PhilanTopic

[Infographic] Playgrounds That Build Communities

Nice infographic from the folks at KaBoom!, a national nonprofit dedicated to creating great playspaces with the participation of community members, and the Knight Foundation, which today announced that it is providing $1.5 million to the organization for the construction of nine additional playspaces in Akron, Ohio, Miami, and Detroit.

 

The grant announcement coincides with the release of a report, KaBOOM!: Playgrounds That Build Communities (exec summary, 10 pages, PDF), that provides lessons for groups seeking to engage volunteers in community change efforts. Based on a Public/Private Ventures evaluation of Knight-funded KaBoom! projects in five states and the District of Columbia, the report found that:

• The majority of KaBoom! project planning committee members believed they had developed or improved in a variety of skills related to organizing, leading, and executing large-scale change efforts.
• Most of the respondents to the survey reported positive changes across a variety of skills, abilities, and attitudes related to their community.
• All the community partners showed increases in their organizing and leadership skills, and many went on to apply these skills to other efforts post-playground build.
• Much of the effort involved in building a KaBoom! playspace is mutually reinforcing: Planning committee members and community partners become more skilled and confident through the effort, which enables the participating organization to employ participants' skills in other and more ambitious tasks.
• After participating in a KaBOOM! project, planning committee members expressed a greater sense of hopefulness that they can improve their communities by working with others.

To download the full report (58 pages, PDF), click here.

 

Breaking the Cycle: Toward a More Holistic Treatment of Sexuality

(Colleen Hoff is director of the Center for Research & Education on Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University. Her ongoing HIV prevention study on gay couples is the largest ever in the U.S. Justin Keller is the center's development director.)

Sexuality remains a largely taboo topic in the world of philanthropy. Culturally speaking, it tends to make us uncomfortable, and controversy is not something foundations tend to seek out. To avoid potential conflicts, private funders interested in the subject tend to narrow their focus to specific needs-based issues: reproductive rights and health, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), intimate partner violence, women's rights and social justice, and marriage equality. Unfortunately, these needs-based labels can restrict our thinking about sexuality and its connection to health and well-being.

Among other things, this narrow view forces researchers and educators in the field to frame their work in the context of disease or other negative consequences of sex, such as unintended pregnancy. Without question, these issues need to be addressed. But by defining sexuality in terms of the negative outcomes associated with it, we are painting an incomplete picture. More devastatingly, it prevents important research questions from even being asked.

Both the White House and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention have recently started to recognize the importance of sexuality as a vital component of the human experience. As early as 2001, former United States Surgeon General David Satcher stated "that sexuality encompasses more than sexual behavior, that the many aspects of sexuality include not only the physical, but the mental and the spiritual as well...." Despite this acknowledgment, federal funds dedicated to this area of research are almost completely devoted to HIV/AIDS and STIs. What little research has been done on the positive impact of sex clearly indicates that healthy sexuality contributes greatly to overall health and well-being. Framing adverse sexual health outcomes within the larger context of sexuality may allow for the development of more holistic, effective programmatic approaches to these issues.

Here is a small sample of areas that have been virtually ignored:

Gay and Lesbian Parents

According to a 2011 report by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, over 50 percent of lesbian and gay parents adopted children from the welfare system, while 60 percent adopted trans-racially (i.e., a child of a different race). Fourteen thousand of the one hundred thousand foster children in the U.S. currently live in homes headed by gay or lesbian parents. And approximately 57 percent of children adopted by gay and lesbian parents have one or more special needs (e.g., developmental disabilities, complex medical issues, and emotional/behavioral disturbances). Despite these figures, little is known about this important and growing population of caregivers, and some literature suggests that gay and lesbian parents and their families receive disparate treatment from schools, healthcare providers, and federal and state entitlement programs. Clearly, there is an immediate need to better understand these experiences so that policies and service providers are able to adapt to this unique and growing population and provide these families with the resources they need.

