Summer 2008
Foundation Trustees: Personal Values, Public
Needs, Principled Action
You search Minnesota Grantmakers Online. You peer at the websites. You leave
some voicemails and send some e-mails. Sound familiar? If you're a
grantseeker in Minnesota, you try lots of ways to find the fit between your
nonprofit's mission and local foundations.
But what you really want to know is who is sitting in the board room. Who
will be nodding his or her head in agreement when your proposal is
presented?
For this issue of Giving Forum, we chatted with foundation trustees and the
staff members who work with them. We asked about their values and hopes,
their challenges, and how they go about their day-to-day work, trying to
make our communities a little better, a little stronger.
Foundation Mission and Personal Values
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Corey Sauer |
All trustees bring their personal values to their work. In family foundations, those values are closely tied to mission. Corey Sauer, trustee and president-elect of the Sauer Children's Renew Foundation, describes his family foundation's origin: "The foundation was conceived by my parents to help disadvantaged children. They came from poverty and dysfunctional families, so through their personal experience, they felt a powerful need to improve kids' lives."
When started in 1996, the Sauer foundation had a closed grantmaking process; the board members identified charities helping children, and unsolicited proposals were not accepted. Sauer's mother, Pat, ran the foundation from their home.
Within the last two years much has changed. The Sauer family has hired its first executive director, new grantmaking processes have been established, and the trustees have worked hard to clearly define what "disadvantaged children" means to them and how they can help.
"It's been a challenging, but necessary, process," says Sauer. "We have a better understanding of what it means to be homeless, poor or suffering from abuse or neglect, and how those areas overlap."
The Sundance Family Foundation is an even younger organization, just five years old. The values, ethics and beliefs of founders Nancy Jacobs and Mark Sandercott have shaped the mission and guided selection of non-family trustees.
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Nancy Jacobs |
"We have chosen people who we believe reflect the community at large: diverse in age and ethnic background, work environments and experiences," describes Jacobs. "We have a very dynamic and active board of directors; they are making more of a contribution than simply sitting at the table and voting yes."
The Sundance mission — to support and strengthen family stability worldwide — has also been shaped by Jacobs' experience as an educator in urban Minneapolis. "My husband and I have always believed in the importance of a stable family unit in order for individuals to prosper on all levels in our society," says Jacobs.
Intersection of Foundation, Corporate Missions
For trustees or directors of corporate giving programs, values often align on many levels: personal, organizational and community. Their philanthropic focus often includes support of the communities where company facilities are located.
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Sandy Meurlot |
Sandy Meurlot, vice president at The Toro Company and committee member of the company giving program, notes that enhancing the communities where employees live and work is good business and simple common sense. Toro's corporate goal to beautify and preserve outdoor environments carries through to philanthropic support of organizations that focus on the environment and education.
Senior leaders at Toro get very involved in the community, says Judson Tharin, manager of the Toro giving program and community relations: "Volunteering brings them closer to our grantmaking." Meurlot adds that volunteering is not only educational but fun, such as when they help out at the Minnesota Zoo, work at the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, build a playground, or work at their local food shelf.
At the Deluxe Corporation Foundation, the mission focuses on philanthropy and volunteerism to enrich people's lives. Jenny Anderson, director of foundations and community affairs, says that the Reading for Life grants program is complemented by employee volunteers who tutor students in elementary schools. To her, the idea that Deluxe can help struggling readers not only with money for school and community programs, but also by having employees volunteering directly with the kids, is very appealing. "Let's face it," she says, "time is money."
In addition to supporting literacy, Deluxe focuses on other community needs related to its core businesses. Grants to WomenVenture, MEDA and other programs help individuals with limited incomes become self-sufficient and gain business and economic skills.
