PhilanTopic

Transparency: One Size Does Not Fit All

(Bradford Smith is president of the Foundation Center. In his previous post, he introduced the center's Glasspockets initiative and made the case for why foundations need to be more transparent.)

The Foundation Center recently launched Glasspockets, a free Web portal designed to encourage greater transparency in the world of philanthropy. Among its many features, the one that has raised the most questions is "Who Has Glasspockets?", which profiles the nation's largest foundations according to twenty-two online transparency and accountability criteria. Every one of these criteria was drawn from existing foundation practice: no one foundation meets all twenty-two criteria, but every single criterion can be found somewhere on a foundation Web site.

While we were designing Glasspockets our own staff was the first to ask: "How will a small foundation ever be able to come anywhere near meeting these criteria?" That is a fair question from people who know of what they speak. The Foundation Center staff collects data on 97,000 grantmakers and is more aware than anybody of the difference between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with some $30 billion in assets and the Albert and & Bessie Mae Kronkosky Charitable Foundation with $200 million (though you'd be surprised to see all the great information on their Web site).

When it comes to transparency, one size does not fit all. Many of the tools on Glasspockets measure online transparency, but according to one Foundation Center survey of more than 11,000 foundations, only 29 percent reported having a Web site or issuing publications or annual reports. Communicating what you do, extensively evaluating your projects and programs, using social media, or engaging in community outreach takes people, yet in the same survey 76 percent of foundations said they had four or fewer staff members. In cultural terms there is a long tradition in American philanthropy of not drawing attention to oneself and letting good works speak for themselves. There is also the very real concern of many living donors with protecting their own privacy and the safety of their children and grandchildren.

A considerable number of foundations tell us that their contribution to transparency is to support the Foundation Center, which takes data from their tax returns and other information, adds value, and makes it available to grantseekers through subscription databases like Foundation Directory Online or for free at more than 425 affiliated funding information centers located across the country. In addition to filing their 990-PF forms, nearly 400 foundations send same-year grants information to the Foundation Center electronically, for which they receive free interactive maps and charts for their own use. And more than 150 foundations who have decided to take the online plunge do so by availing themselves of a free Foundation Center service to design and host simple Web sites.

Indeed, this is the raison d'être of the Foundation Center, founded in response to McCarthy-era hearings in which Russell Leffingwell, then chair of the Carnegie Corporation, told congressional skeptics: "We believe the foundation should have glass pockets." Our founders strongly believed that such transparency was the best way to preserve the freedom required by foundations to innovate, take risk, and adopt a long-term approach to addressing the world’s most pressing challenges. In launching Glasspockets, the Foundation Center is highlighting what foundations are already doing to meet the transparency challenge, not defining standards or imposing a code of conduct from on high.

Transparency is an ideal that each foundation has to pursue according to its values and means. It is something to aspire to, beyond compliance with existing regulation, and will be constantly re-defined as foundations experiment, get feedback, and avail themselves of new technologies. However, one thing seems certain: as the practice of philanthropy is being disrupted by the digital revolution, choosing not to be transparent is an option whose days are numbered. If you have a public purpose, and foundations certainly do, the public wants to know: "What are you doing?" Glasspockets shows the many creative ways in which hundreds of foundations are striving to answer that question. But we have only scratched the surface. Let us know what your favorite foundation is doing to tell its story to the world.

-- Brad Smith

Weekend Link Roundup (February 6 - 7, 2010)

Our weekly roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Communications/Marketing

On the Future Fundraising blog, Jeff Brooks explains how irrelevant images in fundraising appeals can "keep [your organization] from raising the funds [it] needs."

Disaster Relief

Writing on the Harvard Business Review blog, Uncharitable author Dan Pallotta argues that the reason people are giving so much money to Haiti relief efforts is simple: "They are hearing about it." And therein lies an important lesson for nonprofits, says Pallotta.

The media is creating a huge market for giving to Haiti. They are building demand for purchasing charity for Haiti on a massive scale. And, small wonder, massive purchasing is occurring. How much do we think would be given to Haiti if the story ended after one news broadcast on the day it happened?

Imagine if we gave humanitarian organizations the freedom to build this kind of demand for a cure for malaria or the end of breast cancer. Imagine if we relinquished our fixation on keeping short-term fundraising costs low and set our gaze on what it would take to "sell" enough charity to solve long-term problems.

I'm not talking about mimicking traditional corporate advertising, with dumbed-down jingles, adolescent humor, or inauthentic feel-goodism. I'm talking about investing massive resources in reimagined creative approaches -- serious, photo-journalistic, perhaps documentary-style educational ad campaigns with all the gravitas and dignity these urgent causes deserve....

Judging by the comments on the post, most people think Pallotta's on to something. Do you?

The New York Times' Stephanie Strom recently suggested that the large sums of money raised by the American Red Cross for Haiti relief efforts -- more than $200 million as of February 1 -- had prompted fresh talk among smaller, less visible aid groups about a disaster response model in which donations would be pooled and distributed to organizations in the best position to deliver emergency relief services in a disaster-stricken country. But on the GiveWell blog, Holden Karnofsky argues that a "top-down pooling of funds" is not necessarily an improvement over the current system. Writes Karnofsky:

We see potential in the idea of different charities' raising funds for different efforts, as long as they make it clear how much they are looking for and why; make it possible to hold them accountable for how they spend the funds they raise; and are explicit about the point at which they'd spend funds on other potentially worthy causes....

In a related post, Allison Fine wonders whether any organization is tracking the expenditure of donations for Haiti relief efforts. "Some entity, somewhere needs to provide an outside accounting of how these private funds [are being] used," writes Fine. "And it needs to start now."

On the Philanthropy Potluck blog, the Minnesota Council on Foundations' Stephanie Jacobs shares her takeaways from a recent conference call devoted to philanthropy's response to the disaster in Haiti.

Diversity

In honor of Black History Month, Rosetta Thurman is profiling African-American nonprofit leaders on her blog during the month of February. Last week, Thurman highlighted the work of Twenty-First Century Foundation president Erica Hunt, Life Pieces to Masterpieces co-founder Mary Brown, and Silicon Valley Community Foundation president and CEO Emmett Carson.

"As nonprofits work to boost census participation and remedy the myopia that prevents us from truly 'seeing' one another," writes Melissa Mendes Campos on the Nonprofit Next blog, "will [the sector] also consider how we might better include those unseen faces and unheard voices in our everyday planning, decision making, leadership, and governance?"

Impact/Effectiveness

The Tides Foundation has launched new a blog "written by and for people interested in creating strong infrastructure for the social change sector."

Philanthropy

Philanthropy 2173's Lucy Bernholz suggests in a recent post that the tax-privileged status of 501(c)(3)s are "being challenged from numerous directions" and wonders whether nonprofits are "prepared to demonstrate their value in the face of changes in corporate and tax law, and, as importantly, changes in the cultural zeitgeist...." Adds Bernholz:

Currently, most of the innovation in the sector is around the edges of our existing corporate and tax frameworks -- we are developing "workarounds" to the 501(c)(3) or commercial corporate model to encourage social entrepreneurs and new investors or donors. This should be our first clue -- it is time to reconsider the entirety of the systems and policies for the production, financing and distribution of social goods and civil society in the twenty-first century....

On the Social Enterpreneurship blog, Nathaniel Whittemore applauds the Foundation Center's new Glasspockets initiative, which, he writes, "helps break down information that foundations make about themselves into more easily navigable and comparable chunks."

Social Media/Networking

On Monday, Pepsi opened the voting for the first round of its Pepsi Refresh Project. Visitors to the site can cast up to ten votes a day for projects/ideas submitted by nonprofits and social entrepreneurs in one of six categories: arts and culture, education, food and shelter, health, neighborhoods, and the planet. Ideas/projects receiving the most votes in each category at the end of the month will be awarded a grant ranging from $5,000 (for individuals) to $250,000 (for organizations). And then the process starts over again. Pepsi, a longtime Super Bowl advertiser, decided to opt out of this year's game and instead, over the coming months, will award millions of dollars to individuals and nonprofits through the Refresh competition.

Guest blogging on Beth's Kanter's blog, GreatNonprofits' founder Perla Ni explains how social media can help arts groups create visibility for their work and mission via GreatNonprofits' Arts Appreciation Campaign.

That's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org.

-- Regina Mahone

Financial Ratios, Babies, and Bathwater

(Dahna Goldstein is the founder of PhilanTech, LLC. This is her first post for PhilanTopic.)

The nonprofit sector has been abuzz the last few weeks with talk of abandoning financial ratios in favor of program information to evaluate the impact of nonprofit organizations. The renewed focus on program measures was partially spurred by a joint press release issued by GuideStar, Charity Navigator, GreatNonprofits, and others.

There's no question that program information is essential in evaluating nonprofit performance and impact. But let's not get carried away.

There are good reasons to reject expense ratios as a tool for judging nonprofit performance, and they have been well documented (including here and here). I completely agree. It was, in part, the misplaced focus on expense ratios that led my company to team up with an expert in nonprofit finance several years ago to build a better financial analysis tool for the sector.

Many states require nonprofits to audit their financial statements. But while the quality of prepared and audited financial statements varies widely, much can be learned about an organization's financial health and stability by reading its audited statements and performing a few simple calculations. One can learn, for example, how many months operating reserves the organization has (a recent study showed that 53 percent of nonprofits in the Washington, D.C., area have less than three months, a significant vulnerability in these challenging economic times). Prospective donors also can see how quickly an organization pays its expenses, how well it is able to service any debt it has, and how much money raised in excess of expenses is available for investment in the organization's sustainability and growth. There's a wealth of information available -- if you know where to look.

Not everyone has the time or knowledge to analyze nonprofit financial statements. That's where our financial analysis tool -- and other tools like it -- can help. Based on nonprofits' financial statements, these tools typically produce a series of analyses that provide a detailed view of an organization's performance without presupposing specific financial analysis skills on the part of the person using them.

True, financial evaluation is only one tool in the nonprofit evaluation toolkit. But it's a critically important one as you make your donation decisions. A nonprofit that is doing great work but barely has enough cash on hand to sustain its operations is not likely to be an organization in which you'll want to invest. Or, maybe, if you believe in the organization's work, you'll decide to go all in and give it a larger donation with an eye to helping it survive. In either case, rigorous financial analysis can help you make an informed decision.

As the sector continues to explore ways in which program information can be used to evaluate nonprofits and help drive the more efficient allocation of scarce resources, let's be careful not to throw out the financial baby with the expense-ratio bathwater. And remember: Informed donors are effective donors.

(Original artwork: Patrick Gannon)

-- Dahna Goldstein

Advice for Nonprofits in 2010

News that Yale University plans to cut staff and research initiatives to close a $150 million budget deficit and today's 3 percent drop in the S&P 500 should serves as a reminder to nonprofit leaders that it's still too early to run up the "all clear" flag on this economic downturn.

As one well-heeled donor told researchers at Dini Partners, a management and fundraising consulting firm with offices in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and Denver: "The economy is like the Grand Canyon. The free fall is over, but there's a river to be crossed before we climb up the other side."

Dini has released the results of its 2010 Giving Projections survey and the picture they paint is, well, somber. The report also includes some recommendations that, if you're a nonprofit leader, are worth heeding:

1. Focus on board and leadership development.

2. Base your 2010 and future development programs on the foundation of a clear, well-articulated, compelling strategic plan.

3. Visit/communicate with as many of your donors as you can to learn whether it is mission, program, values, community impact, or timing that's most likely to drive their giving decisions in 2010 and beyond.

4. Avoid appeals intended to rescue the operating budget -- and if you resort to such an appeal, make sure it includes a clear statement of steps taken to mitigate the economic pressures on the organization.

5. Be as transparent as you can, especially with respect to financial matters.

Good advice. What would you to add the above?