Sexuality and Disability

As noted above, sexuality tends to be a taboo subject, and discussing it in the context of disability complicates things further. Sexuality can be very confusing for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are developing physically at the same rate as their peers without disabilities. Everyone involved in their lives -- parents, schools, community -- wants to include these youth in conversations about sexuality but also wants to protect them from abuse and exploitation. Research in this area can be critical to informing best practices, programs, and policies that acknowledge that youth with disabilities often are just as curious and confused about sexuality as their peers without disabilities.

Bullying

Despite the increased visibility of LGBT people in society over the last several decades, gay and non-gender conforming teens are still often bullied, with some driven to suicide. The tragic and highly publicized deaths of gay teens such as Jamey Rodemeyer, Jamie Hubley, and Kameron Jacobsen have created a national discourse on the plight of LGBT teens in public school. In 2010, a Mississippi high school canceled its senior prom when a lesbian teen expressed her intention to bring her girlfriend. Such actions demonstrate to LGBT teens that they are less valued than their straight peers. With foundations and popular celebrities such as Lady Gaga engaging in advocacy related to this important social issue, it is critical that we spend the time and resources to understand the unique social environment of schools and the support needed by marginalized teens from a social science perspective.

Diversity in Research

Research is an increasingly difficult market for young researchers of color. A recent study published in Science magazine showed that African Americans are significantly less likely to receive National Institutes of Health grants than white researchers. Mentorship and professional opportunities are critical for students of color currently in the academic pipeline. Diversity of experience plays an important role in the formation of scientific hypotheses. The lack of diversity in the field of sexual health is especially disturbing in light of significant disparities in communities of color with respect to HIV/AIDS, STIs, and unintended pregnancy. Research is needed to examine why these barriers and disparities exist for both researchers of color and communities at risk.

In sum, as our understanding of sexuality grows in the academic realm, we believe the controversy and negative associations tied to it will diminish. The private philanthropic sector's participation is critical if this is to happen sooner rather than later. It would be wonderful, in the near future, to see funders treat sexuality holistically, the way they do other important social and cultural issues such as the arts, education, and economic development. This work will not only improve and save lives, it also will provide an opportunity to promote wellness and acceptance in society. That is something we can all embrace.

(Image: Selina Anttinen)

-- Colleen Hoff and Justin Keller

This Week in PubHub: Race, Place, and the Wealth Gap

(Kyoko Uchida manages PubHub, the Foundation Center's online catalog of foundation-sponsored publications. In her previous post, she looked at four reports that addressed the topic of protecting the rights of people with disabilities.)

Research shows that racial/ethnic disparities in a variety of areas, including wealth, health, and educational attainment, have worsened over the past two decades. This week in PubHub, we highlight four reports that examine the extent of these disparities, as well as how they are linked and reinforce one another.

According to the Pew Research Center report Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics (39 pages, PDF), the median net worth of white households in 2009 was twenty times that of African-American households and eighteen times that of Latino households -- a wealth gap, in both cases, nearly double what it was in 1984, thanks in part to the bursting of the subprime mortgage bubble and the recession that followed. Indeed, since 2005 Latinos and African Americans -- many of whom live in states characterized by housing market volatility and/or who derive more than half of their net worth from home equity -- saw their median household wealth fall by 66 percent and 53 percent, respectively, compared to only 16 percent among whites.

What factors other than the housing boom and bust are driving disparities in household wealth and asset accumulation? The Urban Institute report Private Transfers, Race, and Wealth (36 pages, PDF) examines the role of financial support from extended family members and friends, large gifts, and inheritances in asset accumulation and finds that African Americans and Latinos are much less likely to receive large gifts and inheritances than whites -- a fact that contributes significantly to racial and ethnic wealth gaps. Funded by the Annie E. Casey and Ford foundations, the report also found that large gifts and inheritances are a bigger factor in wealth accumulation among African Americans than among whites or Latinos, and that the disparity in private transfers of wealth accounts for an estimated 12 percent of the black-white wealth gap.

