Reimagining Global Philanthropy, by Kirk S. Bowman and Jon R. Wilcox (preface)

BOWMAN

— JOHN DECERO, president and CEO, Mechanics Bank “This book offers a highly original take on global philanthropy and the high failure rate of many of its projects, accompanied by compelling advocacy for a new model that relies on local leadership and insists on cost-effectiveness. Bowman and Wilcox build on evidence from failures big and small and on their own decades-long experience with both failures and successes. I cannot remember having seen a serious book with an important policy message that is such a pleasure to read.”

— EVELYNE HUBER, Morehead Alumni Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill “Bowman and Wilcox’s core thesis is that philanthropists should avoid casting themselves as the heroes and instead serve as supportive sidekicks to effective neighborhood leaders. At once, they pinpoint the problem with so much global philanthropy and offer a meaningful solution.”

Jon R. Wilcox (left) and Kirk S. Bowman (right)

KIRK S. BOWMAN

is a professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is cofounder and director of the international NGO Rise Up & Care. His books include Lessons from Latin America: Innovations in Politics, Culture, and Development (2014).

JON R. WILCOX

is the cofounder and the former president, CEO, and director of California Republic Bancorp. His current and previous board affiliations include Mechanics Bank, Waterfall Bridge Capital, Rise Up & Care, South Coast Repertory, Junior Achievement, and Fiji Reef Resources.

— KENTARO TOYAMA, W. K. Kellogg Professor of Community Information, University of Michigan, and author of Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology “This is an eye-opening and pathbreaking book offering concrete advice for those of us who want to do good in the developing world. Instead of yet another twist on the usual humanitarian colonialism, Reimagining Global Philanthropy calls on us to play the important but secondary role of assisting local activists and social entrepreneurs to scale up successful programs they and their community built and tested. Bowman and Wilcox put forward a bold new model and present it in a crisp engaging way. A must-read.”

— DAN BREZNITZ, award-winning author, codirector of the Innovation Policy Lab, and Munk Chair of Innovation Studies, University of Toronto “Bowman and Wilcox turn their expertise in international affairs and banking to reforming international philanthropy, giving important advice to those who want to help in the most efficient way. Anyone who wants to participate in making a difference for the better in the world would be wise to read this book.”

— JON-CLAUDE ZUCCONI, managing director, investment bank columbia university press

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WILCOX

Reimagining Gl bal Philanthropy

“Reimagining Global Philanthropy takes a tried-and-true model—one based on the industry I work in every day—and brings the lessons of community banking to the global stage of international philanthropy. Now more than ever, philanthropy must maximize returns on investment. A trailblazing book that provides a formula that really works.”

KIRK S. BOWMAN and JON R. WILCOX

Reimagining

Global Philanthropy

The COMMUNITY BANK MODEL of SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

WELL-MEANING WESTERNERS

want to find ways to help the less fortunate. Today, many are not just volunteering abroad and donating to international nonprofits but also advancing innovations and launching projects that aim to be socially transformative. However, often these activities are not efficient ways of helping others, and too many projects cause more harm than good.

Reimagining Global Philanthropy shares the journey of a conservative banker and a progressive professor to find a better way forward. Kirk S. Bowman and Jon R. Wilcox explain the boom in the global compassion industry, revealing the incentives that produce inefficient practices and poor outcomes. Instead of supporting start-up projects with long-shot hopes for success, they argue, we can dramatically improve results by empowering local leaders.

Applying lessons from the success of community banks, Bowman and Wilcox develop and implement a new model that significantly raises philanthropic efficacy.

Their straightforward and rigorously tested approach calls for community members to take the lead while outside partners play a supporting role. Bowman and Wilcox recount how they tested the model in Brazil, demonstrating the value of giving people in marginalized communities the opportunity to innovate. In a time of widespread social reckoning, this book shows how global philanthropy can confront its blind spots and failures in order to achieve truly transformative outcomes.

PREFACE

THE POWER OF DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

We come from very different backgrounds and hold different perspectives. Kirk Bowman is a progressive college professor from Atlanta, Georgia, with twenty-five years of development research and practice. Jon Wilcox is a conservative community banker from Orange County, California, with over three decades in banking and finance. Despite our considerable political differences, job experiences, and worldviews, we have been close friends for nearly forty years. We met in Washington, D.C., in 1983 when Jon interned in a suit and tie at the Securities and Exchange Commission and Kirk interned in jeans and a T-shirt at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. A semester of carpooling into the city from Alexandria, lots of basketball, and regular road trips formed the roots of a lifelong friendship.

In an era of great political division and a lack of empathy, we affirm that there is much to gain by talking and working closely with people who think differently than you do. Indeed, we believe that listening and blending our different perspectives, education, and experience is the driving force for this book. Years of friendship, lively arguments, dozens of trips to South America, a willingness to admit errors, and a few horrifying experiences in the field all

PREFACE

contributed to our coalescence on an alternative model for global philanthropy.

Despite our outward differences, we share far more similarities. We both lived for extended periods in the Global South and continue to admire the cultures and peoples. We both encountered and developed enduring relationships with remarkable and creative local community leaders. We are both optimistic about community transformations from the ground up.

