New Strategic Direction Puts TSF at Forefront of Foundation Movement

By Robert A. Carreau, Foundation Administrator

I was fortunate to participate in a recent Council on Foundations conference involving hundreds of foundations from throughout the United States. It was my first such experience representing The Schenectady Foundation at this conference, and I was eager to learn what foundations were doing elsewhere – to bring back best practices and a sense of where we stood within the broader movement. Participants ranged from small family foundations with a few million in assets to the largest of them all – the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with assets exceeding $30 billion.

The experience left me with some lessons learned, as well as concrete ideas on what we could be doing better and differently with The Schenectady Foundation. I learned that the challenges we face in Schenectady County are hardly different than those being addressed in other communities, or by national and international foundations. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that we are going in exactly the right direction. The new strategic direction that we have recently embarked upon puts The Schenectady Foundation on the frontline of the foundation movement alongside many of the country’s most progressive foundations.

Foundations that are most effective in achieving success are pursuing the following strategies:

• First, foundations are focusing on a limited number of issues or causes in order to dig down to the core of the problem. A scatter shot approach to distributing funds will not effect change. And, while The Schenectady Foundation had already begun to become more focused (notably our $2 million in grants to early child health and development), our new strategic plan calls for our efforts to be intensified. We are currently in the process of identifying the area in which the majority of our resources will be invested over the next three to five years.
• Second, to achieve the meaningful impact communities need, and donors expect, foundations are sustaining their funding in those programs and institutions that are most successful. It is simply unrealistic to believe that one-year program support or one-shot projects will be able to achieve change, or that we will even be able to measure their impact. Again, TSF anticipated that trend, and many of our grants have been extended for two, three or even five years, helping grantees to develop sustainable programs with measurable results.
• Third, successful foundations – like other institutions – have become passionate about the quality of their governance. Trustees are recruited and nurtured for more than their financial resources – they bring insight, sound judgment, discipline, sensitivity and ethics to their deliberations. Transparency is more than a buzzword or trend; it’s an essential ingredient to the proceedings. In the TSF strategic plan we are highlighting the potential for changes in governance structure. We have already taken steps to manage conflicts of interest and to make our grant program and guidelines more open and accessible.
• Finally, foundations have recognized the importance of communicating with their constituency and the public. Too much of the work of foundations has been out of view and under the radar. As a result, much of the public knows very little about foundations or how they work, let alone why they should support them.

Better and more consistent communication is a top priority of The Schenectady Foundation as we move forward. We have a great story to tell our community, but few have heard it. We’ve been modest, a trait that reflects the values and character of TSF’s founders. While we will continue to embrace those values, we also understand that if we are going to best serve our community today, we must tell our constituents and potential donors what we do, and engage them in our mission. Our website, annual report published in the Daily Gazette, and mailings are some of the steps we are taking to more effectively get our message out.

But good communication also requires us to listen. We have begun to hold meetings in the community to hear what others have to say about Schenectady and our mission, about how we are performing and what we can do better.

The Council on Foundations conference made clear the remarkable potential of foundations -- and specifically for me The Schenectady Foundation -- for initiating change and improvement in our world. We are hopeful that you will join us as we work, guided by our new strategic plan, to meet this exciting challenge.