Enhancing the life of the city

By emphasizing philanthropy over charity, Birmingham nonprofits are ?maximizing their capacity to change the community.?

At the height of the Great Depression, the iron and steel industry that had long been the staple of Birmingham?s economy had laid off 25,000 workers from a total pre-Depression labor force of about 108,000; of those remaining, 75,000 were working reduced hours for wages that averaged $1.50 a day?an annual income of less than $6,900 in today?s currency.

Employment in durable goods manufacturing as a whole had fallen by 45 percent locally, with only about seven percent of all wage employees in Birmingham maintaining the same income they had earned before the crash. More than one in five residents of Jefferson County?over 100,000 people?were on relief, receiving assistance that averaged a whopping $9 a month per capita. Per capita income in Birmingham was the lowest of any large American city.

Into the void stepped the Community Chest?the forerunner of today?s United Way of Central Alabama?along with affiliated organizations such as the Red Cross Family Service. From the onset of the Depression in late 1929 until a county department of public welfare was created in the summer of 1933, the Chest was the only dedicated provider of relief services in Jefferson County. Even afterward, it remained the primary source of what historian Edward S. LaMonte termed ?sustained, organized relief? for the local population. Numerous other organizations and religious groups provided ad hoc programs and services, at levels of effectiveness that spanned the range from very low to extremely high.

Remarking on the altruistic social climate that prevailed in Birmingham during the Depression, LaMonte wrote of a period ?almost fondly regarded by those who lived through it as a heroic period?when people sacrificed for others and suffered immense hardship with quiet dignity.? LaMonte cited a report by local Red Cross leader Roberta Morgan, who in describing the Depression as ?an interlude, a period of waiting, a nightmare,? also offered a near-reverential assessment of the way the people of Birmingham responded to it.

In many ways, wrote Morgan, people were more normal, more humane than in so-called normal times. They rose to the great challenge in a truly remarkable way.

Changing the template

The story of Birmingham in the Great Depression has been retold many times, and is always well worth repeating for any number of reasons. In this instance, the story is apt because in its collective response to the greatest economic crisis in its history, Birmingham galvanized a template for local philanthropy that would predominate for roughly the following three-quarters of a century ? in other words, through most of the first decade of the 2000s.

Adhering to that template, Birmingham earned a reputation as one of the most charitable communities in the nation. People in Birmingham have always given time, money, or both to addressing basic social needs?feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, aiding the sick and afflicted. Birmingham also has been a giving city when it comes to meeting community needs resulting from civic crises. That goes back as far as the 1873 cholera epidemic that nearly wiped the city out in its infancy, and echoes as recently as the community-wide response to the tornadoes of April 2011 and January 2012.

Birmingham is at its best in such moments, but do those moments qualify as philanthropy? If we think of philanthropy in terms of things that uplift and transform a community, rather than those which only address specific and immediate social needs, then the honest answer is no.

Put another way, it is charity that addresses symptoms of overarching social problems, while philanthropy seeks to eradicate the problems themselves. That approach was summed up a century or more ago by John D. Rockefeller, who, among other things, was the father of targeted philanthropy.

?The best philanthropy is constantly in search of the finalities,? Rockefeller said. ?A search for a cause, an attempt to cure evils at their source.? But as an eminent archivist and chronicler of Birmingham?s history noted, that type of philanthropy was not traditionally the city?s strong suit.

?Without criticizing or denigrating any of the wonderful things that anyone has done for Birmingham,? the late Birmingham historian Marvin Whiting said in a 2009 interview, ?I have to be honest and say that we?ve never been very good at thinking about the future. What we have called philanthropy has mostly been about dealing with the issues of the present, or even the past. I do have a sense that might be changing.?

The power of people

As Whiting observed, the approach to philanthropy in Birmingham has been in a state of transition over the past several years. Here as nationally, the trend is toward ?collective giving,? concentrating financial resources strategically on highly targeted areas. While some of that shift has been due to an uncertain economy?large donors being more intentional about what they support?it?s also driven by a growing recognition of the potential for achieving transformational impacts.

Kate Nielsen, President of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. Photo by David Garrett.

?For a lot of donors, writing a check isn?t enough anymore,? declares Kate Nielsen. ?People want to see big things happen. They want to be a part of the change in Birmingham. And we?re seeing some results that suggest that people are being inspired by the results of their giving.?

Nielsen is president of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. With assets of more than $150 million, the 53-year-old foundation is the largest grantmaker in Alabama. In the past year, the foundation awarded nearly $15 million in grants to projects that fit within a ?results framework? it adopted in 2011. The framework consists of four key focus areas, encompassing education, health and fitness, sustainable growth, and economic and community development.

Since adopting the results framework, the Community Foundation has provided grants for mentoring and other enrichment programs in local schools; construction of additional space at the Innovation Depot business incubator; public health initiatives; and a summer learning program. The foundation played a critical role in securing the federal TIGER IV grant that will rebuild tornado-damaged roads and ramp up implementation of the master plan for a countywide greenway and trail system. Through its support of the Birmingham Education Foundation, it continued to work for improvements in the Birmingham City Schools. And it completed its role in administering a $13 million federal grant to fight tobacco use and obesity through the Jefferson County Health Action Partnership.

As the Community Foundation has become increasingly adept at leveraging relationships with key donors to help concentrate resources on critical projects, it also has developed an expanding network of strategic partnerships with public, private and nonprofit entities. The result is an approach to philanthropy that is breaking the traditional Birmingham mold by looking at long-range impacts.

