Doing it to youth, for youth or with youth?

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messykidsbaking

You won’t want to miss this…we’re going to tell a little story on ourselves.

About ten years ago we decided to add youth members to our Grant Review Committee (the group of community people who advise our board of directors on which grant investments to make).  We just knew that serving on this committee would be a great experience for teens.  Think of the experiences they’d have! Think of the people they’d meet!  (Us–ha ha.)

While those guinea pig teens DO report having good experiences on our committee, it didn’t take us very long to realize that the learning was mostly taking place in us adults!  We heard fresh voices.  We saw first-hand the capabilities of young people.  We remembered (if a little late) that teens SHOULD be pretty good at selecting great youth development proposals.

It was a humbling experience for us, and one that we haven’t forgotten.  Since that time we’ve found more and more ways to include the voices and thoughts of young people into our work.  For what it’s worth here’s a little question that we ask ourselves when we’re planning work with young people:

  • Are we doing it to young people?  (Kids come but there’s little, if any, youth voice.)
  • Are we doing it for young people?  (The capabilities of young people to contribute and improve things go unused.)
  • Are we doing with young people?  (Learning and going forward together seems to be REAL youth development.  It’s messy though and often takes longer…like baking cookies with small children.)

To read more of our thoughts on what children need to grow and develop, visit the Adolescent Development section of our website.

Here’s what I learned as a member of the Dekko Foundation Grant Review Committee

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tommorain

My wife jokes that her favorite scripture is “God so loved the world that He didn’t send a committee.” That may be appropriate for some groups, but it’s way off base for my two-year experience on the Dekko grant review committee. When participants respect each other and are seriously committed to finding the best solutions, group work can be very productive and fun in the process. 1) Aristotle was right: “The group always knows more than any one person in it.” Before each session, I always received in the mail a thick notebook with the applications under consideration, each with staff evaluations and recommendations. While I read the reviews carefully beforehand, I was frequently surprised how others spotted angles on details that I had never considered. Sometimes I had overlooked benefits that the projects would achieve. Sometimes I missed red flags that leaped off the page once someone else pointed them out. By the end of the day, I always—always—came away with a better understanding of what makes a good proposal and (guilty as charged) a list of stolen good ideas I wanted to apply back home. 2) Who isn’t there? Who isn’t being reached by the game plan of a proposal? Big numbers of youth served can be impressive, but sometimes what is more important is who is being left out. Who needs this program most and how does the project propose to get them to participate? Sharon Smith invades my dreams. She challenges us: “We’re not giving Graceland University money to get your own kids to a concert. You’ll do that anyway. Whose kids won’t get to the concert without this grant and how do you propose to get them there?” Dekko talks about “high-barrier youth”, those without the economic, family or cultural supports to enable them to participate in the bigger world. Even when the programs are free, these are the kids who don’t show up because no one has ever encouraged them to go. How do you reach them? Dekko is ruthless in its concern for the high-barrier kids. Well done, Dekko. Keep up the good work. 3) There’s a great Latin quote that I used to know but I have, of course, forgotten when I could have used it to sound impressive. It translated, “What does it matter in the long run?” Dekko folks may not know the quote either but they know what it means. Kids can grow up to be successful whether or not they know how to shoot free throws. But what kids need is a sense that they are valued, that someone believes they are worth spending time with, that it’s OK to ask for help, and yes, it’s OK to fail at something new. You can teach those things through a free throw workshop if you commit to them in both planning and delivery. Working with future NBA hot shots is not the goal here, folks . Turning out successful kids is. Dekko gets that, and it comes through loud and clear in how they assess the potential of applications. I learned a lot from my colleagues in those sessions. In a divided world with so much shouting and name-calling and self-righteous posturing, it was a pleasure to gather around the table to engage in civil discussion that modeled respect and an appreciation for a diversity of perspective. That’s how I will remember my term on the Dekko grant review sessions. –Tom Morain Graceland University Lamoni, Iowa

Why are foundations all SO different?

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different 

“When you’ve seen one foundation…you’ve seen one foundation.”

Sorry grantseekers, but the old saying above seems to be true.

Why do all foundations seem to do their own thing? It’s complicated, but here goes…

CORPORATE FOUNDATIONS reflect the values and interests of the companies that support them. For instance, the Lincoln National Life Insurance Foundation makes grants in communities where Lincoln National Life Insurance is located. The importance of diversity is a key belief of this organization. The presence of diversity is a key filter in Lincoln National Life Foundation’s grantmaking process. Are you with us so far?

PUBLIC FOUNDATIONS, such as community foundations, reflect the communities they serve. You’ll see community foundations make grants to support health, recreation, education, welfare; anything that the IRS says can be a charitable cause. Most community foundations want to be broad and inclusive in their grantmaking so they can appeal to a wide range of possible donors. Over a year’s time you will probably not see all of a community foundation’s grant dollars go into one field (like the arts or education) or benefit the residents a single city or town.

PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS, like the Dekko Foundation,  reflect the passion of the donors who started them. In our case, we keep our eyes glued on the mission that Mr. Chet Dekko set on the day he started the Dekko Foundation.  That mission is: To foster economic freedom through education.

From time to time our board of directors might change the strategies they use to accomplish our mission. Once in a blue moon you might see them announce changed or tweaked grantmaking priorities. Because we’re so focused on our mission, you might see our board make a very large grant if they see a project related to our mission that’s especially promising. That means that we’ll have to say “no” to other things, but if it gets us to our mission, it’s worthwhile.

In a nutshell, all foundations make grants differently because grantmaking reflects the mission and passion of the organization.

We have a section on our website called “Grantseeker Support.” We’ve stuffed it full of everything we can think of to explain our Dekko Foundation what’s and why’s. Check it out at: https://www.dekkofoundation.org/grantseeker-support/ You can call us at 260-347-1278 to ask any remaining questions. We welcome your call.