| Creating Something Solid to Stand On
By Woody Carter, Executive Director
WHEN I JOINED the Bay Area Black United Fund (BABUF) in 1997, I came to an organization that had an 18-year history and much potential but an extremely uncertain future. Five years later, I am confident that we are here to stay and are poised to become, perhaps, the first African-American community foundation in the western United States.
Ambitious? Yes! By strengthening our vision and improving our organizational ability to make this vision a reality-and helped by surprisingly strong support from several Bay Area foundations-BABUF stands at the threshold of this new century with great promise and expectations.
CAPABILITY-BUILDING
Along with giving vision a strategic framework, organizational capability- building is key to effective fund development. By that I mean building the organization's infrastructure to cultivate, sustain, and expand healthy relationships with those in our asset base. BABUF grows by remaining open to learning. We ensure the relevance of our work by keeping in touch with our community's needs and serving donors proactively.
In 1997, we could not show that our financial house was in order. There had been no annual report the previous year, creating the impression that we were in trouble. The first thing I did was to secure a well-respected accounting firm to manage our bookkeeping and help BABUF through a transition to regain responsibility for accounting functions within a few years. The five-person staff shrank to two - executive assistant Linda Dails and me - and we hired consultants for specific projects and services.
Now, with our renewed vision of transforming BABUF into an African-American community foundation, we have hired two additional positions: Health Initiative Director and Director of Communications and Community Services.
MOVING TOWARD THE MAINSTREAM
It's true that we who are building BABUF must constantly explain and justify our reality, our way of being in the world, because we are trying to hold on to our cultural roots and sense of identity. But, like other alternative funders, we're also struggling to attract major gifts from mainstream foundations and corporations, as well as individual crossover donors.
The extent to which BABUF reconciles these cross-purposes will be a reflection of how well we translate our vision beyond our communities. The pace at which we become a community foundation and meet the needs of the Bay Area communities we serve will be determined by how well we hold on to our mission while making our philanthropic case to the world beyond the community. It's a battle, but one that I plan to win. |