-- Mitch Nauffts

Readings (and Other Stuff) - Feb. 3, 2010

Here are a few items that caught our attention today:

• Benjamin Jealous: Celebrating the Unsung Heroes of Black History (Social Entrepreneurship)
• The Unsung Hero Project (NAACP)
• Eric Foley: Are Donors Diverting Their Money From Your Nonprofit/Cause to Haiti? (Transformational Giving)
• Allan Chernoff: Is the American Red Cross Worthy of Our Donations? (CNN)
• Holden Karnofsky: Does Haiti Earthquake Relief Have Room for More Funding? (GiveWell)
• Shawn Escoffery: First Lines on the Second Line (Greater New Orleans Foundation)
• Michael Hamill Remaley: What Constitutes Transparency?
• Tamar Snyder: Will Mobile Giving Take Off In the Jewish World? (The Jewish Week)
• Umair Haque: The Great to Good Manifesto (Harvard Business Review)
• Interactive graphic: Obama’s 2011 Budget Proposal: How It’s Spent (New York Times)

What are you reading?

GEO's Courtney Bourns Discusses Evaluation in Philanthropy

Last month, Patricia Pasqual, director of the Foundation Center's Washington, D.C. office, sat down with Courtney Bourns, director of programs at Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, to discuss the new report Evaluation in Philanthropy: Perspectives from the Field. Co-published by GEO and the Council on Foundations, the report examines a number of approaches to evaluation and offers real-life examples of their implementation.

(Total running time: 16 minutes, 27 seconds)

In her chat with Pasqual, Bourns mentions GEO's definition of evaluation: "Asking and answering the questions that will help you improve your practice as a grantmaker." She also explains why GEO and COF decided to publish the report and highlights some of the practices mentioned in it. For example, instead of using evaluation to hold grantees accountable, GEO urges foundations to use it to encourage:

• improvement not just proof;
• contribution not attribution;
• learning with others and not alone;
• going beyond the individual grant; and
• embracing failure.

While the information in the report is geared toward grantmakers, Bourns notes that it can also be helpful to nonprofits:

[GEO] recognizes philanthropy as a system. It requires both sides of the equation: grantmakers and grantees working together....So my recommendation to grantseekers is talk to your funders about what evaluation makes sense for you. What's going to help you gauge your own effectiveness as a grantee? Let your funder know, because they ought to care about helping you answer the questions that will make you more effective....

To download an mp3 version (11.3MB) of the podcast, click here.

And be sure to check out the audio events archive for more Philanthropy Chat podcasts.

-- Regina Mahone

Civil Rights Documentaries

(Kathryn Pyle is a regular contributor to PhilanTopic. She wrote about social issue documentaries in an earlier post.)

The next few years will see the fiftieth anniversary of a number of watershed events in the civil rights movement. Two documentary films just released remind us of those troubled but stirring times.

Freedom Riders, which premiered last week at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, captures what director Stanley Nelson calls the real beginning of the civil rights movement. "Before the freedom riders," Nelson told attendees after the packed screening, "there were isolated actions to break segregation laws in the South, but the freedom riders brought people together from all over the country -- black and white, old and young."

Thirteen young people -- seven African Americans and six whites -- boarded two commercial buses, a Greyhound and a Trailways, in May 1961, in a protest organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They were headed from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, and hoped to pressure authorities in the deep South into upholding federal anti-segregation laws as they applied to public facilities. Many of the riders would be severely beaten, while others were jailed at Mississippi's infamous Parchman Farm prison. Facing mounting international criticism, the Kennedy administration eventually would call out the National Guard to protect the riders from violent mobs in Alabama and Mississippi.

By summer's end, the number of freedom riders would swell to over four hundred and their courage and persistence would finally bear fruit when the Interstate Commerce Commission, in September, stepped in to enforce existing federal laws against segregation in interstate bus travel, handing a hard-won victory to the movement.

"The message of [the film]," said Nelson, "is the power of individuals to make change." The film also highlights the leadership role of a number of women during those terrible weeks, most notably Diane Nash. Nash, a student at Fisk University in Nashville and one of the founders, in 1960, of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), picked up the gauntlet when, battered and frightened, the original group of freedom riders could not continue. Refusing to heed a Kennedy aide's pleas for a "cooling off" period, Nash took responsibility for the protest and led a group of riders from Birmingham, Alabama, to their final destination in Jackson, Mississippi.

Gara LaMarche, president and CEO of the Atlantic Philanthropies, framed a panel discussion earlier that day on "Speaking Truth to Power" with remarks about the potential impact of documentaries to influence and shape the debate around specific human rights issues. "The most significant democratic transitions of the twentieth century were peaceful revolutions led by citizens -- the amassed power of people and ideas -- coupled with the traditional tools of advocacy, rule of law, and media," said LaMarche. Over the past two decades, he noted, the grassroots constituency -- the essential partner in human rights campaigns -- has been distracted. LaMarche told those in attendance that documentary films about human rights issues can help rebuild and reenergize that constituency. "Film can help support a movement and connect citizens to activism. Independent media makes it possible for people to speak for themselves."

That same spirit was on display earlier in the month at the Tribeca Cinemas in lower Manhattan, where folks who braved the cold were treated to a showing of Soundtrack for a Revolution, directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman. The film, which had premiered at the Tribeca International Film Festival, was one of six short-listed documentaries shown over the weekend, along with Which Way Home, Food Inc., Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders, The Cove, and Under Our Skin. The Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund sponsored the mini-festival, and the sold-out screening was graced by the presence of Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee, both of whom got a standing ovation from the crowd.

In a Q&A after the screening, Belafonte, a presence in the film, said that his role in the civil rights movement -- the "revolution" of the film's title -- "was to bring in other performers to support what was going on."

As an activist and a singer, Belefonte was a particularly appropriate spokesperson for the film, which tells the history, through music, of that struggle -- the songs and hymns sung in churches, in jails, and on picket lines. In grainy black-and-white footage, we see activists, folk singers, and just plain folks leading verses of anthems such as "Wade in the Water" and "We Shall Not Be Moved" -- traditional songs adopted by the movement and given new meaning. We see, and sometimes clearly hear, marchers singing and clapping as they jostle down the menacing streets of a Southern city.

Guy Carawan, who introduced "We Shall Overcome" to the student leaders at SNCC, is shown performing during that time (and in a recent interview with his wife, the singer Candie Carawan). In the film he talks about the song's evolution from hymn to union ballad to civil rights anthem. A number of contemporary singers are also featured in the film, interpreting some of those old protest songs in a modern studio setting.

"We wanted to make sure youth in particular knew the history, and music was a way to do that," said producer Joslyn Barnes.

Soundtrack for a Revolution is a moving documentary filled with lesser-known moments of courage and determination. One of them involves sisters Lynda Lowery and Joanne Bland, now in their 50s, who were children when they participated in the bloody "children's march" across Selma's Pettus Bridge -- an action in which Lynda was severely clubbed by a policeman.

Of course, it's impossible to talk about the struggle for civil rights without recalling the fourteen-hour Eyes on the Prize series produced by the late Henry Hampton and his Blackside film company. With the support of a number of foundations, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954-1965) aired on PBS in 1987, followed by Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads (1965-1985) in 1990, and were widely hailed at the time as one of the most important retellings of the civil rights era.

The rest of the story is not as well known. As the rights to original songs and archival materials used in the films began to expire, copyright issues became an obstacle to the series' continued dissemination. Eventually, a grassroots campaign led by media access organization Downhill Battle (now the Participatory Culture Foundation) tapped into growing frustration over the fact that Hampton's seminal series was unavailable and, in a marriage of media and activism that LaMarche might applaud, the "Eyes on the Screen" campaign was launched in 2005 to raise awareness of the copyright issue. Eventually, the Ford Foundation and the Gilder Foundation paid to re-license the music, archival video footage, and photographs featured in the series, as well as for needed post-production work; the PBS re-release of Parts I and II, in 2006 and 2008, included an educational outreach campaign funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The series is now available on DVD through Blackside.

All these films serve to educate us about a painful shared history and remind us that the struggle for equal rights and opportunity in America is far from over. How to advance that work in the twenty-first century is the challenge that today's young activists have to solve. And, as these films make clear, documentary filmmakers can be important partners in the search for reconciliation.

-- Kathryn Pyle

Weekend Link Roundup (January 30 - 31, 2010)

Our weekly roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Communications/Marketing

A recent Nancy Schwartz & Company survey of more than 900 nonprofit leaders found that most nonprofit messages don't connect strongly with the key audiences for those messages. The survey also found that 86 percent of nonprofits characterize their messages as difficult to remember. On her Getting Attention blog, Schwartz reminds readers that "messaging is the first step in effective marketing communications."

On IssueLab's Footnotes blog, Luise Barnikel, host of this month's Nonprofit Blog Carnival, offers a selection of posts on the topic of nonprofit communications on a budget.

On the Nonprofit Tech 2.0 blog, Heather Mansfield offers simple definitions of "Web 1.0," "Web 2.0," and "Web 3.0," and then explains what it all means for nonprofit communicators.

Disaster Relief

How fast are donors losing interest in Haiti? According to data gathered by Network for Good, the answer is quickly, though not as quickly as has been the case in other recent disasters. On her Non-Profit Marketing blog, Network for Good VP Katya Andresen offers some advice to charities working in Haiti who want to keep the attention of potential donors.

Responding to the increase in online donations following the January 12 earthquake in Haiti, Doctors Without Borders asked potential donors to give to its Emergency Relief Fund so that "funds pouring in for Haiti relief can be spent more flexibly." Not such a good idea, says Future Fundraising Now blogger Jeff Brooks, who thinks that designating future donations to a general fund serves to discourage individuals interested in supporting Haiti relief specifically.

Economy

On the Philanthropy Potluck blog, Minnesota Council on Foundations communications associate Chris Murakami Noonan highlights what a number of the largest foundations in the state are doing to address the economic downturn.

Last week, Idealist founder Ami Dar announced on Twitter the imminent launch of a "Save Idealist" fundraising appeal. In a recent post on her blog, Rosetta Thurman reflects on the news and wonders what the future holds for nonprofit infrastructure organizations now that the "pool of funding sources for non-direct service programs, [which] has always been slim,...is...getting slimmer."

Fundraising

Allison Fine reflects on the growing popularity of text message fundraising campaigns and identifies what could be a major shortcoming of such campaigns down the road: "relationship building...is going to be inherently difficult."

Philanthropy

In an "open letter" on the Fast Company site, Do Something CEO Nancy Lublin shares with "her power[ful] 'friends' at foundations" four things she'd like them to stop doing:

• Stop thinking you know everything
• Stop mistaking marketing for overhead -- and stop hating on overhead
• Stop funding redundancy
• Stop thinking that newer is better

Lublin concludes her letter by offering one promise: "I [will] stop calling 'for advice' or 'just to check in' when...we both know what I really want: your check."

Over at Tactical Philanthropy, Sean Stannard-Stockton challenges the views articulated by Michael Edwards, former director of the Ford Foundation's Governance and Civil Society Program, in Why "Social Capital Markets" Could Be a Really Bad Idea, the second in a five-part series of posts by Edwards on the Intrepid Philanthropist blog. "The social capital market Edwards describes is a shallow, mechanical market that has little resemblance to how real markets work," writes Stannard-Stockton. "It is critical that as we build robust social capital markets, that we create vibrant, human markets, not some sort of mechanical sorting machine."

In a comment rebutting Stannard-Stockton's charge, Edwards writes:

As I said in my first blog post on Philanthropy Central on Monday, civil society and the social economy are very different things, animated by different mechanisms, fulfilling different roles, and requiring different forms of support from philanthropy. One cannot simply ignore the trade-offs that exist between competition and cooperation as you do. nor sweep under the carpet the difficulties imposed by the fact that social ‘goods’ are not commensurable or substitutable (now there’s a mouthful!). That’s the subject of today’s blog post, so I encourage you to check it out.

A "farmers market" is still a market, and markets are places where people buy and sell. Civil society is not, and that’s why we need more "meeting grounds," not markets....

You can find the other four posts by Edwards here, here, here, and here.

