Grantmaking insights
World magazine’s March 28 issue includes an interview with Roberta Green Ahmanson, a journalist and wife of Howard Ahmanson, Jr., a multimillionaire philanthropist.
At one point, the interviewer asks, “What have you learned about grantmaking?”
Her reply:
That you can kill something with money.
Howard gave a big grant early on to a prison ministry and a year later he cut the grant and it went out of business because it counted on him. So he learned you just don’t do that.
Also, you can’t make people do for money what they don’t want to do anyway.
If you see things you think need to be done in the world, you look around to find the people who share that vision and have the skills, ability, and drive to do those things, and come alongside them. Those have been our most successful grants, and our blessings. [Emphases added. --JAH]
I thought her insights were worth repeating.
Technorati Tags: charity, giving, philanthropy
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