Are future generations best served by current saving or current spending?

Last week, two leaders in the philanthropic sector wrote a thought-provoking article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, “Now or Forever: Rethinking Foundation Life Spans.” The authors, Ray D. Madoff, a law professor at Boston College and co-founder and director of its Forum on Philanthropy and the Public Good and Rob Reich, professor of political Science and co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University explored the question of foundation philosophies: quick distribution of funds to make immediate impact, or slow distribution designed to impact the future?

I was particularly struck by one of their questions: “Are future generations best served by current saving or current spending?”

When I started Tipping Point Community over 10 years ago, I felt strongly that the Bay Area didn’t need another endowed foundation. With 1.3 million people in the Bay Area too poor to meet their basic needs, the problems we face are too big, too urgent to hold anything back.

Everything we raise within 12 months goes out the door in the following 12 months to help the 45 poverty fighting organizations in our portfolio. Since 2005, that’s been 100 million raised and invested.

It makes our job tough and keeps us hungry. We start from zero every year. But it also allows us to have an immediate impact on our community. Since starting Tipping Point, we’ve touched the lives of 600,000 people. That’s 600,000 people who may have gotten college-preparatory education, housing assistance, employment skills or a doctor’s visit, who otherwise may not have had access to those services.

And while there may be immediate impact, it’s also important to acknowledge that big change takes time. We won’t see communities change over night, but, if we continue to invest as much money as we can possibly raise in the most promising organizations we can find and hold them accountable for getting results, there will be an undeniable ripple effect. It’s the ripple effect that will impact future generations, and keeps me inspired to do this work.

I’m curious to hear other opinions and welcome you to share them in your comments.