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April 07, 2004

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ashley

a couple of my thoughts: i'm curious about the effects of bringing this process into a face to face exchange. what is the increased power and productivity that comes from staring in someone's eyes (verses submitting a well written grant proposal or business plan)? what happens to accountability when connections are made in a public forum, when idealists and philanthropists thrive off of one another's energy and then have the accountability of the public forum to encourage action and progress?

Phil Cubeta

"Accountability" implies distance and possible malfeasance. A subject much under discussion at cof.org and tpi.org, if you consult their recent writings and events. What interests me more are the lost opportunities for active and mutually beneficial collaboration for idealistic and practical ends. In a business plan money is one necessary ingredient, but you also need a vision, mission, technology, labor, and brains. As we come together in a civic space in Chicago, and here online, we may have funders frustrated at how ineffective have been their giving strategies, how little difference they have made. We may have social venture business plans that will not only work, but will also pay nonprofit investors back with a gain. We may volunteers to staff an organization with a compelling mission. We may have a poet, or leader, who can catalyze a new social movement, around justice, or generosity.

Accountability implies a crackdown on irresponsible persons in power who have used their prerogatives to gild a resume, moving from position to position, making and getting gifts, trading favors, personal, financial and political, and milking the tax code, with little thought of the public interest they purportedly serve. More interesting than routine human vanity, pride and corruption, are the opportunities for the gifted and talented, people of ends and means, to meet in a public space for the public good, as fellow citizens, and civic friends. Let's see if we can.

What do others think? Can we move beyond mere accountability to collaborative action on behalf of broadly shared ideals? Can we move beyond objectifying one another as grant-maker, grant-seeker, funder, prospect, client, or advisor, and make common cause to better effect?

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