Trustees Wear Multiple Hats
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Jenny Anderson |
Sometimes staff and trustee roles overlap. For instance, Anderson is a full-time staff person managing the Deluxe Foundation, but she is also one of the voting directors. While she focuses solely on the corporate giving program, all the other directors — officers of the corporation — have many other corporate responsibilities; therefore, they can spend only a small portion of their time on foundation business. "The directors depend on my comments because of my daily interaction with nonprofits and other corporate grantmakers," she explains.
Her role includes everything from overseeing volunteer management, to review of foundation operations, to preparing financial and other reports for the board. And then there are the special requests from employees at facilities around the country, plus processing matching gifts and handling employee communications.
At the Sauer Children's Renew Foundation, Corey Sauer serves in a unique combination of roles: administrative assistant to the executive director and president-elect of the board of trustees. He took on the staff role so he could learn "from the ground up." He says: "It's given me a real appreciation for how complicated it is to run even a small foundation. It's basically a business that must be run in an ethical, orderly way.
"I'm doing my regular duties as administrative assistant, but my brain is also working as a trustee, so I can apply what I've learned and be ready for the next change," notes Sauer. And change will come soon. As he prepares to become president of the foundation this fall, he will leave his staff position to avoid any conflict of interest and eliminate confusion about whether he is the executive director's subordinate or supervisor.
Meurlot at Toro balances her foundation duties with major responsibilities within the company. As vice president of operations, she is responsible for all 13 manufacturing facilities, sourcing, logistics, and after-market services. She is also the executive sponsor of the company's volunteer committee. Says Tharin about Meurlot, "She's very connected with employees at all levels." And Meurlot says that her walk-around management style helps her understand what employees support and care about outside of work, which indirectly influences her view of giving to the community.
How Funding Decisions are Made
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Tom Crosby |
Few trustees wear more hats than Tom Crosby, who serves on boards of four very different types of foundations: his family's Carolyn Foundation, the corporate giving program of his employer, Faegre & Benson, and two other private foundations, Robina Foundation and The Ted & Roberta Mann Foundation.
At Carolyn Foundation, Crosby is director emeritus. His son Stewart chairs the foundation board. The elder Crosby sees his role as one of bringing historical perspective; he and a few other family members have a fairly good recollection of the evolution of the foundation since its founding in 1964.
Back then, Crosby's father and uncle made most of the giving decisions. Now the Carolyn Foundation has a professional executive director, and a distribution committee of five family members makes decisions subject to board approval.
"We determined that the foundation should not be a substitute for personal family giving," Crosby explains. "This tends to put some distance between the family members' personal objectives and the objectives of the foundation, so the foundation operates independently." He adds that the distribution committee has a grading system so there are few personality conflicts within the family.
As president of the Faegre & Benson Foundation, Crosby engages with the management committee to establish giving guidelines. As a member of the Minnesota Keystone Program, the firm has a goal of giving away 2 percent of its annual profit, plus contributing pro bono legal services up to 5 percent.
"We have a distinct charitable budget that is not to be confused with the marketing budget," says Crosby, so buying tables at events or sponsoring golf outings is infrequent and not considered a charitable activity. Faegre & Benson's giving focuses on law-related charities, cultural contributions, human services and other community organizations. "Most of the giving is on a repeat basis to annual campaigns," he explains. "It's a hard list to get on, but if you continue to do the job you set out to do, giving continues."
Nancy Jacobs shares how the decision-making process evolved at Sundance: "The first year we wanted to save the world. But when you're overwhelmed with applications and proposals, you realize you must narrow the focus — you don't want to waste people's time and create false hopes." She adds that it took lots of work to soul search and be very logical and purposeful in their decision-making. "We had to let some things go for other foundations to do. That frees us to be better at what we do."
She says they are especially proud of their leadership in international grantmaking, supporting sustainable programs that strive to eradicate the crippling grips of poverty. "Our grants go toward programs in Russia, Africa, South America and Latin America," Jacobs says. "They assist communities and individuals by way of microfinance, and programs in health, education, food production and sanitation, to name a few."
