A community foundation is really a vehicle to make philanthropy easy and impactful for donors of all types within their local community, and that's certainly what we aspire to here in Houston.
Transcript:
This podcast was transcribed through a third-party application. Please disregard any misrepresentations.
Brad Caruso :
<silence> Welcome to Civic Warriors, brought to you by Withum. On this podcast, we bring the conversation to you, sharing, engaging stories that motivate and build consensus in the nonprofit community. This podcast is about the innovators, the leaders on the front lines of adversity, guiding lights in the nonprofit industry affecting change. And through their stories, we can all join forces to become civic warriors. Hey, warriors. Welcome to today's episode of Civic Warriors. Brought to you by Withum, I'm your host, Brad Caruso, leader of Withum's not-for-profit practice. Today's guest is Steve Maislin, president and CEO of Greater Houston Community Foundation. Under Steve's leadership, the Community Foundation has become a driving force for impactful philanthropy in the region with a mission to grow effective giving by connecting donors to the causes they care about stewarding charitable assets with excellence and convening resources to address critical community needs. The Community Foundation plays a vital role in shaping a stronger Houston. Community foundations like Greater Houston Community Foundation serve as cornerstones and communities across the country providing trusted guidance and infrastructure to maximize charitable impact. Today we're excited to speak with Steve about the unique role Community Foundations play, evolving landscape of philanthropy, and how Greater Houston Community Foundation is inspiring meaningful change for Houston and beyond. Really excited to talk to you, Steve today, and with that welcome to the show.
Steve Maislin:
Thanks very much. I appreciate it.
Brad Caruso :
So, just to get started, I always like to hear a little bit about our guests that are on and, and maybe Steve, can you provide a little bit of background of how you got involved with the
Community Foundation?
Steve Maislin:
Sure, absolutely. Before coming here, I was an estate planning attorney for almost 20 years, I guess. And this opportunity arose to take that background, you know, my tax background, my connection with the advisor community, and move into the community foundation field, uh, which has been incredibly satisfying over the last 24 years to help our donors of all different types, uh, you know, really drive impact and help amplify it and, uh, make a really positive impact on the greater Houston community. So it was kind of a win-win for me to take all of that technical knowledge, my love for the community, uh, be able to work with this great team here and with our fantastic donors. So, uh, been here 24 years and still enjoying it. It's
Brad Caruso :
An interesting career shift to go from an attorney to leading, you know, leading a nonprofit if you think about it that way. But I guess there are a significant amount of synergies between what you were doing and what you're doing now, and now it's marrying the two of those together.
Steve Maislin:
Absolutely not least. We get a lot of, of introductions to new donors from the professional advisor community, and of course, I knew and do know an awful lot of those folks, and I still get to use my technical background, but I get to run a business and, uh, work with some great folks here. And, and as I say, our donor community is just fantastic.
Brad Caruso :
Love it. So one of the topics we want to talk about today and, and just giving our listeners, uh, out there, you know, a better understanding of is, is essentially what is a community foundation. So, you know, one thing I wanna delve into a little bit is community foundations as an entity, um, and then more specifically the Greater Houston Community Foundation. But in, in your words, what is the purpose of a community foundation? Why do exist?
Steve Maislin:
Sure. So community foundations have been around since 1914, so it appears to be a concept that's got some, uh, uh, legitimacy is gonna stick around for a while. And our focus is on the local community. So we work with donors of all types, individuals and families, businesses, foundations, and we in effect, pull their funds together, uh, in a sense, I'll, we can talk about the technical aspects, but it gets aggregated and invested not only locally, but in, for most of us, most community foundations all over the country, some cases internationally. Uh, but it's all about, you know, driving impact, making philanthropy easy for our donors. Um, and we can do things. Some things are very simple, some are complex, uh, but we're a public charitable foundation, so we're a 5 0 1 C3. Um, and so when folks make donations here, they get the best possible deductions, however that applies to their situation. Um, and for almost all of our donors, they're supporting the local community, uh, but also causes around the country. And I think that's pretty typical at the community found- in the community foundation field, there's about 900 community foundations of one type or another, uh, right now in this country.
