Open Philanthropy
Description
Mark Surman:
"Most philanthropy is disconnected from creative social change. We need to respond with an open philanthropy approach that backs inventive social change agents. And, extrapolating from experience and intuition, the three strategies to try out are: openness and transparency; network-centric-ness; and emergence and leverage. Let me quickly dig into these strategies.
The idea of 'open and transparent' is the most obvious. Make sure everything you do and fund is open licensed (the Shuttleworth Foundation does this). Use blogs for the majority of grantee and program officer reporting, cutting back on internal reports that no one outside the organization ever sees (tried this with telecentre.org, to mixed effect). Use wikis for planning and documentation (lots of people doing this). The point here is not only to put outputs of your efforts into the commons, but also to create a real time narrative that people can engage with and learn from. This is harder than it sounds.
Being network-centric is the next step. This isn't just about funding networks, which many funders have done, often to poor effect. In fact, it's most importantly about being 'in the game' as a part the natural networks that you work with, and getting out of the habit of acting like an outside voice giving directions or making judgments. Anyone in the social change game will be familiar with the vibe of funders standing at the back of the room or outside the circle of conversation. A network-centric approach starts with not doing this (very Cluetrain-ish) kind of thing. It then extends to listening to the ideas and energy flows in the networks and movements where you want to a difference. And, once you're good at this, it should also include monitoring the quality of connectedness, and doing things (paying for plan tickets, supporting meetings, making introductions) where necessary to strengthen the mesh within the network. In the end, much of this boils down to being a good friend and peer with the change agents you are working with. This is the main idea we've being testing with telecentre.org. It has worked in some ways, and not in others.
The third strategy is around emergence and leverage. Part of this is about listening for good ideas and watching for strong leaders, backing them with very small amounts of support, and then seeing what happens. As they succeed in small ways, you back them more. And so on. The other part is looking across the ecosystem for gaps, and filling them (as opposed to trying to make your own big, siloed splash in a particular area). While these are in some ways separate ideas, they really do make up one strategy. They are about the way you actually make your social investments (or grants) by listening rather than planning. This is probably the toughest thing to do well, both because we're addicted to big ideas with detailed plans, and because the grant administration systems that we have built up in foundations and governments make it almost impossible to be nimble, responsive and iterative. My guess is that it's worth pushing these envelopes, as they are likely to yield the kinds of innovation and social change that we have so long said we are looking for." (http://commonspace.typepad.com/commonspace/2007/09/what-is-open-ph.html)
Characteristics
Building blocks, proposed by Lucy Bernholz:
1. Facilitate adaptation, don’t hinder it 2. Design for interoperability, local specificity will follow 3. Build for the poorest 4. Assume upward adaptability 5. Creativity and control will happen locally 6. Diversity is essential 7. Complex problems require hybrid solutions
(http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2007/01/open-sesame-building-blocks-1-and-2.html)
Discussion
Mark Surman:
"'what does an open philanthropy way of working look like?'
We brainstormed a ton on this. Some of the ideas we came up with simply described our values as a team (e.g. integrity and irreverence). However, we also unearthed a few things that feel like the essence of the open philanthropy practice we're currently inventing.
While the list is still likely to evolve, these include:
1. Open source everything. Everything that the Foundation creates, funds or helps with should be open sourced. This means: under an open license; available in an open format; and accessible from a public web site, always.
2. Share. Leverage. Share again. Open source is not just about giving (share), it's also about receiving (leverage). You don't need to look far in the software world to see this. Something like Ubuntu rests on the shoulders (and code) of giants who have shared tremendously. However, it only succeeds by leveraging these existing assets to create even more value, and then giving it back again. It's this leverage and share again process to moves things ahead. The Foundation can use this same share|leverage|share cycle to drive collaborative social innovation and radical improvement in areas like education.
3. Community as part of everything. Despite the rhetoric, most philanthropy and social investment happens in silos. The result is zero leverage, poor use of resources and slow progress. The Foundation needs to get down and dirty with communities working on education, innovation and access each step of the way. This means constantly looking at who's doing similar work, inviting them to our parties, and going to theirs. It also means befriending the enemies of those working against us. The open source world has lots to teach us about this. So does Gramsci.
4. Radical transparency. A core piece of 'open' -- open source, open events, open societies, open systems -- is being able to see what's under the hood. When you can see inside something, you can understand it, interface with it, hack it or rip it off altogether. If something is closed, you can't. Radical transparency means opening up not only your yearly books (we need to do this anyways), but also openly sharing your planning, learning and relationships as you go along. This doesn't have to be hard: just take the password off the wiki and podcast your events. By the doing things like this, the Foundation is likely to have partners who come with better ideas (interface), offer improvements (hack) and even run with things on their own (rip it off). That's what we want.
5. Listen, learn, evolve: constantly. The Cluetrain Manifesto taught us that markets are conversations. It's strange to me that so few activists have learned that the same is true of social change. Open philanthropy must include constant engagement and conversation with partners, activists, policymakers and (god forbid) customers. Knowing what these people think in real time with 80% accuracy (using cluetrain-style market research) is way better than finding out with 99% accuracy five years too late (using the rigorous and expensive evaluation processes that foundations love). This is especially true if people think what you are doing sucks, as you've still got time to fix it. The Foundation needs to get involved in this kind of listening in a very systematic way, and then to use what it is hearing and learning to steer the ship." (http://commonspace.typepad.com/commonspace/2008/02/open-philanthro.html)
Example
Mark Surman:
"In the Shuttleworth team, we already embrace some of these things in our daily practice, even if we do so far from perfectly. Everything we do and fund is under an open license. Initiatives like Siyavula and the Cape Town Open Education Declaration have community at their heart. And, we do listen, learn and evolve faster than any other foundation I have worked with. Open is deep in the DNA of the Shuttleworth Foundation, the team and most of our partners.
The thing is, embracing with these ideas isn't the same as succeeding with them. We're still a long way from having a break away hit with open sourced education. In fact, we're just starting (after four years of trying) to become more systematic about open licensing and archiving the things produced by the Foundation and its partners. And, we're still a ways off from a systematic approach to learning and transparency. The Foundation -- and this infant idea of open philanthropy -- are works in progress. We know that. It's part of the fun." (http://commonspace.typepad.com/commonspace/2008/02/open-philanthro.html)
More Information
- Manifesto for an Open Philanthropy, by Lucy Bernholz
- Open Philanthropy Exchange