Special Edition 16: The Great Philanthropists - Joel Fleishman - Professionalizing Philanthropy into an Industry
Welcome to another edition of Around with Randall, your weekly podcast for making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett. Thank you so much for taking a few minutes of your day to join me, Randall, on this edition of Around with Randall. We jump back into the series, The Great Philanthropist, and frankly, it's been too long since I've done one of these. And while this person may not be thought of as a philanthropist in terms of maybe some of the other people, we think about the greats: Rockefeller, Carnegie, all of the historical names that come to mind, this person has had an enormous contribution in the world of philanthropy and deserves a minute of attention.
I would also say that I sometimes wait too long to do these because the reason this is being done is that he passed away recently. Not that anybody ever has, who I have done one of these podcasts for, listened to them. I do think that it's important to pay recognition and maybe a little bit of homage at times to people who have made the world a better place. And Joel Fleischman is one of them, and probably a name many don't know. Mr. Fleischman was not the typical person who gave away everything he had to make the world a better place, although he may have done a great deal of personal philanthropy. That's not what he's known for. He is one of those rare individuals who was a trailblazer, who really professionalized our industry, philanthropy, in a time and a place when it really wasn't a profession. It was kind of an activity.
Born in 1935 in Virginia, Mr. Fleischman attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in the 1950s, and then going on to Yale Law School to graduate there. Caught, wrote, and really, along with people like Hank Russo or a Jerry Pannis, was doing and building out a consensus of what philanthropy can and should be when not a lot of people were trying to make it a professional activity. The real contribution of Mr. Fleischman came through the 1970s, 80s, and into the 1990s, as he founded the Sanford School of Public Policy and really directed it for many years at Duke University. He was talked back to Duke in the 1970s when he left government service. He was an aide or assistant or some type of advisor to a governor in North Carolina, and in doing so, became involved in a long run of different vice presidential roles at Duke University because of his immense talent and dedication. But where he touches philanthropy more often than not was his constant teaching about impact. And in his case, it wasn't just around individuals, but about foundations.
In 2007, he authored the book A Great American Secret: How Private Wealth is Changing the World, where he talked about two important factors. Number one, that ten years before we ever had this thought process, which I think we take for granted today based on the numbers. I always love people who can see through the mist into the future. It's like you're standing on a bridge next to someone, and they can see farther than you can because they have that hindsight, that vision, that ability to put themselves into the future. He foresaw that, number one, less people were making a bigger impact and that fewer people were just giving and that more people, more dollars are coming from fewer people. And they should demand accountability for this. But inside of that was an even more powerful commentary that foundations, particularly larger ones, should be held accountable for their impact in the community.
The measurements, not just of the nonprofits, but of the foundations is quintessential. They have to operate as a foundation and realize the impact they have on their society, and there's a sense of transparency that should be required. Now, in today's 2024 world, I think we take that for granted, that the evolution of philanthropy in the United States over the last 25 years has been about impact and transparency. And in fact, if we think about just when he wrote the book, and I'm assuming he didn't write it all in one night—so he's writing it in '05 and '06—this is before the 990s. Remember that the 990 came out of Sarbanes-Oxley, and not directly. Barney Frank made a deal with a whole lot of policymakers and lobbyists to say, we're going to exclude nonprofits out of Sarbanes-Oxley. If you remember, Sarbanes-Oxley came about because of the Enron failure and Arthur Anderson. There had to be more declaration, disclosure, and transparency among for-profit companies for investing purposes.
Well, nonprofits have investors too, we just don't get that return. Barney Frank, Senator from Massachusetts, removed that but with the deal that they had to create more accountability on their own, and then they used the 990, the IRS's changes in 2010 and 2011 to produce more transparency. He wrote about all of this prior to any of that happening. And in a world today where we take that for granted, because that gives us and our foundations, our nonprofits, and our donors a sense of better understanding of what they're doing, what they're trying to do, how they do it. It's good overall for the value of what philanthropy can and should be.
