logo logo
Donate
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Social Justice
    • Racial Justice
    • Climate Justice
    • Disability Justice
    • Economic Justice
    • Health Justice
    • Immigration
    • LGBTQ+
  • Civic News
  • Nonprofit Leadership
    • Board Governance
    • Equity-Centered Management
    • Finances
    • Fundraising
    • Human Resources
    • Organizational Culture
    • Philanthropy
    • Power Dynamics
    • Strategic Planning
    • Technology
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Leading Edge Membership
  • Newsletters
  • Webinars

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Calls Out Philanthropy for Decreased Investment in Rural America

Rick Cohen
September 10, 2015
Vilsack2
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack / U.S. Department of Agriculture

 

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack addressed the 2015 National Rural Assembly, but didn’t deliver a stock speech. Choosing instead to simply answer questions, Vilsack fielded one on philanthropy—pitched, oddly, about how foundations can help the USDA better measure its investments—and stunned the audience.

Secretary Vilsack characterized his interactions with foundations as one of the “frustrations” he has had in office. We will hazard a reasonable guess that he might have included in that frustration the 2011 memorandum of understanding signed by the Department and the Council on Foundations meant “to provide new sources of capital, new job opportunities, workforce investment strategies, and identification of additional resources that can be used to spur economic growth in rural America.”

Vilsack confirmed what we all knew to be true: Rather than an increase in foundation investment, “tragically,” he bemoaned, “we’ve seen a decrease.” Vilsack might have assumed that an MOU signed with the foundation sector’s trade association, following his speech at the third and final COF conference on rural philanthropy, might have produced a jolt of energy among grantmakers to respond to rural needs. It didn’t happen.

The secretary added that the need from foundations isn’t just their grantmaking, but their ability to invest capital in rural communities. He didn’t specifically cite Program Related Investments or Mission Related Investments, but that’s the money that could be coming from the 95 percent of foundation assets that aren’t devoted to their 5 percent grantmaking (plus admin) budgets.

For all the hype from the philanthropic sector of what it has been doing to respond to critical social needs, including partnerships with government agencies, Vilsack’s revelations might be taken as embarrassing the structure of institutional philanthropy. It’s nice to have rural philanthropy conferences in response to calls for more rural philanthropy—COF held three, in Missoula, Little Rock, and Kansas City—and issue glossy reports of the good things that foundations do in rural, but that only goes so far. When a deal is cut with the foundation sector’s trade association with the obvious purpose of increasing foundations’ rural investment and the results are actually negative, that should be a wake-up call for foundations—and their nonprofit partners.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Words are cheap. It’s easy to make pleasant, hollow noises about rural with little or no substantive grantmaking or other asset investment behind them. Since the USDA/COF MOU, mechanisms for increasing rural philanthropic grantmaking such as the Rural Development Funders Collaborative have also gone out of business. A panel of grantmakers who preceded Secretary Vilsack’s speech, including Justin Maxson, president of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Kathy Annette, president of the Blandin Foundation, Heeten Kalan, a senior program officer with the New World Foundation, and Jamie Bennett of ArtPlace America were at a loss to name the rural philanthropy venue where funders could push for more attention to rural.

Bob Reeder, a program director for Rural LISC who heard the secretary’s comments about philanthropy, expressed “surprise” at how “unabashed” Vilsack was, the sentiment of many participants at the National Rural Assembly. Blandin’s Kathy Annette added to that a feeling of disappointment that her peers in the foundation community seemed not to have heard “the compelling message [Vilsack] was giving,” especially since “he’s a great messenger with a great message.”

Nonetheless, having heard a panel of foundation grantmakers discuss how philanthropy has failed rural America, the information about foundations wasn’t new, but the source of the message, a federal government cabinet secretary, was unique. Dee Davis, the founder of the Center for Rural Strategies and the chair of the National Rural Assembly steering committee, described the importance of the Vilsack statement: “I think the Secretary has a lot of hope for rural America and he has an ambitious agenda, and I think he’s tired of seeing philanthropy play such a negligible role. […] The Secretary seemed discouraged that philanthropy keeps pulling back in to their own area codes.”

“The Department of Agriculture has tried several ways to engage the philanthropic community…and what I heard today was his frustration,” Davis added. “When he calls out their lack of effort, that’s not like one nonprofit complaining because it didn’t get funded. That’s an important part of the United States government asking, why did this happen? […] Having a cabinet secretary call out philanthropy is categorically different.”

The time is coming to an end for the Obama administration and Vilsack’s likely tenure in his position. It would be “tragic,” as Vilsack himself intimated, if the foundation sector were one of the shortcomings of his time as Secretary of Agriculture. As the grantmakers panel noted before the Vilsack Q&A, there is financial capacity among foundations that hasn’t adequately been leveraged by government agencies. Though the time for Secretary Vilsack may be over, it would be fitting for philanthropy to reverse course, get serious about ensuring increased revenues go to foundations, and become the trustworthy partner with the government sector that foundation leaders have always said they were prepared to be. In that case, Vilsack’s successor wouldn’t have to call out foundations for their lack of responsiveness to rural needs and rural opportunities.—Rick Cohen

About the author
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: FoundationsPhilanthropyRural VoicesThe Cohen Report

Our Voices Are Our Power.

Journalism, nonprofits, and multiracial democracy are under attack. At NPQ, we fight back by sharing stories and essential insights from nonprofit leaders and workers—and we pay every contributor.

Can you help us protect nonprofit voices?

Your support keeps truth alive when it matters most.
Every single dollar makes a difference.

Donate now
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
Trust in Nonprofits Holds Strong Despite Political Attacks
Ted Siefer
Get Funds Flowing: Lessons from the Boston Foundation
Candace Burton
How to Fix the Nation’s DAF System—a $250 Billion Question
Jon Pratt
Trump Budget Bill Spells Trouble for Nonprofits
Isaiah Thompson
Outsourcing Cost of ‘Impact’ Data Could Mean 13 Percent More Bang for Every Charitable Buck
George E. Mitchell
New Survey Highlights Concerns of Black Women Voters
Rebekah Barber

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
July 24th, 2:00 pm ET

Organizing in Divided Times

The Relational Infrastructure We Need to Protect Democracy

Register
Group Created with Sketch.
September 24th-25th, 2:00 pm ET

Advanced QuickBooks for Nonprofits

Expert Guidance for Experienced QuickBooks Users

Register

    
You might also like
A protest sign that reads “No Kings” with a red X through a drawing of a crown.
Trust in Nonprofits Holds Strong Despite Political Attacks
Ted Siefer
A group of people standing in a circle with their hands together.
Get Funds Flowing: Lessons from the Boston Foundation
Candace Burton
A maintenance worker wearing a union t-shirt inspects subway car parts at Coney Island Yard, an industrial facility.
How to Fix the Nation’s DAF System—a $250 Billion...
Jon Pratt

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Donate
  • Editorial Policy
  • Funders
  • Submissions

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.