Brad Caruso :
That's a lot. Yeah. And no, in, in, uh, in my travel is just, uh, you know, leading a nonprofit group here. And, you know, most people don't differentiate, or, or aren't really, you know, haven't really delved into what a community foundation does. I mean, I, and I think it gets conflated with a lot of other type of giving type of organizations. 'cause there's obviously many, many purposes that you serve, uh, that we're gonna get into about, about how you help your community. And I guess if you, if you delve into it, maybe maybe give us a little history on, on the Greater Houston Community Foundation, maybe talk a little bit about, about your organization's history a little further and, and kind of how you got to where you are today.
Steve Maislin:
Sure, absolutely. So we're one of the younger community foundations. Certainly when you look at major cities around the country, uh, we were actually created in 1971 under what we then call our Chamber of Commerce. It's now called the Greater Houston Partnership. Um, but kind of an interesting background in that we were housed in-house there and used as a special purpose entity, but did not become what you think of as a typical community foundation until we were spun off, uh, into an independent entity and basically went live in 1995. Uh, and since that time, we've grown into one of the 25 largest community foundations in the country. Uh, and what we're most proud of, I think, is that our donors are in the top, put us in the top 10 in terms of grants out into the community. They've given out over two and a half billion dollars in that, uh, relatively, uh, short history. We have a, like most community foundations, we have a community-based board, uh, here and a professional staff that works with our donors, um, to meet them where they are, whether they want a donor-advised fund, which we can talk more about, or scholarship fund, uh, or they wanna do, you know, collaborative giving a community foundation is really a vehicle to make philanthropy easy and impactful for donors of all types within their local community. And that's certainly what we aspire to here in Houston.
Brad Caruso :
Yeah, that's an incredible giving number to give out. $2.4 billion in 30 years is an incredible amount of assistance being provided. And, and going from, you know, as you said, a smaller organization, uh, in those terms back in 1995 all the way to today, where, as you mentioned, you're one of the, the largest community foundations out there. Um, that's no easy feat. And, and especially, you know, we know how difficult it is to manage the, uh, landscape of the not-for-profit community today with everything going on in the world. And, uh, you know, it's incredible that you've been able to provide that as support and that assistance and, um, definitely want to get into a little further with you and, and, and, uh, hear from your words about, um, some of the different, uh, ways that your organization helps. Um, you know, and, and on that topic, just more specifically, you know, one of the, the biggest areas that you hear, uh, people in our, in our industry talk about a lot is, is DAFs. You know, people hear the word DAF and, um, a lot of people don't know what it means. A lot of people don't know why a DAF exists, or you know, what it means in the context of a larger organization. People think a DAF is an organization, but, but the reality is it's a mechanism. So let's get into that a little bit. Um, in your words, you know, how would you define a donor-advised fund?
Steve Maislin:
Sure. So a donor-advised fund is, uh, at the base level, it's a charitable giving vehicle. It's something like a, a, a, almost like a charitable investment account, if you will. Um, and the original donor sets up the fund. A real common scenario would be mom and dad set up a fund and they're the advisors to the fund. They make a donation into that fund. That's a donation to a public charity. So it can be cash, but tax wise, it's more effective to use an appreciated asset because when that asset gets sold, there's no capital gains tax, the money gets invested and grows tax free. And then the advisors to the fund recommend grants out to typically public charities, uh, in the local community all over the country. For some organizations like ours, we can facilitate, uh, international giving. So, uh, it has the, the tool has grown so rapidly, I think for a number of reasons. It's very easy to set up. It's a cost effective, uh, mechanism. People have, uh, you know, effective control in the sense of being able to make grant recommendations, if you will. And donor-advised funds can be small and simple and they can be gigantic and complex and everything in between.
