A New Side of Uncle Sam

A new face this year at Council on Foundations is Uncle Sam. In plenary, on panels, in the audience, members of the federal government are ready to engage in addressing social problems alongside foundations in a new way.

People keep quoting Secretary Clinton’s speech at the Global Philanthropy Forum last month, saying the doors of the State Department are wide open. (When Kevin Saba, Regional Director of the Global Partnership Center, mentioned the line in his remarks, some in the audience actually clapped.) If you have visited the State Department recently and were confronted by gates and guards, you might be smirking, but I think they actually mean it. Kevin said Foundations with ideas for partnership with the government can call his office, and the center will help them find the right person within the government to talk to.

I began my work in the foundation world just a little over a year ago, when the Case Foundation asked me to join them in working on the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership, a collaboration between the State Department, USAID, and five corporate and nonprofit partners, which was created in December 2007 to promote economic and educational opportunities for the Palestinian people, in support of a peace-making efforts that grew out of the Annapolis talks.

In the last year, I have become convinced of the added value of having the U.S. government as a partner. Among other benefits, their visible support of this partnership provides a certain level of comfort and validation when engaging potential partners on such a sensitive issue, and their legwork on the ground provided a level of expertise and in-person contact that would be difficult for many foundations without global reach. In a little over a year, the Partnership was able to garner significant commitments from organizations like Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America to provide training, software, equipment, educational opportunities for youth, and direct investment for a stable Palestinian economy.

USAID does not want your matching grants. In a panel yesterday about how foundations can partner with the U.S. government, Jerry O’Brien, Deputy Division Chief of the Global Development Alliance at USAID, said they have been doing that for about 40 years, and it is clearly time for a new approach.  They can benefit more from your creativity, your innovative methods, your vast networks, your ability to convene, willingness to take risks and the other characteristics that make this sector unique.

As with any partnership, we know that working with Uncle Sam may not always be sunshine and lollipops, but in my experience any frustration with bureaucratic hoops has been overcome by real results, quick impact and the hope of being able to address some of our most pressing social challenges in a smarter, more effective way — together.

Kristin Ivie is a program associate - innovation, at The Case Foundation.