Greg Mortenson and our false ideals about social change

The spotlight brings great rewards and impossible expectations. With explosive success comes increased anticipation of even more success. What’s more, it also decreases supporters’ capacity to allow for failure.

As we have seen with Mortenson and CAI, the result is that too many social justice leaders are compelled to downplay their failures, at best, and fabricate successes, at worst. A slippery slope of fudging the numbers, exaggerating the effects, and plumping up the successes leads to a mutually complicit culture of deception – all in the name of feel-good philanthropy.

Pressure to 'sell' success to funders

This sort of pressure is not just put on the darlings of the social justice sector, but on almost all nonprofit leaders who are forced to “sell” their success to discerning funders. It creates a vicious cycle, one Mortenson laments or even foreshadows in "Stones into Schools," saying “…the duties of speaking, promoting, and fund-raising into which I have been thrust...have often made me feel like a man caught in the act of conducting an illicit affair with the dark side of his own personality.”

The recently disclosed photographs of various CAI schools standing unoccupied are, in part, so jarring because there is little discussion or revelations of failure in the nonprofit sector. Such admissions directly conflict with the kinds of results that foundations demand in order to justify and renew their funding, and are in opposition to the kinds of miraculous success stories that open the minds, hearts, and wallets of donors.

The real pace and nature of social change

The case with Mortenson and CAI is at once a call for greater accountability and honesty, and also acknowledgement of the reality of social change. It is often slow – as evidenced by Acumen Fund founder Jacqueline Novogratz’s notion of “patient capital.” It is also, even when scalable, small at first. And it is inevitably characterized by setbacks and the learning that follows.

This scandal is not just about Mortenson; it’s about all of us. It’s not just about empty schools; it’s about a sector that too often doesn’t allow for genuine learning. Unless we – nonprofit executives, development experts, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, and donors alike – can be honest about the pace and nature of social change, we are not only perpetuating a false ideal, but also doing a disservice to the people we profess to help.

Courtney E. Martin is the author of "Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists," among other books. John Cary is the author of "The Power of Pro Bono: 40 Stories about Design for the Public Good by Architects and Their Clients."

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