When I first met Michael Bailin in the office of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF) in New York in 2001, he described a new effort the Foundation was undertaking: to identify organizations with proven strategies to help young people living in poverty and fund them to massively expand their efforts.
The idea was to bring a high standard of rigor to the judgment of organizational results, and find those that, with more support, could make an impact on many times more young lives. The grants were large and multi-year and coupled with significant assistance in developing organizational capacity and analyzing evidence of success.
This vision, which eventually led, under his successor Nancy Roob’s leadership, to the establishment of Blue Meridian Partners, was one of the boldest and most interesting experiments in contemporary institutional grantmaking. The work has evolved, of course, with many lessons learned, and many other donors and foundations influenced.
Mike and I got to know each other better over the following years, often arguing, in the most mutually respectful and fun way possible, about philanthropy. We debated the benefits and challenges of focusing on scaling organizations, how to define and assess “impact,” the applicability of the word “invest” in a philanthropic context, and the right way to define effective philanthropy — or if it could even be defined at all.
He influenced my thinking. He was also incredibly generous and kind in the time he spent with someone with a tiny fraction of his experience, knowledge, or wisdom — someone decades his junior.
His focus both on evidence of impact and on supporting nonprofits in a way that strengthened their capacity for the long-term stood out. It also flew in the face of the present-day false dichotomy debates between “trust” on the one hand and a “strategic” or “impact” orientation on the other. Mike was all for both — and thought they went hand in hand.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Mike’s legacy since learning of his death last week. He accomplished a great deal as CEO of EMCF from 1996 to 2005; as a founder and CEO of Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) for 17 years prior; and as a consultant and a board member serving so many nonprofits. Beyond all his tangible achievements and titles, however, Mike was also one of the most decent people I have ever known.
He joined CEP’s Board of Directors in 2006 and served what was then the maximum of two three-year terms. He was quickly beloved by both his board colleagues and by CEP’s staff.
He did something truly remarkable for a board member: he became simultaneously the toughest critic of the staff and our biggest supporter and defender. The toughest critic in that he always pushed us on our assumptions, our logic, and our evidence of progress. Our biggest supporter in that he respected our work and took enormous pride when we met his high standards. To be praised by Mike was to know you had really earned it.
Mike was an incredible listener, and this skill allowed him to make connections and ask questions that didn’t occur to others. His engagement and focus in board meetings was complete. To be in a room with Mike was to feel challenged to engage as thoughtfully and passionately as he did. In his presence, everyone raised their game.
After he left the Board in 2012, he remained connected to CEP and to those Board members and staff with whom he’d developed deep bonds during his tenure. Every time we talked, he asked how my CEP colleagues were doing, drawing joy from my answers. He’d ask follow-up questions about each person.
Mike talked often about his family, which meant everything to him, and would caution me not to take for granted the moments when my kids were young, not to get so absorbed in work that I missed the big moments (which he told me were often actually the little, unpredictable moments), and to appreciate life’s beauty and fragility. He was a mentor to me and so many others in the truest sense of that word — and in a way that went beyond professional roles and honored the fullness, and challenges and complexity, of life.
We can honor his legacy by aspiring to the level of commitment to doing good in the world he demonstrated, and by engaging people with the curiosity and kindness that he showed us. That’s what we at CEP, an organization he loved and challenged and served so well and ably, will try to do, as we mourn and miss him.
Phil Buchanan is president of CEP, author of “Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every Dollar Count,” and co-host of the Giving Done Right podcast.