Does the wealth gap influence racial/ethnic disparities in child development, health, and economic mobility? And if so, how? According to Diverging Pathways: How Wealth Shapes Opportunity for Children (16 pages, PDF), a report from the Insight Center for Community Economic Development based on 2007 data, 32 percent of white households with young children were income-poor while 14.2 percent had no assets, compared to 69 percent of Latino and 71 percent of African-American households that were income-poor and 40 percent (for both groups) that had no assets. Lacking the financial resources to pay for high-quality early childhood education or college tuition, children in income- and asset-poor households face a future of limited economic opportunity, the report argues. Indeed, racial/ethnic disparities in child outcomes related to health status and skills development appear as early as the age of 2. The report also notes that while there is an inverse correlation between a mother's educational attainment, economic insecurity, and child outcomes, the wealth gap between households headed by white and African-American mothers with bachelor's degrees increased fivefold between 1994 and 2007. Funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research, and the National Institutes of Health, the report calls for helping economically vulnerable households of color build wealth and accumulate assets as a way to improve child well-being.

Would narrowing the wealth gap in and of itself eliminate disparities in health status and child outcomes? Any effort to mitigate the former must first address the links between location, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status as well as the physiological effects of bias and discrimination, Why Place & Race Matter (113 pages, PDF), a report from the California Endowment and PolicyLink, argues. According to the report, race/ethnicity is a greater determinant of health status than income, while structural racism continues to shape the economic, social, and physical environments of low-income communities of color -- which, in turn, affects the health status of residents of those communities. Among other things, the report argues that strategies for building healthy, thriving, sustainable communities must be race-conscious and focus on addressing both community conditions and individual interventions simultaneously.

To mitigate racial/ethnic wealth gaps, these reports suggest, policy makers and funders first need to address disparities in health, environmental justice, educational achievement, neighborhood safety, and other areas. Do you agree? And, if so, what strategies are working and deserve more attention and support? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

And don't forget to visit PubHub, where you can browse more than two hundred and sixty reports on topics related to minorities.

-- Kyoko Uchida

A 'Flip' Chat With...Patrick McCarthy, President and CEO, the Annie E. Casey Foundation

(This video was recorded as part of our 'Flip' chat series of conversations with thought leaders in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. You can check out other videos in the series here, including our previous chat with NYU Wagner School of Public Service senior fellow Gara LaMarche.)

Earlier this week, I had a chance to chat with Patrick McCarthy, president and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which for the past sixty-plus years has worked to "foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today's vulnerable children and families." A newly minted member of the Foundation Center’s board of trustees, McCarthy was in town for the November meeting. Before he headed back to Baltimore, we sat down to discuss the latest editon of the foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Book (88 pages, PDF), which reported, among other things, that the child poverty rate in the United States rose some 18 percent from 2000 to 2009 and that, in 2010, one out of every five kids in the U.S. was living in a household whose income was below the federal poverty level.

Research shows that poverty rates are highly correlated with negative outcomes for children. And a new study from Stanford University finds evidence of a widening opportunity gap in the United States. According to that report (33 pages, PDF), the share of Americans living in either the poorest or most affluent neighborhoods more than doubled over the last forty years, from 15 percent in 1970 to 33 percent in 2007, while the share of families in middle-income neighborhoods fell from 65 percent to 44 percent. The findings in both reports suggest a "worsening of trends that have been going on for some time," McCarthy noted during our chat.

As McCarthy suggests in the video below, much more needs to be done to address the root causes of poverty in the U.S., which last year reached the highest level since 1993. At the same time, we need to work towards getting "children on a path towards economic success and...building the kinds of technical skills and intellectual cognitive skills that they need to be successful tomorrow."

(If you're reading this in an e-mail, click here.)

