Note: This article has been updated to include more detail and comments from observers.
Vikki Spruill plans to step down as president of the Council on Foundations nearly six years after she inherited an organization with a declining membership and multimillion-dollar budget deficits. This summer she will take the helm of the New England Aquarium.
Spruill said she was recruited for the new job, which allowed her to return to her “central passion.”
Before taking over at the Council on Foundations in 2012, Spruill led the Ocean Conservancy and founded and led SeaWeb, a nonprofit that promoted ocean conservation.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to direct mission work,” Spruill said in an interview. “The connection between climate change and the ocean is perhaps the most critical issue of our time.”
At the council, Spruill has scaled back programs and cut staff by nearly half, to 45. The council scrapped separate conferences for family and community foundations and beginning in 2019 will invite members to a national conference every two years rather than hosting an annual gathering. At the same time, the council has invested in “summits” for foundation leaders on topics including endowments, human resources, and public policy.
In addition to cutting the budget, Spruill has attended to the revenue side of the ledger.
When she took over, half of the council’s members paid less than $1,500 a year. Now, she said, the median fee is $9,300. While membership did drop in 2016, Spruill said those declines stabilized in 2017. Currently 1,000 foundations either have full memberships or participate in the council’s programs for community foundations.
Last year the council budgeted for a $1.2 million loss. It exceeded its expectations and notched a $500,000 deficit, according to preliminary, unaudited results. This year, Spruill predicted, the organization will come very close to closing its budget gap.
“We are so close, within spitting distance of breaking even,” she said. “The trend line is heading in the right direction.”
Heavyweight Group
Spruill’s departure comes as nonprofit leaders question the value of belonging to a large membership organization, especially for those paying high fees, like the $25,000 that big foundations chip in each year to belong.
For Spruill, a heavyweight organization like the council has a certain gravity — other groups coalesce around it and contribute to policy discussions it leads.
Those discussions weren’t enough to budge lawmakers who crafted the tax overhaul signed into law late last year. Many organizations fear the new policy will result in a decrease in charitable giving.
But Spruill says she’s proud of the council’s work.
“We rallied together as a field in a way I didn’t see in 2012,” she said. “The council has solidified some really good relationships with colleague and partner organizations.”
Sue Santa, a former policy staffer at the council agreed. She characterized the tax law as a “mixed bag” and suggested that lawmakers will continue to tweak tax policy, helping nonprofits overcome some initial loses.
As it does so, Santa said, foundations will miss Spruill’s ability to bring people together.
“She was always trying to juggle a lot of different interests,” she said. “By and large, she’s done that with grace and professionalism.”
Too Low-Key?
Others think Spruill should have been a more forceful presence. Elizabeth Boris, a fellow at the Urban Institute, credited the council with developing pertinent leadership training on diversity and veterans issues. But, she said, under Spruill the organization was too “low-key.”
Foundations and the work they do are not at the top of everyone’s mind, Boris said. To help people become more aware, she suggested, a leader needs to have a passion for philanthropy and must relish being on the national stage.
“I don’t know that she projected that kind of leadership,” Boris said. “Maybe you need something a little punchier for the times.”
Aaron Dorfman, president of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, said that the council had been bypassed in importance by a proliferation of regional groups and networks based on funding for particular issues or on identity. Rather than sticking close to policy issues that directly address foundations, such as tax policy, Dorfman suggested that the council ought to advocate for policies that directly affect the communities that foundations serve, even if it means alienating some members with different political views.
“Most of the intellectual vibrancy in the philanthropic sector comes from places other than the council,” he said. “I’m not at all sure that a big-tent, keep-everyone-happy approach will work.”
A spokeswoman for the council said that neither Spruill nor the council would respond to the criticisms of the organization and its leadership.
Common Ground
As the council searches for a successor, it is a perfect time for “creative introspection” about the role of a large membership organization, said Chris Gates, a senior policy adviser at Georgetown University’s Global Social Enterprise Initiative. A group like the council can provide a venue for donors to consider their role in society, have a healthy dialogue, and craft a story to tell the public.
But Gates, who previously was both a consultant to and a staff member of the council, said the many types of foundations and the variety of viewpoints they espouse would make it difficult to find common ground on a lot of issues.
“You’re never going to get everybody singing note-for-note from the same hymnal,” he said.
Spruill plans to leave the council on June 1 and start her new duties at the aquarium on July 30. Gene Cochrane, former chief executive of the Duke Endowment, will serve as the interim chief executive at the council.
The council will convene two committees to search for a replacement for Spruill. Javier Alberto Soto, president of the Miami Foundation and the council’s board chairman, will seek input from the council’s members. Jamie Merisotis, president of the Lumina Foundation, will chair a search committee.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said that big foundations pay $55,000 to belong to the council instead of $25,000.
