《经济学家》读译参考：商界精英－洛克菲勒基金改革掌门人

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2007:05:12 12:24:36
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

Rockefeller revolutionary
洛克菲勒基金改革掌门人

Judith Rodin is shaking up one of the worlds most venerable charitable foundations

朱迪丝•.罗丁正在对世界上最可敬的慈善基金会之一进行重新改组。

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“I AM not a ‘steady as it goes’ sort of person,” says Judith Rodin, with admirable self-awareness. In the 21 months since she became president of the Rockefeller Foundation, Ms Rodin has shaken to its core the charitable foundation established by John D. Rockefeller, an oil tycoon, in 1913. （1）The 58 people who have left the staff, about one-third of those she inherited, are but the most visible evidence of the thorough change in culture over which she is presiding[1]—or, rather, the most audible evidence, judging by the vociferous[2] public complaints of some of the departed.

“我不是那种能够‘悠着点儿’的人。”朱迪丝•.罗丁说，言语间流露的自知之明令人钦佩。在成为洛克菲勒基金会总裁以来的21个月里，罗丁对这个由石油大亨约翰•.D•.洛克菲勒于1913年建立的慈善基金会进行了彻底的改革。至今基金会已有58名工作人员离职（相当于她接手时总人数的近三分之一），这正是她对基金会文化实施全面改革的最“明显”例证——或者从某些离职的人公开高声抱怨来看，更准确地说应该是最“响亮”的例证。

Ms Rodin is helping to answer one of the questions raised by a new generation of business-minded philanthropists, led by Bill Gates: whether the older philanthropic institutions would respond, and if so, how. Few institutions are less accountable than charitable foundations, which face no meaningful market pressure to keep them on top of their game. Yet who wants to work for, let alone run, an outfit widely seen as out of date and out of touch, not least by the fashionable new entrants to the industry?

面对以比尔•.盖茨为首、具有较强商业意识的新一代慈善家，老一代的慈善机构是否会作出回应？如果要回应，该怎么回应？罗丁帮助人们找到了答案。相比大多数机构，慈善基金会由于无需面对“争当一流”而带来的真实的市场压力，因此承担的责任并不重。可是，谁又愿意为一个被大多数人尤其是刚刚涉足慈善业的时尚人物认为过时和自闭的机构工作呢？更不用说管理了。

Certainly not Ms Rodin, who joined Rockefeller after a successful career at the top of American higher education—one that briefly established her as the worlds highest-paid university president. She is determined to make the foundation fit for the 21st century. （2）She now talks of the “new Rockefeller”, while deploying the favourite buzzwords of the new philanthropists, stressing the importance of being “strategic”, of “leveraging[3]” the relatively small sums of money at its disposal (it makes grants of around $100m a year) through partnerships, and, above all, of achieving “impact”.

罗丁当然是不愿意的。在加入洛克菲勒基金会前，罗丁在美国高等教育界曾有过一段成功的高层任职经历，一度成为全球薪酬最高的大学校长。她决心要促使基金会与21世纪相适应。现在她说起“新洛克菲勒”，都会用到新一代慈善家的口号，比如要重视“战略性”，要通过伙伴关系“融资”来解决可支配资金相对较少的问题（每年大概捐助1亿美元），尤其是要获得“影响力”。

（3）As reformers often do, she describes her revolution as returning the Rockefeller Foundation to its roots—in this case to the “scientific philanthropy” of its founder, who said that the “best philanthropy is constantly in search of the finalities—a search for a cause, an attempt to cure evils at their source.” Among other historic achievements, the foundation played big parts in developing a vaccine against yellow fever and in the “green revolution”, which spectacularly increased farming productivity and reduced poverty in many poor countries in the 1960s.

像大多数改革者一样，她也认为她所进行的是一场让洛克菲勒基金会“返璞归真”的革命——既然如此，那就是要重新回到其创始人所开创的“科学的慈善事业”路子上来。该创始人（即约翰•.D•.洛克菲勒）曾说，“最好的慈善就是不断寻找终极目的——找出原因，设法从源头根治弊端。”该基金会的历史性成就包括参与了研发黄热病疫苗和推动“绿色革命”并起到重要作用，其中“绿色革命”在上世纪60年代大大提高了农业生产率，减轻了许多落后国家的贫穷问题。

By the early 1970s most of the Rockefeller Foundations greatest achievements were in the past and a long period of drift had begun. Ms Rodin inherited a foundation that was no longer the best nor the biggest—in its early years it gave more foreign aid than the American government. There was a danger of “becoming marginal in our impact”, says Ms Rodin. “Impact needed to be reasserted as a fundamental criterion for everything we do.”