Brad Caruso :
Totally understand that. And I think one of those benefits that exist for individual donors that often gets overlooked is, you know, you get the tax deduction for the donation when you make it, even though you're gonna make grants in the future. And also, you know, there are the tax planning considerations, like you mentioned of donating appreciated property and things like that. So certainly there's a lot of benefit to the donor, but then also I imagine with this concept as well existing at a community foundation, what are some of those other benefits you get? I created, as you mentioned, a DAF and there's all layers of complexity of what that can look like. How does that exist at a community foundation?
Steve Maislin:
Well, first of all, the benefit of coming to a community foundation to set up a donor-advised fund is there's a, uh, a multitude of benefits, if you will. We offer, you know, really good service for people. And, you know, we're very responsive. I think a lot of fund sponsors would say that, but beyond that, we have a deep expertise in both philanthropy and the local community. And so when people want us to engage with their planning team on their estate planning and their legacy and what have you, we're really well positioned to do that. Um, and a local resource for them. But then beyond that, many donors want advice about how to have impact in the local community. So I've been here a long time, I've never had a donor walk in the door and say, I have no idea what I'm interested in. But every week we have donors walk in the door and go, I am passionate about homelessness, food insecurity, the arts, and I know a certain number of organizations, but either I would like to understand more of the local landscape, who are the most effective organizations, or I would like to collaborate, uh, with other donors, uh, and, you know, move the needle on some of the, the bigger issues.
Steve Maislin:
So there's a really unique aspect to coming to a community foundation. And also, I would say for us, one of the things we're really proud of is we have, for years now had a Center for Family Philanthropy and a next Gen Donor institute. And that's becoming ever more important with the wealth transfer going on now that we for 12 years have been working with the next generation of donors, and these are folks who are gonna steward huge amounts of philanthropic wealth, and a lot of times don't have a background in philanthropy. And so we think that's a real value add to our donors and to the community. And you're starting to see that grow within the community foundation field
Brad Caruso :
Without a doubt. Yeah. And, and that, and just that concept of, of, uh, efficiency and effectiveness. You mentioned a couple things in there of how you know, the organization can be efficient about giving. 'cause obviously sometimes there's some hurdles, whether it's local or international or other types of giving. Um, but then also the effectiveness of giving. You know, you're in this community, you care about something, you want to support that, something we can help you find out or, or hone in that that strategy that you're trying to employ and, and look, you know, not just short-term one-time gifts, but also long-term, how we can maximize your gifts. I think, you know, those are, those are definitely some extreme benefits. And, and obviously you being local to the community, I think you mentioned it before and very common in the community foundation world, is that your board is local to the community. So, you know, the word community, uh, in your name is very, very important because that's one of your driving missions is bolstering that community, bolstering the charities in your community and enhancing the gifts and making them as effective as possible. So yeah, I've always found it really cool how, how community foundations are able to do that and, and like you said, serve such a vital role in, uh, in making that happen.
Steve Maislin:
Yeah, we provide a, uh, an extensive amount of learning opportunities for donors, uh, you know, to come together to learn about what's going on in the community, what are the greatest needs. Uh, we actually have a data indicators project in-house here, uh, which is not common in the field, but not, certainly not unique, uh, so that folks can go online, we call it Understanding Houston, and they can see, you know, what's happening broadly, what the needs are, where the city is knocking it out of the park, and where some of the challenges are, um, and where they may want to direct some of their philanthropy as a result. And that's a resource that our donors use the foundation community uses. So that's an example of something where we're giving back to the community more broadly than just, uh, the donors who are engaged here.
