Henry Berman, Acting CEO

What is your background?

The first part of my career was spent in communications, working in television, film, and other media, primarily for education, motivation, and information sharing. My clients ranged from Fortune 50 companies to small nonprofits. I worked in a wide range of subject areas, allowing me to continually learn new things, and I brought a knack for assessing the message to be communicated. In many ways, this experience parallels my work today as a foundation trustee where I’m always learning about new subjects, programs, and needs.

About 15 years ago, I found myself helping more and more nonprofits to communicate their missions, visions, and passions. I also found myself serving on a few nonprofit boards, lending my expertise in communications and becoming involved in fundraising and governance. In 2003, I became the successor trustee for a longtime family friend who established her (unfunded) foundation some years earlier. As the first funds flowed into the foundation, I became intimately involved with its operations and overall personality.

I’ve also been the trustee of several trusts with responsibility for the distribution of funds both before and after a donor’s death. This allowed me to sharpen my skills as a steward of the funds during their lifetimes and to experience a different kind of giving after their deaths: scanning the landscape for appropriate projects rather than responding to requests. 

I joined the ASF board in 2008, and I’ve had great fun chairing the Membership Committee and serving on the Development Committee.

What attracted you to the role of Acting CEO?

I’m excited to bring the perspective of our members to this position. As trustee of a small-staffed foundation, I share the same concerns and needs of our members. Like you, I’m faced with decisions about grantmaking, investment policies, remaining true to our mission, and much more day to day.

I’m a product of ASF in many ways, having joined only months after assuming my trustee role. I’ve sat beside you to learn about the Form 990-PF, investment portfolio management, and board responsibilities. I’ve shared ideas with fellow members over brown bag lunches, read the newsletter, and turned to the survey report to benchmark our foundation’s practices. And, like many of you, I continue to find valuable information and opportunities at ASF, even as my knowledge of foundations and philanthropy grows.

I’m also excited to work with my fellow staff. Our recent staff retreat was full of energy and ideas on how to serve our members in even better ways, and I continue to be impressed by the knowledge our professional staff possesses. They’re some of the most engaged and hardworking folks you’ll ever meet.

What are your first steps as Acting CEO?

For starters, I want to hear from you. Our team is looking for innovative ways to deliver the information you need and connect you with fellow members, and we want your input. We’ve set up an email account, , to gather your thoughts.  If you perceive a need we’re not currently addressing, or if you see a way for us to serve you differently or better, please send it along. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to reply or implement every idea, but I can promise you it will be read.

I’m already working closely with the staff to ensure the 2010 National Conference exceeds all expectations. We’re also planning Local Programs for next year and exploring ways to use technology to bring more information directly to your desktop. We’re completing work funded by major grants and, in general, continuing to work hard. I look forward to keeping you posted on our progress.

What are your goals for the coming months?

All of us at ASF, board and staff, are excited to use this transition as an opportunity to refine our mission and revisit how we serve our members—from education to networking to advocacy. I’m ready to move this work forward in the coming months, handing the next CEO an ASF that is as relevant and strong as ever.

I hope to put my communications expertise to work too, ensuring that all small foundations know of ASF and understand the value of membership in the ASF community. More than 3,000 foundations call ASF home, and I want to be sure others know we exist to help them grow, as each of us has as ASF members. Perhaps you have colleagues who aren’t members? Suggest they check us out and learn how our educational programs, publications, and vast network of peer foundations can help them become better grantmakers.

And finally, I hope to get to know more of you so that we can serve you better. After all, this is your organization.

Marty Fluharty, Board Chair

Why did the board choose Henry Berman as Acting CEO?

We know that Henry is the right person for the job. As trustee of a small foundation, he understands the needs of our members. He also brings decades of experience in nonprofit communications, fundraising, and governance, including two years as an ASF board member during which time he chaired our Membership Committee and sat on our Development Committee. He knows the staff and is eager to help them reach their full potential. He has been a champion for ASF and for small foundations, and we’re eager to work with him to serve our members well.

What are the board’s next steps?

At its mid-July meeting, the board will constitute a committee to manage the national search for a permanent CEO. We expect the process to take several months, with Henry in place as Acting CEO through the end of 2010. We’ll keep you informed of our progress via e-mail and on the website.

Leadership transitions are costly. How is ASF faring financially?

Like almost all organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit, times are tight; but ASF is in good shape. Our staff has worked hard to secure grants to support our work, and many of you have provided additional support beyond your dues. As we all know from our own grantmaking, general operating support is always needed and the toughest to secure. As we move through and beyond this transition together, consider an additional grant to ASF, your organization.

What is on the horizon at ASF?

The future for ASF is bright. We have engaged members, dedicated volunteers, generous sponsors, a committed staff, and trusted partners.

This summer, as the board and staff develop short- and long-term plans for ASF, we’re turning to information and suggestions gathered from hundreds of you throughout 2009 and early 2010. You were generous enough to make time for conversations with our staff; we’re doing our best to listen and respond.

This fall, we’ll be in Austin for our National Conference, our premier educational event held every two years. Registrations are keeping pace with the sell-out 2008 National Conference, and the preconference workshops and learning labs are filling fast. It’ll be a great chance to learn from one another, meet Henry and members of the board and professional staff, and come away reenergized. If you haven’t registered yet, register online or call us at 888-212-9922.