On the heels of the release of Bill Gates' second annual letter, Seattle Times reporter Kristi Heim shares this brief Q&A with the co-chair of the world's largest private philanthropy.

Here on PhilanTopic, Foundation Center president Brad Smith argues that foundations need to be more transparent and explains how the center's new Glasspockets initiative will facilitate greater transparency on the part of major U.S. foundations.

Social Media

Following lots of grumbling about the final outcome of the Chase Community Giving Contest on Facebook, the debate over the value proposition of such contests continues. Beth Kanter, for one, doesn't think they should be banned, just changed. To that end, Kanter offers three suggestions for designing better contests in the future: don't promote scarcity thinking; create (and clearly identify) a role for expert opinion; and strike an appropriate balance between social good and cause marketing to avoid tha appearance of "cause washing."

Volunteerism

A recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that rates of volunteerism increased in 2009 -- but not by much. While a recent post at the New York Times' Economix blog takes a "pessimistic" view of the report, an upbeat Joanne Fritz says the report shows the glass is half full.

That's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org.

-- Regina Mahone

The Twisted Logic of Social Media

Jürgen Habermas, the important German sociologist and philosopher, has, apparently, started to tweet (@jhabermas). Whether it's the real Habermas or a Habermas groupie is hard to say. But, as the most recent series of tweets from the Habermas feed suggests, it may not matter:

It's true that the internet has reactivated the grassroots of an egalitarian public sphere of writers and readers.. | It also counterbalances the deficits from the impersonal and asymmetrical character of broadcasting insofar as... | it reintroduces deliberative elements in communication. Besides that, it can undermine the censorship of authoritarian regimes... | But the rise of millions of fragmented discussions across the world tend instead to lead to fragmentation of audiences into isolated publics....

As for me, when it comes to philosophizing I'm partial to the more homegrown, colloquial style of Becker Fagan (or is it Fagan Becker?).

I have never met Napoleon,
   But I plan to find the time
I have never met Napoleon,
   But I plan to find the time. Yes, I do.
'Cause he looked so fine upon that hill,
   They tell me he was lonely,
   He's lonely still.
Those days are gone forever,
   Over a long time ago...

Oh, yeah.

-- Mitch Nauffts

Foundations Need to Be More Transparent

(Bradford Smith is president of the Foundation Center. In his last post, he wrote about philanthropy, morality, and politics.)

"So far as there is a justification -- and I am sure there is -- for the existence of these institutions, it is that they serve the public good. If they are not willing to tell what they do to serve the public good, then as far as I am concerned, they ought to be closed down."

This statement -- the kind that would strike fear into the hearts of many foundation leaders -- did not come from Pablo Eisenberg, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, or an overly zealous Hill staffer. Rather, those words were uttered in 1952 by a Republican banker, Russell Leffingwell, during his testimony before the Cox Commission, convened to investigate foundations for alleged support for "un-American activities." Leffingwell, who was also chair of the Carnegie Corporation board, had an acute sense of how philanthropy's preference for maintaining a low profile could work against it: "...the welfare of these great constructive foundations with which I am familiar, and their opportunity for usefulness, are constantly threatened by a confusion in the minds of the people about what is a foundation."

It was out of the Cox hearings and the Reece Commission that followed that the Foundation Center was born in 1956 as a "strategic gathering place for knowledge about foundations." The vision of our founders can be summed up in the simple words of Leffingwell, who told his Congressional skeptics: "We think that the foundation should have glass pockets."

With the launch of a new public Web portal, www.glasspockets.org, the Foundation Center reaches back to its founding values. We believe strongly in philanthropic freedom, the kind of independence that allows foundations to be innovative, take risks, and work on long-term solutions to some of the world’s most vexing problems. But the best way to preserve philanthropic freedom is not to hide behind it; rather, foundations increasingly need to tell the story of what they do, why they do it, and what difference it makes.

Why transparency? Foundations use private wealth to serve the public good for which they receive a tax exemption in return. While some have argued that the tax exemption does not legally compel foundations to behave in any particular way, foundations' challenges are more perceptual than legal. No sector -- government, church, business, or charitable -- gets a free pass in the world of 24/7 media, blogs, YouTube, Twitter, crowdsourcing, and digital everything. Why should foundations? Collectively, America's foundations control more than $500 billion in assets, spend some $46 billion a year in grants and on programs, and, in some localities and on some issues, are the major players. And as foundations strive to become more strategic and effective, their impact and influence will grow -- as will the curiosity, praise, criticism, and scrutiny they attract.

Glasspockets contains basic facts about the nearly 97,000 foundations in the United States, illustrations of philanthropy's impact on the issues that people care about, and information on the many ways in which foundations are striving to become more transparent. Sections like "What are foundations saying now" and "Foundation Transparency 2.0" show which foundations are using social media and how. "Who has Glasspockets?" features profiles of foundations' online transparency efforts according to the kinds of information about governance, finances, grantmaking processes, and performance metrics they post on their Web sites. Glasspockets is intended to recognize foundations who are taking the lead in becoming more transparent while encouraging others to do the same. Any foundation that is debating about whether to create a searchable grants database, initiate a grantee feedback mechanism, or get its feet wet with social media will, on Glasspockets, find plenty of peer foundations with whom they can consult about how to build greater transparency.

The Foundation Center has been working on Glasspockets for over a year and we have learned a number of valuable lessons.

We couldn't have done it without partners. Glasspockets was developed in partnership with the Center for Effective Philanthropy, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, the Global Philanthropy Forum, the Communications Network, and the One World Trust in London. Each of these organizations shared their own experiences, suggestions, cautions, and content. As organizations that, to varying degrees, are dependent on foundation funding, the delicate task of positioning Glasspockets was first and foremost on everyone's mind. Their contributions have been invaluable and changed the direction of the site at various junctures.

When it comes to transparency, one size does not fit all. Many of the tools on Glasspockets measure online transparency, but according to one Foundation Center survey only 29 percent of foundations reported having a Web site or issuing publications or annual reports. Communicating what you do, extensively evaluating your projects and programs, using social media, or engaging in community outreach takes people, yet in the same survey 76 percent of U.S. foundations said they had four or fewer staff members. In cultural terms there is a long tradition in American philanthropy of not drawing attention to oneself and letting good works speak for themselves. There is also the very real concern of many living donors with protecting their own privacy and the safety of their children and grandchildren. A considerable number of foundations told us that their contribution to transparency was support for the Foundation Center, which takes data from their tax returns and other information, adds value, and makes it available to grantseekers. Transparency, it seems, is an ideal that each foundation has to approach according to its values and means. However, one thing seems certain: as the whole notion of privacy is being radically transformed by digital technology, choosing not to be transparent is an option whose days are numbered.

Transparency vs. Accountability. At the outset of developing Glasspockets, we used these terms almost interchangeably but soon found that while most everyone agreed on the definition of transparency there was considerably more concern about the notion of accountability. Many foundation professionals associate accountability with government control, particularly attempts that might go beyond the existing regulatory framework to dictate what issues should be addressed and which populations benefited from foundation dollars. We had been thinking of accountability more in terms of the relationship of philanthropy to its constituencies. For example, when a foundation decides to send out a Center for Effective Philanthropy grantee perception survey, that is an exercise in accountability, a strong signal that grantees are stakeholders whose opinions count. When the same foundation decides to display that report on its Web site for the world to see, that is an expression of transparency. The One World Trust was especially valuable in helping us sort through this issue. Their own Global Accountability Report ranks multinational corporations, multilateral government institutions, and international NGOs according to four dimensions of accountability -- transparency, participation, evaluation, and complaint and response mechanisms -- often with surprising results.

Why not rate foundations? Everything today is rated in one way or another, and most of us do not pick a restaurant, plan a vacation, or figure out which appliance to buy without consulting some kind of rating system, frequently of the online, consumer-based variety. So why not rate foundations? Foundations are increasingly funding organizations to analyze, evaluate, and, yes, rate nonprofits on the assumption that donors of all types have the right to know which are the highest-performing, most efficient, and best-managed organizations out there. Shouldn't that be a two-way street? Mario Morino and others have argued that it is only a matter of time before something like TripAdvisor comes to the foundation world. Indeed, when we were describing our plans for Glasspockets, one foundation encouraged us to jump into the deep end and devise an eBay-like user rating system for foundations.

In the end we decided that the best way to encourage greater transparency among foundations is not to rate them but to bring to light the wide degree of experimentation and innovation they already support. The "Who has Glasspockets" feature, a kind of transparency profile, allows readers to compare and contrast foundations on a range of criteria drawn from existing practice but does not issue scores or rankings. And we have already heard from foundations interested in suggesting new criteria and discussing how they might improve their own profiles based on the examples of others.

In the old days, the Foundation Center would release a print publication and then move on to the next project. With the launch of Glasspockets, we are just out of the starting blocks. How the site develops, in what ways, how it is used, and whether pieces of it spin off into other media are all open questions. We want it to serve as an important knowledge resource that can fuel the movement toward greater transparency in philanthropy. We have been joined in this effort by important partners and spokespersons such as Jim Canales, president of the James Irvine Foundation, and their ranks are growing.

Being transparent about what we do well, what we do poorly, where we exceed our expectations, and where we fall short cannot but increase the credibility of our institutions. Again, it was Leffingwell in 1952 who captured the essence of our profession:

"I think they [foundations] are entering into the most difficult of all fields. They have gotten their fingers burned, and they are going right straight ahead, knowing that their fingers will be burned again and again, because in these fields you cannot be sure of your results, and you cannot be sure that you will avoid risk; and you know that, if the boundaries of knowledge are pushed back and back and back so that our ignorance of ourselves and our fellow man and other nations is steadily reduced, there is hope for mankind...."

Greater transparency is the best means to protect the freedom that philanthropy needs to pursue this noble mission.

-- Brad Smith

Readings (and Other Stuff) - Jan. 26, 2010

Here are a few items that caught our attention today:

• Reports of Gangrene and Sepsis... And The Stark Realities of Response in Haiti (Haiti: Operational Biosurveillance blog)
• Saundra S.: Coordination After a Disaster (Good Intentions Are Not Enough)
• Akin Salawu: Facebook Haiti (Century Foundation)
• Andrew Manshel: Too Big to Succeed? (Wall Street Journal)
• The Weakonomist: The Gini Coefficient: Income Inequality Around the Globe (Weakonomics)
• Michael Edwards: Should Civil Society Be Reduced to a Subset of the Market? (Intrepid Philanthropist)
• Georgia Levenson Keohane: A Guide for Wall Street Philanthropy: The Gifts of Goldman (Center for Effective Philanthropy)
• The Second Epistle of St. Bill (The Economist)

What are you reading?

Phil Buchanan Speaks Up for Philanthropy

"American philanthropy and the nonprofit sector it supports are under attack. The attack comes both from outside the boundaries of the sector and from within it...."

That's the provocative premise behind a series of blog posts written by Phil Buchanan, president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, back in November. In the opening post of the series, Buchanan writes:

With recent books from Philanthrocapitalism to Uncharitable receiving prominent play -- and their authors being feted by those within and outside the sector -- there is real danger that an appreciation of the nonprofit sector's distinctive identity and purpose will be lost.

Both of these books, though very different, contain some good ideas about how the sector can improve -- and some completely wacky ones too. But the real problem lies in the fact that both caricature the sector unfairly and look simplistically and misguidedly to the markets and "business practice" as the answers. Both lack sufficient appreciation for the fact that if free markets or the government could solve all our problems or fulfill our needs for expression, we wouldn't have any use for a nonprofit sector at all. But, alas, we do....

I agree with Buchanan on that score and was delighted to learn that our friend (and sometime PhilanTopic contributor) Susan Herr had recently interviewed Buchanan as part of her series of video chats for the Communication Network. It's a lively and interesting conversation, and well worth your time. (Running time: 29 minutes.)

