Social Endowments

You have to feel for the CEOs of small non-profits, always worrying about payroll, how they’re going to make the next utility payment, or how they’re going to keep the Board happy with steady growth and positive change on empty pockets and slack operational income.

CEOs of small non-profits and their poor finance directors come in every day dreading the checks they have to write and the priorities decisions they have to juggle. Income is never enough, so grants and fundraising are critical but so many grants won’t pay for operational expenses. Grantors seem to prefer to fund projects with short-term outcomes. After all, they have Boards of their own to keep happy.

One of the CEOs we work with recently expressed an interesting thought. He wished out loud that more grantors would set aside their egos and provide long-term socially responsible endowments. Specifically, he wished someone would underwrite putting solar panels on his roof. With net metering, he reasoned he could reduce his utility costs by half. It seems the electricity check each month was his thorn in the side and something as simple as solar would be the equivalent of a perpetual endowment. AND help the environment at the same time.

A strategically thinking grantor could double down on their “do-gooding” by adopting this approach. For example, payroll is perhaps the #1 expense for any small non-profit so they write grant requests that help pay for staff. Imagine the long-term community dialogue and future donor potential from grants that endow a rotating Chair of local scientists, historians, or educators. For some museums, securing a loan is their thorn, especially if their #1 asset may be the collections they can’t ethically leverage as collateral or an old building that a bank doesn’t want to inherit. A grantor who will lend their clout to guarantee a low-interest loan would be golden to a small non-profit. Other social endowments might include perpetual accounts to augment other operational costs, whether for (locally-grown) groceries for the cafeteria, guaranteed admission tickets for underserved families, or to augment employee incentives with a wellness program.

Read More >>

“If a tree falls in the forest…”

(Reposted from August 13, 2011)

There’s an interesting discussion brewing in NASA’s HQ and around its centers concerning the concept of “indefinite loans” by NASA of aircraft and artifacts for public display.

On the one hand, Logistics Management cites NASA aircraft policy, Federal Property management regulations and NASA regulation 4300.1. They point out that items are supposed to be disposed of when no longer needed operationally. Also, if an item on the books is on indefinite or long-term loan, NASA must not have an operational need for it.

On the other side of the aisle is Public Outreach and center exhibits managers, who cite the Space Act of 1958 and NASA regulation 1387.1. NASA communicators point out the legitimacy of informing the public as one of NASA’s four charted missions. Their position is that long-term and even indefinite loans support their mission and therefore these loaned items still serve an operational purpose.

Although it is truly a tempest in a teapot when we’re wrestling with so many larger issues these days, it does come down to a basic, age-old question: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it actually fall?”

In other words, if a space mission happened and no one heard about it or learned from it, by how much is the feat diminished? If the answer is “lots,” one could argue that education and public outreach and NASA’s public affairs and communication functions are key NASA operations in their own right and the tools they use (such as static aircraft and artifact loans) have legitimate operational uses, too.

Read More >>