Executive Director Marianne Philbin was interviewed for a recent article in the New York Times, “The Art of Saying No as a Philanthropist.” Marianne emphasized that clear communications are key in respecting a nonprofit’s time.
“The earlier you can make a decline for legitimate reasons, the less painful it is for everybody,” Philbin said. “The sooner you can establish is there a fit here or not, the more respectful you are of everyone’s time.”
The Pierce foundation, she said, focuses on funding services for the homeless in Chicago but more specifically on making grants to help organizations with operating expenses. She said having such a specific screen limits most of the applications that would be outside the scope of what it would fund.
“When declines are the most difficult is when an agency is taken through a laborious process that takes up time from board members and staff and the C.E.O. and it still comes out with a no,” she said. “It is much more difficult than working with a foundation that has a very fine screen at the front end so the grant seeker can find out sooner rather than later if there’s a real possibility there.”
