Opportunities

I hate missed opportunities. A few years ago I chose "No Regrets" as my mantra. I'm not always successful, though. I have one regret connected to this year's Council on Foundations' Annual Conference—though I made sure it was not a photo op with the striking and engaging plenary speaker Dr. Mae Jemison.

Oddly enough, the missed opportunity involved former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. There were varying reactions to Gingrich's appearance at the conference. However, several attendees I spoke with after the closing plenary remarked that he was quite a departure from what they expected. His comments (video available online at www.cof.org in the conference archives) were surprisingly disparaging of government—current administration included (see "Event," p. 8). I was yet again surprised to run into him, sans security or entourage, in the airport on my way back to Washington, DC. After I introduced myself, Gingrich remarked how well he felt his appearance had gone. I agreed, all the while thinking to myself that he was just not what I expected up-close-and-personal.

Hearing my flight's boarding announcement, I said goodbye and hurried off to the gate. Once seated, I opened my bag to pull out my then current read and realized my missed opportunity. I'd had a chance to ask one of the architects of 1994's historic "Contract with America" if he'd had a chance to peruse The Covenant with Black America (2006, Third World Press, www.thirdworldpress.com).

Gingrich's comments covered healthcare, national security, science, technology, underperforming schools, welfare reform, poverty, prison and self-destruction. Those topics mirror many of the ten issues identified in Covenant as being among the most pressing facing black America—health, housing, crime, criminal justice, education, democracy, rural roots, environmental justice, economic parity and the racial digital divide. One chapter, "Ensuring Broad Access to Affordable Neighborhoods That Connect to Opportunity," was even contributed by annual conference presenter Angela Glover Blackwell, former Rockefeller Foundation senior vice president and founder and CEO of PolicyLink.

The day before the conference officially began, a group of grantmakers held an informal discussion on Covenant and the plight of black men (several weeks prior to the Washington Post's "Being a Black Man" series debut). Gingrich's assertion that foundations have an "enormous role to play in America, but not as a substitute for government" surely hit home with them. Each Covenant chapter closes on a positive note about programs or initiatives making positive inroads addressing the aforementioned issues, as well as advice on what communities and individuals can do to help—always including this note: "MOST OF ALL: Hold all leaders and elected officials responsible and demand that they change current policy." (For more on grantmakers influencing legislation affecting foundations, see "Time Well Spent," p. 24.)

One opportunity I did realize, however, was interviewing Sherece West, CEO of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation (LDRF) and a newly elected Council board member. Our paths also crossed at a conference—the Council's 2006 Family Foundation Conference in Honolulu. My interest was piqued by her concurrent session presentation, as I hope yours will be by our conversation (p. 14). Temper recent FEMA fraud headlines with a look into the story of the 3,000 evacuees—many from New Orleans' lower ninth ward—still virtually trapped in a FEMA-erected trailer community misnamed Renaissance Village. Rebuilding the Gulf Coast will be an ongoing funder commitment and conversation within these pages. According to West, "There's still an urgency for support . . . We need philanthropy to work with us for many years to come."

I never had the opportunity to meet gospel icon Marion Williams. Once the star of one of America's most popular gospel groups, the Clara Ward Singers, in 1993 Williams became the first singer to receive a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant." That same year, she became the first gospel singer lauded as a Kennedy Center Honoree. Unfortunately, she died in 1994. Yet, 55 years before Hurricane Katrina, her recording of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" ends with her trademark soaring soprano wail—which has influenced everyone from Little Richard to Aretha Franklin—unleashing these prophetic words: "Another thing He got—Alabama, yes, He has in His hands. Wooh! Louisiana, chile in His hand. He got old Mississippi in His hand. He got the whole, wide world in His hand!"

What are the odds Williams would name the very states that bore the brunt of the wrath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita? For a singer who embraced every opportunity to be used as a vessel, they're through the roof. Make a pact—or a covenant, if you will—with yourself to continue seizing every opportunity to use philanthropy as a positive change agent in this world.