By MAGGIE I. JARUZEL
Shannon St. John is founder of Second Star Philanthropic Services and a Senior Advisor to The Synergos Institute. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of the World Bank Community Foundation Initiative; a Board Member of the King Baudouin Foundation United States; and a member of the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network. Previously, St. John led the Triangle Community Foundation in North Carolina for 21 years and helped grow its assets from about $3,000 to more than $100 million. During a recent visit to Mott’s home office in Flint, she sat down with Communications Officer Maggie Jaruzel to share her thoughts about the community foundation field.
Mott: What is it about the community foundation concept that resonates so well with people -- whether they are in Rustenburg, South Africa; Togliatti, Russia; or London, England?
St. John: I trace it back to an innate human characteristic, which is the philanthropic impulse. I think it is built into the DNA of human beings to give back to places or institutions that have been good to them, or to help those who are less fortunate. Community foundations are a natural format for expressing that impulse in an organized way.
What is really fascinating about the community foundation form is that there are a number of institutions in places as diverse as Barcelona and Bombay that have grown up with all the characteristics of community foundations -- such as people within a community giving to either a common pool or to individually-named funds. Also, it’s people giving to an organization that is governed by a group of people reflective of that geographic area that then gives for the benefit of that community.
But these organizations I am talking about have never heard the words “community foundation.” They never heard about this thing started in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1914 until someone comes along and says, “Oh, you are a community foundation.” But that wasn’t how they started. It happens whether or not people call it a community foundation.
Mott: What are some basic lessons you learned by spending a couple of decades in the field that you now share with community foundation leaders around the globe?
St. John: Number one, you don’t have to start with a lot of money. Number two, the most important thing is the board. I had no stature in the community whatsoever. It was the board members that had the reputations, the status, and the track record. Not me and not the institution. Number three, the form sells itself. The notion of having a vehicle that allows a community to take care of itself is incredibly empowering wherever you are in the world. Number four, from the perspective of attracting donors, start with people where they are. Respect where they are and help them grow as philanthropists by helping them be able to see where they can make a difference. That’s really all you have to do.
Mott: Generally, what do you see as the deep and difficult long-range issues that community foundations need to address? St. John: One of them is poverty. It is pervasive and it is getting worse, not better, worldwide and also in the United States. Another on my list is racial inequality. It is deeply entrenched in this country and we have got to take it on as a nation. Environment is another one. If you asked me what I would put on the top of the list, it would be these three.
Community foundations have amassed financial resources and social capital that enable them, at this moment in time, to take on any one of these big, big, big, issues. But in order to take these on, they can’t exercise a traditional form of leadership, which says, “We are going to be the leader. Come follow.” Rather, they need a form of leadership that is shared and inclusive. These issues are so massive that no one can think about being a lone ranger.
Mott: What excites you about the worldwide community foundation field today? St. John: One thing that excites me is the
Global Fund for Community Foundations. It is evolving, not just as a funding source for community foundations internationally, but as a sort of focal point for community foundations internationally.
The field has evolved to the point that it can have this kind of an institution. It is truly an organization that is by, for, and of individual community foundations. While
WINGS CF [Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support-Community Foundations] is an association of support organizations for community foundations, the Global Fund actually interacts with individual community foundations. That is a whole new developmental stage for the field.
There are rumors that when the next global status report on community foundations comes out, it will show that -- for the first time in recorded history -- there are now more community foundations outside the U.S. than inside the U.S.
We are in the golden age. We have hundreds of entrepreneurial, risk-taking, venturesome institutions taking on the most important and the most difficult issues in their individual communities. They are linked in a worldwide network of learning and sharing and mutual respect. This is a very exciting time for community foundations.