"How then shall we lead?" I asked the caterpillar?
"How then are you sourced and what resources you?" said the wise soul.Today was probably the six thousandth visit I have made to the home of funders over my 35 years as a philanthropic advisor. Before going, I'd been full of questions like: "Will our nonprofit sector stagnate or thrive. How blessed we have been. And yet, worry I do, as it's been the hardest of times for development in the nearly half century that I have been supporting the release and redirection of resources for higher purpose this Fall through the retrenchment of donors and volunteers?" We face a crisis of confidence in our very economic systems. I see great suffering on a daily basis as well as enormous optimism given the bold efforts of many. And, by enlarge, I am a person of faith who has had, as most of us in the Western and developed world have, a life that surpasses the freedoms and opportunities of most queens and kings of history.
How, in what language, or with what shrug or mildly dismissive/tolerant, parent to child, smile might a Paul Brest, a Pierre Omidyar, a Bill Gates, leaders committed to strategic, or what might be called managerial, philanthropy, respond to the question, How are you sourced? About like they would respond to "Buddy you can you spare a dime? When strategic grant-makers get together to share best practices, prayer, meditation, and the liberals arts do not make the short list. But whatever rituals of giving , whatever linguistic Totems, a giver needs to part with the money, are ok with me.
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