• Center for Effective Philanthropy: Right Place, Right Time (0:00)
• "Philanthropy is under attack" (1:20)
• What is motivating these attacks? (7:47)
• How can we effectively deliver the message that the NPO sector is good but needs to be better? (13:42)
• Why should I have to speak to what philanthropy as a whole is doing v. my own organization's efforts? (18:39)
• Why is it time to start violating "communication commandments?" (22:42)

Weekend Link Roundup (January 23-24, 2010)

Our weekly roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Communications/Marketing

In a recent post, Getting Attention blogger Nancy Schwartz explains how nonprofit communicators can measure the impact of their media relations activities.

On her nonprofit marketing blog, Katya Andresen offers a glowing review of Seth Godin's new book, Linchpin, and shares a few takeaways on the importance of being indispensable not only to your organization but to your customers and donors as well.

Disaster Relief

"A quick glance at any number of newspapers this week [can]...challenge the [argument] that" there are too many nonprofits, writes Nonprofit Board Crisis blogger Mike Burns. For example, the New Tork Times profiled a handful of health organizations using methods "that had not been developed by the long-standing nonprofits with similar missions." Adds Burns: "As much as I firmly believe that there are many opportunities for partnerships, alliances and mergers, I am reminded that innovation often comes from newer and/or smaller groups. The donor sector must find a way to accommodate and support both for the betterment of society...."

On the Nonprofit Charitable Orgs blog at About.com, Joanne Fritz offers four reasons why the American Red Cross was able to raise such a substantial amount of money via its text-to-give campaign following the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Yelé Haiti, a charity created by Haitian-American musician Wyclef Jean, received some negative attention after the Smoking Gun blog reported that the org "has a lackluster history of accounting for its finances." On Friday, Jean said the organization had hired a new accounting firm after he acknowledged that mistakes had been made. You can watch the musician defend his charity in this video on YouTube.

On the Philanthropy 2173 blog, Lucy Bernholz lists a few examples of "crowd-sourced tool developments" created in response to the earthquake in Haiti and suggests that "As we think ahead to the next disaster we need to keep in mind that well-directed crowds are likely to be an important part of the relief infrastructure."

In a related post, Allison Fine writes that, given the increasingly important role nonprofits and NGOs are playing in disaster relief efforts, it is time for the nonprofit sector, perhaps led by Independent Sector, to develop a Nonprofit National Disaster Gameplan.

Fundraising

"If you want more donors," writes Jeff Brooks on the Future Fundraising Now blog, "and especially if you want more from donors -- you're going to have to give more to donors. More choices, more say in how their money goes to work, more reporting back on what they've accomplished through you, more programs that make their hearts soar...." Good advice, as always, from Brooks.

Impact/Effectiveness

"The main reason the dialogue on social outcomes is off track," writes Venture Philanthropy Partners chairman Mario Morino on the SSIR blog, "is because we have failed to keep our eyes fixed on the ends we are trying to advance...[namely] helping nonprofits create greater benefits for the people and causes they serve."

On the Open Society Institute-Baltimore's Audacious Ideas blog, 501(c) Solutions president Nancy Hall argues that there should be a "moratorium on starting nonprofits" in the region, not least because new nonprofits rarely are a good use of grant dollars. Adds Hall: "There are too many unmet needs to tolerate the squandering of time and dollars on unproven charities and ineffective and inefficient organizations...."

Philanthropy

Guest blogging on Beth's Blog, marketing and digital strategist Anne Mai Bertelsen offers an insider's perspective on the debate over the value of online contests created to advance a good cause. Writes Bertelsen, "Those of us who have planned, executed, and evaluated these types of contests for good on behalf of major brands have done so with the best intentions, and not to 'cause wash' -- i.e., buy good brand karma under the guise of philanthropy...." What do you think about the proliferation and value of these kinds of online contests? Enquiring minds want to know...

That's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org.

-- Regina Mahone

Earthquake in Haiti: Leading U.S. Foundations Respond to the Crisis

In the immediate aftermath of the January 12 earthquake that brought widespread death and destruction to the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, the Foundation Center surveyed members of its Grantmaker Leadership Panel to gauge the reaction of top funders to the unfolding crisis. More than half (53 percent) of current panel members responded.

Findings from the survey suggest that a number of leading funders are considering a direct response to the crisis, with a primary focus on providing emergency assistance. Most of these funders expect to provide this support to intermediary organizations headquartered outside of Haiti. Not surprisingly, leading grantmakers that have provided funding related to Haiti and/or responded to other disasters in recent years were more likely to consider responding to this crisis.

KEY FINDINGS

• Among the 120 foundations that responded to the survey, 42 percent are considering providing assistance for relief and/or recovery efforts in response to the earthquake in Haiti. Another 22 percent are "uncertain," while roughly 36 percent do not anticipate providing a direct response at this time.

• Among community foundations, 44 percent expect to provide assistance in response to the crisis, and nearly half have already established funds to collect contributions. Overall, nine of the twenty community foundations that expect to provide assistance have created funds, while another four are considering establishing such a fund.

• Foundations that have provided funding related to Haiti and/or direct support in response to other recent disasters are more likely to consider funding in response to the earthquake in Haiti. Among the nineteen respondents that have provided funding benefiting Haiti over the past decade (either in-country or through intermediaries), 74 percent are considering a response to the current crisis. Of the seventy-nine respondents that have provided funding in response to other recent disasters (e.g., the Indian Ocean tsunami, hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Pakistani earthquake, the September 11th terrorist attacks), 56 percent are considering offering support for relief and/or recovery efforts.

• Most of the fifty foundations that anticipate responding (60 percent) intend to direct assistance exclusively to intermediary organizations headquartered outside of Haiti. Among the remaining grantmakers, 14 percent expect to fund organizations based in Haiti, 12 percent anticipate funding both intermediaries and Haitian organizations and the remaining 14 percent are uncertain.

• The vast majority of leading foundations responding to the crisis (90 percent) expect to focus on providing "emergency relief." Among other priorities, half of responders (50 percent) expect to offer support for health and medical care.

• Among the fifty foundations considering a response to the crisis, 24 percent indicated that they would be interested in collaborating with other grantmakers, either directly or through regional associations or grantmaker networks.

• Close to one in five of the 120 foundations that responded to the survey (18 percent) have a formal plan in place to respond to these kinds of disasters. Twenty foundations (16 percent) noted that they had in-house expertise regarding disaster relief generally. Moreover, 37 percent of respondents indicated that they had in-house expertise regarding nonprofit organizations that may be particularly well-positioned to respond to this disaster.

To read/download the complete advisory (4 pages, PDF), click here.

______

The Foundation Center's Grantmaker Leadership Panel draws upon the expertise of chief executives at leading U.S. private and public foundations on critical issues of interest to the sector. Currently, 225 foundation leaders participate. The panel does not currently include leaders of corporate foundations, which had donated more than $103 million in cash and in-kind goods in response to the disaster as of January 22.

Readings (and Other Stuff) - Jan. 21, 2010

Here are a few items that caught our attention today:

• Nicholas Kristoff: Some Frank Talk About Haiti (New York Times)
• Perla Ni: Don't Give Money To Haiti Now (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
• Michelle Goldberg: The Haiti Fundraising Lie (Daily Beast)
• A Plan for Haiti (The Economist)
• Social Media Provide First-Hand Accounts, Direct Action on Haiti (Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism)
• Ian Wilhelm: Effort to Rate Haiti Relief Groups Sparks Controversy (Chronicle of Philanthropy)
• Lucy Bernholz: The Value of Crowds (Philanthropy 2173)
• Bruce Nussbaum: The Death of Davos Man -- The Death of Davos (BusinessWeek)

What are you reading?

What Donors Can Learn From Past Disasters

(Michael Seltzer is a regular contributor to PhilanTopic. In his previous post, he wrote about the late Brooke Astor's many contributions to and generous support for neighborhood development efforts in New York City.)

By a twist of fate, I was president of the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers (now Philanthropy New York) during both the Indian Ocean tsunami and hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The New York City area has the greatest concentration of international donors in the world. Major international foundations such as the Atlantic Philanthropies, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute, and Rockefeller Foundation, and multinational corporations such as Citigroup, American Express, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson, among others, are all based in the metropolitan area.

As a result of their presence, it was clear to us at NYRAG that we had an important role to play in galvanizing a philanthropic response to disasters outside our area. At the same time, the efforts of NYRAG members after 9/11 had resulted in a number of important lessons for donors that could be applied to other disasters.

By the time the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated communities from Thailand to Kenya, private donors had recognized that traditional governmental mechanisms and "first-line" responders such as the Red Cross were no longer enough to respond effectively to a major international disaster. Individual donors, foundations, and corporate donors were all needed to ensure that affected communities had the resources at their disposal to rebuild. Indeed, much can be gleaned from the experiences of grantmakers that responded to those two disasters -- experiences that can serve as guideposts for the massive charitable effort under way to help the people and nation of Haiti.

Key lessons:

1. Donors have to be prepared for engagement over the long haul. There are four distinct stages before and after a natural disaster that warrant donor investment: preparedness, immediate relief, recovery, and reconstruction. While dramatic and heart-wrenching images of suffering drive us to want to act immediately after a disaster, New York foundations learned after the 9/ll attacks on the World Trade Center how important it was to also focus on the post-relief recovery period, when a disaster ceases to command the attention of the media and charitable interest among the general public wanes.

2. Disasters beyond our borders affect us in ways we could not have imagined just a few decades ago. Due to affordable air travel, the rapid growth of diaspora communities, the immense popularity of social networking, and instant global communications and the Internet, a disaster in almost any country affects New Yorkers (and many other Americans) directly. Matters of nationality suddenly fade in importance, and community and locally based foundations find that many of their existing grantees and donors have ties to and/or an active interest in the country that has suffered the disaster. In my own case, although I never lived in Haiti, my two trips to Port-au-Prince in the early 1970s left me with a lifetime interest in and commitment to the well-being of the Haitian people.

3. There are different appropriate charitable beneficiaries at each stage of the relief/recovery/rebuilding process. Many individual and institutional donors rely on a "one-stop giving" approach -- support a single organization that promises to be engaged in both the short- and long-term work needed to rebuild a community/region/country after a disaster of mammoth proportions occurs. Such beneficiaries are unusual, in that few organizations have the experience and competence to do both. Decide what's important to you -- and do your due diligence.

4. Local community-based nongovernmental organizations are critical to any recovery effort. While often overlooked and even ignored by members of the international donor community, unaffiliated local organizations that work in specific neighborhoods and communities are integral to the success of long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts. I can't emphasize this enough. And foundation and corporate donors with a history in a particular region or country are vital resources for those who want to find these groups. After the Indian Ocean tsunami, Ford Foundation staff in Jakarta and Nairobi served a valuable intermediaries to these kinds of local NGOs.

5. Well-intentioned but uninformed efforts can do more harm than good. I vividly recall the story told to me by the leader of a nongovernmental organization in a part of rural Thailand that found itself in the path of the tsunami. He recounted how local clothes merchants were driven out of business after the disaster by the sudden availability of free clothes shipped to the region from the West. While donors are generally encouraged to send cash rather than goods, many individuals and organizations continue to send clothing, which can inadvertently create hardships for local tradespeople.

In reading and watching news about the disaster in Haiti over the last week, I have been comforted by the overwhelming charitable response and the heroic actions of so many. What would make me really happy, however, would be to see all sectors of the philanthropic community -- individual donors, foundations, companies, faith communities, and civic associations -- focus their money and efforts on identifying the community-based NGOs that have long served the Haitian people and, at the same time, make a commitment to supporting the long-haul investment that Haiti will need to recover from this epic disaster.

--Michael Seltzer

Haiti Earthquake: Day 7

Like many of you, we're still trying to grasp the magnitude of the earthquake and unfolding humanitarian crisis in Haiti. Indeed, an article in the New York Times over the weekend called it "one of the worst natural disasters in a century." The following may help to put it into perspective. (Last updated: 10:30 p.m. EST.)

