According to a new report on National Public Radio, “Americans’ trust in government and its institutions has plummeted to a near-historic low, according to a sobering new survey by the Pew Research Center. Only 22 percent of Americans surveyed by Pew say they can trust government in Washington ‘almost always or most of the time’ — among the lowest measures in the half-century since pollsters have been asking the question.” Meanwhile the newest allegations of Wall Street misdeeds just hit the front pages with public mistrust of banks in particular at a low point. It’s interesting though that when you dig deeper, people are much more likely to trust their own local bank, and their own local elected officials. Maybe an inkling of hope – when people see things working at the local level, trust grows.
In light of the news, two stops on my road trip last week seemed especially relevant. Public-private partnership was a theme of the Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) conference in Pittsburgh and the Clinton Global Initiative University gathering in Miami.
GEO offered a feast of practical ideas for foundations trying to help strengthen the ‘business’ of nonprofits so that they thrive and deliver results even in times of economic turmoil. Focusing on government partnerships, featured plenary speaker Paul Carttar, the newly appointed Director of the Social Innovation Fund (SIF), forcefully argued for the SIF’s potential to nourish transformative practices emerging from philanthropic-nonprofit partnerships.
While REDF has our fingers crossed about our own application for SIF, as it would enable us to increase funding for social enterprise, we join a lot of the GEO attendees who hope the powers that be make decisions for this first round that build support from the public and Congress so that the Fund thrives and grows in the coming years.
At the third Clinton Global Initiative University gathering in Miami, 1,200 college students and 100 university presidents made commitments to specific projects that alleviate poverty, improve health, and contribute to peace. While their pledges are more about time than money, they reinforce and are modeled on those made by major philanthropists at the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in NYC.
The place buzzed with creative, committed students from the US and all over the world. Those I talked to were all about business, nonprofit, government partnerships to create social value. One example — a student-led initiative to fund a poultry farm in Haiti to produce local eggs, cut dependence on imports, reduce costs, and increase the supply.
Both gatherings pointed toward some of the practical roads out of the current mess. The public’s trust in government and business is built through visible results on the ground in local communities. The positive spirit and practical efforts of the GEO and CGI-U attendees was infectious.
What’s your mood? Optimism? Pessimism? Something else? What will it take to move public trust that we can solve our problems together?