As with many epiphanies, ours percolated for several years. We initially discovered Sebastião Oliveira and the Miratus Badminton Association through the serendipity of a random LinkedIn contact in 2011.1 Meeting Oliveira and watching him train world-class badminton players through samba dancing in a favela in the periphery of Rio de Janeiro was exhilarating. We believed he was singular, a local social entrepreneur unicorn who was famous for his unusual ideas. We were shocked to discover that most people in Rio de Janeiro had no idea who he was. He was invisible outside the favela and network of local activists.

We spoke about Miratus with Julia Michaels, a journalist, author, and activist with decades of experience in Rio de Janeiro. Michaels informed us that while Oliveira is incredible, he is not unique or even rare in the eight hundred favelas of Rio de Janeiro. She knew about dozens of locally led organizations doing innovative and incredible work in the roughest of environments. Michaels then decided to introduce us to Vinicius Daumas and Junior Perim, the founders of the Crescer e Viver social circus, over dinner.2 Perim’s mind works at an incredible pace, and a conversation with him is both exhausting and exhilarating. He is likely the smartest person in the room, and perhaps he knows it. He is also a tireless activist for human rights, urban development, the arts, and local social entrepreneurs. When we asked him if there were other organizations similar to Miratus and leaders as impressive as Oliveira, Perim looked at us with a sly smile, as if we were naïve children. His answer was to ask if we were free for the next two days. We were, and we drove all over the city with Perim and Daumas in their old SUV, meeting local leader after local leader using innovation and viii

PREFACE

commitment to transform the youth of their neighborhoods. The diversity of activities was as impressive as the energy and long-term commitment of the local social activists. From contemporary dance to filmmaking, and from classical music to boxing, the favelas of Rio de Janeiro are bursting with locally led projects that are critical institutions in their neighborhoods.

When the celebrated economist Albert O. Hirschman was asked how he came to hold the unorthodox views he proposed in The Strategy of Economic Development, he would reply, “I went to Colombia early in 1952 without any prior knowledge of . . . development.

This turned out to be a real advantage. . . . [I later] discovered I had acquired a point of view of my own that was considerably at odds with current doctrines.”3 This was also our advantage. As a lifelong banker, Jon never studied development. He had never attended a single class. He encountered Rio de Janeiro from a banker’s perspective. After meeting Oliveira, Michaels, Perim, and Daumas, and taking the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood activist tour, the community banker remarked that global philanthropy would have a far greater return on investment by providing resources to these impressive and ongoing successful organizations instead of always starting new initiatives. That simple observation represents the theoretical beginnings of this book.

After years of conversation and over a dozen trips to Rio de Janeiro, the conservative banker convinced the left-leaning college professor that good intentions and theoretical rigor are not enough: any successful model must be highly cost-efficient, with the maximum expected rate of return on investment. The college professor convinced the banker that cost-effectiveness was insufficient: a successful model must empower local leaders and subvert existing power relations. These experiences and conversations led us to contemplate, develop, and test a community bank model (CBM) of global philanthropy. We detail this journey in this book.

We are grateful for all the people and institutions that enriched our journey and this book. Sebastião Oliveira, Guti Fraga, Tia Maria, Lazir Sinval, Junior Perim, Vinicius Daumas, Eliana Sousa Silva, Zefa da Guia, Doña D’Ajuda, and Mamae Zezé taught us that real-life ix

PREFACE

superheroes do exist, and they come in all ages, colors, and economic conditions, and with different education levels. You inspired us as you transformed the lives of so many in your communities.

We are grateful for you and all that you do.

We also acknowledge and salute all the people who created Rise Up & Care’s incredible films and children’s books to inspire the world with important stories of these local social champions. They taught us that children of all ages need role models who look like they do and who are from their communities. Special thanks go to Maria Hernandez, Cazé, Luis Lomenha, Eduardo Gripa, Mayara Boaretto, Isa Carneiro, Katia Lund, Lili Fialho, Ana Beraba, Cláudia Belém, and Eric Larson.

We could never thank all the people who shared their dinner tables, advice, contacts, and encouragement along the way.

We extend a big obrigado to Jimmy Story, Hermano Ribeiro, Julia Michaels, Eduardo Cruxen, Gwen Maitre, Rolando Bossart, and Theresa Williamson.

Alison Bowman, Kole Bowman, Mitch Bowman, Alberto Fuentes, Adam Haggiag, Virginia Webber, Suzanne Wilcox, Leyu Wondwossen, and Brian Woodall all commented on and greatly improved early drafts. Students in three semesters of the Georgia Tech course on Global Philanthropy and Development provided sharp and useful critiques, edits, and suggestions for the manuscript. Kaylin Berinhout, Sam Chappell, Haley McElroy, Hannah Musall, and Mehnaz Ruksana deserve special thanks. Alasdair Young provided helpful advice.

We acknowledge and thank all of our mentors and colleagues who believed in us when many did not. This project would not have been possible without people like Bob Duggan, Ernest Rady, Bob Barth, Ed Carpenter, Adam Stulberg, Felipe Arocena, Mark Hay, and Terry Snell.

