Take your turn! How does money flow in your organization? Use a blank worksheet to sketch out the underlying structures at play.
In the blog 'Perspectives on Philanthropic Structure', you can see how experts from different domains have their own ways of visualizing philanthropic structures. Listen to the podcast again if you like and then ask yourself: what do you hear when you listen to Sheila, Alex, Brigitte, Ceema, and Liban? You might also host a podcast listening party and invite others to consider the role philanthropy plays.
If you have trouble jumping in, you can start by asking yourself the following six questions. When you want to visualize what you observe about the structure, try to stick with one big idea in each diagram and show how the relationships, rules, and resource flows contribute to a specific situation.
Who sets the laws, policies, and procedures for how philanthropic money flows?- Who holds influence or helps shape the laws, policies, and procedures, and whether they stay the same or change?
- Who is most constrained, influenced, or even compromised by the laws, policies, and procedures?
- Who is most enriched and/or experiences the least risk in the current flow of resources?
- For whom is the current structure most costly (as in, who gives up the most?)
- Of those who are directly affected by the current structure, who has least influence over it?
