Taking the Risk: Investing in Community Leadership
Steve Gunderson, President and CEO, Council on Foundations
Community Leadership Association
2007 Annual Conference
edited
For the full text of the speech see the link at the end of this article:
A void has been created, and continues to be created, at every level of our national community.
I’ve come today to invite each of you into a partnership with us. We need your vision, your passion, your time, and your leadership. And we are willing to invest with you in the risk of a partnership.
I needed to say the word “risk,” because there is no leadership without it. I understand too well how comfortable we all want to be. The risk of social change is even higher than the risk of monetary investment, because it is a risk made in the public, often accompanied by public claims and public expectations.
The reason the government can rarely lead is because the government can rarely risk. It dares to speak boldly, but not to act boldly if failure is one of the potential options. No elected official can afford to preside over a failure if he or she hopes to be re-elected. Drums will roll when we open a new neighborhood swimming pool or community healthcare center; but heads will roll when the pool is infected with bacteria because no funds were provided for sanitation, and the healthcare center is boarded up because no staff can be hired to keep it open. It is one thing to call for change; it is quite another to make change sustainable.
Sydney Harris had it right: “Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time. What we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.”
By definition, leadership entails risk. It invites us to measure the future, create a better vision, and pursue it, in public, where people can hear our speech and judge our character. This is risky business. Of course leadership entails risk. And if we are not willing to risk our ideas, and ourselves, then we are not ready to lead.
The community foundation field itself, represented in the Community Foundations Leadership Team, sees it as such a critical issue that they are commissioning a national task force on community leadership. The work of community foundations today is in building communities. Building foundation assets is just one of the tools used to accomplish this important work.
FIRST, we will anchor our work in better knowledge. To be successful as leaders in this century we must give up the leadership mythology of the past. We will need to bring an asset-based approach to our communities recognizing that every neighborhood in America, every community no matter its color or tradition, has assets on which we can build. We will come to these communities, together, philanthropy and community leaders, knowing that knowledge is now available to all of us, and all we serve, 7/24/365. We can build on leadership lessons gleaned from other movements: the “livable communities” movement and, now, the “sustainable communities” movement. In short, I invite you into a partnership based on better knowledge.
SECOND, the partnership must be local. What I want you to do is go home and immediately find the name and address of every foundation and corporate giving program in your community. The people who fund, lead, and manage these organizations are hungry for community partners. They need to meet you, if they haven’t already. And you need to meet them. Don’t be put off by stuffy images of philanthropy in the past. It is a new day. There is a new philanthropic spirit, and it is committed to the communities in which all of us live. Give us a chance to partner with you. Come with your ideas, your needs, your passion to lead and change the community. Join the foundations in their efforts to make a difference. Let us do this together. If we do not partner, local leaders and local philanthropies, there is every reason to believe neither of us will succeed. But if we find our way to learning and leading together, there is every reason to believe that both of us will succeed. More importantly, the communities we serve can be made sustainable long into the future.
THRID, we must create a partnership of listeners. I understand that the immediate image of an effective leader is someone who’s a great communicator—by which we ordinarily mean a speaker, a writer, someone who persuades. But this is not the starting point for effective leadership, or for building sustainable partnerships and communities. Good leaders are great listeners. I’m standing before you today, as the president and CEO of the Council on Foundations, because of the importance I place on listening as a tool for leadership. When asked by the Search Committee to describe my style of leadership, I explained that leadership is achieved through the “3 L’s.” We listen. We learn. Then, and only then, can we lead.
Some listening can be done with polls, surveys, and focus groups. But some requires presence—your presence as leaders in your communities—where fears and regrets season hopes and promises. Come into my church basement, visit the new mosque we just built. Come with me to the barbershops and secondhand stores, not just the country clubs and fashion boutiques. Let us become, together, great listeners so that our philanthropy speaks to real people’s real needs, and our leadership is rewarded by those who’ve learned to trust us.
FOURTH, our partnership must reflect inclusion and diversity. This is no longer an option; it must be a mandate, for all of us. Earlier this week, at our Annual Conference, I served on a panel to define ways we might go forward to expand diversity’s role in philanthropy. Our moderator began the discussion by asking each of us to define the importance of diversity in our sector. I said simply:
- It is morally right.
- It is essential to achieve our best talent.
- It will contribute to all our other goals.
- It is the key ingredient for enhancing the effectiveness of our philanthropic work.
And, finally, our partnership must reach toward better outcomes. It is the role of leaders to bring a vision, and the vision must be built on change that produces healthier communities, more educated children, higher rates of employability and employment, decent housing, and compassion for those who cannot compete. Sustainability is the measure of outcomes, of change actually achieved—not only to make a difference, but also to make it again, and again, and again. Healthy children and communities are not “programs,” nor are they mere ideals. They are outcomes that flow from hard and sometimes dangerous work, results that are earned by sweat and sometimes blood. Communities are not clouds that drift by or wishes that go gently to sleep: They roar with traffic and crying children, they grow with investment and a neighbor’s steady nurture, they shrink and collapse when poverty grinds them down. They burn when we are so angry we no longer have hope. They are resurrected when leaders come forward with integrity and a vision built on better knowledge, keener listening, greater diversity, and a commitment to finer outcomes.
What I offer to you today, is that I cannot lead backward, into history. I cannot change what happened to my father, or yours. What I can change, if I am a faithful leader, is the character of the future. And what we could change together, you who aspire to community leadership and we who aspire to community sustainability, is immeasurable. We must not allow yesterday’s tears to diminish today’s promise or tomorrow’s achievement. We can partner to make a difference. We really can.
If we presume to lead, and we can do it—we can partner, we can lead, we can build sustainable communities—guided by a very simple question. We should follow the wisdom of the founder of a Midwest foundation who told his children,
“Ask yourself, ‘What will I wish ten years from now that I had done today?’ When you know, do it.”
http://www.cof.org/Council/content.cfm?ItemNumber=10026&navItemNumber=2201
“Americans are saying that they want their local elected officials to take a very active role in helping people who are struggling to make ends meet,” said Karl Stauber, president and CEO of the Northwest Area Foundation. “Our work in communities is showing us that county commissioners can be pivotal in addressing the priorities Americans listed in the survey: attracting businesses with good-paying jobs, and improving access and reducing costs related to health care.”