Brad Caruso :
Love that. You know, I've heard this term too used in, uh, in the community foundation world and, and other, you know, circles I go to and, and I've heard the term strategic philanthropy and, and one of the benefits of, of the community foundation is assisting with that. How do you define strategic philanthropy and how does you, as the Greater Houston Community Foundation support donors in making kind of intentional high impact giving decisions? The
Steve Maislin:
Way we think about strategic philanthropy is it's all about impact and amplifying impact. And, you know, it's not unlike investing in other ways. You want to get the greatest, uh, result for the money that you are investing in in order to do strategic philanthropy. Um, it helps a lot to know who are the most impactful nonprofits, what the needs are. The com, uh, uh, are of the community, um, you know, systems change ideas, all of that, which our knowledgeable staff can bring to the table. So in the typical interaction with donors, they are blessed with financial resources and a real desire to help the community. And they look to us for our expertise, um, in helping them take their passions and utilize that, uh, to have real impact. Uh, we have a, a big donor here who always talks to me about the fact that everybody makes their money using their head and they give it away with their heart.
Steve Maislin:
And really impactful philanthropists give their money away with their head and their heart, and we're here to help on the head side. Um, and also to make it easy, you know, we have a, we work with a lot of people. I'm a tax lawyer. I love the complexity of a structure. A lot of our donors love the fact that they can do it really easily. Um, you know, go online, make a grant, reach out to our staff, ask a quick question. So we try and be there kind of across the spectrum, uh, for our donors. And, and it's a fascinating job because the passion of our donors, and I think this is typical in community foundations, just covers the spectrum all over the place.
Brad Caruso :
Yeah, without a doubt. And, and I love, I love the education component. I mean, that's big in, in my travels and the not-for-profit industry. I always find education awareness and, and having someone that you can lean on to, to really coach you in, into helping, uh, in this area, I've always found that that's a big part of what we do. And, um, you know, the really interesting part that I, I always find too, just working with community foundations is you have both sides of the coin. You have the, the donors that are coming in, and then you have your connections to the nonprofits in your community on the other side, and you, you develop those, those connections over time. Um, you know, how, how does, how does the community foundation on the other side of that coin, um, partner and work with other nonprofits in your community? How do you connect, how do you go about that? How do you work with, you know, and as you said, you develop these relationships with, um, with different charitable organizations to effectively give, how, how does that work?
Steve Maislin:
Yeah, that, that's a broad question for us. Very broad question. 'cause it happens in a lot of different ways. So I'll give you a couple of very tangible examples. Sure. One thing we're really proud of that is a relatively new strategic partnership for us is a couple of years ago we launched the Greater Houston Disaster Alliance. Um, and that's in partnership with our local United Way, the United Way of Greater Houston. And it's been a terrific partnership because we bring the strength of the two organizations together. We each have deep expertise. You know, one of the more interesting things I've experienced here is that we were the back office for President Bush, George HW Bush, when they did all the Bush Clinton charitable funds like the Katrina Fund. And United Way similarly has deep expertise. Now we've launched this partnership and when that money comes in, it gets deployed into the local nonprofit community.
Steve Maislin:
So we are proactive in building a network because when you do disaster relief work, speed is incredibly important. So that's an example right there. Beyond that, we engage with our donors through offering access to and working with them on the Understanding Houston Data project that I mentioned, which is also a partnership with the Kinder Institute at Rice University. There's another strategic partnership. You know, we serve very much as the connective tissue, if you will, in the donor community and the nonprofit community. And so partnerships like that are, uh, really valuable, I think, to the community as well as to our donors. And then beyond that, we're always reaching out to nonprofits and representing our donors. We'll have a donor come in and say, I really wanna make a unique impact on, um, nonprofit servicing veterans, and can you, you know, figure out what that is, pull those groups together, what have you. And so that happens on an opportunity by opportunity basis, if you will.
