2007 AGM 38th Annual Meeting
Chair's Remarks
I first want to share my sincere thanks to everyone who came today and to everyone who is still here in the afternoon after a great lunch and a formal business meeting! You all deserve a medal!
I also want to take this opportunity to thank the AGM members for giving me the opportunity to serve as board chair these past two years – how these two years have really flown!
In all honesty, I have to say that I had some reservations about serving as AGM’s board chair, first because the Hyams Foundation has been in the midst of a great deal of change, including a current strategic planning process and the expansion and development of our own board of trustees. I also have been trying to balance my professional life with trying to see my Mom as much as possible as she continues to deal with breast cancer and declining health.
But then following my Mom’s example over these past 88+ years, as a mother of five children, a teacher’s aide and a forever active volunteer, I learned how to “multi-task” at an early age! So, deciding to serve as board chair was the right thing to do. And how glad I am that I said “yes”!
These past two years have been so rewarding for me. I have loved working closely with Ron and all the AGM staff, and I have tremendous and new-found respect for the challenges of running a membership organization.
And I also have totally enjoyed my interactions with my fellow AGM board members. I thank each and every one of you for all that you give to AGM as an organization and to philanthropy as a whole. I also want to again thank Kathy McHugh, and Ray Considine before her, for showing me what dedicated board leadership is all about. Indeed, I have had very strong examples to follow.
I believe that I am leaving AGM in a very strong position for the future, and I am very excited about the leadership that Bill Eaton and Mary Phillips will provide in my stead.
So what is the future for AGM?
I guess that the one word that most comes to mind is “opportunity”. I see philanthropy today in Massachusetts and all of New England as a vibrant “growth industry”, with new foundations forming, and new major donors emerging, every day. I also see more foundation and corporate grantmakers trying to do more effective work with ever more talented staff.
At the same time, I see the nonprofit sector as a very dynamic and entrepreneurial one. Yes, our grantees have their challenges, but then so does every other sector, including government, philanthropy and business.
Speaking for myself and not for AGM, I do not believe that we have “Too many do-gooders”, as was noted recently on the Boston Globe “op ed” page by two individuals who themselves are very committed to philanthropy.
Instead, I see philanthropic and nonprofit partners who:
- do need to have more frequent and more honest conversations with one another about what would make their relationships much more meaningful and effective. Kathleen Enright gave us some terrific ideas on this topic earlier today, and we should see how AGM can facilitate a continued conversation on these topics;
- do need to find ways to embrace the rapidly changing cultural, ethnic and racial diversity within our local communities – to be blunt about this, philanthropy and in many cases those nonprofits we fund have not changed enough to reflect and benefit from this growing diversity, especially on our boards and at the more senior management levels – this needs to change;
- do need to acknowledge that we must all work toward public policy and public systems change if our philanthropic goals are ever to be met; and
- do need to find a way to distribute philanthropic dollars in a more equitable way, especially in terms of the funding of so-called “minority” organizations and those that are located outside of greater Boston. I mention this last point with some degree of guilt as the Hyams Foundation funds only in Boston and Chelsea. That said, I realize that one of greatest challenges for AGM and philanthropy as a whole is to ensure that older “gateway” cities and other geographic areas with significant poverty and other needs have the resources they need to move forward.
I look forward to continuing to help AGM address these and other important goals. In fact, with a bit more time on my hands, I would like to work in particular on issues of board and staff diversity within philanthropy and hope to do so as a part of a larger effort to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of the Boston area’s philanthropic, nonprofit and corporate leadership. I look forward to working with you as these efforts unfold.
In closing, thank you SO much again for being a part of the local philanthropic community and for doing what you do every day to make our field a stronger and more effective one. I look forward to working with you as your new AGM “ex”-board chair!
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