(Running time: 8 minutes, 3 seconds)

Do you agree with McCarthy's take on the Occupy Wall Street movement? And what advice would you give to funders seeking to address poverty in the United States? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

-- Regina Mahone

Geeking Out With the New York Community Trust

(Laura Cronin is a frequent contributor to PhilanTopic. Her last post was about the metrics individual donors use to make giving decisions, and she has also written here about the role of technology in K-12 education.)

There is probably no more familiar outlet for foundation, corporate, or individual giving than educational television. We are reminded of the medium's appeal to donors each time we watch the closing credits on a favorite PBS show. But it wasn't always thus. Before the late '60s and the research-based programming of the Children's Television Workshop, television rarely was seen as a grant-worthy vehicle for donors concerned about education or children.

These days, donors and parents might be forgiven for thinking about digital media in the way critics thought of television before the arrival of Joan Ganz Cooney, the Carnegie Corporation, and Big Bird. Beyond Google and Wikipedia, how educational is the Internet? What happens when young people go online? What does it mean for a 14-year-old to have eight hundred friends on Facebook? How good is the content they find while hanging out in cyberspace?

Few educators and other experts would hazard a guess as to where we will be forty years from now, but many are eager to find ways, right now, to use digital media for learning.

The New York Community Trust's Hive Digital Media Learning Fund is an effort to help create high-quality educational opportunities using digital media. Launched in 2011 by the trust and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the fund will make grants totaling $1.5 million this year to museums, libraries, and community groups interested in exploring how digital media can be used to get young people excited about their own education and deepen their knowledge.

Considerable philanthropic effort has gone into getting state-of-the-art hardware into the hands of students. While thousands of U.S. schools still struggle with outdated computers, progress has been made, and even low-income teens today are using mobile phones and laptops to communicate, game, and study. But with the growing popularity of Facebook and Twitter, figuring out how to offer interesting educational content to kids through their social media networks requires the same kind of philanthropic support.

According to Hive Digital Media Learning Fund adviser Catherine Fukushima, the research behind the initiative, much of it funded by the MacArthur Foundation, reveals that:

This is not about kids working in isolation using technology -- that happens, of course -- but the research shows that kids who go the farthest and learn the most are in social networks, either supported by mentors or peers, and those relationships happen both online and in person. That is the sweet spot. Technology and social networks allow kids to connect with other people. Say you're really interested in geology and you start fooling around online and learning about it online. The people who go the farthest are people who meet other people either online or in person, who get really excited about the same topic. It's other people who can say, "Have you thought about this?" "Have you tried that?" "Have you tried writing a piece about this?" "Or I saw what you wrote about this." "Did you think about X, Y and Z?" That's what pushes young people. This is very different than a fear that a lot of people have which is that everybody is just sitting alone at their computer and not actually talking to anyone or interacting socially....

First-round grantees include prominent arts and culture organizations like the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, WNYC, the New York Hall of Science, the Museum for African Art, and the New York Public Library. The fund is encouraging its grantee organizations to let young people take the lead in discovering what digital learning looks like in different institutional contexts and figuring out how that learning can help prepare them for academic and career success.

For example, teens taking part a New York Hall of Science partnership with the youth group Iridescent are creating mobile phone applications based on museum exhibits that will make the exhibitions "pop" for their peers and younger students. Another group of students working with the Hall of Science (and City Lore and Bank Street College) is studying air pollution and finding ways to use smartphones to collect data on carbon monoxide and particulate levels in their neighborhoods. Early use of the prototype they helped develop revealed that idling school buses cause unnecessary spikes in polluted air. Armed with the data, students immediately lobbied to get bus drivers to shut down their offending engines.

According to Kerry McCarthy, program officer for the arts and historic preservation at NYCT, the project has helped to boost the impact the trust's arts grants while also helping its nonprofit grantees, large and small, better relate to younger audiences.

