In the Public Square w/Mary Glass - Philanthropy for HIRE

PHILANTHROPY - according to Dictionary.com
altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons, by endowment of institutions of learning and hospitals, and by generosity to other socially useful purposes.
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December 8, 2011

MILWAUKEE - According to my observation and RESEARCH, it is evident that some DONOR organizations engage in activity that they call "goodwill partnerships"; but, they are DONOR-for-hire working relationship - quid pro quo arrangements.

In other words, they will give, if you do this. Rather than seeing a cause/NEED of the public square that match the Mission of the Donor organization; and, thereby guidelines for a successful partnerships are based on customer care, transparency, principle-centered leadership, improved quality of life and sustaining economic development for ALL.

Problematic Examples
In the City of Milwaukee there is a significant amount of donor-giving, inside and outside of the city/state. We have recently noted/seen public-private-religion based higher education sites, such as Marquette University, Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, receive $MILLIONS.

The donor gifts have buildings springing up on campuses - law library, dormitories, research centers, business centers, health-related centers, and seed-money for growing projects.

The prequisites discussed and agreed upon are intertwined with elected officials on various levels for bills, resolutions, matching funds, special bonds, "special funding", land use, multi-annual permits, etc.

The trophy requests include the giver's name on building (s), public relations, trips abroad with local power brokers, real estate acquisition, research park, donor pet projects and even specific business ventures that will galvanize revenue for the donor organization - such as water, energy and green projects.

This is seen by some as just-doing-business.

I feel it is a quid-pro quo, conflict of interest, discriminating and monopolizing tactic used by the well-connected and privilege to con the people with the appearance of Goodwill. It is how the well-connected work to beat-the-system, perpetuate greed and cream the assets of the City of Milwaukee.

What is an outcome?
The initial outcome is the newly constructed buildings that gives the appearance of greatness and success.

For the well-connected, privileged and employed, primarily Caucasian; they have access-literacy-fluency. For the masses in Milwaukee, African American-other People of Color and the Work Challenged, they are deprived of access-literacy-fluency and therefore see NO CHANGE for the overall empowerment of the half-million people that make up the population.

What can be done?
Milwaukee Professionals Association supports All Hands on Deck, WE, Not Me Initiative. That requires a NEW paradigm of "thinking and doing". It calls for the discovery and creation of "hidden talent and opportunities" at the neighborhood level. The creation of the PIPELINE staffed with the huge hidden pool of 21st Century citizenry is to be wedded to educational-technological-research self-sustainability.

Therefore, the citizenry of Milwaukee are NO LONGER compromised, overawe, intimidated, pitted against each other, uninformed; and, put at a disadvantage to grow at a competitive rate.

Each serious, non-quid pro quo DONOR organization need to Call for the following:
-- internal audit of gift-giving in Milwaukee
-- fulfill your responsibility as a donor to ensure an appropriate outcome - do not leave it to a board-staff and paper reports for accountability
-- train/inform decision makers at donor headquarters for paradigm shift
-- rate results based on the review from neighborhood-level citizenry
-- visit the site and meet with citizenry-of-focus population - before, during and after proposed funding
-- require members at the neighborhood level to be in "critical mass" in the strategic planning, implementation and outcome reports
-- if re-funded, must show where previous efforts now show "pipeline" creation.
-- host focus group review
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We are identifying and posting those DONOR groups/organizations/foundations that are contributing to the problem as well as to support those that see a benefit in empowering at the neigborhood level.