Brad Caruso :
Yeah. A couple things you said there that I love is developing partnerships. It's a big part of what we do. A big part of what you do and, and especially, you know, one of the other concepts in the giving world that you said is, is kind of like the speed of giving. And, and, you know, for those that have lived through natural disasters or certain types of disaster recovery work, you know, you know that the speed of giving is, is ally important. And we've had a few people on the podcast in the past talk about how they go about doing that. So, um, I love hearing that. 'cause you know, sometimes government resources and other resources, they're not there in that timely amount of manner that that's needed. And it's wonderful that you've partnered with a lot of local organizations to make it easy for people to give, and then you can deploy it quickly to, uh, to those places where they need to go. So, you know, certainly I'm a first responder in my, uh, outside of Withum Life. So I certainly, uh, value and appreciate, I'm usually the guy with the, you know, the helmet on in the middle of the rain. So
Steve Maislin:
There, there you go. And I, I gotta say, you know, we're blessed. You talked about the, you know, the large amount of grants we've made in our relatively short history that's reflective of our community. We have this really generous community and when you look at the disaster work, individuals and families step up, but also gotta give real, uh, plot. Its to our business community, the original investment we had to launch. Um, and they step up in, you know, disaster after disaster to uh, you know, help get us going. And so, um, it's really nice to be involved with the community foundation in a community like Houston, quite honestly,
Brad Caruso :
Without a doubt. Yeah, no, happy to hear that. And certainly, uh, it's an awesome place to be. You know, we talked a little bit about how people give about you partnering in the community. Can you talk a little more about some of the causes you support or some of the grants you make and maybe some examples about some folks you've helped? I always like hearing about, uh, hearing about the impact.
Steve Maislin:
Sure. So first of all, greater Houston is a little bit unusual, and I think it has a lot to do with our youth in that almost all of our grant making. And we gave out, what, over $270 million last year, our, our donor advised grants. So that means that we are working with our donors, but the donors are ultimately making the decision of, uh, where to invest. And so that drives some of the impact. Now we have launched a community impact initiative, which is, uh, creating an opportunity for donors to come together, um, and collaborate on giving. Last year we gave out half a million dollars. It's a very early, uh, pilot, uh, project. But we hope to grow that where donors can come together, learn together, um, and drive more impact by giving together as well. Beyond that, we offer a wide range of tools.
Steve Maislin:
So one of the areas where I think we see the most impact in responsive to your question is in our scholarship area, which has grown hugely over the last few years. We give out over, I think it's over almost $6 million a year now, uh, in grants. People love the scholarship piece 'cause it's so tangible, they can see the benefit. Um, and we've developed a real expertise in helping individuals fan foundations and businesses design scholarships. So they're, you know, as effective as possible. And, um, it's a really impactful form of philanthropy. So that's, uh, you know, another example of that. And then our donors, you know, it's fascinating to see, uh, you know, their, their focal point. We have some donors who are very focused on food insecurity as an example, and so they have not only given to the local food bank, but they'll reach out to smaller organizations further out, uh, geographically into the community as an example. Um, and so the impact is really kind of all over the place, uh, with our donors and we're there to support them. And, and, you know, again, as I mentioned before, um, everybody comes in the door with a passion, um, and some want to exercise that by themselves, and some want to be in a room with others who feel that way. And we try and meet everybody where they are.
Brad Caruso :
Love it. And, and on on that topic of scholarships, 'cause you know, it's another, another area of impact that you're making. Um, you said that, you said that you've had a significant uptick. What what drove that significant uptick, um, in scholarships? Was that just organizational philosophy from your perspective? Was that an external need that you noticed? What kind of, you know, from your perspective, drove your increase in scholarship giving or, you know, what got it to, you know, you said you, you give out about $6 million a year, which is, it's a big number. What drove that?
Steve Maislin:
We saw a real need, a real interest in the marketplace in doing more and more scholarship giving. Um, and so over time we built up a really, um, strong scholarship team. We can sit down with people and talk about best practices and, you know, what works and what doesn't. We can connect with institutions and education is one of the biggest areas that our donors give into. Uh, not surprisingly. And obviously that's an aspect of the education philanthropy. So it's not at all unusual to have a family that sets up a large donor-advised fund here. They're giving into charter schools, they're supporting something in public education, and they're doing scholarships. And so it all just fits together well. So it was really responsive to the marketplace, but we also see it as very much mission driven because obviously education is one of the keys to having a successful community over time. And, you know, that's part of the reason we're here.
