Transcript of Remarks of Bill Dietel, Chairman, GuideStar International
The Phoenix Project’s
“Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship in Virginia” Luncheon
July 25, 2007
Falls Church, Virginia
Thank you. I am a former academic who went the wrong way and ended up in philanthropy. In what I choose to call retirement, but my wife and children do not acknowledge as such, I serve as a philanthropic consultant. For almost 50 years, I have spent my life either running or serving on boards as a trustee, and this afternoon I say amen to everything the Governor has said and that Robert has said. I am going to forget doing a talk by way of introduction and go directly to the idea of some of the challenges that this sector faces in the immediate future.
First of all, I also salute the Phoenix Project and its effort to engage our next generation of social entrepreneurs. I would submit, however, that there is another leadership crisis that is absolutely crucial to being resolved if the not-for-profit sector is going to play the kind of role the Governor and Robert have said rightly it needs to play, and if we are going to have a successful civil society; that is finding the men and women coming who are willing to serve on the boards of these nonprofits. However talented, however spirited the CEO, unless she or he has behind them people with experience, people with connections, people willing to stand up and advocate for that organization and for the sector, that social entrepreneur is going to operate with at least one hand behind their back.
Secondly, the fact of the matter is—and this has been referred to indirectly—social entrepreneurs and what they are trying to accomplish depends at some point on serious capital: operating capital and capital for fundamental expenditures. Historically in this country, we have thought that money was located in the foundation world, that that was the source of risk capital. I am here to report, sadly, that is not true. Foundations don't take risks. They sit now on over a half a trillion dollars of capital. What they think about is not only doing the kind of things the Governor referred to earlier, but they also think a lot about how they invest their money and accumulate more capital rather than how to expend it to get the job done or to support the entrepreneur whose trying to solve or resolve our social ills. The notion that all foundations have to do is spend five percent of that per annum is asinine in the 21st century. If we are trying to have a viable not-for-profit sector, then those foundations have to make some of that capital available, and it can no longer be said that they don't know how to do it because there are foundations which are doing mission investment. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit I am the chairman of one of them. That is the F. B. Heron Foundation in New York, and there is a new booklet just out on mission investing and a case study of how one foundation can do it.
Finally, I want to say a word about the fact that this sector is our hope for new intellectual capital as we address problems not only at home, but nationally and internationally. Information is critical to the support of what the not-for-profit and the social entrepreneur are about, and I cite you a single example of an organization that grew up in the state of Virginia—GuideStar U.S.—the best source of information for donors and donees in our country about our sector. Now GuideStar is operating internationally. There is a GuideStar UK and Guidestar International, which is now housed in London, trying to build GuideStars around the world and within a few years we in Virginia are going to be able to access information about the social entrepreneur around the world. And it's an exciting prospect. Thank you.
[End of Transcript]