This is what has, and I think wrongly so, riled up some about McKenzie Scott and her donations. I'm on record as saying it's her money, she can do whatever she wants with it. God bless her for wanting to do something at all with it, to change the world, to make it a better place. She owes nobody anything. But in all of these huge outpourings of unbelievable, as we talk about the definition of philanthropy, love of mankind, love of humankind, these huge moments of philanthropy, there are written commentaries like everyone deserves more transparency. I'm not sure I totally agree with that.
It's her money. But the principle of why this is being said goes back to Joel Fleischman. In a time when nobody else was really talking about it at the level he was, in his passing, first of all, how do you know it's important? Argue one way or the other in terms of the value of the news. But I think when you get a multi-column obituary in the New York Times, that's reserved for people who make an impact somewhere in the world. So that's one piece of it.
Number two, with a commentary that came out of that article, various hugely important nonprofit leaders came out and said he changed philanthropy. He changed what we do. And that if you were asked to go speak in one of his classes at Duke, it was the honor of honors. I never had the privilege of meeting Mr. Fleischman, just knew of his work. Certainly was aware of his name and the impact that he made in our industry, creating professionalism that we enjoy today. But when you start having hugely important respected people say, "Gosh, we haven't paid enough attention to this contribution," that gets my attention. Even though he wasn't someone who, like a Carnegie, built 4,000-plus libraries in the United States, or the Rockefellers with the Rockefeller Center and other things that they've done with their foundation or Ford in the Ford Foundation.
I would tell you that the reason philanthropy has continued to grow in terms of dollars in comparison to GDP, up to the last year or two, is because we became a profession. We began to realize that our success in supporting the nonprofits we believe in, through work like Joel Fleischman, was all about how we build relationships and how we build out the communication and the understanding of not only what someone's passion is who wants to change the world, but what our organization does to meet them there. What we do today is nothing like it was when I began in this profession 25 years ago. I don't think we were guessing, but we didn't have the sophistication. It was Joel Fleischman who, in his teachings, writings, and mentorship, where many viewed him as their mentor, catalyzed a different way of thinking and brought solutions to particular problems. He's one of those people who helped do this.
I've spent my 28 years this year in philanthropy. I've been able to do so to make a living and to have one or two professional successes, and really, those are just more attributable to the donors who made the gifts. I just was sometimes the conduit from A to B, and still am to this day. I owe my career to people like Joel Fleischman, Hank Russo, and Jerry Pannis. We are an industry because they brought together the right people to have conversations about how to institutionalize what we do. How do we train people? His contribution, while not monetary—at least publicly known—may be even greater than some of the philanthropists we recognize. I'm just disappointed that I didn't do this before he passed, not that he would ever listen, not that he even knows, not that I've ever met him.
We need to honor those who have brought about change, who have made us better, who have challenged the status quo, and who have made what we do today possible. So, a tip of the cap today to Joel Fleischman, who passed away a little more than a month ago, as a major contributor to all that is our philanthropic world.
Don't forget to check out the blogs at hallettphilanthropy.com. Two a week—commentaries, different things I see—take you 90 seconds to read, and they're sent right to your inbox. And if you'd like to, you can reach out to me at podcast@hallettphilanthropy.com. I always end the same way, and it's along the lines of people like Joel Fleischman. All of us are putting our little piece, our contribution, what we do into the greater pool of philanthropy—the industry that we are—and what we try to do to make our communities better places. What you do, no matter what—if you're a board member, an executive, a major gift officer, or someone in the organization—you’re doing good things. Sometimes we don't see them because of the turmoil, hurdles, challenges, and things that come, but they're important. And that makes you important, so thank you for what you do.
And don't forget my favorite all-time saying: "Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, and then there are those who wonder what happened." Isn't it interesting that we, if you're doing anything in the nonprofit world—and boy, can we say this about Joel Fleischman—are people who made things happen, directly and indirectly, for a lot of people and things? There are also people who wonder what happened, and you're doing that same work in your own little way, or maybe in a big way, to make your world and community a better place. That's pretty cool. It's a great way to go to work every day, feeling like you're making something, being a positive, becoming a positive. To increase the community as a whole, to the positive. That's a pretty good way to spend every day.
I look forward to seeing you next time, right back here on the next edition of Around with Randall. And don't forget, make it a great day.