Six Questions for New Hampshire Charitable Foundation President and CEO Richard Ober | Inside Philanthropy

Richard Ober leads the New Hampshire Charitable Basis, the biggest personal supplier of nonprofit grants and pupil assist in northern New England. The muse manages greater than $1 billion in charitable funds and awards some 7,000 grants and scholarships exceeding $50 million yearly.

Earlier than becoming a member of the muse, Ober held senior workers positions on the Society for the Safety of New Hampshire Forests and the Monadnock Conservancy. He sits on the Heart for Efficient Philanthropy’s board of administrators and chairs the Group Basis Alternative Community, a cohort of group foundations that seeks to shut the chance hole between prosperous and poor households. Ober can be the creator of “The Northern Forest,” a ebook specializing in the huge wooded areas of the northeastern United States and the lives of those that name them house.

I not too long ago chatted with Ober about his greatest influences, the final nice ebook he learn, and why some recommendation solely is smart when you get a bit older. Listed here are some excerpts from that dialogue, which have been edited for readability.

What made you determine you wished to work within the nonprofit sector?

I had the great fortune of being uncovered to the nonprofit world once I was in faculty and my first job occurred to be within the sector, the place I used to be a publicist for a small arts group in Nashua, New Hampshire.

I realized fairly shortly that you could possibly make a dwelling doing what you cared about, which enabled me to pursue my dream job of doing communications and writing for conservation and environmental coverage teams. I’ve spent my total profession — excluding one yr working for a bit newspaper, which truly was nonprofit — working within the unbiased charitable sector.

Who’re your greatest influences?

Professionally, I’d say my greatest influences have been the individuals I met early on in my profession, particularly Paul Bofinger, who ran the Society for the Safety of New Hampshire Forests the place I spent 16 years. He confirmed me learn how to deliver a number of disparate pursuits collectively to develop widespread floor and daring options. He handed in 2020.

I spent about 23 years working in conservation and environmental coverage and there was some extent the place I spotted that my ardour for New Hampshire — this humorous, quirky state within the northeast nook of the nation — prolonged effectively past my look after a spot, which I expressed by conservation work. 

So one other very huge affect was my predecessor, Lewis Feldstein, the previous president of the New Hampshire Charitable Basis, whom I had recognized personally and professionally for about 10 years. He had twice requested me to work for the muse, and the third time he requested got here at an ideal second as a result of I used to be considering that it was time to increase my work past conservation.

As for private influences, I’ve received to say my dad and mom. My father was a public college educator and my mom was a volunteer for social justice and worldwide relations causes, in order that mannequin of doing work apart from attempting to make some huge cash was instilled in me early on.

What’s the perfect piece of recommendation you’ve acquired?

I’m going to provide you a pair — these are from my father. All of them start with “As you become older, you’ll…”

The primary is, “As you become older, you’ll remorse your acts of omission greater than your acts of fee.” I actually consider that. We clearly all have regrets, however I believe it’s the occasions I didn’t take that probability that follow me.

One other one got here from him, and it’s, “As you become older, you just about turn out to be extra like your self.” I by no means knew what that meant till I began getting older. I take it to imply that you simply’ll most likely get higher on the good components and also you may worsen on the dangerous components [laughs]. It’s associated to a different bit of recommendation, which I’m certain you’ve heard, which is, “Don’t attempt to be anybody else however your self, as a result of everybody else has already been taken.”

What makes you optimistic concerning the state of philanthropy? Pessimistic?

What makes me optimistic is, over the past 5 years, there have been sincere and daring critiques of philanthropy, and considerate individuals within the discipline are actually paying consideration.

I believe the books from 2017 to 2019 — Anand Giridharadas’ “Winners Take All,” Robert Reich’s “Simply Giving,” Edgar Villanueva’s “Decolonizing Wealth,” and Phil Buchanan’s “Giving Achieved Proper” — all raised essential questions on energy and philanthropy being fueled by a basically inequitable financial system. These points are being mentioned all over the place now. 

I used to be additionally actually taken with the Monitor Institute’s report that got here out final summer time referred to as “What’s Subsequent for Philanthropy within the 2020s.” I believed they did an extremely incisive job of summarizing the seven huge shifts in society and the financial system and the 4 edges that philanthropy has to push to take care of relevance and influence. 

I really feel like philanthropy is beginning to acknowledge that we have now an obligation to do way over simply make grants. We have now an obligation to take dangers and have a perspective about among the actually huge, sweeping challenges going through the nation on this planet, like earnings inequality, racial injustice, local weather change and erosion of democratic norms. Philanthropy will all the time attempt to alleviate signs, however to make an actual influence, we’ve received to give attention to techniques and long-term root causes.

As for what makes me pessimistic, I simply surprise if we’ll do sufficient. There’s numerous dialog and commitments being made, however will we observe by, or will we fall again on “It’s ok?” I say this as a result of there aren’t the sorts of exterior components that power philanthropy to do higher that we see within the personal sector with market competitors, and even the nonprofit sector, the place leaders have to determine the place their budgets are coming from yearly.

What’s the final nice ebook you learn?

That is going to sound uncommon, however I’m going to say “Isaac’s Storm” by Eric Larson. It’s concerning the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. This ebook is about hubris, doubt, social justice and the constraints of science and authorities as they have been constructing out what turned the Nationwide Climate Service. 

After I learn a ebook like that, it’s to be taught one thing about historical past, however there are such a lot of threads in that story that really resonate with us at the moment, together with local weather change and our incapacity to cope with the ability of pure forces.

Any parting ideas?

I’d have had a really totally different expertise being the president of the muse if I hadn’t spent the primary two-thirds of my profession working within the nonprofit sector. We fund about 2,000 nonprofits a yr, and I noticed firsthand over the past two years how nonprofits held the communities in New Hampshire collectively, much more so than the personal or the general public sector, and I simply have an enormous appreciation for that work.