NGO Soul + Strategy 056. Philanthropy that’s less colonial in mindset and practices: John Hecklinger @ Global Fund for Children
Summary
What’s problematic about philanthropy in the ways the sector has practiced it for many decades?
Are there limits to trust-based philanthropy?
How do boards of grant-making philanthropies such as the Global Fund for Children have to change their composition, mindset, and oversight practices to lessen a compliance and upward accountability lens and to make themselves more responsive to actual needs?
In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview John Hecklinger, President and CEO at Global Fund for Children, on how we can practice philanthropy that’s less colonial in mindset and practices.
John’s Bio:
- President and CEO, Global Fund for Children (GFC)
- Co-Chair, Alliance for International Youth Development
- Chief Program Officer, Global Giving
- Business development director, Global Giving
- Director of Data Acquisition in the private sector
- Peacecorp volunteer (US volunteering program)
We discuss:
- Global Fund for Children acts as an intermediary in on-granting philanthropic resources from family and corporate foundations to child and youth-focused, local civil society organizations. It also facilitates peer cohort capacity strengthening among grantee partners
- What John learned from working at Global Giving in terms of its innovative role in introducing crowdfunding to the nonprofit and citizen-giving sector
- The risks when well-intentioned philanthropic organizations reinforce a mindset of compliance and upward accountability
- GFC stimulates homegrown philanthropy because communities have assets that can be leveraged
- How GFC’s board had to evolve in composition, mindset and practices composition to be liberated from simply approving ‘pre-baked’ dockets of prepared projects and to move to an approach that allowed GFC to become more flexible and responsive to needs
- What does the future of philanthropy look like, beyond grantmaking, when on-granting organizations such as GFC have taken themselves out of the picture?
Quotes:
“Everyone was getting smarter together once the board composition became more representative of the grantee partners it worked with”
Resources:
Global Fund for Children (GFC) Website
Podcast episode #22, NGO Soul + Strategy, with Dorothy Nyambi of MEDA
Benchmarking study on Shifting Power among 17 CSOs (International Civil Society Centre)
Youtube video of this podcast
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