This is one of four interviews PhilanthroMedia conducted for the Foundation Center’s Philanthropy News Digest on the art of collaboration.
Collaboration is widely understood to be a strategic option for grantmakers looking to leverage resources and maximize impact. But as Tade Aina, program director of the Higher Education and Libraries program at the Carnegie Corporation of New York makes clear in this interview, funders who come to complex social challenges with predetermined answers would probably do well to go it alone.
Maybe I’m a sucker for a good metaphor, but I was moved by Tade’s grasp of the “zenlike” approach that foundation program officers need to adopt when trying to advance a collaborative effort. For Tade, grantmakers shouldn’t be gatekeepers; they should be “platforms” for the sharing and dissemination of knowledge, ideas, and values. Inherent in that assessment is a profound respect for differences in organizational culture and a frank acknowledgment of the deeply entrenched nature of so many of the social challenges that confront us today.
To read the rest of the post, go to PND.
