The Generosity Network by Jennifer McCrea

Author:Jennifer McCrea [McCrea, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7704-3780-0
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2013-09-23T16:00:00+00:00

The story of Clifford Chance’s ever-deepening partnership with APP illustrates how a philanthropic connection can lead to transformation not just for an individual but for an organization. Originating with a single caring individual at Clifford Chance, the relationship with APP has grown and spread to encompass numerous members of the law firm. These talented individuals provide not just financial assistance but a wide variety of professional and business services as well as access to their broader network of clients and other contacts. This extraordinary level of involvement is changing the way the people of Clifford Chance think about themselves—as well as the way the world sees them. No longer “just another law firm,” Clifford Chance is becoming a powerful participant in a world-changing humanitarian effort.

Another nonprofit that is crafting transformational relationships with donor organizations is KaBOOM! Its founder and CEO, Darell Hammond, grew up with seven brothers and sisters at Mooseheart, a group home outside of Chicago that is completely supported by charity through the Loyal Order of Moose fraternity. It was an experience that deeply shaped Hammond’s life. Instilled by the community with a sense of the power of volunteerism, the need for people to care for one another, and the importance of playtime as a tool for growth and discovery, Hammond discovered even as a child that he had a special instinct for reaching out to serve those in need. “My nickname at Mooseheart,” he recalls, “was ‘the Lawyer,’ because I became an advocate for other kids who were getting the short end of the stick. I was a mediocre student, but I was persuasive.”

The vision for KaBOOM! came when he noticed a story in the Washington Post describing how two small children in the southeastern part of the District of Columbia had suffocated while playing in an abandoned car. Struck by the contrast between his own impoverished yet socially rich childhood and the deprivation suffered by so many American kids, Hammond decided to do whatever he could to prevent such tragedies from ever happening again. In 1995, he launched KaBOOM! with Dawn Hutchison. More than six hundred community-built playgrounds later, Hammond has become a widely recognized spokesperson for the child’s right to play and a leader in the battle to transform “play deserts” into oases of fun.

Most interestingly, KaBOOM! has made transformational relationships with corporate and other organizational partners into the cornerstone of its strategy. KaBOOM! doesn’t just move into a neighborhood with tools and supplies and leave behind a few sets of swings and slides. Instead, it organizes a cooperative effort involving one or more corporate sponsors, small businesses, community groups such as churches or YMCAs, local government agencies such as parks departments, and volunteers to help with the actual construction work.

The result is a project that produces immediate benefits in the form of a new playground, but even greater benefits in the form of a strengthened sense of community empowerment. In fact, Hammond likes to say that the playground itself is simply a “Trojan horse—a means to get the community to fight for something instead of fighting against something.

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