Have you noticed changes among your clients’ preoccupations over the last year?
There are two changes I’ve noticed. First, donors are slowing down in their decision-making. They’re thinking a lot more before they decide to act. It can take a lot longer to nurture a relationship with a donor before they take their first serious steps into philanthropy. The second change is that there is a genuine interest among some donors in looking at root causes and at some of the consequences and by-products of the recession. They’re saying that they should, as responsible philanthropists, be addressing some of the damage done by unemployment or household debt or whatever. So they’re responding to the situation more determinedly.

As for root causes, I was asked recently whether donors like to fund social justice. I think wealthy donors do like to fund social justice but they just don’t like to call it that. It’s not the sort of language that resonates with them. They understand root causes, they understand tackling underlying problems. So I think one has to tailor the language to what they understand. Frequently, their understanding comes with progressive engagement with the issues. So it’s almost a matter of learning through funding than of being a deep root causes kind of funder from the start.

As for effectiveness, and trying to do more with their money, I don’t think this has changed. New Philanthropy Capital is an organization that says effectiveness is our sort of obsession, and people who come to us are by definition more likely to be concerned about effectiveness and the impact of their donations than people who don’t come to us.