In addition to creating a growing cadre of city youth who are engaging with nonprofit content providers in new ways, the fund also has galvanized a network of professionals who come together regularly -- both virtually and in person -- to share lessons learned and talk about how they can become ambassadors for the broader adoption of digital media in their home institutions.

Fittingly, the Joan Ganz Cooney Fund is an early supporter of the effort, which, according to McCarthy, has made it possible for any number of grantees to do interesting and innovative work at a time when grant dollars are limited. It is a way, she adds, to amplify one's giving, reach multiple groups, and explore the world of digital media. No password required.

-- Laura Cronin

This Week in PubHub: Children and Youth: Juvenile Justice

(Kyoko Uchida manages PubHub, the Foundation Center's online catalog of foundation-sponsored publications. In her previous post, she looked at four reports that examine how well the rapidly evolving news business is serving local communities.)

After nearly twenty years of widespread "zero tolerance" school discipline policies, questions are being raised not only about their effectiveness but about their fairness and long-term effects. This week in PubHub, we are featuring four reports that explore how school discipline policies affect students' academic performance and involvement with the juvenile justice system, as well as efforts to reform that system.

According to Breaking Schools' Rules: A Statewide Study on How School Discipline Relates to Students' Success and Juvenile Justice Involvement (124 pages, PDF), a report from the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University, suspending or expelling students for disciplinary reasons increases the likelihood of their failing academically and/or becoming involved with the juvenile justice system. Funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and the Open Society Foundations, the report found that 54 percent of students in the state were suspended or expelled at least once between seventh and twelfth grade, with students of color and those with specific educational disabilities disproportionately at higher risk. The report also found that students who had been suspended or expelled were nearly three times more likely to come into contact with the juvenile justice system during the subsequent academic year, that 31 percent of those who were disciplined repeatedly were held back a grade, and that 10 percent of those who were disciplined repeatedly dropped out.

Suspended Education: Urban Middle Schools in Crisis (25 pages, PDF), a 2010 report from the Civil Rights Project, also argues that frequent suspensions and expulsions do not contribute to better school safety or student behavior but instead reduce opportunities for academic success and increase the risk of incarceration. The report examines the widening race and gender "discipline gaps," finding that while K-12 suspension rates for all students nearly doubled, from 3.7 percent to 6.9 percent, between 1973 and 2006, the 2006 suspension rate for African-American middle school boys was 28.3 percent. Indeed, with such policies resulting in minority students being separated from opportunities to learn at a disproportionately higher rate and facing greater risk of incarceration than their white peers, the issue is as serious a problem as low test scores and high dropout rates, the authors argue. Funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Poverty and Race Research Action Council, the report offers a number of recommendations, including better data collection and analysis, providing alternative strategies and technical assistance to schools with high suspension rates, and taking measures to address unlawful discrimination in the use of suspensions and expulsions.

When students do get into trouble with the law, they often are tried as adults -- with negative consequences for the community (not to mention the students themselves) in terms of both public safety and economic prosperity. The Campaign for Youth Justice report State Trends: Legislative Victories From 2005 to 2010 Removing Youth From the Adult Criminal Justice System (52 pages, PDF) examines the unfairness of trying teenagers in the adult criminal justice system (where they are often housed in adult jails and prisons) given their still-developing brains and the (usually) minor nature of their offenses; the grave consequences (including higher recidivism rates and lifelong barriers to employment); and the social implications of a disproportionately high rate of minority youth being tried as adults. The authors also highlight encouraging trends at the state and local level, including raising the age of juvenile court jurisdiction, changing transfer laws, and revising youth sentencing laws. The report was funded by the Casey, Eckerd Family, Meyer, Falk, Ford, JEHT, MacArthur, Public Welfare, Tow, and Open Society foundations; Atlantic Philanthropies; the  California Endowment; the Fund for Nonviolence; the Moriah, Rockit, and Chasdrew funds; the Carter & Melissa Cafritz Trust; Covington and Burling LLP; DHO Consulting, Gladys Jensen; and Julie Jensen.

