By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – At first glance it might've seemed like a dream come true for the area's fiscally strapped cultural and charitable organizations.
More than a dozen of Western New York's top grantmakers were assembled in one room Tuesday at the Buffalo Convention Center for their annual conference.
Collectively, the funders provide millions of dollars of support each year to hundreds of local organizations.
But the grantmakers agenda Tuesday offered only generous advice on the changes they say are needed in the not-for-profit sector.
This was not a pep rally by any definition.
The agenda included workshops entitled "Playing Nice in the Sandbox," and an even more pointed one called Truth and Consequences.
M&T President Robert Wilmers, a longstanding champion of not-for-profit funding, gave the stern opening address.
Wilmers warned that organizations need to start being less soft hearted and more hard-headed.
The best cause and the highest minded mission will not be enough to sustain an organization during times of economic downturn, said Wilmers.
Wilmers says harsh fiscal realities mean not-for-profit groups will need to take drastic steps if they expect to continue being funded. And the relatively accepted buzzword collaboration isn't all he has in mind.
Wilmers said organizations that are inefficient, or duplicating services provided elsewhere, may need to close their doors.
He also minced no words in laying down the gauntlet to funders, encouraging them to help force change.
There's a challenge in this new climate for funders, as well, said Wilmers. You will not do this city or this region a service if you continue to provide funds for organizations which we know to be poorly run, only because of their political ties and sensitivities.
It was a rally cry enthusiastically echoed by many of the dozen or so funding groups in attendance.
Stanton Hudson, with the East Hill Foundation, was chair for the event. Hudson said just writing a check, isn't working anymore.
I think we have to look at things differently and I think we have look at the bigger picture, said Hudson. And look at this as a community wide standpoint and not from the standpoint , as we've done historically, of the individual organizations.
And he said that likely could mean some groups will stop getting those checks.
You never want to see any organization go away, but the reality is that we have to take a look at what the needs of the community are, said Hudson. And just as it is in the private sector and the public sector, sometimes consolidations and mergers are the reality, and I don't think the not-for-profit sector is any different.
This is not all together new thinking.
Elaine Cryer is with the Baird Foundation, one of the area's major philanthropic organizations. She said funders have been quietly working together for about four years to coordinate their funding efforts.
Cryer said one big concern is duplication of services. She said many times a new organization will crop up that wants to provide a service that is already being met by an established group.
But David Cheseborough, who is President of the Buffalo Science Museum said, sometimes what looks like duplication is really creativity.
On the opposite side of everyone working together is the ability to have creative talents and new ideas, said Cheseborough. I think you always have to take a look at first whether it's better to be working together - and sometimes it is."
"But you need to come there as a conscious decision and not just an unconscious way of acting.
Cheseborough said part of the process is taking it slow.
And he said that applies even if it's not consolidations, but merely forming collaborations. He said it takes time to build the trust necessary to make partnerships work.
Yes, there's a sense of urgency that we all feel, but we also have to be cognizant of the fact that research will show you have to build the successful elements a little bit over time, said Cheseborough.
We don't want to have our efforts undermined by jumping into deep partnerships prematurely and then setting up the expectation that some partnerships are going to fail because we haven't done them right.
Cheseborough, as well as many grantmakers, pointed to next year's One Summer Long Sensation, as a good model for region wide cultural collaboration.
But they added that it is only a beginning.