Brad Caruso :
Love it. Yeah. And, and that's, that's, as you keep saying, the reinvestment in the community, I mean, that's just another, another layer, another element of your reinvestment into that community and, and, uh, you know, creates more people connected to you, which is awesome for, uh, for the future.
Steve Maislin:
Exactly. No, that it's built helped us build some great relationships on the nonprofit side, but also with donors and with foundations also.
Brad Caruso :
Love it. On the grant making side, is there anything that a community foundation can't do? Uh, you know, a lot of the questions that we get sometimes is, can I do this? Can I do that? Are there things that community foundations, let's say on the grant making side, you know, can't do, stay away from, or, or need to just be cautious of that, you know, if someone's saying, Hey, I'm curious about a donor-advised fund, or, I'm curious about doing this, you know, what are some of those do's and don'ts, you know, any advice in them that you would give or anything that, that jumps out to mind on that topic?
Steve Maislin:
I, I guess I would answer that in two parts. One is the typical grants are going to public charities that are in good standing, uh, whether they're here locally or all over the country. And community foundations, almost without exception as far as I know, uh, can make grants all over the United States. And as I mentioned before, we facilitate international grants. Uh, not surprising, giving the international nature of our community, uh, but I know we're not unique, uh, in that regard among the, you know, the community foundation field. So that's kind of the, the typical course. But I would also say that we get involved from time to time with really unique, uh, opportunities. So I would say to people, if you have an idea that's really special or unique or what have you, talk to your local community foundation. I'll, I'll give you an example.
Steve Maislin:
We had a donor a few years ago who really wanted to fund a series of videos around childhood obesity. Well, there were no nonprofit movie studios to help produce this and what have you, but we were able to set up a structure such that we were able to use a for-profit studio, but there was no private benefit, any of the, any profit coming off of that or what have you, came back into a fund here and went out into the charitable world. So our donor got the deduction, the community got the benefit of this really impactful set of, uh, videos, if you will. So there's a lot of creative ideas. Um, and it always starts with, I'm always amazed at how creative our donors are in walking in the door and asking a question, not having the professional expertise, but knowing what they wanna achieve. And it's our job to see if we can get to, yes.
Brad Caruso :
And that's a benefit of having a tax attorney as a leader of an organization. <laugh>,
Steve Maislin:
That comes across every now and then, right? Every
Brad Caruso :
Once in a while, you know, someone asks you a structuring question, you're like, actually, I have some experience with this <laugh>.
Steve Maislin:
I love it when I can say that. Yeah,
Brad Caruso :
That's always a win. As I was planning for this, I saw some things on your website that it's your 30th anniversary year, and, uh, we said in the beginning, you started in 1995, you've been, you've been at this as an organization for 30 years, you know, as you as the leader of the organization. And reflecting on that, you know, what do you view as your most notable accomplishments?
Steve Maislin:
Well, I think the, the grant number and how active our donors are is always, uh, something that makes us really proud and thankful to our donors. Because, you know, the, the giving percentage here, you always hear about like, uh, not a private foundation has to give out a minimum of 5% of the value of his assets a year. Our donors give out typically north of 20%. And so we're really proud of the fact that that money is out there and about half of it stays in greater Houston, two thirds in the state. So it's having a lot of local impact while also going beyond that. Uh, but beyond that, we're really proud of our disaster recovery work. Um, you know, unfortunately this community, uh, gets to exercise that muscle on a fairly regular basis, not only because of hurricanes, but largely, uh, in that vein we talked about the scholarship work. And I'm really excited about our next gen, uh, work that we do through our Center for Family Philanthropy and our Donor institute. 'cause you know, we've been talking about this great transfer of wealth for, I don't know, 20 years or something. But we are now absolutely in the midst of it happening and helping that next generation have the knowledge base, the resources, uh, to deploy those assets in an impactful way, we see as really mission focused for us. So I, I think we're really proud about that part as well.
Brad Caruso :
I'm actually curious, just based on that too, with your next gen donor Institute and next gen kind of this concept. Can you talk a little bit more about that program?