• Population, country (pre-quake): 9.7 million (World Bank)
• Population, Port-au-Prince (pre-quake): 1.27 million (StateUniversity.com)
• Per-capita income (2008 est.) : $1,300 (CIA World Factbook)
• Runway(s), Port-au-Prince airport: 1
  
  
• Earthquake, death toll (est.): 100,00-200,000 (CNN, Associated Press)
• Earthquake, injured (est.): 250,000 (European Union)
• Earthquake, homeless (est.): 1.5 million (European Union)
  
  
• Donor government/multilateral agency commitments: $1.35 billion
  • European Union: $500 million (Voice of America)
  • Canada: $135 million (CTV)
  • United States: $100 million (New York Times)
  • Other governments: $100 million (PND)
  • World Bank: $100 million (World Bank)
  • International Monetary Fund: $100 Million (International Monetary Fund)

• Private donations: $235 million (Chronicle of Philanthropy)
  • Business contributions: $83.2 million (U.S. Chamber of Commerce)
  • Mobile giving: $27 million (Mobile Giving Foundation)
  • Foundations (private, operating, public): $10.85 million (PND)

-- Mitch Nauffts

'I Still Believe We Shall Overcome'

The images of death and suffering coming out of Haiti have caused many to reflect on ideas and concepts such as justice, compassion, and mercy, while others have been tempted to look away or find comfort in the notion it couldn't happen here because we are richer, we have better infrastructure, we are American and therefore blessed.

But as Martin Luther King tried to teach us, distinctions such as "American," "Haitian," "black," or "white" mean little in the cosmic scheme of things. We are all creatures of the same universe.

As we honor Dr. King today, let us remember that while he had more reasons than most to walk away from the struggle for equal rights and justice, he had a deep and abiding faith in America and mankind, and would not accept despair as "the final response to the ambiguities of history." As he said in his 1964 Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

...

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.

"And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid."

I still believe that we shall overcome....

We've come a long way and overcome much since 1964, thanks in part to the vision and efforts of great men like Dr. King. But let us not forget that there's work to be done -- here and, right now, in Haiti. Were he alive, you know that's where Dr. King would most want to be.

-- Mitch Nauffts

Haiti Updates: The Lede

If you're looking for a one-stop site for news and updates from Haiti, be sure to check out  The Lede, the news blog of the New York Times, where Robert Mackey and his NYT colleagues have been doing excellent work since Wednesday.

Weekend Link Roundup (January 16 - 17, 2010)

Our weekly roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Corporate Philanthropy

Now you see her, now you don't. The Nonprofiteer was back this week with a blast at Goldman Sachs, which is thinking about requiring its executives and top managers to set aside a percentage of their earnings for charity. "If the big banks want to dampen public outrage over the enormous bonuses they're paying," said Ms. Kleiman, "they should take the simple step of not paying them. And...[if they don't], public criticism [of the bonuses] should be made law in the form of taxes and regulations to recapture the windfall profit the banks made with public money...."

Disaster Relief

The earthquake that devastated parts of Haiti, including Port-au-Prince, its densely populated capital, has spurred an outpouring of donations for relief and recovery efforts. Reflecting on the grim news coming out of the Western hemisphere's poorest country, Social Entrepreneurship blogger Nathaniel Whittemore argues that, as much as Haiti needs emergency aid now, over the longer term it deserves much more than that from the developed world.

Appearing on NPR's "Marketplace" program, Katya Andresen, chief operating officer at Network for Good, talks with Kai Ryssdal about why hundreds of thousands of people have chosen to donate to Haiti relief efforts via text message -- and what it means for relief and recovery efforts in the devastated country.

In a related post, Social Citizens blogger Kristin Ivie wonders whether the response to the disaster in Haiti will be a "game-changer" for mobile giving. Will service providers use the disaster as a CSR opportunity, asks Ivie, "dropping the commercials about...maps for a commercial about how they are funding organizations like mGive and the Mobile Giving Foundation?" What do you think?

Many bloggers and organizations provided advice on the best way to contribute to Haiti relief efforts, including Charity Navigator, which offered these tips:

1. Avoid newly formed charities and instead give to established charities that have worked in the country
2. Do not give to the government of Haiti
3. Designate your contribution
4. Do not give supplies
5. Be careful of e-mail solicitations
6. Donate through a charity's own Web site
7. Consider the nature of the charity's work
8. Be inspired by social media but do your homework
9. Avoid telemarketers
10. Do not expect immediate results but do keep tabs on what your donation accomplishes

And on a related topic, Rosetta Thurman weighs in on four common misperceptions about philanthropy.

Economy

On her Social Velocity blog, Nell Edgington wonders why organizations like the Nonprofit Finance Fund -- which published a survey last March on how the economic downturn is affecting the sector -- focus solely on the challenges and not the opportunities for nonprofits presented by this recession.

Environment

On the It's Your World blog, World Affairs Council president and CEO Jane Wales points to a recent report which found that "in just 20 years, demand for water will be 40 percent higher than it is now." According to the report, "enhanced agricultural productivity –- increasing 'crop per drop' -– is essential to closing the gap between demand and supply."

Nonprofits

Responding to an article by New York Times reproter Stephanie Strom in which Strom argues that the high number of "frivolous" new applications for public charities is "depriving the federal budget of billions of dollars," Tides Foundation executive vice president Ellen Friedman writes, "There are plenty of reasons for concern about the federal budget, but singling out the nonprofit sector in this way overlooks some important points." Adds Friedman:

Not only is this sector working on innovative ways to make the world a better place and connecting people with a sense of common good, nonprofits also contribute billions in tax revenue through employee payroll alone.

Moreover, in an age of dwindling public resources, when the role of government in addressing social problems is feverishly debated, the American public is taking matters into their own hands. This heightened wave of community activism, volunteerism, and social entrepreneurship needs to be celebrated, not discouraged....

Philanthropy

Over the last week or so, Tactical Philanthropy blogger Sean Stannard-Stockton invited members of the Tactical Philanthropy community to comment on a draft version of the application guidelines for the Social Innovation Fund (SIF) issued just before the holidays. Last week, Stannard-Stockton shared his own thoughts on the draft:

• The draft seriously overestimates the availability of conclusive evidence in the nonprofit sector.
• The model sub-grantee should not be an organization that has rigorous evidence of program effectiveness.
• The model sub-grantee should be an organization that actively collects information about the results of its programs, systematically analyzes this information, adjusts its activities in response to new information, and has an absolute focus on producing outcomes.
• The goal of the SIF should be to fund and build the evidence base of the next Nurse-Family Partnership (the nation's premier example of an organization that has "rigorous evidence" of effective programs).

Regulation

Uncharitable author Dan Pallotta argues on his Harvard Business Review blog that "there's a direct correlation between leaders' nearness to suffering and public outrage over their compensation." Explains Pallotta, "high salaries can be paid to entertain high society without a question. But the moment the thought of a starving child or a struggling mother is introduced, all the rules change."

Social Media

Responding to a post by Jon Stancato of the Stolen Chair Theatre group, Allison Fine shares some thoughts about how nonprofit theaters (and other arts groups) can begin to transform themselves into social networks that would be "less expensive to run and maintain and more connected to its real and virtual communities." Her post is well worth a few minutes of your time.

And that's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org.

-- Regina Mahone

Haiti Relief: Media Lab Request Re Google People-Finding App

This was forwarded to us last night by Marc Fest, VP of Communications at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. I also noticed it's been picked up and re-posted by the NYT's David Pogue on his blog. FWIW, makes a lot of sense to us....

In the response to the earthquake in Haiti, many organizations worked to create sites where people could find one another, or least information about their loved ones. This excellent idea has been undermined by its success: within 24 hours it became clear that there were too many places where people were putting information, and each site is a silo. The site Haitianquake.com began "scraping" -- mechanically aggregating -- the most popular such sites, like http://koneksyon.com and American Red Cross Family Links. As people within the IT community recognized the danger of too many unconnected sites, and Google became interested in helping, they turned their work over to Google, which is now running an embeddable application at: http://haiticrisis.appspot.com/.

We recognize that many newspapers have put precious resources into developing a people-finder system. We nonetheless urge them to make their data available to the Google project and standardize on the Google widget.  Doing so will greatly increase the number of successful reunions. Data from the Google site is currently available as "dumps" in the standard PFIF format...and an API is being developed and licensed through Creative Commons. I am not affiliated with Google -- indeed, this is a volunteer initiative by some of their engineers -- but this is one case where their reach and capacity can help the most people.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the reasoning behind this request. Any questions about the widget or its functionality or features are best directed to Google.

Christopher P. Csikszentmihalyi
Director, MIT Center for Future Civic Media csik@media.mit.edu

Business Contributions to Haiti Relief Efforts Pass $122 Million

Wow.

According to the Business Civic Leadership Center, a program of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, $61 million in corporate pledges had been announced as of 3:00 p.m. EST, January 16, with 28 donors pledging $1 million or more in cash or a mix of cash and in-kind support.

Update: As of 5:00 p.m. Monday, January 18, corporate contributions (cash and in-kind)to relief efforts had passed $75 million. 

Update: As of 10:00 a.m. Thursday, January 21, corporate contributions (cash and in-kind) to relief efforts had passed $83.2 million.

Update: As of 9:00 a.m. Friday, January 22, corporate contributions (cash and in-kind)had passed $106 million -- the fifth-largest corporate response to a natural disaster on record -- with 43 companies having given $1 million or more.

Update: As of 9:00 p.m. Tuesday, January 26, corporate contributions (cash and in-kind)had passed $122 million, with 51 companies having donated $1 million or more.

Million-plus commitments include:

• Jefferies & Co. ($7.5 million)
• Teva Pharmaceuticals ($7 million)
• Carnival Corporations ($5 million)
• Digicel ($5 million)
• Deutsche Bank AG ($4 million)
• Merck ($3.05 million)
• CareFusion ($3.1 million) 
• Abbott ($2.5 million)
• General Electric Company ($2.5 million)
• UBS ($2.5 million)
• Amgen ($2 million)
• Citigroup ($2 million)
• Coca-Cola Company ($2 million)
• Kinetic Concepts, Inc. ($2 million)
• Smith & Nephew PLC ($2 million)
• GlaxoSmithKline ($1.8 million)
• Safeway Inc. ($1.7 million)
• IBM ($1.5 million)
• Crédit Agricole S.A. ($1.45 million)
• Microsoft ($1.25 million)
• Pfizer ($1.25 million)
• Becton, Dickinson and Company ($1.2 million)
• Chevron/Chevron Global Fund ($1.2 million)
• 3M Company ($1 million) 
• Alcon Laboratories ($1 million)
• Avon ($1 million)
• Bank of America ($1 million)
• Baxter International ($1 million)
• Comcast ($1 million)
• ConocoPhillips ($1 million)
• Credit Suisse Group ($1 million)
• FedEx Corporation ($1 million)
• Goldman Sachs ($1 million)
• Google ($1 million)
• Grupo Pão de Açúcar ($1 million)
• Henry Schein, Inc. ($1 million)
• Hess Corporation ($1 million)
• Hospital Corporation of America ($1 million)
• JPMorgan Chase & Co. ($1 million)
• Lowe's Companies ($1 million)
• Major League Baseball ($1 million)
• Morgan Stanley ($1 million)
• Nestle Waters North America ($1 million)
• PepsiCo Foundation ($1 million)
• Philips Healthcare ($1 million) 
• Royal Caribbean ($1 million)
• Starbucks Corporation ($1 million)
• Thrivent Financial for Lutherans ($1 million) 
• UPS ($1 million)
• Verizon/Verizon Foundation ($1 million)
• Whole Foods Market, Inc. ($1 million) 

For a complete list of corporate donors to the relief effort, visit the BCLC Web site.

Coordinating Relief Aid: Is It Time?

(Tony Pipa is a regular contributor to PhilanTopic. In his last post, he reflected on the many things philanthropy did well in responding to Hurricane Katrina.)

