Our weekly roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....
Communications/Marketing
Hosting this month's Nonprofit Blog Carnival, Nancy Schwartz shares the "life changing" book recommendations of fifteen nonprofit bloggers on her Getting Attention blog.
Corporate Philanthropy
Over at the Stanford Social Innovation Review site, FSG co-founder Mark Kramer and managing director John Kania facilitate a roundtable discussion with executives from ten major corporations on the topic of "creating shared value" -- an FSG coinage that refers to a business paradigm in which "companies generate economic value for themselves in a way that simultaneously produces value for society by addressing social and environmental challenges."
Disaster Relief
In a recent post on her blog, Brigid Slipka points out how the response of Proctor & Gamble to the massive tornado that devastated Joplin, Missouri -- a response that included setting up a Tide Loads of Hope mobile laundry trailer -- was nothing more than a marketing ploy. Writes Slipka:
This scenario is entirely driven by what meets Proctor & Gambles needs: good face to customers, good marketing, good PR. Any effect on victims is measured only in terms how they feel about Tide, not if they actually get their real needs met.
P&G sorta kinda admits this: "I guess you could call it a marketing expense because it's run by our marketing team" says a Tide spokesperson. I guess you could call it whatever you want, just don't pretend it's done in service of the beneficiaries....
Impact/Effectiveness
On the Tactical Philanthropy blog, Guidestar president and CEO Bob Ottenhoff announces the launch of Charting Impact, a new initiative designed to help nonprofits "communicate more effectively with their stakeholders." As Ottenhoff explains,
Charting Impact isn't just another good way to share an organization's impact, but is rather a new, common format that all organizations can use, regardless of type, size, or mission. Charting Impact allows the sharing of assessment information in a concise, standardized way, which ultimately enables new collaborations and resources to be directed to effective organizations....
International Affairs
Maryam Pasha, co-founder of UK-based Young Professionals in Human Rights, responds to Rosetta Thurman's May 27 post in which Thurman criticized Hispanics United of Buffalo and the Connecticut YMCA for treating their employees poorly. In her post, Pasha shares five of the "most common and worrying issues" raised by young nonprofit workers.
Social Justice
To commemorate its thirty-fifth anniversary, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy has created a playlist of songs that "convey something of our vision of a fair, just, and democratic society."
Social Media
In the latest installment of her Social Good podcast series, Allison Fine chats with Tracy Viselli of ACTion Alexandria and Aaron Steinberg of SAR Academy about how nonprofits can leverage their social networks to improve their online fundraising results.
That's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org. And have a great week!
-- Regina Mahone