Traits of an Effective Trustee
"It's always nice when a foundation board member understands the challenges of
the nonprofit sector, like the uncertainties of funding," says Anderson at Deluxe. But, she adds, trustees also need to have a constant awareness of what is best for the foundation.
Crosby believes that trustees need to be reasonable and well-informed and have basic skills such as the ability to read financial reports. "A good trustee also knows how to rely on others, like Becky Erdahl [executive director of Carolyn Foundation]," he notes. "And at Robina we have some very well-qualified trustees and we rely on their judgments."
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Directors of corporate giving programs get engaged in volunteerism as well as grantmaking. Here, two employees of The Toro Company
take a break from working at the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. Toro giving program committee member Sandy Meurlot says that what
employees support and care about indirectly influences her view of giving to the community.
Photo courtesy of The Toro Company. |
As a corporate and foundation officer, Meurlot at Toro sees how the qualities of a great management team benefit everyone through respect, trust, accountability and a commitment to the overall good of the organization and the community.
Sauer ranks compassion high on the list: "There are people who don't have what we have, the opportunities, the same kind of people in their lives who care about them and care about what happens to them. Our foundation family is a village unto ourselves, watching out for each other, and we appreciate how that is really important for kids who don't have that."
Nancy Jacobs says that the Sundance trustees reflect the beliefs she and her husband hold: commitment, honesty, candor and respect for differences, among others. "Some of our world views are quite different — like political values — but our ethics and values are the same," she reflects.
Practicing the Principles
The MCF Principles for Grantmakers are guideposts for the work of Minnesota philanthropists. While MCF members subscribe to all eight principles, some really stand out in day-to-day work.
"I've always liked the Respectful Relationships Principle because it reflects my favorite Deluxe core value, 'respect and dignity for all,'" says Anderson. "This Principle reminds both grantmaker and grantseeker of the importance of trust. Guarding information that has been shared in confidence is paramount to building strong funding partnerships."
The Transparency Principle ranks high on Toro's list. "In 2014 Toro will celebrate its 100th anniversary," says Meurlot. "We are very protective of our ethics and business processes. Toro must be seen in the right light in the community, and we need to promote a culture where employees want to work."
That emphasis on ethics was recently recognized when Toro was honored with the Minnesota Business Ethics Award by the Center for Ethical Business Cultures at the University of St. Thomas.
Sauer notes that the Respectful Relationships and Transparency Principles, among others, are central to his foundation's work. "We try to communicate clearly and respectfully with our grantees: to not be redundant or overbearing in our requests," he explains.
The Sundance trustees are also respectful of differences, among themselves and in the community at large. "At every board meeting we do a self-assessment," explains Jacobs. "Are we meeting the mark? Are we understanding ourselves better?"
Engaging Diversity
Foundations and corporate giving programs also pay close attention to the Diversity Principle. Anderson notes that the extent to which Deluxe supports diverse populations really comes through on grant reports. Many of the company's human service and education grantees serve low-income children of color and English language learners.
Toro supports Minneapolis Parks & Recreation and other programs that raise urban school students' interest in and understanding of environmental issues. Tharin notes that 90 percent of the participants in these programs are from disadvantaged communities. Toro also provides in-kind support to enhance the facilities of urban nonprofits, such as the Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center in Minneapolis.
Sauer comments that their family foundation mission of helping disadvantaged children knows no boundaries by gender, race, or economic class. "We can't make decisions on old stereotypes or long-held beliefs," he explains. "Each charity must be weighed on its own merit." The trustees are committed to self-reflection and self-assessment and work to educate themselves to understand diverse populations.
At Sundance, diversity is "a 'no brainer,'" says Jacobs. "We as a board try to reflect what we see on the changing local and global levels. We are not all like-minded in our thinking of how people need help in our world, and we have some pretty dynamic conversations as a result."
© Copyright 2008 Minnesota Council on Foundations
Reproduction in any form without the written permission of the publisher
is prohibited.
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