I've seen multiple thoughtful posts about how to donate to relief efforts in Haiti and the potential implications for philanthropy of the rapid and widespread charitable response. Here on PhilanTopic alone the posts and comments have been very informative. If you haven't already, give -- and give freely.

But looking at the wide array of choices available, and after fielding questions about appropriate organizations from family and friends, an outpouring like this prompts me to question whether we should revisit creating a joint appeal here in the United States. (I've written about this before here).

A joint appeal is an entity that manages a coordinated fundraising campaign for a specific emergency. Donors give to one place, and the proceeds are distributed among multiple organizations that are responding to the emergency.

Instead of numerous public fundraising campaigns, telethons, and events created and sponsored by different people and organizations (often put together spontaneously), the joint appeal has pre-established partnerships with major media and handles it all.

By creating one central location to collect and distribute the donations, the ease of giving is increased and overall administrative costs are lessened. Presumably donations flow to the organizations that can make best use of them at that point in time. And the kicker is accountability: now I, as a small-dollar contributor, have the support of an entity with much more firsthand knowledge and capacity to monitor and analyze how my contribution is used -- and more power to push improvements for the next time.

This is actually common elsewhere. The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) in Britain, the oldest and probably largest joint appeal, has become a well-known and trusted brand. When a disaster like the earthquake in Haiti strikes, it's the DEC that comes to mind of the general public -- not necessarily the specific relief agencies themselves. (The DEC is doing a live appeal today hosted by John Hurt and Kirsty Young on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Al-Jazeera.)

Yes, there are significant challenges to doing something like this in the United States. The media market here is fragmented, so achieving the saturation to reach most of the public is difficult. Add in new media companies and the level of difficulty increases. The number of relief agencies based here in the U.S. is also greater, making questions of membership and revenue-sharing very prickly. A high-profile disaster brings in significant revenue to aid agencies, so they would want to be assured that a joint appeal will grow the pie rather than reduce their particular share of it.

Yet the fact is that most major media outlets and even the government are disseminating advice on where to send your donations. These are not experts in vetting organizations or monitoring the use of your contributions.

Isn't there a better way?

-- Tony Pipa

Haiti Earthquake Situation Report

(The following was transmitted by a U.S. Fund for UNICEF employee to the fund's headquarters in New York earlier this morning.)

---

Team,

Latest intel is worse than expected. Needs severely outpace existing supplies. We do not have enough to keep the most vulnerable children alive. Desperately need more resources immediately. Please convey our dire need for help to all potential supporters. Children are dying.

Details on needs outlined below. More to follow.

HAITI EARTHQUAKE – PRELIMINARY NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND UPDATE

Transmitted: 14 January 2010 06.35

• 3 million impacted. Casualties estimate high, over 100,000 dead. Tens of thousands more injured.
• Immediate needs [without more of the following, casualties will skyrocket, especially children]:
  • Emergency medical supplies and temporary facilities
  • Safe water
  • Nutrition packets
  • Temporary shelter systems
• Children separated from families exceed existing temporary shelters. Many are roaming in debris, injured, at risk of greater injury or death.
• Electricity not available. Widespread structural damage. Shanty towns leveled. Local government completely unequipped to aid those impacted.

---

To learn more about how you can help, visit our Earthquake Relief and Information page.

Haiti: Earthquake Relief and Information

The earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12 and leveled much of Port-au-Prince, the country's densely populated capital, created one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory. More than two weeks later, the situation on the ground is improving, slowly, as aid groups and the United States military work to assist the injured and displaced and provide food, clean water, and shelter to hundreds of thousands of Haitians. Individuals and organizations that would like to contribute to ongoing relief and recovery efforts should check the Web sites below for more information. (Last updated: Friday, January 29, 11:30 a.m. Giving totals compiled by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.)

Organizations Working to Meet Urgent Needs

Emergency Supplies

• As of Wednesday, January 25, Action Against Hunger was working to establish multiple centers designed to provide a range of services to mothers with infants and young children, including a safe environment for breastfeeding, as well as medical, nutritional, and psychological support. The centers are also designed to provide a sense of security for mothers and children recovering from trauma.

• From a recent press release: "In an operation that has involved more emergency response teams than any other single-country disaster in global Red Cross history, the American Red Cross has  spent or committed more than $67 million to meet the most urgent needs of earthquake survivors in Haiti. The Red Cross is currently focusing on three areas through its emergency responders and partners: Sending food to those in need, including three million pre-packaged meals and funding for World Food Program efforts that will enable them to feed up to one million people for a month; providing clean drinking water, including 3.5 million liters distributed to date in sixty-eight settlements -- enough water for 100,000 people a day; and distributing shelter items such as blankets, tarps, sleeping mats and tents to families who have been left homeless." Text "HAITI" to 90999 from your mobile phone to donate $10 to the organization's relief efforts. (The Red Cross had raised $185 million as of 1/27, $29 million of that through its text message campaign.)

• AmeriCares' second emergency airlift carrying $500,000 worth of critically needed medical supplies landed in Cap Haitien on January 28. Cap Haitien is the home of Hôpital Sacré Coeur, where hundreds of seriously injured men, women, and children have been evacuated. To date, over $11 million worth of AmeriCares medical aid has been delivered to help earthquake survivors. (The organization had raised more than $7 million as of 1/27.)

• Catholic Relief Services has been working this week with soldiers from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division to distribute more than two hundred tons of food, principally lentils and bulgar, to about 6,500 families camping out at the Petionville Club golf course east of downtown Port-au-Prince. CRS will also host/support a team of twenty-two doctors, nurses, and other health professionals from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center expected to arrive in Haiti before the weekend. (The organization had raised more than $26.5 million as of 1/27, $13 million of that donated online.)

• The International Rescue Committee is teaming up with Management Sciences for Health, a global nonprofit health development organization, to assist Haitians who were displaced by the January 12 earthquake, as well as communities that are hosting homeless victims of the disaster. IRC and MSH plan to use their combined expertise to carry out a range of programs, including "Cash for Work" programs that will employ out-of-work Haitians; Rehabilitation of damaged health centers; Delivery of drugs and supplies to out-of-stock clinics and health facilities; Water and sanitation projects, with a focus on medical waste management; community health network training and expansion of basic medical services; and transportation of women with obstetrical emergencies (and other patients needing urgent care) to health facilities. (The organization had raised more than $4 million as of 1/25.)

• Mercy Corps' team of emergency response experts is currently focused on immediate humanitarian needs: food to beleaguered hospitals, water and sanitation, trauma support for children, and job creation. The organization is working to provide clean water and safe latrines for 42,000 people in Port-au-Prince; jumpstart the decimated economy through cash-for-work programs and begin rebuilding efforts in earthquake-affected areas; and provide post-trauma help using Comfort for Kids, a counseling methodology first developed in New York by Mercy Corps and Bright Horizons, a global workplace childcare provider. (The organization had raised more than $8.6 million as of 1/27.)

• Los Angeles-based Operation USA's disaster response has focused on the most pressing medical needs due to the devastation of hospitals and medical facilities. With its partner, Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the organization has procured and delivered over $1 million in relief supplies, including high-priority medical supplies, water purification chemicals, shelter materials, and electric generators. Local partners on the ground include St. Damien’s Pediatric Hospital/St. Luke’s Schools, L’Athletique d’Haiti, Partners in Health, International Medical Corps, and the Hands and Feet Project (Jacmel). (The organization had raised $800,000 as of 1/27.)

• Oxfam America has received nearly ninety tons of water-supply, sanitation, hygiene, and shelter materials and is trucking clean drinking water to nine locations in Port-au-Prince and undertaking water treatment and delivery in other towns that were badly damaged by the quake, with the goal of reaching 110,000 people. The organization also has constructed latrines and washing areas to serve 55,000 people, with work under way to provide facilities for 20,000 more; is distributing a variety of relief materials and plastic sheeting to help meet the immediate needs for shelter; has launched a cash-for-work program; and is playing a key role in coordinating with other international agencies. (The organization had raised $10.4 million as of 1/27.)

• More than 700 Salvation Army workers permanently stationed in Haiti are being supported in their disaster response efforts by U.S. and International Salvation Army teams. Earlier this week, the organization was named by the United Nations as the "lead agency" responsible for the well-being of an estimated 20,000 earthquake survivors. The organization will continue to serve those survivors while coordinating with other agencies and planning its long-term recovery for the country. (The organization had raised more than $8.3 million as of 1/26.)

• Two days after the quake struck, United Nations Foundation Vice President of Global Health Dr. Daniel Carucci traveled to Haiti to assess the situation on the ground and determine the best way to assist the UN's emergency response. UNF is taking mobile donations through an Emergency Response Fund. Using your mobile phone, text "CERF" to 90999 to donate $5. (The foundation had raised more than $3.2 million for relief and recovery efforts as of 1/25.)

• United Way Worldwide members in the Caribbean region have mobilized staff, volunteer leaders, and resources in response to the disaster and are working to meet critical basic needs such as shelter, food, and clothing as well as assess the most pressing long-term recovery needs. Donations to the United Way Worldwide Disaster Fund will support recovery and long-term rebuilding needs in devastated Haitian communities.

• The William J. Clinton Foundation -- As the UN's Special Envoy to Haiti, former President Clinton has issued a statement asking all Americans to support immediate relief and long-term recovery efforts in the devastated country. (Through its Haiti Relief Fund, the Clinton Foundation had raised more than $8.8 million as of 1/22.)

Health Services

• CARE USA has deployed additional emergency team members to Haiti to help distribute and/or deliver high-protein food, hygiene kits, water, and emergency health services. The CARE Haiti team has begun planning for the longer-term response, including things like rebuilding homes and implementing a cash-for-work program that would enlist Haitians to help clear debris. (The organization had raised more than $10.3 million as of 1/25.)

• Direct Relief International sent thirteen pallets of medical material aid to help Partners in Health staff treat injured people at its facility in Port-au-Prince. DRI is also deploying a consignment of medical aid for the Socio-Cultural Movement of Haitian Workers (MOSCTHA), a partner based in the Dominican Republic, to serve as a mobile medical clinic for refugees from the capital and is working in partnership with the Abbott Fund, Google.org, UN-SPIDER (United Nations Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response), and ESRI (ArcGIS) to compile comprehensive GIS mapping tools and assess damage to health facilities, roads, and public infrastructure in Haiti. (The organization had raised more than $2 million as of 1/21.)

• Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières teams are trying to ensure the safety and continued care of patients. Because all three of the MSF medical facilities have been partially damaged, most patients have been treated in tented clinics near existing facilities. Update: MSF now has six other locations in and around Port-au-Prince. (The organization had raised more than $36.5 million as of 1/27. The organization had also received $11.9 million for its general Emergency Relief Fund.)

• Hope for Haiti sent four nurses, three doctors, 75,000 pounds of medical supplies, food, water, and construction materials to two hospital sites in Port-au-Prince. The medical supplies will form the basis of a distribution center supplying L'Hopital General and other hospitals in the area that came through the disaster relatively unscathed.

• Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti (HAS), located 40 miles NW of Port-Au-Prince, suffered minimal damage and is currently operating with a full staff. As of Wednesday, there were 500 patients in this 80-bed facility.

• International Medical Corps' emergency response team is providing medical care outside the general hospital near the Presidential Palace where hundreds of people have congregated for help. Other team members are conducting a rapid needs assessment and visiting hospitals around the city to explore their condition. (The organization had raised more than $3.2 million as of 1/25.)

• Konbit Sante has started treating patients who have been airlifted by UN helicopters from Port-au-Prince to the Justinian University Hospital in Cap-Haitien, which the organization runs in partnership with the Ministry of Health. The 250-bed teaching hospital, which did not suffer damage from the earthquake, is the nation's second largest public hospital. To address short- and long-term term health needs related to the disaster, Konbit Sante has established an Earthquake Response Fund.

• MAP International has assembled a $5.2 million aid package comprised of medicines and medical supplies.Fifty-three pallets were sent to World Vision's shipping facility in Miami and twenty-one pallets are going to Christian Aid Ministries, including ten pallets of Ensure, the protein drink. CAM in Haiti is also expecting an air-freight delivery that includes a Johnson & Johnson Emergency Module.

