In Episode 73 of the Charity Charge Show, Stephen talks with Marc Pollick, Founder & President of the Giving Back Fund. The Giving Back Fund (GBF) is a national nonprofit organization that encourages and facilitates charitable giving by professional athletes, celebrities, high net worth individuals, existing nonprofit organizations, corporations and others who truly desire to give back. They provide philanthropic consulting, management and administrative services while operating as a flexible, convenient vehicle for establishing individual foundations and fiscally sponsored projects under a governance structure like that of a community foundation. Stephen and Marc talk about Marc’s journey from Holocaust scholar to founding the Giving Back Fund and how nonprofits can search for efficiencies in their field.
Marc Pollick is an internationally recognized speaker, writer and consultant on philanthropy and charitable giving, who has guided the philanthropic efforts of an impressive clientele of celebrities, professional athletes, high net worth individuals and corporations. Prior to entering the philanthropic world, Marc had an extensive career in academic Holocaust Studies, working with 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Elie Wiesel. He was Founding Executive Director of the Zachor Institute for Holocaust Studies and founded The Elie Wiesel Institute for Humanitarian Studies.
On balancing Board and Staff:
The ideal nonprofit is when you can establish equilibrium between a really excellent board and really excellent staff. If you have either one, that’s not excellent. If you have an excellent board, but a terrible staff or an excellent staff and not such a good board, you won’t be a successful nonprofit. You have to achieve that equilibrium of an excellent staff and an excellent board. And so the very first thing you do is look around for people who really care about what you care about in order to have a board that is educated and able to help you right now. The one piece of advice I would give to anyone when starting nonprofit is don’t be afraid to cold call. You cannot be afraid to cold call and ask for help.
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