The JustPartners report Bridges to Manhood: A Multifaceted Probation Strategy That Incorporates Fatherhood Development (28 pages, PDF) addresses a different issue: how to help young men complete their probation while learning to become responsible fathers and family members. Funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the report argues that because many young men who go through the juvenile justice system have either no relationship or a damaged relationship with their fathers, helping them become better fathers can help prevent recidivism and may contribute to breaking the negative intergenerational cycle of father absence.

What do you think? Are school disciplinary actions counterproductive? Are racial/ethnic disparities in suspensions and juvenile justice involvement indicative of a larger problem? Do you know of any programs that have been effective in addressing those disparities? Use the comments section to share your thoughts.

And be sure to check out PubHub, where where you can browse more than 765 reports on topics related to children and youth.

-- Kyoko Uchida

Lessons From ‘KaBOOM!: How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play’

Growing up in a middle-class suburb in New Jersey, my friends and I spent most of our free hours climbing trees, riding bikes, or jumping on someone's trampoline until our parents or siblings called us home for dinner. There was a playground in the neighborhood where we also went to swing, slide, and horse around. More than twenty years later, in Brooklyn, I'm reminded almost daily why it's important for kids to have a safe place to play outdoors when I hear primary school-aged children with no other options running up and down the hallway or bouncing a basketball outside my apartment door.

Because of my suburban upbringing and subsequent experience in NYC, I was immediately drawn to KaBOOM!: How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play, Darell Hammond's new book about the nonprofit organization he founded in 1995 with Dawn Hutchinson-Weiss to help low-income communities across the country organize to build playgrounds. (Read a review of the book here.)

Throughout the book, Hammond shares what I've come to think of as "Hammond-isms" -- management tips and advice he learned as a youngster at the Mooseheart Child City & School -- a residential childcare facility on a 1,000-acre campus outside Chicago that houses children "in need" -- as well as leading a fast-growing nonprofit.

Here are a few of my favorite from the book:

• "Regardless of what you do for a living, you'll never reach your full potential until you realize how artificial limits can be. Growth comes from making yourself a little uncomfortable and spurring yourself [to go] beyond what you've always done....Especially when it’s done in service to others."
• "Titles are meaningless. All people, regardless of what their business card says (or whether they even have business cards), should get treated with decency and courtesy...."
• "Dreaming big is important in the growth of any organization. Executing on the big dreams is even more important."
• "Hard jobs, dirty jobs, physical work -- whenever something needs to be done, you jump in and do it, regardless of your title or seniority."
• "While risk taking may inherently mean sometimes succeeding and sometimes not, I think the more critical issue is making certain we learn from the times we don’t succeed. That’s probably the best gift any failure can give you: an opportunity to learn what not to do and an opportunity to learn what to do differently."

What about you? Have you had a chance to read KaBOOM!? Any tips or lessons from the book -- or your own life -- you'd care to share? Use the comments section below....

-- Regina Mahone

Commentary: Young Kids Need to Learn About Social Entrepreneurship

(Lisa Novick is a co-founder of YesKidzCan! and has spent the past twenty years working in the philanthropic sector as a consultant, fundraiser, and volunteer.)

Who among us hasn't looked at a child and wondered, "What will she be when she grows up?" And who hasn't also thought, "What can we do so our kids get the education, resources, and life experiences they need to discover their life's calling?" That's why we believe that as parents, educators, and community leaders, we are doing a disservice to our children by not exposing them at the elementary-school level to an important field -- social entrepreneurship.

At YesKidzCan, our definition of social entrepreneurship is the act of creating a venture or business that can help solve social problems or benefit society. For children, this can mean creating things to sell, providing a special service, or organizing an event to earn money for a cause, resulting in what many experts call "social value." Take Alex Scott. She was four years old and battling cancer when she started a lemonade stand to raise money for cancer research. After a year, she had raised $2,000. By the time she was eight, she had raised $1 million through the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.