• MedShare CEO A.B. Short and a team of doctors from International Medical Alliance brought medical supplies and are on the ground providing treatment at a 100-bed hospital on the Haitian border where hundreds of victims are being transported from Port-au-Prince for emergency medical treatment. The organization has already delivered five shipments (approximately 5,000 boxes) of requested medical supplies to organizations in Haiti and is planning, over the next week, to send additional shipments of medical aid supplies.

• Partners in Health, which has been on the ground in Haiti for over twenty years, is ramping up its emergency medical relief efforts. Update: PIH has issued a call for surgeons, nurses, and other medical personnel to come to Haiti and has launched a special Web site to provide updates on the relief efforts there. (The organization had received more than $40 million as of 1/27.)

• World Vision is on the ground distributing medical supplies to hospitals in Port-au-Prince. Among the items delivered to La Paix and L'Espoir hospitals were dressings, antibiotics, tetanus shots, and materials for the treatment of broken bones. (The organization had raised $18.4 million as of 1/26.)

Clothing, Food, and Shelter

• Feed My Starving Children had 28,000 meals airlifted from its Coon Rapids, Minnesota warehouse last Friday. One million FMSC meals are currently on the ground in Haiti.

• Food for the Poor is serving hot meals again at its main feeding center in Port-au-Prince. Ordinarily, the center provides 15,000 meals of rice, beans, and stew each day and the goal is to double that amount over the next day or two. At the same time, Food for the Poor teams are taking in additional food, medical, and building supplies into Haiti across the Dominican Republic border.

• Foot Solutions, on behalf of Soles4Souls, the international charity dedicated to providing free footwear to people in desperate need, is asking the public to drop off gently used shoes at any of their locations.

• Freeplay Foundation is seeking donations to provide its wind-up and solar-powered Lifeline Radios and Lifelights to the homeless earthquake survivors in Haiti.

• ShelterBox tents are being used by hospitals in Port au Prince to provide emergency shelter for post-surgery patients in Haiti's capital.

Children and Families

• Beyond Borders' work is focused on the population of Port-au-Prince and the isolated community of Jacmel. In response to the earthquake, it developed a two-stage strategy to coordinate strategic interventions and facilitate collaboration between local organizations and international aid agencies. In phase one, it will work to secure transport for medical teams and purchase critical such as medicine, satellite phones, mobile internet bases, excavation and clean up materials, and diesel fuel. In phase two, it will use funds raised to assist local partners who have lost school buildings, homes, and offices; support education, teacher training, sustainable agriculture, and investments in rural livelihoods; and continue its unique focus on child protection and welfare, especially for children who have lost parents and family or become separated from them.

• Childcare Worldwide has launched an online fundraising appeal, Fill the Container Challenge, via Facebook to raise enough money to send one 20-ton container of fortified rice packets, water, and medical supplies to Haiti.

• Save the Children has launched an emergency relief effort to assist children and families in Haiti. To provide children with a supervised place to play, the organization is establishing a child-friendly space on the grounds of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at Ruelle St. Cyr, Carrefour Ti-Four. For more information on the organization's work, watch its videos on YouTube, or read its Voices From the Field blog. Using your mobile phone, text "SAVE" to 20222 to donate $10. (The organization had raised more than $14.6 million as of 1/27, and the group's international affiliates had raised an additional $18 million.)

• UNICEF and its partners are focused on providing for children who are lost or have been orphaned or separated from their families. Safe spaces for all children under the age of five should be available by the end of the week. Together with its partners, UNICEF is also setting up nutrition support for children under two years of age. (The U.S. Fund for UNICEF had raised $31.5 million of 1/27.)

New and Established Funds

• The AARP Foundation is providing a 1:1 match for any gift made to the AARP Foundation Haiti Relief Fund, up to $500,000.

• Through its Strategic Crisis Fund, ActionAid is supporting the relief and recovery efforts of its teams in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.

• American Jewish World Service has created a Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund to support its network of grantees as they work to address the urgent needs of the affected population. (The organization had raised $5 million as of 1/27.)

• The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund is accepting donations to respond to unmet needs in the country, foster economic opportunity, improve the quality of life for those affected by the disaster over the long term, and assist the people of Haiti as they rebuild their lives and "build back better." Using your mobile phone, text "QUAKE" to 20222 to donate $10. (The fund had raised more than $17 million as of 1/26.)

• Global Giving is accepting donations through its Relief Fund for Haiti Earthquake. (The organization had raised more than $912,000 as of 1/27.)

• Friday's Hope for Haiti Now telethon, which benefits Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, Yele Haiti Foundation, and the Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation, will continue to collect donations for six months. Text "GIVE" to 50555 to donate $10. (The fund had raised more than $58 million as of 1/23.)

• The United Nations Foundation is taking mobile donations through an Emergency Response Fund. Using your mobile phone, text "CERF" to 90999 to donate $5.

• The Tides Foundation's Relief and Reconstruction Fund has been re-activated to aid relief efforts in the devastated country.

• Yelé Haiti, a charity created by the Haitian-American musician Wyclef Jean, is accepting donations via text message. Using your mobile phone, text "Yele" to 501501 to donate $5 to the Yelé Haiti Earthquake Fund.

Organizations Providing Long-Term Relief

• Architecture for Humanity, which provides shelter for people forced to leave their homes after a natural disaster, has launched an fundraising appeal focused on long-term reconstruction efforts in the devastated country. 

• The Grameen Foundation will provide long-term support to help poor families in Haiti rebuild their lives.

• Habitat for Humanity International has worked in Haiti for more than twenty-six years and will continue to serve the people there by helping them to rebuild. (The organization had raised more than $1.65 million as of 1/27.)

• The Lambi Fund of Haiti says it will be there to help Haitians rebuild "long after the relief service providers leave."

Government and Multilateral Agencies Efforts

• The UN World Food Programme began distributing food assistance within hours of the earthquake and has launched a $279 million relief operation to reach 2 million Haitians as well as providing logistical and telecommunications support to the entire humanitarian community. (Friends of the World Food Program had raised more than $3.9 million as of 1/27.)

• USAID has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (USAID/DART) to Hait¡ comprising up to seventeen members and has activated a D.C.-based Response Management Team to support it. USAID/DART will assess humanitarian needs and coordinate assistance with the U.S. embassy in Port-au- Prince, the international community, and the Government of Haiti (GoH).

• The International Monetary Fund has announced that it will provide $100 million in emergency financing to Haiti.

• The World Bank has pledged $100 million toward relief and recovery efforts. A variety of other institutions have also committed funds to immediate and long-term relief efforts.

Community Foundations/Grantmaker Associations

A growing number of organizations have created relief funds and/or special sections on their Web sites with resources and information on how you can help:

• Boston Foundation
• Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
• Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
• Council on Foundations
• Delaware Community Foundation
• Donors Forum of Chicago
• Donors Forum of Wisconsin
• Florida Philanthropic Network
• Greater New Orleans Foundation
• Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice
• Oklahoma City Community Foundation
• Philanthropy New York
• Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
• Silicon Valley Community Foundation
• Taos Community Foundation (NM)
• Triangle Community Foundation (NC)

Social Media Efforts

• Causes on Facebook has a Haiti relief page.
• The Center for International Disaster Information has launched a site with more information on emergency relief in the devastated country, including volunteering information.
• Haiti/2010 Earthquake Wiki
• Search giant Google has teamed with the U.S. State Department to create an online People Finder gadget that allows people to submit information about missing persons in Haitia as well as  to search a database of that information. (See our post about the effort here.)
• The International Committee of the Red Cross has launched an online tool for finding and listing missing persons.
• The Miami Herald's Haiti Connect feature lets readers upload pictures of missing loved ones.
• Network for Good has compiled a list of organizations providing emergency relief. (The organization had processed more than $5 million for relief efforts as of 1/27.)
• The Extraordinaries has launched a site with tools for anyone to volunteer and help locate/identify missing persons.
• Ushahidi has adapted their platform for crisis reporting and mapping of the situation in Haiti.
• We Have, We Need is a Craigslist-style site where nonprofits working in Haiti can post needs and requests and find donors.

News/Resources

• CNN Report: Haiti Faces Devastation offers breaking news and a list of resources.
• The Consulate General of Haiti in New York provides a list of Haitian organizations and community centers in the New York metropolitan area.
• The Embassy of Haiti in Washington, D.C., has created an Earthquake Information and Emergency Response area on its Web site.
• Global Voices is posting tweets and photos from Port-au-Prince.
• Google's Crisis Response Page includes real-time updates on disaster relief efforts in Haiti.
• Haitifeed provides Twitter updates, photos, videos, and more on what is happening on the ground.
• InterAction lists more than fifty-nine well-vetted NGOs working to help survivors of the disaster.
• The Mobile Giving Foundation lists current donation options for giving via mobile phone on its Web site. (The foundation had helped facilitate $27 million in small donations made via moble phones as of Tuesday, January 19.)
• The U.S. Department of State has posted phone numbers for people asking for or providing information about U.S. citizens in Haiti, and for U.S. citizens in Haiti seeking assistance or reporting their status/whereabouts.

Advice to Donors

• Haiti Emergency Update and Investing in Disaster Response (Arabella Advisors)
• Giving in Times of Disasters (Charities Review Council)
• Tips, Tips And More Tips For Funding Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts (Charity Navigator)
• Tom McGhee: Donors Should Check Out Aid Groups Before Giving (Denver Post)
• Haitian Earthquake Relief Fraud Alert (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
• William P. Barrett: How To Spot Dubious Haiti Charity Pleas (Forbes)
• David Randall: How to Make Sure Your Donation Helps Haitian Earthquake Victims (Forbes' Money Builder blog)
• Bob Ottenhoff: Helping in Haiti (GuideStar)
• Victoria Fine: Haiti Earthquake Relief: How You Can Help (Huffington Post)
• Guidelines on the Most Appropriate Ways to Help (InterAction)
• Laura Starita: Advice for Donors to Haiti (Philanthropy Action News)
• Rosetta Thurman: Four Lies People Tell Themselves About Philanthropy (Or Why You Shouldn’t Send Canned Goods to Haiti)

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men?

Interesting piece by John Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man) in today's Huffington Post. In it, Perkins argues that Americans have been seduced by the news-infotainment media complex into accepting, even glorifying, the excessive wealth, lavish lifestyles, and unscrupulous business practices of far too many CEOs.

"For years," writes Perkins, "we have empowered these people (almost exclusively men) to create a system that is scandalously wasteful, overtly reckless, and -- we see now -- ultimately self-destructive."

Why do we let these "modern robber barons," as Perkins calls them, get away with such bad behavior? Because, he writes,

they contribute money to philanthropy and the arts. We pay tribute to a person who has accumulated billions of dollars and in doing so has caused others to lose their jobs, closed the doors of small businesses, or ravaged the environment, and then donates a small percentage of his fortune to correcting those problems or to the arts.

Perkins isn't impressed.

We must understand that [they] would have served the world far better by making fewer profits while increasing employment, supporting small businesses, and insisting that [their] executives practice good environmental stewardship.

You don't have to be a history major to know that Perkins has identified one of the perennial tensions in capitalism. But what, if anything, can we do about it?

Perkins' answer is that we have to insist on change. "We have," he writes, "a new opportunity to wake up to our role and to stop glorifying jets, yachts, mansions and modern day robber barons, and get back to the real work of creating sustainable resources and new jobs that will lessen our reliance on predatory capitalism."

Well...okay. That's what 2008 was about, in part. But as we've seen throughout this economic crisis, change is hard, leadership is critical, and when confronted with a choice between business as usual and the unknown, it's the familiar that usually wins out.

I hope this time is different. But I wouldn't bet on it.

