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Philanthropy with a new focus
18 April 2010 By Emma Kennedy
In the two decades since Ellen Remmer first became involved in philanthropy, the landscape of donating has changed hugely.
The American philanthropist was in Dublin last week to speak at the launch of a dedicated charity fund for women’s causes. The fund was launched with an initial €100,000 by the Community Foundation for Ireland (CFI), which matches causes and donors and has an endowment fund to support charity organisations.
It’s a novel approach in Ireland, where philanthropy is still in its relatively early stages, but in the US, the concept has a more solid foundation.
Remmer’s family established its foundation in the late 1980s to support charitable causes, using some of the proceeds of the sale of the family engineering business to Mitsubishi.
The family’s charitable foundation gradually took on a much greater sense of direction and now its aim is to fund projects to support disadvantaged girls.
‘‘As we started to learn about what it means to be a foundation - this was 20 years ago, so it was not so common then - we got really excited about the notion of strategic giving," said Remmer.
The idea of using a fund to support specific causes was something Remmer first considered after a conference organised by the Philanthropic Initiative, a Boston-based consultancy. Remmer was so impressed by the organisation’s vision that she became increasingly involved, and she now serves as its chief executive and president.
The Philanthropic Initiative provides consultancy for companies which want to develop a charity strategy, and also advises high-net-worth individuals and families, such as Remmer’s, who run a charitable foundation.
With the bite of recession being felt around the world, raising money is proving challenging - regardless of the cause.
‘‘It is going to be harder to get the mega-gifts that will get it going but, on the other hand, I think all the wealth and mega-gifts made people feel like somebody else was taking care of it," said Remmer.
‘‘In some ways, this means a larger group of people will have to contribute, and that’s a good thing.
‘‘People were giving such huge gifts to charity that people who were giving smaller gifts felt like their money wasn’t needed. It’s a question of getting more people engaged."
The focus of Remmer’s own family foundation means that she appreciates the demand for the CFI’s latest fund.
The new fund will support a range of projects for women, including those that tackle poverty, domestic violence, access to education and trafficking and prostitution.
For Remmer, the growth in awareness of women’s issues - and, more broadly, the growth in the whole concept of philanthropy- over the last two decades has been extremely satisfying.
However, she said that in order for a women’s fund to really take off, it needed to be inclusive.
‘‘When dedicated women’s funds first began in the US, they were very politically liberal, left-wing organisations. Women of wealth didn’t actually feel that comfortable," she said.
In her view, the funds that have sustained the test of time and grown are ones that operate on a more inclusive basis and ‘‘seem welcoming to a broader group of women’’.
While some would question the egality of a fund for women alone, Remmer said it was not about excluding men, but about having focus and using experience to effect greater change.
She thinks that there is room for a whole host of dedicated funds, each with specific objectives.
‘‘For example, there are a lot of issues affecting young men, and a fund focused on that wouldn’t be a bad thing," she said. However, she thinks there is a need to support women, as considerable international research shows that women tend to invest in their families more than men. Put simply, Remmer thinks most of the poor of the world are women and children.
Regardless of which charities or causes one supports, Remmer is adamant that it’s not just those with money who can make a difference. ‘‘Money is a powerful tool and gives you a place at the table and allows you the flexibility to do things, but the thing I have learned is that it is about deciding you are empowered to be able to change things.
‘‘It is just easier if you have money, but in fact, we all can play that role.
Money is just a tool, but just giving money without the rest of the package is not going to be very powerful.
‘‘That’s part of what strategic philanthropy is - you are getting smarter and smarter about an issue, you know the right people to bring into it and that’s how you get the leverage."
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