Susan A. Magill on Philanthropic Services at Pew

Susan A. Magill

Managing Director, Philanthropic Services and Government Relations

The Pew Charitable Trusts

In 2004, The Pew Charitable Trusts transformed itself from a private foundation to a public charity. One of our goals in doing so was to expand the scope, breadth and diversity of philanthropic partnerships in which we could engage as a means of enhancing our ability to improve policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life. Susan Magill, managing director of Philanthropic Services and Government Relations, discusses the value of strategic philanthropic investment services, along with examples from her work at Pew.

Questions and Answers

Question

What trends are you seeing in philanthropy today?

Answer

In these challenging economic times, our partners are even more insistent on maximizing a return on their philanthropic investments.  For the types of donors we tend to work with – individuals and foundations seeking to make significant, targeted donations – we see this trend manifested in a desire to avoid reinventing the wheel when it comes to launching initiatives.  There appears to be a growing belief, or perhaps recognition, that the most effective way to maximize results is to invest in proven models, existing initiatives, and organizations that have a track record of success.

Question

What are some of the specifics that donor partners are looking for?

Answer

The watchwords of the day are engagement and transparency.  Philanthropic investors are more interested than ever in knowing exactly how their investments are being managed and want to be a part of the strategic decision-making.  They want to be full partners in the process.

Question

How did you arrive at the name ‘Philanthropic Services’ as opposed to a more traditional name like ‘Fundraising’ or ‘Development’?

Answer

This was really driven by taking a look at the core services we provide. We don’t see ourselves “developing” a traditional donor base or raising funds simply to support the general operations of Pew.  Rather we develop strategic partnerships with organizations and individuals who are trying to achieve similar ends.  Everyone brings something to the table, and each partner in the relationship derives some significant benefit.  In our business, that benefit is measurable results toward a specific service, public information or policy goal.

Question

How specifically is this demonstrated at Pew?

Answer

We work with our partners up front to tailor agreements that specifically lay out our mutual goals, aspirations and benchmarks and, importantly, our shared responsibilities.  Through the life of each initiative, we constantly monitor – and consult with our partners on – the progress we’re making to ensure we are on track.

Question

What advice would you give to philanthropists considering how to invest?

Answer

The first thing is to look for a partner whose vetting process is as rigorous as your own.  For instance, in Pew’s case, whether we’re initiating or responding to a partnership idea, we start by ensuring that our missions and visions are aligned.  And we’re not merely talking about having the same ends in mind; we want to work with people and groups where we also see eye to eye on employing only fact-based, knowledge-driven approaches.  In addition, we only want to engage in partnerships where we feel we can add substantial value, be it through in-house policy expertise, our experience in conducting research-based advocacy campaigns, or our ability to effectively and efficiently manage projects and resources.  Finally, we want to work with partners with whom we can define clear outcomes at the outset. This allows us to set objective milestones and evaluate how well they are being met.

Question

What are the standards you apply in these relationships?

Answer

Certainly we adhere to Pew’s bedrock standards of entrepreneurship and accountability.  We have a 60-year history of responsible, effective, solutions-oriented philanthropic investing that we bring to every partnership.  In addition to that, I would reiterate the values of transparency and engagement.  We really want, in fact expect, our donor partners to know how and why we allocate resources the way we do.

Question

What are the hallmarks of a successful partnership?

Answer

Fundamentally, we believe partnerships are successful when we help foundations, corporations and individuals structure opportunities to achieve their philanthropic passion.  The relationships borne of this type of collaboration simultaneously strengthen our ability to achieve Pew’s mission and those of our donor partners, by leveraging our expertise and resources to effectively address the challenges that fueled their interest in the first place.

One example is our relationship with Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest.  As ocean enthusiasts, the Lenfests were deeply troubled by the precarious and declining state of the world’s marine environment.  Ensuring the health and sustainability of our planet’s oceans is one of Pew’s longstanding signature issues.  By engaging with Pew to design and manage their philanthropic investment, the Lenfests were able to launch an initiative – the Lenfest Ocean Program – that filled a very specific and significant need in ocean conservation, namely sponsoring research to help decision makers develop informed, science-based policy.  Combining the Lenfests’ passion with Pew’s expertise has allowed us both to make measurable progress toward our common goal of finding solutions to the global ocean crisis. 

In addition, we’ve worked with a very broad group of organizations and individuals to generate and galvanize support from a critical constituency – the business community – on early childhood issues.  The Partnership for America’s Economic Success is a collection of a dozen major funders and scores of business and civic leaders who have come together to make the case, through research and economic analysis, that ensuring the well-being of children is more than just a moral imperative; it is a bottom-line issue for the continued success and international competitiveness of our country.  While making a business case for investing in children, the Partnership has introduced a new and powerful voice that has the potential to really tip the scales in a long-running policy debate.

Question

How would you rate the success of your approach so far?

Answer

We feel that the results to date have been promising.  From a hard numbers perspective, we’re currently serving more than 250 donors as stewards of about $300 million.  More important, of course, are the returns those philanthropic investments are yielding.  In the last Congress, our partner initiatives helped secure the passage of six new federal laws.  They range from an increase in fuel-economy standards for cars and light trucks to a major foster-care reform package. This year began with another notable success when President George W. Bush established three new marine national monuments that more than doubled the area of U.S. oceans protected as no-take reserves.  Looking to the future, we want to continue our path of targeted, deliberate growth to expand our effectiveness while remaining faithful to our demonstrated strategy for success.