‘Strategic Philanthropy’ Shifts Too Much Power to Donors

The debate over whether “strategic philanthropy” is a good idea was ignited again this month when the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation — a key pioneer and promoter of the approach — invited William Schambra, head of the Hudson Institute’s philanthropy center, to visit the fund and give an unvarnished view of whether it works.

Mr. Schambra, who is a Chronicle columnist, is not a fan. But the debate on nonprofit blogs and elsewhere that ensued after his remarks were published by Nonprofit Quarterly fails to grapple with the real issues raised by strategic philanthropy: It marks a fundamental shift in control and power by donors to call all the shots and exclude nonprofits with great new ideas.

Paul Brest, who last year retired as chief executive of Hewlett, defended the approach after Mr. Schambra’s attack. He defines strategic philanthropy as “the setting of clear goals, developing sound evidence-based strategies for achieving them, measuring progress along the way to achieving them, and determining whether you were actually successful in reaching the goals.”

Mr. Schambra argues that such approaches lead to expensive and exhaustive evaluations that are often meaningless. Instead, he says, foundations should listen more to community groups and the constituencies they serve to figure out where money is most needed.

Mr. Brest, in his rebuttal to Mr. Schambra, acknowledged that community perspectives are an important ingredient of the philanthropic process but nevertheless seems impervious to the danger that a growing number of foundations and wealthy donors pose to the vitality of democratic institutions. His vision is based on the idea that the goals and priorities of nonprofits need to align with those of foundations, in essence saying that philanthropists should set the agenda for nonprofits.

Such arguments make it clear why we now face a dangerous shift of the balance of power in the nonprofit world.