Mar 04, 2009

An Era of Either/Or Choices

by Tim Ogden

One of the results of the global recession will be a new era in philanthropy. The last decade has been marked by philanthropic abundance. The number of foundations and foundation endowments grew rapidly. Flush with cash, many donors were able to avoid difficult choices—they had the means to fund lots of organizations and lots of different approaches to the issues they cared about.
Clearly, the era of abundance is over. With diminished resources donors will have to choose what causes matter most to them and what approaches and organizations they truly believe in. Put another way, donors are now faced with either/or choices rather than both/and options.

Some of these either/or choices are featured in the new issue of Alliance Magazine which I guest-edited. We solicited input from a variety of leaders in five major areas where choices will need to be made and the best option is far from obvious. The choices considered:

* Should donors concerned about global warming fund advocacy or invest in alternative energy?
* Should donors continue to focus global health dollars on HIV/AIDS or is that strategy counterproductive for public health in developing countries?
* How much should be invested in measurement and evaluation versus programs?
* Is primary or secondary education the bigger priority?
* How can societies strike the balance between honoring donor intent and ensuring philanthropy is directed to the public good?

Enjoy the perspectives offered and send your opinion on the either/or choices to be made to Alliance or post them here. Philanthropy will benefit from a debate on these issues, which acknowledges that in this era of philanthropic capital scarcity, choices can no longer be avoided.