The Role of Mediators in Diffusing the Community Foundation Model of Philanthropy

Abstract

We examine the role of mediators in locally embedding the community foundation model of philanthropy to enable its global diffusion. We hold that mediators, as trusted agents within elite networks, promote and legitimate institutional innovation by tailoring the model to satisfy local requirements. They thereby limit resistance while creating future potentialities. Our novel addition to the community foundation literature stems from research on the transatlantic diffusion of the community foundation template from the United States to the United Kingdom focused on an in-depth case study of one of Europe’s largest community foundation, that serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland in North East England. Our findings suggest that success in embedding the community foundation model depends on rendering it fit-for-context and fit-for-purpose. Mediators operating at both the macro and micro level matter because they have the cultural, social, and symbolic capital needed to win acceptance for initially alien philanthropic principles, practices, and structures.

Searching for recipes to compete in the charitable contributions market: A configurational approach

“…Although British CFs tend to be smaller in size, staff and boards when compared to US CFs, they have been a major feature of the UK nonprofit sector since the 1990s and created tailored programs of grant making based on local needs mainly related to health and well‐being, education, employability, and community cohesion. By 2019, British CFs held assets of about £800 million, including endowed funds of near £700 million, and awarded grants of approximately £100 million (Yang et al, 2021). Over the last dozen years, they are experiencing an increasing competition for charitable contributions because of the recession of 2008–2009 and the following increase of inequalities in income and wealth that have augmented both the supply and demand for philanthropic funds (Hoolwerf & Schuyt, 2017; Walker, 2020).…”

Traduttore, traditore? Gains and losses from the translation of the economies of worth

“…Translations are driven by translators’ specific interests (Callon & Latour, 1981), in the pursuit of which ideas are mobilized toward different loci of application and their meaning is adapted (Wæraas & Nielsen, 2016). With plural interests, translation becomes itself a form of compromise‐building (Thévenot, 2001a) that may require the action of mediators deploying cultural and symbolic resources (Yang et al., 2021). Our review shows that the eight patterns in the literature develop different research interests and are grounded in different, although partially overlapping, theoretical orientations.…”

“We Expected a Revolution and Got a Slow Burn”: Microfoundations of Institutional Change in the Community Foundation Field

“…CFs are a distinct subfield of organizations (Suárez, 2012; Yang et al, 2021) that raise and distribute resources within a defined geographic place. The first CF was established in Cleveland in 1914 (Hammack, 1989), and the organizational form has since spread worldwide (Sloan, 2021).…”