IV. A Center for Philanthropy

An interview on "convening" with Ron Gallo.

Ronald V. Gallo
President and CEO

What does it mean to be a convener?
The Foundation represents a place that is objective, but not neutral. I always draw a distinction between those two words. Objective means you’re fair and open; neutral means you have no opinions and no passions. We have opinions and passions in abundance, but I think we’re known for looking fairly at both sides of an issue.

Our primary role is facilitating discussion. People know that if the Foundation is involved, then all voices will be heard and new resources will be brought to the table through experts and the research of others. And when appropriate, the Foundation will encourage the fashioning of solutions.

Does being a convener mean being a player, too?
The Foundation doesn’t always have to be involved. For example, a few years ago the Foundation convened people around the problem of brownfields, an issue in which the Foundation hadn’t done any funding. But I believe the meeting we called gave people new perspectives. We just helped clarify the issue.

We’re not always there as teacher, but more often as learner, as student. An example of that is one that we have ended up working on in a prominent way, and that’s the issue of the uninsured Rhode Island worker.

We have about 50,000 adults who are not covered by health insurance, and most of these folks are working. We felt we could get our hands around that issue, but we weren’t sure what all the components were.

So we brought together 75 stakeholders — health activists, state government, health insurance agencies, hospital representatives, small and large business, just about anyone involved in the health insurance issue — and invited them to a meeting at the Providence Westin Hotel. We also invited the Robert Wood Johnson Founda-tion, probably the nation’s most expert foundation in matters related to health. Together we explored the issue for about eight hours. A smaller task force came out of that. A year and a half later we’ve made great strides. We realistically expect to close that gap on the 50,000.
And it all goes back to that convening, with no particular expectations, except the confidence that if you bring together all the stakeholders, keep the dialogue passionate but civil, with expertise and good data, and an environment that appears safe for candid conversation, good things will come of it.

Does One Union Station itself come into the equation?
Yes and no. We’re uniquely positioned because we are a private, nonprofit organization that has input and leadership from all quarters of the state, and considerable resources that give us a certain independence.

The building itself has a certain value. We converted considerable space here into meeting rooms to share this resource with the people and organizations of Rhode Island. We’ve been bowled over by the response of nonprofits and government in using this building for their meetings, their thinking, their deliberations. We’re hosting about six meetings a week for which we are just providing the space, on topics that are in the focus areas of the Foundation, and those that are not.

Other foundations have also seen us a preferred venue for what they are doing in Rhode Island. The Doris Duke Foundation came here to announce a $4.7 million grant to the Nature Conservancy. For us, a major national foundation was saying it wanted to make that announcement here because we are a place where people are hearing important things about their state.

Americans have a rich history of discussing the issues of the day amongst each other. But there’s also been some recent barriers to that as we become a more transient society, with fewer town meetings, people alone with their computers. People are looking for ways to publicly engage ideas and their neighbors.

And we’re proud to have convening them as part of our mission.