One year ago, I created a deck of cards, Salient Philanthropy, to jumpstart improvement and innovation in foundation strategy development. The prompts are thought-provoking, deliberately ambiguous, slightly subversive, and designed to be challenging. The cards were inspired by the Oblique Strategies card deck by musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt designed to stimulate artistic expression (purchasable at Enoweb.co.uk).

There are many conditions that research has shown to be necessary to enable innovation. Teams and individuals may need urgency, constraints, feedback loops, and a problem that is worth solving and well-bounded. Many of these conditions are structural and can be achieved, or reasonably approximated, in many environments, including within a context that otherwise stifles innovation with bureaucracy, resistance to change, fear of failure, strong siloes, politics, and boredom. However, the additional conditions of culture and mindset needed for creativity, such as diversity of thinking, different perspectives, collaboration, and imagination, are difficult and scarier to foster. (Spoiler: a conference room with whiteboards, fidgets, inspirational posters, stuffed toys, and snacks is insufficient.)

That is where the Salient Philanthropy cards come in. The cards help individuals and teams to think differently and take a different perspective on their strategy, program, or project. The cards require a stretch and departure from the typically linear questions we ask of philanthropic strategy. I developed the cards but then put them literally and figuratively on the shelf and filed them in my Project Archive folder. I had started worrying about how to market and promote the decks? Did I want to offer related services? Would people ‘get it’? Would the cards muddle my focus or confuse consulting clients or an executive recruiter? Doubts got the better of me.

Then last week, I happened upon the Salient Philanthropy cards and found the answers in the cards themselves. The cards challenged me to experiment and expand my own thinking. Ideas and tools on shelves don’t foster change – they must be set free. So here is Salient Philanthropy on my website with a demo of the cards. Try them on your challenge and let me know what happens. 

 

“Try to make things that can become better in other people’s minds than they were in yours.”

Brian Eno (1995)

 

Don S. Doering

Don S. Doering is the former Executive Director of the JRS Biodiversity Foundation and was Program Officer, Business Officer, and Senior Strategy Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Don has held senior staff positions at the World Resources Institute, Winrock International, and the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Contact: dond@impetusadvising.com and (206) 419-7049