You can’t do philanthropy alone

The ‘lone saviour’ approach won’t cut it (and it also might destroy you)

We are all, always, breathing the air of competitive, market-centred, individualistic societies. We exist within systems that encourage and reward being the best, doing the most, pursuing uniqueness, and building and protecting our little fiefdoms. The game is set up to award points for this approach and dangles the opportunity to amass great wealth and success if you do it well. But what about when you’ve played the game well enough, and then become wealthy enough, to turn your attention to philanthropy?

Unfortunately, success in business or finance can be a poor source of education when it comes to the work of making the world a better place. It teaches very little about civil society, development or how positive social change is created. And, it teaches a lot of stuff that needs to be unlearned to successfully make the move from ‘wealth creator’ to ‘impact creator’. One of the most common mindset shifts our philanthropy clients need to experience is: ‘I can’t do this alone’.

It might sound obvious, but so many successful people have a narrative about their own unique individual hard work, creativity, leadership and problem-solving abilities being the key to their success. Whether true or not, it simply doesn’t apply to philanthropy, where hubris can not just be damaging, but lethal. And this narrative often ignores systemic forces that can be inherent to success (and, also, many social ills). None of this sets anyone up for an easy journey into the world of redistributing wealth for the good of the world.

For those who are exploring or finding their place as a philanthropist, here are a few things to consider when you’re tempted to go it alone:

Interdependency

Whatever social or environmental area you have chosen to focus on will be interdependent with other issues. No matter how well you understand the issue you care about, progress on it will be thwarted by other things if you aren’t doing the work to build connections with people working in interdependent fields. And, often, you will miss vital opportunities to collaborate or more fully understand an issue if you are single-mindedly focused on ‘your’ thing. Pandemics, wars and disasters can create havoc for your work, but the needs of marginalised people are also the most frequently overlooked issues that can often derail the impact of what you’re doing. Deepening your understanding of the issues that are interdependent with your area by forming connections with and learning from those who are working on them is essential. As well as reading, listening and attending events, several funder groups enable cross-sector partnerships, with a growing database available here.

Community

You are not the first philanthropist. Nor the first philanthropist doing what you are doing, or finding the challenges you’re finding. There are generations of people who have made all the mistakes and learned all the lessons before you. ‘Starting from scratch’ isn’t the best option when it comes to philanthropy. And, there are entire groups of people who are figuring this all out alongside you now. They need you, you need them. A friend of I.G.’s, Sonal Sachdev Patel, said at a recent event we hosted together: “many of the community leaders I know have created this sense of sisterhood and solidarity for themselves. As always these community leaders, mostly women, are leading the way. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had more of this in philanthropy too?” The need for community is one of the biggest things we hear from philanthropists we work with, and the power of working in community or giving collectively is something we champion whenever we can. It’s what led us to invent The Mesa and begin to run our Collective programme, and it’s what you need to be great at what you’re doing. Trust us.

Wellbeing

A common journey for our philanthropy clients includes a difficult part we refer to as the ‘drop in the ocean’ phase. The benefits, joys, and impact of doing philanthropy can be huge, but there can sometimes be a sense that you’ll never be able to give enough, do enough, be enough, say yes enough for the scale of the problems you’re addressing. And, alongside the financial limits of what we can all do, there’s also a very real limit on our time and emotional energy. Although some may scoff at the idea that giving away money is difficult in any way, we know it can become much more than a full-time job. We help our clients to ‘budget’ within all of their resource buckets (money, time, energy, attention, networks, platform). For this reason, getting support (whether practical, administrative, strategic, emotional or social) is a big part of being successful at philanthropy, and preventing your frustrations and burnout from impacting the partners you’re working with. This support could be from a therapist, philanthropy advisors like us at I.G., a coach, or a peer within a donor group.

Implementation

It’s an obvious point, but as a philanthropist what you’re most often providing is the resources needed for change to happen. This can be an important ingredient, but it isn’t even close to the only thing needed to succeed — your partners (whether they’re nonprofits you’re funding, programmes you’re betting on, or social enterprises you’re investing in) are the implementors of the impact. They’re also often the ones assuming most of the risk, losing most of the sleep, and doing most of the hard work. You are relying on them, partnering with them — and any impact that comes from that, even if the focus area or programme itself was your idea, is usually theirs. Having vast amounts of money to spend means very little if you cannot find the right partners to catalyse that into meaningful work. And finding them is not the only step you need to get right — building great, trusting, sustainable partnerships is a whole skill in itself. You will do better learning this skill through training from donor groups, or leveraging the expertise of philanthropic advisors, than picking it up through trial and error.

Accountability

Philanthropy can be a powerful way to collaborate with others to create impact, but it brings with it some very challenging power dynamics. As you may know very well, having money changes your relationships with others, and how they engage with you. This is usually because you have the ability to make or break something, and the freedom and safety to push for what you think is best without consequence. Obviously, part of being a thoughtful philanthropist is naming and navigating these dynamics carefully, but a key reason to ensure you’re never working alone is so you can ensure you will be held to account if you are falling short of what is needed. If there is no one in your philanthropic life who can tell you if you are pushing a bad idea, pressuring your partners into something that isn’t what their communities need, or demanding too much of the nonprofits you’re working with, how will you learn or improve? Work to understand the qualities of any people who have changed your mind or enabled you to see that you need to do things differently (e.g. expertise, diplomacy, empathy, seniority, experience) and surround yourself with those types of people (as advisors, a board, a get-together every so often) to create situations in which you are challenged and held to account.

Government

Part of the ‘drop in the bucket’ phase of learning for our clients is realising that philanthropy alone will never solve anything, but it doesn’t need to! Philanthropy has a unique, catalytic role to play in the creation of social change. It can take risks, make bets, champion movements in a way that governments and multilaterals never could. However, the ‘end game’ of those risks and big bets cannot just be the perpetual funding of philanthropy — at some point, services, policies and ideas must be adopted by governments and international decision-makers to be most effective and sustainable. This means, your philanthropy is dependent on those systems, and must also work to ensure their core tenants (democracy, civic participation, voter rights, tax justice) are functioning healthily. You could do this by funding campaigns and other work in those areas, flexing your own civic influence where appropriate, and advocating for these issues when you have a platform from which to speak. You could also ensure you’re working closely with government and public services to understand where the needs are (the UK’s open data, for example, can be used to target giving) rather than duplicating or blocking work that is already happening.

This list is far from exhaustive, but I hope it is a starting point for all wealth holders who are exploring their philanthropy and feeling lonely or being tempted to stay in their silo or echo-chamber. Doing philanthropy alone is risky for you, your issue areas, and society as a whole, but together we can give in better and more effective ways. If you would like specialist, independent support on your philanthropy (no matter which stage you are at), I.G. Advisors is here to help. Reach out to schedule a free initial consultation with one of our amazing team of advisors, or let us help you find the right community, network, or peer support for you.