BOARDMAN, Ohio -- Philanthropic foundations in the Mahoning Valley increasingly are working together to address the needs in their communities. Seven leaders of charitable foundations and two trust executives discussed the health of their philanthropic efforts Oct. 27 during a discussion held by The Business Journal.
What they said will appear in the Foundations Roundtable to be published in the MidNovember issue of The Business Journal due out this week.
Paul Dutton, chairman of the William Swanston Charitable Fund, said his philanthropy has made the transition from what he called “the old way, throwing money at projects” to a focus on working with other foundations in awarding grants.
“We decided we wanted to be more proactive and determine what the greatest need perceived was and we wanted to invite collaborators to come up with a proposal. That seems to have worked well for us,” he said. “The foundations can work together to collaborate and fund one big project. The reverse of that is to require that two or three agencies that provide similar or complementary services file a joint request and then fund that.”
Collaborations such as that, he added, are “the future of philanthropy.”
Participants at the round table said they have, over the years, re-evaluated what constitutes success, both for themselves and the recipients of funds.
“From a financial standpoint, we conduct a sustainability forecast. We looked back 25 years on how investments have gone and then we forecast ahead 20 years to see the ratio of investment,” Dutton said, so the charitable fund can continue to distribute increasing amounts each year for the next two decades.
For the Youngstown Foundation, the success of a project is measured case by case, said its executive director, Jan Strasfeld.
“It's hard to have a broad measurement [of success] because each grant that we award is different. So you have to look at each one individually. We have a process that we go through on the front end and then a follow-up grant report at the end with a follow-up visit to see the impact of what we funded,” she said. “One may be to build a building while another might be to start a program, which may not be able to be measured for a few years. It has to be evaluated on an individual basis.”
Strasfeld added that the Youngstown Foundation has been combating the perception that it is a “bricks-and-mortar organization.” For much of the history of the foundation, it has financed the construction or renovation of buildings. But more recently, she stressed, its directors have began awarding money that address social issues within the city.
Widening the scope of an organization has become crucial to a foundation's existence, the round table participants agreed, even if it means stepping outside of their traditional thinking.
The Swanston Fund, Dutton noted, was created to build an orphanage on the site of the founder's farm, but as orphanages became obsolete, the purpose of the fund was redirected to helping children in need.
“Some organizations don't have a purpose,” he said. “Somebody has to take a look at the mission and say, 'Are doing the right thing?' ”
For newer groups, such as the four-year-old Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, keeping a lookout for potential grant recipients and collaborations with other groups is key to establishing a reputation and success.
“We are proactive. We have eyes and ears out in the community. We have gone to organizations and asked them to fill out an application for us. We are not waiting for them to come to us,” said Debbi Grinstein, endowment director of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation. “We have a lot of assets and resources in the community and we're being diligent in our distribution of them.”
Also part of the roundtable discussion were Shari Harrell, president of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, Ted Roberts, a YSU trustee and president of the Poland Schools Foundation, David Sabine, senior vice president and head of the trust department in the Mahoning Valley region of Huntington Bank, Joseph DePascale, president of Farmers Trust Co., and Colleen Scott, vice president of marketing at the Home Savings and Loan Co. and head of the Home Savings Charitable Foundation.
Pictured: Participants in the roundtable discussion on Foundations, held Oct. 27 at the Holiday Inn Boardman.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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