You do what? Americans are clueless about foundations.(FOUNDATIONS)

The work of nonprofit organizations, and especially that of foundations, is often unknown, misunderstood or ignored by the general public. But if the results of a new survey are any indication, ignorance about foundations is a huge problem within the sector itself.

According to Philanthropy's Awareness Deficit, a report issued by the Philanthropy Awareness Initiative (PAI) in Chicago, many people hold foundations and their work in high regard, even though they admit they know almost nothing about what foundations do.

This would not be so bad, but the report covers a survey of individuals identified as "engaged Americans." The API defines members of this group as those who play a leadership, committee or board-level role in organizations working on community or social issues. This group, which comprises about 12 percent of the American adult population, tends to be mature (most are 45 or older) and educated (college degree) and represents a wide range of professions, including business executives, government officials and, ironically, people who have applied for and received grants from foundations.

In other words, this cluelessness is not limited to the average politician or crusading journalist.

The survey, conducted in May 2007, involved 733 people.

The main findings are rather startling:

* More than half of those polled (56 percent) could not name a foundation on their first try when asked which one comes to mind.

* A full 60 percent considered themselves somewhat or not at all informed about foundations.

* Few--15 percent--could cite examples of a foundation's impact in their community, and even fewer--11 percent--could give examples of a foundation's impact on an issue they care about.

Further, among those who could think of a foundation when asked to name one, of the nine organizations mentioned most, only four are actually foundations. The rest were public charities.

Mark Sedway, spokesman for the PAI, said the lack of knowledge could be traced to several factors. "Americans are not very trusting or terribly aware of institutions in general," said Sedway. "It could be Congress or the media or the law" he said. "Most important, however, is that foundations need to do a better job of talking about the work they do and the work they have done."

Sedway asserted that the lack of talking on the part of foundations stems from what he called a culture of modesty and insularity.

"That's one slice of the problem," he said. "How can we get foundations to do a better job talking about their goals, their impact and their contributions to American society?"

In terms of addressing the problem, Sedway saw two big drivers. One driver is the aforementioned poor communication outreach on the part of foundations and others in the sector. "The other driver is the content of media coverage of philanthropy," he said. "We did a study of news articles and found that a majority were about transactions. In other words, 'Such and such foundation gave this much in grant dollars to such and such nonprofit.' It was not about the benefit of this support. I don't blame the news media; it has to do with foundations doing a better job of getting the word out."

It comes back to that culture of modesty, he said. "It's about owning the impact the foundations have, being proactive about reaching out to other sectors," Sedway added.

"It's also about the way we frame the work of foundations and trying to get people to understand, to shift from seeing foundations as cash machines and instead seeing them as change agents. In fact, foundations are doing much more than writing checks."

The PAI is supported by the James Irvine Foundation, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Sedway said that he found a great deal of encouragement in the silver lining, the fact that even though people don't know much about foundations they consider them worthwhile. For example:

* 52 percent of those surveyed thought that it would be a great loss or very much of a loss to their community if foundations no longer existed;

* 81 percent agree that it's important to our society that individuals and organizations have the right to set aside money in foundations to fund organizations of their own choosing, and;

* 76 percent said that private foundations are important, very important or extremely important in helping the nonprofit sector achieve its goals.

That emphasis on community was one that Sedway found especially illuminating, in terms of the preference respondents showed for local rather than worldwide effects of foundations. When asked, Which kind of story about foundation impact would you be most likely to read?, 79 percent said they would want to know about the impact on the community, compared to 7 percent interested in the world, 6 percent in the United States and 8 percent in an individual's state.

Issues, not organizations, are of interest to people. Some 51 percent said they care about foundation impact on an issue, 32 said they cared about impact on specific people and 17 percent said they cared about impact on specific organizations.

Thus, getting the word out about specifics remains the paramount concern.

"It's an interesting dynamic," Sedway added. "Most foundations do not want to be in the spotlight. It's important to them that their grantees are. But it doesn't have to be either/or."

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