Going forward, we’ll do our very best to meet the needs of our current and future members, serve the ever-expanding world of philanthropy, and enhance the power of small foundation giving.

We are pleased to announce that Henry Berman, an ASF board member and trustee of The Edith Glick Shoolman Children’s Foundation, will serve as Acting CEO until the end of this year.

ASF will launch a national search for a new CEO later this summer.

From the Announcement

What’s up with spending everything while we are here?

You may have heard the good news we’ve just announced: Quixote Foundation will spend all of its money between now and 2017. In each of our interest areas, conditions that favor progress have convinced us that the next few years offer a landmark chance to make the most of our assets.

This decision has roots in our founder’s belief that a donor’s role is secondary to what people and organizations do on the ground. The point is to become the most effective change agent we can be, even if that means not being a foundation anymore in the institutional sense. That’s one reason we’re calling our choice “spending up” instead of spending out or down. We believe who we are as a foundation will be fulfilled—not diminished—by putting more money into action, spending it up into progressive work.

We’re making this announcement early so there’s plenty of time for conversation. Please read the full announcement and “Tiltings” for more information, forward this message to anyone you think might be interested, and chime in with your perspective, whether it’s by blogging, tagging your Tweets #spendup (follow QuixoteTilts), writing on our Facebook wall, or sending comments directly to [e-mail address removed].  We’d love to hear from you.

The Guide to Streamlining series includes practical (doable!) recommendations such as:

• Align grant schedules with the grantee’s timing, not the funder’s.
• Ask only for information you will use.
• Don’t ask organizations for information you can look up yourself.
• Don’t insist on superfluous and time-consuming requirements such as multiple copies, copies of invoices, bills, checks, sales slips, time cards, and several notarized signatures.
• Create a shorter application for smaller grants, general operating grants, and for repeat grantees.

About Project Streamline

Project Streamline is a collaborative effort of organizations from both sides of the grantmaker/grantseeker divide who are studying grant application and reporting practices, their impact on grantseekers and grantmakers, and the implications for the field. ASF is a proud collaborator.

Share your comments about Katrina @ 5: Partners in Philanthropy on the Katrina @ 5 website.

About the Conference
Katrina @ 5: Partners in Philanthropy - a special convening of the philanthropic community, nearly five years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, to explore the lessons of response, rebuilding, and transformation in the Gulf Coast, and how they apply to communities around the country.

Having trouble logging in, or need help finding something? Send an e-mail to asf@smallfoundations.org, or call (888) 212-9922.

We’re particularly proud of these enhancements on our new site:

• New usernames and passwords—that you can manage yourself
• A My Profile area that lets you manage your contact information, subscriptions, and more
• A new “mega” Member Directory
• A more user-friendly Discussion List

Behind the scenes, our new database is enabling staff to serve you more efficiently. With the ongoing support of ASF members and our partners at Matrix Group International, we look forward to bringing you a variety of enhanced web-based services.

Member Support

Thank you to the dozens of member volunteers who gave time and knowledge to assist with the website redesign. These enhancements to our website and database are also made possible by generous grants from the following members:

The Cassels Foundation
CKKO Foundation
Coccia Foundation
The Joseph Henry Edmondson Foundation
Healey Family Foundation
Richard A. Henson Foundation
The Ruth St. John & John Dunham West Foundation, Inc.

To learn more about ASF’s ongoing technology capacity building campaign, contact Melissa Nussbaum, Director of Development at (888) 212-9922 or .

Other New Additions

During the construction of our new database and website, the ASF family welcomed 10 new additions.

The people kind

Anna and Lia
Ronnie Charlene
Sadie Claire

The furry kind

Cole, the black cat
Henry, the circus dog
Minnaloushe and Navi, the tabbies
Sam, the no-longer stray cat
Whoodini, the shar pei pup

Well over 2,000 Texas foundations — nearly half of all Texas grantmakers — give to education in some way, and each of them wants to make a positive difference with that funding. The new project will move them toward that goal by addressing a number of questions, such as:

• What should they look for and ask when they are choosing among many apparently worthy grantees and programs, deciding on grant amounts, and reviewing grant reports or renewal applications?
• If their assets have declined, how can they keep supporting the education grantees they care about?
• Should they consider collaborations with other funders, and encourage collaboration among the nonprofits they support?
• Why and how should they evaluate the impact of their grants?

ASF is excited about this project both because of the direct impact it will have in Texas and because education is by far the largest funding area for ASF’s members in general. Among the 814 members who submitted surveys for our 2009-2011 Foundation Operations & Management Report, education funding accounts for 30.8 percent of all grantmaking. (The next highest is human services, at 18.5 percent.) Moreover, in education funding—as in all areas of foundation grantmaking—a desire for effectiveness and impact is stronger than ever.

The intersection of these two factors—foundations seeking to maximize the impact of their education grantmaking—is something that fits beautifully with ASF’s mission. We are grateful to Texas Pioneer for its vision and support, and we look forward to embarking on the project.

If your foundation is interested in partnering with ASF on a topical program please contact Melissa Nussbaum at (202) 580-6564 or Melissa@smallfoundations.org.

Listen to the recording.

• 50 pages of easy-to-read data on small foundation administration, boards, grantmaking, and investments, as reported by more than 800 ASF members
• A 12-page supplement on the impact of the economy on ASF member foundations

ASF member foundations receive a complimentary survey report and supplement by mail. Members may also log in to download a free copy.

Purchase the report.