Thursday, December 10, 2015
NoVo Foundation Leaders Talk About Aversion to Measurement
Early this year, Jennifer and Peter Buffett, co-directors of the NoVo Foundation, wrote an op-ed in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, calling for a model of philanthropy that “leads from the heart.” As the non-profit funding sector focuses increasingly on numbers (how to do the most good, based on evidence, not on sentiment), the Buffetts seek to counter that trend. The hyper-focus on measurement, in their view, ignores what truly motivates people to give away large amounts of money and, in fact, weakens the spirit of giving. The answer, according to the Buffetts, should be, simply: love. By emphasizing strategy and viewing grants as “investments,” donors prize head over heart and the spirit of giving gets lost. Peter says of the op-ed’s origins, “We’d been hearing, ‘How do you measure, measure, measure?’ And that has been bothering us for quite some time.”
Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with measuring. Statistics and loving intentions are not necessarily mutually exclusive. “We use metrics, too,” Jennifer says. But she’s very clear about her objective as a philanthropist: “Whatever the issue is, you have to say, ‘Well, how am I going to do this in a thoughtful way to help solve a problem and empower people?’” And that’s a question that can’t always be answered by crunching numbers. . .