Of course, you really can't meet with all grantseekers, but you can have a strategy to make yourself generally accessible to many grantseekers initially unknown to you. Speaking of being accessible, let me also mention the responsibility to be intellectually accessible as well as physically accessible. Open minds are the best defense against dumb grantmaking. Related to this is a prime responsibility of philanthropy to provide relief, opportunity, and public voices for those people most left out of the American mainstream. Many working poor are doing the best they can for their families, but that often is not enough.
Many immigrants work long and hard hours, but their low paying jobs provide only the basics.
The mentally ill have been cast out of impersonal institutions onto equally impersonal streets. Glass ceilings do exist for women and minorities. Relief, opportunity, and advocacy must all be provided through philanthropy. But let us come back to nonprofits and government revenue. There are those today who want to make it a crime simultaneously to receive federal government grants and to fulfill nonprofits' historic mission of advocacy for improving the quality of our lives.