到上世纪70年代早期，洛克菲勒基金会大多数骄人的成就都已成为过去，基金会也开始长期处于飘摇状态。罗丁接手的是一个不再一流也不再是最大的基金会——早年该基金会的对外援助比美国政府都要多。罗丁说，基金会的影响力险些就“降到最低”，“必须再次强调影响力乃是我们全部工作的一个根本标准。”

This was not easy, partly because the foundation had been divided into several fiefs[4] (health, arts and so on), each defended with the vigorous politicking at which the charitable sector excels. Several of Ms Rodins predecessors had arrived expecting to reform the foundation, only to leave disillusioned[5] a few years later. （4）For her part, Ms Rodin was confident of her ability to change an ossified[6] organisation and see off vocal critics, thanks not least to her successful ten-year reign as president of the University of Pennsylvania. There she returned the loss-making medical centre to profit and revived the impoverished community on the universitys doorstep[7].

这并不容易，部分是因为基金会被划分成了好几个领域（健康、艺术等等），而每一个领域都竭力借助慈善机构擅长的政治活动来维护各自的利益。罗丁的几位前任刚到任时都期望改革基金会，可几年之后全都悻悻而去。就罗丁而言，她相信自己既有能力改革一个僵化的机构，也能经受住劈头盖脸的批评，这主要是因为她在宾夕法尼亚大学的十年中取得过诸多成就，比如使大学的医学中心扭亏为盈，又比如尽学校之责实现贫困社区复兴。

At Rockefeller, she promptly reviewed its programmes and their effect. She consulted experts, including two former treasury secretaries, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, to identify the big 21st-century trends that the foundation could hope to affect. She also sought advice from groups that are helping the new philanthropists foster a more businesslike approach, including Bridgespan, a management consultancy for non-profit organisations, and the Centre for Effective Philanthropy. The centres survey of the organisations funded by Rockefeller revealed a high cost structure relative to its peers, cumbersome[8] decision-making and a culture that did not expect high performance or reward it.

在洛克菲勒，她迅速回顾分析了它的各种项目安排情况及起到的效果。她咨询了包括两位前任财长罗伯特•.鲁宾和拉里•.萨默斯在内的专家，认清了洛克菲勒基金会有望施以影响的21世纪主要趋势。她还征求了一些团体的意见。这是一些专为新一代慈善家出谋划策、助其慈善事业取得实效的团体，包括为非盈利性机构提供管理咨询服务的Bridgespan以及有效慈善事业中心。后者在对洛克菲勒基金会资助的一些组织进行调查后发现，相对其它基金会而言，洛克菲勒基金会成本结构高、决策效率低以及其文化不利于获得出色表现或高额回报。

（5）Ms Rodin decided that the separate fiefs had to go. Instead, Rockefeller would pursue big strategic projects with specific goals that would bring together people from all the different programme areas as well as outsiders. The change caused alarm and misunderstanding. An article in the Lancet, a medical journal, asked if it meant that the Rockefeller Foundation planned to “reduce or even withdraw its long-standing commitment to public health”—prompting a swift denial from Ms Rodin.

罗丁决心消除这种各自为政的状态。为了将参与各个不同项目的人以及基金会以外的人集中到一起，洛克菲勒基金会准备专门开展一些大型战略项目。这一变化造成了人们的警觉和误解。医学杂志《柳叶刀》有文章问，这是否意味着洛克菲勒基金会打算“减轻甚至放弃其长期以来为公众健康所承担的责任”——罗丁立即予以了否认。

Teaching an old dog new tricks

老树发新枝

What her new approach means in practice is becoming clearer. Rockefeller has teamed up with the Bill &. Melinda Gates Foundation to promote a new green revolution in Africa—the first time two such groups have announced the sort of “strategic partnership” that is increasingly common in the for-profit world. Rockefeller has also bucked up[9] the planning for New Orleanss reconstruction, which had stalled[10] amid political conflict in the hurricane-devastated city. Rockefeller has provided staff to get the politicians talking to each other, sent Ed Koch, a former New York mayor, to advise on building low-cost housing, and provided finance for Spike Lee to make his documentary, “When the Levees Broke”. This could not have happened under the old programmatic approach, says Ms Rodin.

她的新招在实际工作上得到了比较明显的体现。洛克菲勒基金会已联手比尔－梅琳达•.盖茨基金会，准备在非洲发动一场新的绿色革命——两个慈善组织宣布这种在商业界日益普遍的“战略伙伴关系”还是头一次。洛克菲勒基金会还正在努力推动新奥尔良重建计划。在这个遭飓风严重破坏的城市，重建工作由于政治冲突而中断。洛克菲勒基金会派人协调组织政治家们举行会谈，差遣纽约前任市长艾德•.科霍提议建造低成本住宅，资助斯派克•.李制作纪录片《决堤之时》。罗丁说，照洛克菲勒以往的老办法，这不可能发生。

（6）Even more striking for an organisation that has suffered from “not invented here” syndrome, Rockefeller is teaming up with InnoCentive, an online business that posts problems and offers rewards to innovators who solve them. Rockefeller will provide funding to adapt this “open innovation” model to helping the poor. Next are likely to be projects on climate change and on the growing economic insecurity that many people experience. Whether all of this will accomplish as much as Ms Rodin hopes remains to be seen. But in the battle to reinvent the philanthropy business, she is giving the new crowd a run for their money[11].

