as possible (i.e. we get our money’s worth from them). is. We have all heard, and perhaps trotted out, the quotes But perhaps the reality is very different… from de Tocqueville about Americans’ unique propensi- If volunteering is action without expectation of per- ty to form voluntary associations of various kinds which sonal gain or recompense, then it encompasses a large was such a distinguishing characteristic of the society he part of what we do, though perhaps less than in the days visited and wrote about in the mid-19th century. Cana- before work, paid work, became such a specialized ac- dians, too, historically have banded together in mutual tivity divorced from the normal tasks of daily life. assistance societies, voluntary organizations to address Once what we did to earn a living became separat- a wide range of community needs and charities to help ed from the rest of our lives, carried out in a different 14 TIM BRODHEAD VOLUNTEERING AND LEADERSHIP 15 place—the factory, the office or the shop—rather than didn’t count, and one’s motivation should be unsullied outside on the farm or in the workshop, how were we by purely personal considerations. Since most people at to define all the other things people did which were not some point do have to look after family members, this paid for—looking after relatives, helping neighbours, aspect could be taken to imply that volunteering had an ministering to the sick, coping with emergencies, re- element of “noblesse oblige” to it: volunteering was the lieving the poor? special activity of people who had the leisure to devote Thus arose, I suggest, the notion of volunteering.

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