-- Mitch Nauffts

Weekend Link Roundup (January 9 - 10, 2010)

Our weekly roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Communications/Marketing

On the Social Entrepreneurship blog, Nathaniel Whittemore argues that nonprofits need to spruce up their Web sites in the new year. "[Your site] doesn't have to be stunning," writes Whittemore, "but it does need to convey to people that you're serious about everything you do."

Getting Attention blogger Nancy Schwartz shares two pieces of advice (via John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway) with nonprofit communicators guaranteed to improve their "marketing effectiveness and productivity": embrace vacilando (taking one's time when tackling projects) and "never mistake motion for action."

Fundraising

On his Connections blog, Steve MacLaughlin, director of Internet solutions at Blackbaud, shares his company's analysis of online giving trends over the last twelve months. Among other things, the company saw online revenue grew 46 percent year-over-year, with the first three months of 2009 registering a 60 percent increase over the same period in 2008 and December and May coming in as the two busiest months for online giving.

Giving portal Network for Good reported similar 2009 results, with record increases in both total volume and dollar amount of donations made at year-end and throughout the year. Katya Andresen shares some of the stats on her Non-Profit Marketing blog.

Last month, Charity Navigator posted findings from an experiment in which an anonymous donor recorded the number of requests for funding he received from name-brand charities over the course of a year. Responding to that post -- which asked, How many times a year should a given charity contact you seeking support?" -- Future Fundraising Now blogger Jeff Brooks argues that relevance, not frequency, is the real issue. "Asking how many times a charity should contact people," writes Brooks, "is like asking How many holes should I dig? It's a meaningless question until there's more information. The question should be How can a charity be relevant in the life of a donor? Figure that one out, and the question about how many is virtually an afterthought...."

Impact/Effectiveness

In the most recent installment of Ken Berger's "Open Forum on Outcomes" series, Hildy Gottlieb, president of the Community-Driven Institute and author of the Pollyanna Principles, offers her take on the future of outcomes measurement.

In a series of posts on the Center for Effective Philanthropy blog, Bob Hughes, vice president and chief learning officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, considers why foundations haven't made more progress on becoming strategic. Writes Hughes:

Rather than being disappointed in the apparent lack of progress in foundations becoming more strategic, perhaps a better set of questions revolve around how strategic foundations are, and why? And how this has changed over time, and why? Answering these questions may lead to a better understanding of steps the field can take to make the progress so many are eager to see....

Responding to Gottlieb's and Hughes' posts, Allison Fine wonders if "working towards 'foundation effectiveness' and 'outcomes measurement' are simply unnatural ideas and processes for most people and organizations to absorb." Writes Fine:

Maybe it's time for a different kind of conversation. Perhaps we should start to talk about how we can encourage organizations and the people who run them to go with the flow and work in natural ways by following their passions and instincts, rather than trying to steer them into systems and processes that feel uncomfortable and artificial?

Philanthropy

On his Wise Philanthropy blog, Richard Marker explains that those in the sector who give money or advise people on how to do so "have moved from raising the right questions to being soapbox advocates." Marker says that making people feel "skittish, insecure, or guilty about [their] choice" is a disservice to the philanthropic community.

Early in the week, Sean Stannard-Stockton invited readers of his Tactical Philanthropy blog to comment on application guidelines for the Social Innovation Fund issued by the Corporation for National & Community Service at the end of the year. Post-length comments were subsequently submitted by nonprofit consultant Adin Miller; Northern Virginia Community Foundation president Eileen Ellsworth, who noted that because all SIF grant awards require a 1:1 match, raising the minimum grant level from $1 million to $5 million, as the corporation has done, "constitutes an insurmountable barrier for our SIF application"; and Just Another Emperor author Michael Edwards, who blasts the fund for "empowering distant intermediaries, increasing the number of hoops that groups must jump through, and investing scarce resources in number-crunching in lieu of real evaluation."

Social Media

On the What We Give blog, Larry Blumenthal, director of social media strategy for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, shares six lessons learned from building an online community (as related by Thomas Kriese, executive director of the Omidyar Network):

1. Don't restrict membership;
2. Make sure you provide some sort of light, top-down structure/guidance;
3. Consider giving the community some distance from the foundation's name and brand;
4. Don't get so big that you lose the sense of intimacy;
5. Make sure people are treated with respect; and
6. Commit the appropriate resources.

Technology

Last but not least, Beth Kanter looks into her crystal ball and shares three words/concepts for 2010: networked, generosity, and "full of life."

That's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org. And have a great week!

-- Regina Mahone

Brooke Astor, the People's Philanthropist: Neighborhood Development

(Michael Seltzer is a regular contributor to PhilanTopic. In his previous post, he wrote about the late Brooke Astor's many contributions to and generous support for public spaces in New York City.)

Brooke Russell Astor became president of the Vincent Astor Foundation on January 27, 1960, almost a year to the day after her third and last husband, Vincent Astor, the great-great-grandson of America's first multi-millionaire, John Jacob Astor, died of a heart attack at the age of 67. It was the beginning of what would turn out to be a tumultuous decade for America and the world, and the 59-year-old Mrs. Astor would use her position and fortune over the course of the decades that followed to become one of the most prominent and respected philanthropists in the country.

Along the way, she became an early proponent of a new form of urban development driven by community activists rather than all-powerful city planners (e.g., Robert Moses). Those activists rejected massive public housing projects as the answer to urban America's problems and sought to restore the economic and social vitality of New York City's four hundred-plus neighborhoods through genuine grassroots efforts.

The Astor Foundation's entry point into that work was its interest in youth. Although Vincent Astor himself never had children, he had a strong interest in what was then referred to as "disadvantaged youth." After his death, his wife honored that interest through an array of grants to youth development organizations in the city, including Project Broad Jump, Madison Square Boys & Girls Club, and Harlem Prep. In 1961 the foundation made its biggest grant up to that point, an award of $1.25 million, to United Neighborhood Houses in support of the latter's efforts to provide pre-teen programs at settlement houses throughout the city.

Grants like that were the catalyst for Mrs. Astor's increasingly frequent forays into the city's diverse neighborhoods. And as she traveled about, she witnessed firsthand the destruction inflicted on once-vibrant communities through ill-considered "urban redevelopment" schemes and came to learn how terribly misguided the then-favored approach to poverty amelioration was. Coney Island, where hundreds of one- and two-family homes were bulldozed to make way for multi-story apartment buildings, was, in her mind, the most egregious example of these wrong-headed policies. As she said on more than one occasion, "High rise, high crime."

(When I visited Honolulu in June 1968 as a VISTA volunteer, I was jarred by the sight of high-rise public housing in the middle of Kalihi-Palama, then considered one of that city's "ghettos." One didn't have to be a genius to see that the structures were as ill-suited to indigenous Hawaiians as were the grim brick monstrosities that had been built to house African-Americans who moved from the rural South to urban centers in the North after World War II.)

One of the Astor Foundation's best known grants came about as a result of a visit paid her in 1966 by New York's then-junior senator, Robert F. Kennedy. The senator, who was accompanied by Franklin Thomas, later to become a trustee and then president of the Ford Foundation, wanted to talk to Mrs. Astor about his interest in revitalizing the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. As a result of his visit, the Vincent Astor Foundation awarded a grant of $1 million to support the creation of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Renewal and Rehabilitation Corporation (later reconstituted as the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation) -- the first community development in the country and the prototype for the hundreds of such organizations that followed. Over the course of its existence, Restoration (as it was known) would attract more than $375 million in investments to Central Brooklyn and help over 20,000 youth and adults find jobs.

If anything, those conversations made Mrs. Astor more resolute about visiting prospective grantees on their home ground, even when others advised against it. While some of her male foundation colleagues derided her as a publicity-seeking socialite, she was ecumenical in terms of seeking counsel related to her grantmaking and relied a good deal on the advice of grassroots activists, local ministers, youth workers, and block association members. Their names rarely appeared on the pages of the city's tabloids, but Mrs. Astor found them and the foundation gave them funds and its imprimatur. Indeed, she became known as a keen scout of talent with an uncanny ability to size up individuals quickly and accurately.

By 1997, the year it closed its doors for good, the Vincent Astor Foundation had dispensed a total of $200 million in grants. On Mrs. Astor's watch and under the leadership of its executive director, Linda L. Gillies, the foundation processed approximately seven hundred requests for support and awarded a hundred or so grants a year. One has only to look at its grantee lists from the '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s to understand the scope and depth of its reach -- and Mrs. Astor's commitment to New York and the people who call it home.

Brooke Astor earned the respect of politicians, community activists, other philanthropists, and the average person on the street by dint of her intelligence, wit, common sense, hard work, and, most importantly, humility. It may be a while before we see her like again, but her philanthropic legacy and that of the Vincent Astor Foundation will live on, in ways large and small, across all five of New York City's boroughs. 

That's no small comfort in these uncertain times.

-- Michael Seltzer

2009: Opinion & Commentary

Like many of you, we're still in summing up mode around here. In that spirit, here's a look back at the original opinion and commentary published in PND over the last twelve months:

Nonprofit Learnings From For-Profits (3/13/09)
Cass Wheeler, CEO (retired), American Heart Association

The Serve America Act: A Stimulus Plan to Rebuild America's Social Infrastructure (3/25/09)
Laurie Tisch, Founder and President, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund

The Private Sector and the Economic Stimulus Package: Improving Our Nation's Community Health Centers (5/13/09)
Reed Tuckson, Executive Vice President and Chief of Medical Affairs, United Health Foundation

Students Face Uncertainty After Graduation (6/05/09)
Stacie Spector, Associate Vice Chancellor, University Communications and Public Affairs, University of California, San Diego

A New Era of Muslim-American Philanthropy Requires Fewer Obstacles to Giving (6/23/09)
Saima Zaman, Program Officer, GlobalGiving

Challenge to Our Workforce: Young Adults and Low Literacy (7/07/09)
Peter Kleinbard, Executive Director, Youth Development Institute

The Changing Role of Philanthropy and Aging (7/15/09)
J. Barry Griswell, President, Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines

A Philanthropist Reviews 'The Philanthropist' (7/31/09)
Diana Campoamor, President, Hispanics in Philanthropy

Make a Socially Responsible Investment in Young Black Men (8/14/09)
Cedric Brown, Director, Mitchell Kapor Foundation

Research Grants During a Recession: Putting Innovation Front and Center (9/03/09)
Tom Arnold, CEO, Concern Worldwide

Where the Healthcare System Falters, Philanthropies Step In (9/15/09)
Stephen Weiner, President, HealthWell Foundation

Performance Measurement: Put a Stake in the Ground (9/30/09)
Andrew Wolk, Founder and CEO, Root Cause

Social Media Can Open Door to Philanthropy's Future (11/04/09)
Larry Blumenthal, Director, Social Media Strategy, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The New Philanthropy (Giving Effectively in Challenging Times) (12/03/09
Lisa Eisen, National Director, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation

And don't miss the new piece by RWJF's Larry Blumenthal, A Helpful Guide to Failure in Philanthropy. Use Carefully.

Got an opinion or commentary piece you'd like to share with our readers? Drop me a line at mfn@foundationcenter.org.

Readings (and Other Stuff) - Jan. 5, 2010

It didn't take folks long to get back into the swing of things. Here are some of the interesting posts/articles we've been reading:

• Tyler Cowen: Fruitful Decade for Many in the World (New York Times)
• Copenhagen Results in Small Step Forward (Nature Conservancy)
• Social Citizens blog: Millennial Predictions for the Next Decade (Case Foundation)
• Nathaniel Whittemore: Philanthropic Capital Needs to Take More Risks (Social Entrepreneurship)
• Sean Stannard-Stockon: Social Innovation Fund Process Draft (Tactical Philanthropy)
• Hal Gregersen: The Innovator's DNA (INSEAD)
• Jeff Brooks: How to Tell if You're Mailing Too Much (Future Fundraising Now)
• Amber Naslund: 10 Ways to Get Serious About Social Media (Social Media Today)
• David Carr: Why Twitter Will Endure (New York Times)
• David Levine Gallery (New York Review of Books)

What have you been reading?