Steve Maislin:
Sure. So our program historically has been targeted at, uh, folks who are about age 25 to 40, but that's broadened out some, uh, beyond that, it's evolved over time where, um, it is now done typically over a couple weekends because so many of the next gen live in other towns, uh, you know, post pandemic. We've done a lot of virtual training in that regard. Um, certainly our donors children come in and get involved in the Next Gen Donor Institute, but beyond that, we have advisors who refer people to us. It's a great vehicle. That's not only a win for the community when people get educated, but it builds, quite frankly, relationships for us with new donors. And it's kind of interesting, 10 years ago, every fund that came outta that was mom and dad opening a fund for the kids. Now it's real common. And when I say kids, these are adults, many of whom have become their own wealth creators.
Steve Maislin:
They come in, they open a fund, and now they're bringing mom and dad, uh, to the community foundation and saying, as a family, you know, we have a shared set of values and we ought to take that into our giving. And we have a very experienced staff. We actually had, uh, I think it was last year, we had an academic study done of the work that we've done. Um, and it was really interesting to see, you know, we're doing some things really well, but there's some other ways we could be more impactful. Um, and, you know, when you've been doing it that long and it gets some sustainability, there's a huge benefit to that because you learn over time what's working, what's not. Uh, a lot of the folks who engage with that are very time constrained. So this idea of either virtual or doing it over a couple of weekends has made it much more palatable.
Steve Maislin:
We've had brothers and sisters, a lot of married couples come in and do it. Um, and it's, you know, we talk about everything from, you know, how do you develop a giving plan. What's social giving versus trying to be more impactful to, how do you identify a great nonprofit to the one that I always find fascinating, because so many of these, uh, younger folks come from very prominent families, they always want to know how to say no in a gracious way because they're getting asked all the time. And sometimes people forget, mom and dad have a lot more resources than they do at this stage, and they can't fund everything. So, uh, it's been a real, I think it's been a, a real win for, for the folks who go through it for the community foundation and for the community.
Brad Caruso :
There's a lot of value in that education. And, and you're right, like I'm, you're selling me on wanting to, uh, wanting to learn a little bit more as well. 'cause I, I just, uh, yeah, I mean, that's not anything that anybody really teaches. And, and you're right, especially in the examples that you gave, um, you know, saying no graciously is actually a very hard thing to do. Um, you know, learning how to, how to identify, you know, a a sustainable and a strong nonprofit is not easy to do. Um, there's so many out there, there's so many organizations that, that, hey, they're good causes. They do a lot of good, but, but how do you, how do you narrow that down to where you actually want to give and, and, uh, and the flexibility of your program, um, I guarantee is, is, uh, highly relevant and makes it very lucrative to a lot of people. Um, that definitely is important, uh, especially with the, the next generation of, uh, folks out there.
Steve Maislin:
And it, it's also people begin to understand where their interests are. Sure, some people are really excited about startup nonprofits that very well may fail just like a startup in the for-profit world. But if it takes off and it's in an area they care about, that's really catalyitcal. And other folks want, you know, proven nonprofits. They want to see these specific ROI. Um, and we have seen a real shift in younger donors who grew up with technology in an iPhone or, you know, an Android in their hand. They're used to seeing a whole lot of data, um, and they're not really as loyal institutionally. They want to see what the impact is. Um, which I think probably in the long run is a real win for philanthropy, even though it's gonna take some, uh, adapting for all of us,
Brad Caruso :
Without a doubt. Yeah, no, we're definitely all, all learning as we, uh, learning as we go. Certainly. How can the public help you?
