This book is broader than philanthropy.
It’s about building community.
It consists of several lovely stories, which are brief, yet have a broad and deep reach.
I especially loved the story about Barb saying to Manjit Basi, “Manjit, I didn’t ask you to be on the board because I want you to be like everybody else”. That one sentence said a lot.
One thing the book is about is how community foundations are truly facilitators with a very special role. I have a relatively small fund at the Ottawa Community Foundation. Just a couple of days ago, they sent me an incredibly impressive list of some projects and places I could designate funds to this year. At the end of the day, I picked a couple but I was truly appreciative of the support OCF was generating for the deserving others in our community as well.
Barb’s nature coincided with what a community foundation ought to be. It’s just who she was. She was a powerful listener. And what stayed with me was the importance of listening. Simple as that. It is the major lesson. It comes through in all sorts of different ways. The basic message is how you can accomplish so much more by listening first instead of just doing.
We all tend to think “this would be good” and then go with what we think would be good instead of asking, “what do you need?” That is, we often assume we already have good information. Barb never assumed that — she listened to people in the community. A key principle for her was that community building doesn’t happen from the top down.
This book conveys beautifully what made Barb so special. But it is also about what makes community foundations special.
Anyone who wants their philanthropy and their community to become better should read it.
When the Alex Munters of the world say “look what I learned,” the book is speaking to a much larger audience than just the people who knew Barbara and remember her so fondly.
I even wonder if it could be the basis of a CBC Radio Ideas program! Long ago, I was an Ideas producer, and I can imagine them having an episode(s) about the nature of philanthropy drawn from Lessons in Philanthropy: The Legacy of Barb McInnes.
This opportunity to reflect on Barbara’s legacy and the OCF was also an unexpected impetus to think more about my own philanthropic actions.
– Lewis Auerbach