A New England renaissance?

New England Journal of Higher Education, The, Fall 1999 by McCully, George

We already see evidence that philanthropy can indeed be promoted. After six years in which Massachusetts placed 50th four times and 49th twice on the Generosity Index, the Commonwealth moved up to 48th place in 1997. This is largely attributable to the top income group of 60,000 taxpayers, whose income rose by 5.5 percent and whose charitable giving rose by 19 percent. If we ask what happened in Massachusetts in 1997 that did not happen in New Jersey (49th) or New Hampshire (50th), one factor has to be that from September on, there was media discussion of Massachusetts giving, generated by the publication of the Catalogue's Generosity Index. It is possible that the difference was made by about 11,000 taxpayers who moved into the top group that year, having been leading donors in the second group (whose numbers stayed the same or declined slightly). If so, then these young, newly affluent people-many of them, high-tech entrepreneursare more generous than their predecessors in that top group, in which case New England philanthropy has a very bright future.

Make a Difference

Given that private investment in civil society is an American tradition, today's interest in "making the difference" through voluntary investments in quality of life signifies the rebirth of an impulse that helped mold this country. New England once exercised national leadership through philanthropy. We have the capacity to do it again.

Our fellow Americans annually prove that New Englanders, who have more to give, can well afford to give more-because those others, with less, do regularly give more and do not suffer from it. If New England were to raise its level of giving to the U.S. averages for our income groups, we would invest an additional $1.3 billion annually in quality of life. That would amount to having a new $26 billion foundation-the largest in the country-in New England.

New England's task is to use philanthropy to translate its economic gains into quality of life gains. Foundations can help by dedicating a small percentage of their annual grantmaking to support for "enlarging the pie" through Giving New England and related efforts in each state. It is in the interest of all educational institutions-universities, colleges and schools, libraries, arts councils, public forums of any kind and the mediato add the teaching of philanthropy to their various programs. Fundraisers can reposition themselves as advisors in philanthropy generally and not just advocates for their own institutions. A rising tide lifts all boats; we want to raise the tide.

New England may he entering another great period in its history. The region now enjoys unprecedented prosperity and a nationally distinguished philanthropic community. If we invest our surplus wealth in quality of life, we could create a "New England Renaissance," restoring this region to the kind of national leadership for which our ancestors are famous. Maybe then others would take interest in what we are doing today, rather than only in what our predecessors did-philanthropically, in fact-centuries ago.