?In the past,? Nielsen says, ?it was hard sometimes for donors to find a place to give, because they could kind of get the feeling they were giving in isolation. Now we have structures and partnerships and mechanisms in place to help donors see how their giving makes a difference. There?s a synergy to collective giving that goes far beyond individual efforts.?

??the best place to live.?

Lyord Watson, member of the Birmingham Change Fund. Photo by David Garrett.

For Lyord Watson and his fellow members of the Birmingham Change Fund, collective giving is a means of ?maximizing our capacity to change the community.? BCF began in 2004 as a small ?giving circle? of young black professionals contributing $250 apiece per month that went toward making small grants to selected nonprofits. But, says Watson, the group began seeking ways to be ?more impactful? in its giving.

?Too often, we think of philanthropy as coming from someone who is able to give large amounts of money,? Watson says. ?It?s broader in scope than that. Philanthropy is a tool for systematic change, and everybody has some capacity to contribute. Few of us are wealthy, but almost everyone can give something. Philanthropy is inclusive of anybody who wants to make a difference in their community.?

In its first round of grantmaking, in the summer of 2005, BCF awarded a total of$10,000 to four projects. Soon afterward, the organization received grants from the Ford Foundation?one of the world?s leading foundations for social change?and the Community Foundation, through which it created a donor-advised fund to house its assets. Over time, BCF also began to narrow its focus in a process not unlike what the Community Foundation was going through.

?They?ve evolved as we have,? Kate Nielsen says of BCF. ?They saw the value of being more focused, and it has made their vision even more dynamic.?

After deciding to maximize its resources on larger grants, BCF awarded $30,000 over three years to the McWane Center. Those funds are facilitating a partnership between the downtown science center and Birmingham?s W.J. Christian Elementary, a K-8 magnet school, to engage students in math and science. In the first year of the partnership, school records reflect a 28 percent increase in the number of fifth graders exceeding standards for science test scores; among seventh graders, the increase was a dramatic 80 percent.

Those results are promising, says Watson. And that initial success has convinced the members of BCF that their model for philanthropy will help it achieve what, according to Watson, is a very simple goal.

?We want Birmingham to be the best place to live,? Watson says.

A small business perspective

The real crux of the philanthropic change underway in Birmingham is engagement. The Community Foundation?s Nielsen calls it being ?civically obsessed?showing up at school board meetings, serving on an organizational board, actively volunteering.? It takes a variety of forms, from monetary gifts large and small, to volunteering one?s time, to building partnerships between people and organizations?or, if you?re a small business, perhaps providing low- or no-cost services to nonprofits or allowing employees to volunteer for their favorite nonprofit using company time and resources. The Modern Brand Company, a brand consultancy in Birmingham, does both.

Michael Bell and Brad Kachelhofer of the Modern Brand. Photo by David Garrett.

?One of the things that brings us together as a team is our shared belief that nonprofit organizations are a big part of making this city great,? says Modern Brand co-founder Michael Bell. ?Anything we can do to enhance a nonprofit?s ability to do its job is enhancing the life of the city. That can mean raising their profile, attracting donors, activating volunteers, or just being there to help them think through an issue.?

When Bell and business partner Brad Kachelhofer started Modern Brand in 2007, providing services to nonprofits in addition to start-ups and small businesses was ?our stated mission from Day One.? Their nonprofit client base?which includes the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham, the Alabama Environmental Council, Birmingham AIDS Outreach, and the Women?s Fund?has benefitted from advice and expertise they would not have been able to afford at market rates, while Modern Brand benefits from a level of community engagement that bolsters its business plan.

?We intentionally built our business to be small,? Bell explains. ?We?re the right size and in the right location to keep our overhead low. We think we have a real understanding of the challenges that nonprofits face, because they?re the same as any small business. They have to get up every day and make sure that what they?re doing fits positively with their brand. And because of our experience with nonprofits, we?ve been able to be a catalyst for creating opportunities for collaboration among organizations that had never done that before. As we see it, filling those needs and creating those opportunities is an important form of philanthropy.?

The key ingredient

What, then, is the future of philanthropy in Birmingham? Where will the current wave of evolution in philanthropic thought and deed take this historically underachieving community? How can the current momentum be sustained?

?We?ve had a need for charity in Birmingham because we have not been good at philanthropy,? says Lyord Watson. ?But right now, Birmingham is figuring out a new identity for itself. We?re coming to an understanding now that everybody needs to have skin in the game. That?s when we?ll really start moving forward.?

Michael Bell sounds a similar note, pointing out that, ?Everybody in our company lives in the city, and we?re all very involved in civic causes that mean something to our company, and that speak to our individual passions. Knowing that you?re able to do something about those things you?re passionate about, being able to see the impact of it when you walk out your door in the morning?that?s the best part.?

If the paramount objects of philanthropy are effecting sustainable progress and building on existing assets, says Kate Nielsen, then the key ingredient in maintaining philanthropic momentum in Birmingham is the presence of those civically obsessed people. The key ingredient is people who are determined to inhabit the time and place in which they live.

?For this to work,? Nielsen says, ?we have to believe in our community. Then, we have to believe that philanthropy can make the difference. We?re at a point in Birmingham where we?re pulling in serious money and seeing more and more people who are willing to roll up their sleeves. They?re doing that because they believe that this is a great place that can be even greater.

?Why would you do it otherwise??

Source: http://weldbham.com/blog/2012/11/14/12356/

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