The disposable nonprofit. It’s time!

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Cameras, contacts, razors, cars…everything’s disposable these days…except some things that SHOULD be. Let us explain.

It seems there are two types of nonprofit organizations:

Some nonprofits invest in peoples’ well being. YMCA’s, senior citizens’ centers and 4-H Clubs fall into this category. Even though times change and people change, it’s pretty likely that there will be a long-term need for healthy minds and bodies. Some segment of the population will always be senior citizens. And the need to invest in young people will never go away! Such organizations need to be strong, long lasting and sustainable.

Other nonprofits exist to solve a social ill (such as child abuse and neglect) or cure a disease (like polio). In our opinion these nonprofit organizations should be short term in nature and approach their work from a “trying to put themselves out of business” point of view. In other words, these nonprofits should be disposable. They should work hard to fulfill their purpose and, BOOM, be gone.

Problems arise when organizations designed to solve social ills begin to behave like nonprofits that invest in people’s well being.  Their focus shifts toward buildings and equipment.    Money gets spent on the wrong things.  Solving the original problem gets buried underneath day-t0-day business and busyness.

If you work for a nonprofit or serve on a board of directors, analyze which kind of nonprofit yours is.  Then, ask yourself, “Should we be trying to last forever or should we try to put ourselves out of business?”

Walk that talk!!!

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It’s easy to suggest that your spouse should exercise and cut out soda.  It’s another thing entirely when you have to lace up your sneakers and avoid the sweet brown fizzy stuff yourself.

It’s called walking the talk.  It’s hard!

At the Dekko Foundation we ask our grantseekers to take a step back from their work and deeply consider what children and young people need to grow and develop.  To be sure that we walk our talk, we’ve stepped back from our work to consider:  What do teens need from us as grantmaking professionals?

We researched teens and their needs, and here’s what we found:

  • After being in school for so many years, teens are a little bit tired of formal learning.  They want to do something hands on!
  • They’re searching for a sense of purpose in their lives.
  • They’re capable of advanced reasoning…think problem solving.
  • They may become philanthropic if led in that direction.

Knowing these things, it seemed natural for us to teach our field of philanthropy to teens.  Our latest video shows what we (and the kids) are learning!

If you know a group of young people who want to make their community a better place, make them aware of our grants for youth philanthropy.

Four surprising things we’ve learned

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Working at a private foundation is interesting. We meet uplifting, passionate people. We see the success stories (and the ticks and fleas) of hundreds of nonprofits each year. We’ve learned a few things along the way:
1. It’s darkest before the dawn. Last week someone called about a grant extension because fundraising was lagging. This week they emailed to say they completed their capital campaign!
2. Grantseekers groan at setting project results. But love it when they exceed those very same goals. Human nature!
3. Even experienced grantseekers hesitate to ask questions. We think it’s the only way to get good work done. Please call 260-347-1278.
4. No one applies for grants in December. Maybe it’s all of the parties, Christmas programs, eating, shopping and wrapping…but no one sends grant apps in December. Look out January 2 though.

We did then what we knew how to do…

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One of our best-loved initiatives is the area of youth philanthropy.

The chance to teach young people to contribute their time, talent and treasure is as rewarding as work gets.  And it matters too! A recent survey across our grantmaking areas ranked alumni’s youth philanthropy experience from influential to groundbreaking!

This year marks our twentieth year of investing in youth philanthropy. So how did we celebrate?  Um.  Well. We dismantled the whole thing.

You heard us.   Alumni loved it.  They said it changed who they are and how they think.  We took it apart.

Here’s why:  We thought our youth philanthropy effort was missing something.  That ‘something’ was the chance to offer a large number of young people the developmental experiences that they need to thrive.

Now we look at things differently.

  • In the past we thought of youth philanthropy groups. Groups are fine…but not all kids, or issues, need ongoing participation.
  • We’re reaching beyond teens who belong to every club to include teens who haven’t yet found a place to belong.
  • We’re challenging young people to bring about real, measurable, community change.  Youth development knowledge tells us that teens build self-esteem when they can contribute and make their community better!  We want that for them!

It was hard to change a successful initiative, but in the words of Maya Angelou, “I did then what I knew how to do.  Now that I know better I do better.”   We just know better now.

If you know a young person or group of young people who might be interested in changing their community for the better, please share our grant application with them.  We welcome their questions, and yours!

dekko@dekkofounation.org

Phone:  260-347-1278

 

Doing it to youth, for youth or with youth?

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You won’t want to miss this…we’re going to tell a little story on ourselves.

About ten years ago we decided to add youth members to our Grant Review Committee (the group of community people who advise our board of directors on which grant investments to make).  We just knew that serving on this committee would be a great experience for teens.  Think of the experiences they’d have! Think of the people they’d meet!  (Us–ha ha.)

While those guinea pig teens DO report having good experiences on our committee, it didn’t take us very long to realize that the learning was mostly taking place in us adults!  We heard fresh voices.  We saw first-hand the capabilities of young people.  We remembered (if a little late) that teens SHOULD be pretty good at selecting great youth development proposals.

It was a humbling experience for us, and one that we haven’t forgotten.  Since that time we’ve found more and more ways to include the voices and thoughts of young people into our work.  For what it’s worth here’s a little question that we ask ourselves when we’re planning work with young people:

  • Are we doing it to young people?  (Kids come but there’s little, if any, youth voice.)
  • Are we doing it for young people?  (The capabilities of young people to contribute and improve things go unused.)
  • Are we doing with young people?  (Learning and going forward together seems to be REAL youth development.  It’s messy though and often takes longer…like baking cookies with small children.)

To read more of our thoughts on what children need to grow and develop, visit the Adolescent Development section of our website.