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Boulder Daily Camera
Making Money Matter
Enid Ablowitz

September 8, 2003

Collaborative Giving

By Enid Ablowitz

Some months ago I wrote about the Millennium Trust created by the Community Foundation serving Boulder County.  The grant decision process is complete and the recipients have been selected.  (The list appears at the end of this column.)  As a member of the committee to allocate the funds, I had a new experience—the opportunity to engage in the group dynamics of grant-making.

Each year, by lottery, participating donors are selected to be on the grant selection committee to distribute a portion of the earnings from the endowment.  This year’s group was an interesting mix of people and even included an elementary student whose mother had made a donation in his name.   

There was a total of $71,000 to distribute and many more proposals than we could fund. Virtually all were worthy, but the group was charged with prioritizing.  This was accomplished through committee meetings where the short descriptive documents and the committee members were divided into groups.  Each group rated the concept papers they read and forwarded the recommendations to the next round so that the organizations could provide more detailed proposals.  The field was narrowed even farther. There were site visits and then the final meeting:  decision time. 

It was a very well organized, effective, and interactive meeting.  Comments were made and most were positive.  When organizations were cut, the decisions were accepted even by those who may have disagreed. There was a give and take, and gentle negotiation.  What surprised me, frankly, was that there was virtually no conflict.  Somehow I expected people’s individual preferences to translate into more polarizing advocacy, but that was not the case. At one point a member of the committee commented about the contrast between this collaborative venture and a typical city council meeting.

In the end, the choices reflected consensus and that is what collaborative giving is really all about.  It may have seemed less passionate simply because collective passion is muted in process based decision-making.  For those who determined this year’s Millennium Trust grants, the collaboration in many ways took precedence over the individual enthusiasm for a particular proposal. That doesn’t make group giving better or worse than individual philanthropy, just different.

The ability to come together and talk about how to make a difference in our own community, with community donations is satisfying at a deep level. The joy of personal giving was multiplied by the joy of collaboration. 

This year’s Millennium Trust fund grantees appear below:

Boulder Parks and Recreation Foundation, Inc.

Boulder Shelter for the Homeless  

Colorado Youth Program    

Community Action Development Corporation       

Community Food Share

Dental Aid 

Growing Gardens of Boulder County      

Inn Between   

Intercambio de Comunidades Espanol-Ingles       

RSVP: Retired and Senior Volunteer Program    

Women's Health      

Each of these organizations presented proposals for projects that “will provide Boulder County residents a safety net and/or move individuals requiring assistance towards self-sufficiency.”  Thousands of people will benefit from these grants in a demonstration of highly leveraged giving.  Individual gifts to the endowment averaged $100 each.  With this year’s $71,000 distribution, since 2000 the Millennium Trust has given out a quarter of a million dollars to Boulder County nonprofit organizations!

This grant process has underscored the fact that philanthropy, group or individual, is awesome in its power to transform lives. And what makes the Millennium Trust such a community jewel is that as an endowment, its annual distributions will be generated in perpetuity.

If you would like to add to the Millennium Trust fund endowment, contact Josie Heath, Executive Director of the Community Foundation serving Boulder County, 1123 Spruce Street Boulder, CO 80302 or call 303-442-0436.

Enid Ablowitz is the Vice President for Advancement at the University of Colorado Foundation, Inc., and Director of Advancement for the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities.  She has been working as a donor advocate for nearly 15 years and has written a book for donors called Making Money Matter:  Eight Steps to Thoughtful Giving. For information on how to obtain a copy, contact her at enidablowitz@hotmail.com.

You may contact Enid Ablowitz by email at enidablowitz@hotmail.com

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