Dear Friends,
Do private foundations really make a difference?
There is no easy answer to this question. Hutton Foundation and its staff have spent the last 12 years identifying and developing funding programs and opportunities within the nonprofit sector that have had some positive impact, whether the impact be immediate or long term.
The frequent debate among foundation professionals and discussion at sector gatherings is not, “Does the nonprofit sector make our communities better?” The more critical question is, “Does the existence of private foundations truly enrich our communities or would it be better to disperse the foundations’ resources in their entirety to local nonprofits and cease to exist?”
Once again, this is not an easy question for someone who has worked many years to help accumulate the resources that endowed the foundation and then has worked equally as hard to develop the mechanisms to disperse the money.
We at Hutton have attempted to leverage our dollars to buy office buildings in communities where office space is difficult for nonprofits to lease and then fill these buildings with nonprofit tenants. We have worked with the private sector to offer media outreach programs. The granting process, while requiring a little more effort from the grantee, helps provide oversight and direction, but with all this we still ask, “Does a private foundation really make a difference?”
It seems to me, only when we stop asking this question, do we lose our effectiveness and purpose.
With warm regards,
Thomas C. Parker
PRESIDENT
