50 • THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY
OPINION
BEN HECHT
American Cities Are Ripe for Renewal, if Philanthropy Has the Will
RICHARD FLORIDA, the eco- nomic-development ex- pert and author, refers
to the financial meltdowns
that have occurred throughout
American history as Great Resets. He argues that they create
a pathway for innovation and
encourage new ways of doing
business.
As examples, he points to
the urbanization and rapid industrialization that followed
the Long Depression of the late
19th century and the more recent technological expansion
that followed the Great Depression in the 1930s. Without these
crisis points, he contends, innovators would not have had the
push necessary to move beyond
their staid approaches to create
something new.
Today, we clearly are in the
midst of another reset and with
it a once-in-a-generation op-
portunity to create meaningful
change in the way that we deal
with the concerns of our cities.
For the first time in decades, the
promise and prominence of our
cities have been acknowledged
through the emerging work
of the recently created White
House Office of Urban Affairs.
The economic-stimulus bill
made billions of dollars avail-
able to jump-start urban econ-
omies, in programs that seek
to transform how we address
transportation and schools, cre-
ate green jobs, and reduce the
problems that stem from hous-
ing foreclosures.
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vironment, responsive philanthropy requires that we move
beyond what is comfortable,
disrupt entrenched systems,
and make investments that
solve complex problems. As the
Monitor Institute report titled
“What’s Next for Philanthropy”
points out, “Philanthropy today
takes place in a context that is
radically different from the en-
We have put the
hard choices off for
too long and must
act now to build
lasting prosperity.
vironment in which many of its
current practices and behaviors
were developed.”
We face turbulent political
and economic contexts and are
challenged to engage people
across broad boundaries with
unprecedented immediacy.
Gone are the days of business
as usual.
My organization, a collaborative of 22 foundations and financial institutions that have
invested almost $1-billion of
their own money in cities over
the past 20 years, is seeking to
demonstrate how philanthropy
and the key players in America’s
cities can create game-changing
innovations to solve problems
long considered intractable.
In this new approach, which
we will unveil next week, called
the Living Cities Integration
Initiative, we will provide a
bundle of grants, loans, and
program-related investments
to five regions totaling $80-mil-
lion, where government, busi-
ness, philanthropic, and non-
profit organizations have agreed
to take on some of our nation’s
most challenging urban prob-
lems including jobs, business
creation, housing, health care,
transit, and education.
Ben Hecht is president of Liv-
ing Cities, which maintains of-
fices in New York and Washing-
ton.
Low Turnover Signals Dearth of Innovation
additions to the largest nonprof-
its in the United States in the
past two decades.
Even before the recession
started in 2007, they began appearing among the top 20 charities on The Chronicle’s list. Five
are now included, compared
with two 20 years ago. Habitat
for Humanity has also joined
this elite group, ascending from
the bottom half of the Philanthropy 400 in just two decades.
However, Habitat is unusual.
Most organizations at or near
the top—roughly 75 percent of
the 100 largest among the initial Philanthropy 400—have
stayed there.
That does not necessarily signify these charities are not performing real and significant services. Nor does their continued
presence on The Chronicle’s list
mean they have not changed in
two decades. Many undoubtedly
Continued from Page 49
have modified their programs to
try to keep up with social, economic, technological, and other
kinds of changes. But so, surely,
did many businesses that nonetheless fell victim to “creative
destruction” as other companies—including international
ones—managed to find better
ways to produce what people
wanted.
For whatever reasons, the
Philanthropy 400 suggests this
has not been happening in the
nonprofit world. Where substan-
tial change has occurred since
the 1990s, however, is in the
number of nonprofit organiza-
tions. According to the National
Center for Charitable Statistics,
nonprofits registered with the
Internal Revenue Service rose
by 50 percent since 1995—from
1. 1 million to 1. 6 million organi-
zations. Since many groups see
no need for official recognition,
this is probably an underesti-
mate of groups that have been
formed to promote charitable
purposes.
Leslie Lenkowsky is profes-
sor of public affairs and philan-
thropic studies at Indiana Uni-
versity and a regular contributor
to these pages. His e-mail ad-
dress is llenkows@iupui.edu.
