The Long March

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By John Morse, founder of ISF
February 6, 2003

In a period of over fifty years, starting in 1951 in Chile, I have been professionally involved in matters of development, along with Libby (my wife) as a concerned and active partner. I learned as demographer (the first State Department/USAID Population Officer) that the population question is critically interrelated with social, economic, and political matters, requiring a holistic approach. This influenced our thinking when we established our "mom–pop" foundation, Survival in Freedom (SURFREE), in 1970. We argued then, as is true today, that sustainability was not sufficient without life quality. Over the years we gave, in today’s dollars, over a million dollars to some one hundred different NGOs, abetting them to tie their efforts to related crises. As an example, I wrote a short piece, "Not the Environment Alone", that was published by several activist organizations and was distributed in the eighties at the Raleigh Earth Day.

Over twenty years ago, Les Milbrath, sociologist and writer/activist, came to Neoteny to meet our guest, Susan Weber, who then headed ZPG. Seated out on the deck, we compared notes and exchanged experiences. After mentioning all the important things Les was doing, I distinctly remember saying that I agreed exactly with him, but added that our goal was to create and leave an Institution that would pursue these very matters after we had "graduated".

Libby and I later came to realize that success in the use of integrative approaches was dependent upon a process that involved three groups: the people who studied and thought about the problems and opportunities related to development; those implementing programs; and, of course, those funding the programs. Accordingly, in 1991, we called together a number of activists, researchers, and funders in an Aqueduct, NC retreat. As a consequence, Libby and I established something we called GTD: Grantmakers, Thinkers, and Doers. This was later changed to GRD, realizing that all groups ‘thought.’ There were, however, the dedicated persons in academia—writers and "Researchers". Thus it became GRD.

We alone could not build the Institution. Fortunately, one participant in the Aqueduct Retreat was not only deeply interested but also willing to help us. Alisa Gravitz, Executive Director of Co-op America , helped us find Jeffrey Barber to start work in this incipient institution that we had been working toward. Additionally, Alisa allowed office space to incubate GRD. We remain happy and thankful for her help, advice, and encouragement. The next task was to build and get out on our own with 501(c)3 status.

Jeffrey was tasked to get IRS approval, along with the necessary legal advice for the establishment of not GRD but ISF, an Integrative Strategies Forum. Jeffrey, with his experience, had the wisdom to suggest this renaming. The word "integrative" resonated better than did the word "holistic", which we’d used over the years. Under Jeffrey Barber's leadership, ISF has successfully expanded its operations. To help assure ISF’s continuity, we established our Morse Integrative Strategies Endowment with two million dollars. The march can go on for generations. At the home stretch we feel that our investments in thought, time, and SURFREE funds (over one million since the 1991 Aqueduct Retreat) has been well worth it.