The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the Georgia Institute of Technology provided generous freedom and time for a long and unconventional endeavor. We applaud the students in our Vertically Integrated Project on Global Social Entrepreneurship for their generous hearts, constant creativity, hard work, and x

PREFACE

constructive criticism. Edouard Goguillon worked many long nights editing, formatting, and critiquing the manuscript. Chaeeun Park and Jessica Palacios produced many of the figures. The brilliant Rio de Janeiro street artist Cazé produced the illustrations.

Our experience with Columbia University Press could not have been better. We were fortunate to meet Myles Thompson. His embrace of the project, wise guidance, and steady encouragement was invaluable. Brian Smith pushed the project over the finish line.

The anonymous reviewers were thorough, thoughtful, and tough yet generous. Thank you.

Finally, we are blessed and fortunate to have the love and support of our families. Thank you to Suzanne, Kole, Leyu, Audrey, James, Mitch, Sadie, and Kai. You are the most important part of this and all future adventures.

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BOWMAN

— JOHN DECERO, president and CEO, Mechanics Bank “This book offers a highly original take on global philanthropy and the high failure rate of many of its projects, accompanied by compelling advocacy for a new model that relies on local leadership and insists on cost-effectiveness. Bowman and Wilcox build on evidence from failures big and small and on their own decades-long experience with both failures and successes. I cannot remember having seen a serious book with an important policy message that is such a pleasure to read.”

— EVELYNE HUBER, Morehead Alumni Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill “Bowman and Wilcox’s core thesis is that philanthropists should avoid casting themselves as the heroes and instead serve as supportive sidekicks to effective neighborhood leaders. At once, they pinpoint the problem with so much global philanthropy and offer a meaningful solution.”

Jon R. Wilcox (left) and Kirk S. Bowman (right)

KIRK S. BOWMAN

is a professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is cofounder and director of the international NGO Rise Up & Care. His books include Lessons from Latin America: Innovations in Politics, Culture, and Development (2014).

JON R. WILCOX

is the cofounder and the former president, CEO, and director of California Republic Bancorp. His current and previous board affiliations include Mechanics Bank, Waterfall Bridge Capital, Rise Up & Care, South Coast Repertory, Junior Achievement, and Fiji Reef Resources.

— KENTARO TOYAMA, W. K. Kellogg Professor of Community Information, University of Michigan, and author of Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology “This is an eye-opening and pathbreaking book offering concrete advice for those of us who want to do good in the developing world. Instead of yet another twist on the usual humanitarian colonialism, Reimagining Global Philanthropy calls on us to play the important but secondary role of assisting local activists and social entrepreneurs to scale up successful programs they and their community built and tested. Bowman and Wilcox put forward a bold new model and present it in a crisp engaging way. A must-read.”

— DAN BREZNITZ, award-winning author, codirector of the Innovation Policy Lab, and Munk Chair of Innovation Studies, University of Toronto “Bowman and Wilcox turn their expertise in international affairs and banking to reforming international philanthropy, giving important advice to those who want to help in the most efficient way. Anyone who wants to participate in making a difference for the better in the world would be wise to read this book.”

— JON-CLAUDE ZUCCONI, managing director, investment bank columbia university press

/ new

cup.columbia.edu JACKET DESIGN: NOAH ARLOW COVER PHOTO: NASA

$24.95

york

AN IMPRINT OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

Printed in the U.S.A.

and

WILCOX

Reimagining Gl bal Philanthropy

“Reimagining Global Philanthropy takes a tried-and-true model—one based on the industry I work in every day—and brings the lessons of community banking to the global stage of international philanthropy. Now more than ever, philanthropy must maximize returns on investment. A trailblazing book that provides a formula that really works.”

KIRK S. BOWMAN and JON R. WILCOX

Reimagining

Global Philanthropy

The COMMUNITY BANK MODEL of SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

WELL-MEANING WESTERNERS

want to find ways to help the less fortunate. Today, many are not just volunteering abroad and donating to international nonprofits but also advancing innovations and launching projects that aim to be socially transformative. However, often these activities are not efficient ways of helping others, and too many projects cause more harm than good.

Reimagining Global Philanthropy shares the journey of a conservative banker and a progressive professor to find a better way forward. Kirk S. Bowman and Jon R. Wilcox explain the boom in the global compassion industry, revealing the incentives that produce inefficient practices and poor outcomes. Instead of supporting start-up projects with long-shot hopes for success, they argue, we can dramatically improve results by empowering local leaders.

Applying lessons from the success of community banks, Bowman and Wilcox develop and implement a new model that significantly raises philanthropic efficacy.

Their straightforward and rigorously tested approach calls for community members to take the lead while outside partners play a supporting role. Bowman and Wilcox recount how they tested the model in Brazil, demonstrating the value of giving people in marginalized communities the opportunity to innovate. In a time of widespread social reckoning, this book shows how global philanthropy can confront its blind spots and failures in order to achieve truly transformative outcomes.