Working to bridge the philanthropy gap in Montana

In the realm of philanthropy, as in so many other realms, it takes money to get money. And right now, when it comes to giving to local nonprofits, Montana is losing out big time.

That was the message brought to the IR Editorial Board his week by Mike Schechtman, executive director of the Big Sky Institute for the Advancement of Nonprofits, and Janine Lee, a veteran philanthropy strategist who currently is the executive director of the Southern Partnership Fund. They dropped by the IR to talk about the rural philanthropy gap.

This gap may not be as scary as that bogus "missile gap" of the late 1950s, nor as divisive as the "generation gap" of the later 1960s and early 1970s, but it is all too easy to quantify. It turns out that the gap between the growth of nonprofit foundation assets between highly populated states and the most rural states (the top and bottom 10 states, respectively) has quadrupled between 1988 and 2005, the last year for which figures are available.

What this means is that while giving to nonprofits amounted to $171 per capita in the 10 largest states in 2005, it was only $34 per capita in Montana and other mostly rural states. That translates directly into less – far less – that rural nonprofits can do for citizens in need.

Full Editorial: http://helenair.com/articles/2008/11/12/opinions/top/irview_081112.txt