The recession is here. Our assets are way down. People and organizations are struggling. What do we do now?

Like other organizations, we are pulled in competing directions. We want to do the right thing, but there are many right things we could do:

		We could cut back our grantmaking so it is in line with our assets and preserve our ability to give in the future.
		We could maintain our grantmaking because the community needs our involvement now more than ever, even though doing so would eat into our asset base and reduce our capacity to give in the future.
		We could reallocate some, more or most of our grantmaking to respond to the rapidly rising, critical human needs in communities, even though it would mean delaying some or all of our new strategy.
		We could stick to our strategy, which is focused on the long term (10 years or more), because we believe that our work will help future generations avoid a mess like the one we face today.

The list of possible right things that we could do goes on and on. The question is: Which right things are right for us?
 
Three major impulses have motivated philanthropy over the centuries. The oldest by far is the tradition of charity—providing for the immediate needs of those who have the least. Communities of faith have practiced charity for centuries. Many of us in our personal giving are motivated by this charitable impulse.

Then in the early part of the 20th century, philanthropists like Rockefeller and Carnegie concluded that charity alone was not sufficient to address human suffering. Their approach focused attention on the use of philanthropy to support human development. To use a common metaphor, they thought it was important to not just give a person a fish so he or she could eat, but to teach people to fish so they could feed themselves. This human-development impulse motivates much of today’s philanthropy, especially through foundations.

Finally, in the late 20th century, a third impulse emerged. Philanthropists recognized that larger systemic changes would be needed in order to give all people access to opportunities. To stick with the fishing metaphor, these philanthropists concluded that being able to fish was necessary but would be effective only if people had the opportunity to fish—what if they didn’t have access to the water or there weren’t enough fish to go around? For these philanthropists, giving meant changing the rules of the game.

Each of these approaches has value. Each foundation will choose which one or ones make the most sense for them. In other words, what a foundation should do now depends on what difference it wants to make.

At the Bush Foundation we have spent the last year deciding what difference we want to make. We call that difference our Goals for a Decade. We have decided to put all of energies behind:

		Developing courageous leaders and engaging entire communities in solving problems.
		Supporting the self-determination of Native nations in rebuilding the institutions of nationhood.
		Increasing educational achievement, particularly through the recruitment, preparation and support of effective teachers.

In choosing to make these differences, we have also recognized that our focus is more on long-term change over a decade than on responding to immediate needs.

We made these choices before the current financial typhoon hit. So what now? We are sticking to our goals. We may wish today’s circumstances were different, but it was not immediate circumstances that motivated our focus on these goals. Ours are long-term aspirations. We believe that the best time to start pursuing long-term change is right now.

For 2009 that will mean:

		Our budget will be nearly the same as it was in 2008.
		We will honor all our prior commitments; they will make up about 30 percent of our budget.
		We will pay out the transition grants commitments we have made to individual organizations and fields of interest as part of changing our strategy; this will take about another 15 percent of our budget.
		We will commit the balance of our resources to launching the first partnerships as part of our Goals for a Decade.

The work we did in 2008 to decide what difference we want to make has served us well as we face 2009, because among all the right things we could do, we know which ones are right for us. No doubt circumstances will continue to change. While those changing circumstances may alter the means, the ends we intend to achieve will remain the same.