The Chronicle of Philanthropy    --    May 15, 2008

The Challenges of Giving
Grant makers debate how to deal with government, poverty, and demands for diversity

By Brennen Jensen, Peter Panepento, Suzanne Perry, and Caroline Preston

 Concern about how best to help the poor, both in the United States and abroad, emerged as a central theme at conference sessions.
 Foundations need to abandon short-term thinking and be more flexible when they analyze grant applications for antipoverty efforts, some said. “We have to be willing to take some risks,” said Kafi D. Blumenfield, chief executive of the Liberty Hill Foundation, in Los Angeles.
 The risky nature of working with small organizations in poor neighborhoods prompts many foundations to pour money into more-established charities. But Ms. Blumenfield says foundations that take the time to get to know the people who work in those neighborhoods make smart investments and produce meaningful improvements.
 The Liberty Hill Foundation, for example, has recruited people in Los Angeles’s most downtrodden neighborhoods to help advise its program officers and board members on which charities to support.
 One issue drawing new attention from some grant makers is how to help the thousands of children who cross the Mexican border alone in search of their families – children face human trafficking, detention, and long separations from relatives.
 Hispanics in Philanthropy, a nonprofit group in San Francisco, and Fundemex, an alliance of businesses in Mexico, have formed a partnership around the issue.
 “A child isn’t concerned with national borders; a child simply wants to live with his family,” said Margarita Zavala, the first lady of Mexico, in announcing the partnership at an event celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hispanics in Philanthropy. “We must be true to our humanity by helping these children reunite with their families.”
 The partnership will focus first on bringing together charity leaders, scholars, and government officials to conduct research and develop policy proposals about the problem.  Diana Campoamor, president of Hispanics in Philanthropy, said her group is beginning a fundraising campaign to attract money from other donors and nonprofit groups for the effort.

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