Any national donor large enough to put out press releases that issues one about making a bunch of $25,000 grants is either trying to fool other people or themselves.
Some months ago, just after the naming of my successor as president of ProPublica, I took the opportunity in another venue to give some unsolicited advice to leaders of nonprofit news organizations. Today, with that successor happily in place, I want to turn around and do the same favor for major donors to nonprofit journalism (or most anything else, for that matter), those with hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars at their disposal.
Here are four important ways I think they can make a bigger difference:
Make fewer, larger grants
One of the principal challenges of practicing philanthropy is saying no to people who ask for money within the power of your gift, many of whom could make good use of it. In far too many cases, the response is to try to say no to as few such supplicants as possible, to spread the available resources around. Consortia arise to facilitate this — trade associations, donor collaboratives. The showering of smaller grants is widely applauded (each recipient, its executives and Board members, chimes in) and grantmakers feel good about themselves. They shouldn’t.
Take some real risks
Institutional philanthropy loves to think of itself as “risk capital,” and it surely could be (nothing is stopping it), but the track record here is spotty at best. Very few of the most important or enduring innovations in nonprofit journalism began with institutional funding. Perhaps even more indicative, you almost never hear of funders acknowledging the failure of past grants. True risk capital does this frequently — failures are the surest proof you were taking risks. If you fear failure, or being seen to fail, you are not inclined toward risk — and you are missing opportunities to spur change.
Insist on metrics for success, but…
In the last decade, “metrics” became something of a dirty word among leaders in nonprofit journalism. It needn’t be.
Funders should insist that grantees agree in advance how success will be measured, and it’s essential that whatever metrics are chosen be something that could be attained — but also might not be. The key, however, is that it should be the grantee, not the donor, who chooses the metrics, and how they will be measured. News organizations should have to satisfy prospective donors that they are sufficiently ambitious and accountable, but they should not have to meet one-size-fits-all objectives.
Streamline the process
This is the most prosaic of my recommendations, but it can make a real difference in the operations of grantees. If you are giving them your money, you shouldn’t want to waste their time, or any of your funds.