Steve Maislin:
Clearly, the thing we would love most is for them to come visit with us. Um, we have a really skilled team of philanthropy advisors and we welcome those conversations. And like any other business for-profit or not-for-profit, we're not the solution for everybody. But we love those conversations. And a lot of times we can fit really well. It may be a donor-advised fund, it may be a scholarship fund, but it may be starting by training in the Next Gen Donor Institute, or we may not be a fit every now and then. For example, someone comes in the door and says, I want start a scholarship fund for the local law school that I graduated from. Well, they should go do it there, uh, because if it's a single institution, they're gonna do it for free. They know the institution and we'll tell them that, you know, at the end of the day, we're a philanthropic resource.
Steve Maislin:
We love having donors. We want to grow, but we certainly wanna help the community. So the number one thing is that people could, uh, pick up the phone and come to visit with us. Um, and we're always looking for knowledge of new things that are going on in the community, and they can, you know, reach out and educate us, uh, in that regard about that. We've also launched our new community impact fund, uh, that I'd mentioned before, where we're creating a collaborative giving vehicle. And so for some folks who may not want to go down the path of a full fund and what have you, but engage in some of that work, they might wanna reach out and learn about that. Uh, it's focused on economic mobility, which is a broad topic, but hugely important, uh, in a community that's relatively young like Houston, very diverse, uh, a lot of interesting, both challenges and opportunities. So I guess at the end of the day, the bottom line response to that is, let's talk, let's have some communication and see where, where there's some commonality and we can help. Or if not, again, being the connector, we can make some introductions.
Brad Caruso :
Awesome. And the best way to, to reach out website,
Steve Maislin:
Probably the website and, you know, sending an email our way and you'll hear back from us. People can always call the, the main phone number, but the website, and in our experience today, that seems to be the way most people reach out and connect. I don't know about you, but my phone rings a lot less than it used to. I get a lot more email, I get texts, uh, in a big way now. And I think that's how, uh, you know, it's becoming more and more common for people to reach out and start the dialogue that way.
Brad Caruso :
Well, without a doubt. Yeah. Yeah. I, I was reading a book the other day and one of the things that it said was, uh, when they're in the interview process, the one thing they started doing is they'll send a text message from their phone and be like, Hey, you know, we had a great interview, we had a question for you. And they ask 'em and see how fast they respond to it or see how they respond to it. And, you know, it's, it's both a way to connect with people. 'cause people are gonna read the text before they read an email or a phone call. Uh, but also a way to say like, how responsive is this person? And, and, uh, but text message without a doubt is the, uh, the number one way to go about doing that. And I've even noticed that in my profession. Like, we don't have phones on our desks anymore. It's either a zoom call or you text me and and that's it. <laugh>.
Steve Maislin:
Exactly. I was gonna say that, uh, one of the things I'm really proud of is, is our team is so responsive because people who work here care about the community, but donors figure that out. And so they text on a Saturday and they're really surprised if they don't hear till Monday, because that's unusual. Uh, you know, pe people wanna step up and help and, and move the dialogue along. Um, and so that's, you know, that's where the world is moving and that's where our donors are moving as well,
Brad Caruso :
Without a doubt. Yeah, without a doubt. Awesome. I mean, this was a, a wonderful conversation about the Greater Houston Community Foundation. Wonderful conversation about community foundations in general, and really just all the impact that you've had. Um, I really hope, you know, those that listen are, you know, get a little value out of understanding what these organizations do as mentioned community foundations are in, in many communities, uh, out there in the United States. And certainly have the ability to help you, uh, with that. And certainly you're doing, uh, great for the world. So, you know, from, from my perspective, really appreciate all that you do for your community as well as the greater giving world. Um, and you know, thank you so much for, uh, dedicating your time. I know everybody's busy and, uh, I I just really valued that you are a guest on the show and were able to, uh, share this knowledge. It was, it was very much appreciated by us.
Steve Maislin:
Well, thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity. It's really a privilege to work at a place like this. And I encourage people who aren't in Houston to reach out, uh, locally. It's pretty easy to find your community foundation, and it's a great place to have an interesting conversation about making a difference.
Brad Caruso :
Love it. Love it. And warriors out there. Thank you for listening. Subscribe and meet us right back here for another episode of Withum Civic Warriors. Bye everybody.