对于洛克菲勒基金会这样一个曾经苦于缺乏创新的机构而言，尤为引人注目的是它正联手InnoCentive电子商务公司，把一些难题发布到网上，对能提出创新性解决办法的人给予奖励。洛克菲勒基金会还将提供资金，让这一“开放式创新”模式与救助穷人的要求相适应。接下来洛克菲勒基金会有可能开展与气候变化以及许多人日益严重的经济不安全感有关的项目。一切是否会达到罗丁的期望目标尚不得而知，不过她所进行的必定是一场让新一代慈善家不至于白花钱的慈善业改革之战。

[QUIZ]

[NOTES]

1. preside v.1 [I, Ipr] ~ (at sth) be chairman (at a conference, meeting, etc) （在会上）担任主席. 主持（会议等）: the presiding officer 主持会议的官员 * Whoever presides will need patience and tact. 无论谁作主席, 都需既要有耐性, 又要机敏老练. * The Prime Minister presides at meetings of the Cabinet. 首相主持内阁会议.2 (phr v) preside over sth (a) be head or director of sth 掌管或领导某事物: The city council is presided over by the mayor. 市政委员会由市长领导. (b) control or be responsible for sth 管理某事物. 对某事物负有责任: The present director has presided over a rapid decline in the firms profitability. 现任领导对公司利润的急剧下降负有责任.

2. vociferous adj. loud or noisy. expressing ones views forcibly and insistently 大声的. 嘈杂的. 强行或坚持表达自己观点的: vociferous complaints, protests, etc 大声疾呼的抱怨、抗议等 * a vociferous group of demonstrators 一批喧嚣的示威者.

3. leverage v. 1 to make money available to someone in order to invest or to buy something such as a company:--the use of public funds to leverage private investment// 2 to spread or useresources (=money, skills, buildings etc that an organization has available) , ideas etc again in several different ways or in different parts of a company, system etc:leverage sth across sth//--Reusable software is leveraged across many applications.//

4. fief n.封地, 采邑

5. disillusioned adj. ~ (with sb/sth) disappointed in sb/sth that one had admired or believed in （对某人[某事物]）大失所望, 幻想破灭: Disillusioned voters want an alternative to the two main parties. 失望的选民需要一个党派以取代这两个大党. * Shes disillusioned with life in general. 她对生活各方面均不抱幻想了.

6. ossify v. (pt, pp -fied) [I, Tn esp passive 尤用于被动语态] (fml 文)1 (cause sth to) become hard like bone. change into bone （使某物）骨化. 变成骨.2 (fml derog 文, 贬) (cause sth to) become rigid and unable to change （使某事物）僵化, 不能更动: Beliefs have ossified into rigid dogma. 信仰已僵化为不可更动的教条.

7. on sbs/the doorstep:a) very near someones home//--Wow! Youve got the beach right on your doorstep !//b) at someones home//--I got a bit of a shock when he just turned up on the doorstep .//

8. cumbersome adj. 1 heavy and difficult to carry, wear, etc （对于携带、穿戴等）笨重的: a cumbersome parcel, overcoat 沉重的包裹、大衣.2 slow and inefficient 迟缓而缺乏效率的: the universitys cumbersome administrative procedures 这所大学拖拖拉拉的行政工作.

9. buck up(infml 口) hurry 赶紧. 赶快: Buck up! Were going to be late. 快点儿! 我们快要晚了. buck (sb) up (infml 口) (cause sb to) become more cheerful （使某人）高兴起来, 打起精神来: The good news bucked us all up. 大家听了这个好消息都高兴起来. * Buck up! Things arent as bad as you think. 打起精神来! 事情并非像你想的那么糟.

10. stall v. 1 (a) [I] (of an engine) stop suddenly because of insufficient power or speed （指发动机因力量或速度不够）熄火: The car stalled at the roundabout. 那辆汽车在环形交叉处抛锚了. (b) [I, Tn] (of a driver) cause (an engine) to do this （指司机）使（发动机）熄火: Learner drivers often stall (their cars). 见习司机常造成（汽车）熄火现象. 4 (a) [I] avoid giving a definite answer or taking action (in order to get more time). delay 支吾, 拖延（以争取时间）: stall for time 拖延时间 * Stop stalling and give me an answer! 别支支吾吾的了, 快回答我的问题! (b) [Tn] avoid answering (a person, request, etc) in this way 对（某人、某要求等）支吾或敷衍: stall ones creditors 敷衍债主.

11.a (good, etc) run for ones money (a) challenging competition or opposition 较量. 竞争. 对抗: They may win the game, but well give them a good run for their money. 他们即使能赢得这场比赛, 我们也不会让他们轻易取胜. (b) reward, interest, enjoyment, etc, esp in return for effort 报偿、利益、满足等（尤指付出努力後所获得者）: I feel Ive had an excellent run for my money (ie a rewarding career) and now Im happy to retire. 我对我一生的事业十分满意, 现在退休甚为欣慰.