Let's be clear about a few things. First, many kids like Alex are motivated to pursue a social entrepreneurial activity because they've been touched by something serious or significant and are moved to take action. And whether or not our kids are natural change-makers, any kid would be hard-pressed to implement a venture of this kind without the support of an engaged and enthusiastic adult. We are not suggesting that we teach elementary school kids to run businesses on their own or learn to create a spreadsheet. We do believe, however, that we should impart the basic concepts of social entrepreneurship to kids at an early age; that we should teach them simple activities to reinforce these concepts; and that we should lay the groundwork for more substantial action as they enter middle school, high school, and beyond. In doing do, we will be helping our kids open their minds to all they can be.

What's the Value of Social Entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurial ventures have become an important part of today's economy. In the past, charitable organizations and government agencies focused their considerable resources and energies on the many challenges confronting us, including poverty, the environment, education, and health. Over time, however, it became clear that that wasn't enough and that more resources, ideas, and innovative approaches were needed to address the serious problems we face. Businesses emerged that were dedicated to finding solutions to today's problems — bringing with them a new generation of innovators and problems solvers comfortable with the social entrepreneurial model. Eventually, it became clear, as Roger L. Martin and Sally Osberg wrote in the Spring 2007 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, that "social entrepreneurship is as vital to the progress of societies as entrepreneurship is to the progress of economies." Since then, the field of entrepreneurship has been incorporated into educational curriculum at all levels and has demonstrated numerous benefits for kids, including greater awareness of one's personal talents and skills, enhanced creativity and problem-solving skills, improved academics and attendance, and an improved grasp of the economy, finance, and the concept of social responsibility. If we place value on teaching elementary school kids about entrepreneurship, our hope is that social entrepreneurship is not too far behind.

Need for Action

Many reputable organizations such as Ashoka, EchoingGreen, and the Skoll Foundation are inspiring and supporting teens and young adults to be social entrepreneurs. Thanks to these organizations and others, the field of social entrepreneurship has expanded significantly. However, little attention is being given to teaching our nation's youngest entrepreneurial talent -- our future problem solvers. Rather than just talk about it, it's time to act.

That's why we recently launched the Social KidPreneuerz Awards Program. The goal of the program is to make $100 awards to kids in grades 3 through 5 and inspire them to undertake an entrepreneurial activity that benefits society. While modest in size, each award brings with it a substantial feeling of responsibility and ownership and requires a commitment to complete the task. Our intention is to plant the seeds of social entrepreneurship among younger generations, instilling in them a belief that they can shape their world. We are also developing learning tools for parents, teachers, and community/faith leaders to use with students, either independently or in conjunction with the award application process.

The Shape of Things to Come

Not every child is temperamentally suited to be a social entrepreneur. Not every child is suited to be a scientist, mathematician, or artist. But elementary school-age kids do have the natural curiosity, imagination, drive, and ability to come up with innovative ways to change the world for the better. By exposing our kids to a variety of disciplines, including social entrepreneurship, we are teaching them they have what it takes to "be the change." One well-known expert on social entrepreneurship, David Bornstein, puts it this way: Once an individual has experienced the power of social entrepreneurship, he or she will "never go back to being a passive actor in society."

Don't we owe it to our kids -- and the future -- to do more?

-- Lisa Novick

A 'Flip' Chat With...Renee Alexander, Social Media Manager, U.S. Fund for UNICEF

(This is the fifth in a series of videos, recorded as part of our "Flip" chat series, that explores how various nonprofits -- and the consultants they hire -- are using "social media for social good." You can check out our previous chats with the National Wildlife Federation's Danielle Brigida here, Small Act's Casey Golden here, Idealist's Julia Smith here, and NTEN’s Amy Sample Ward here.)

What's it like to use social media to raise funds for a nonprofit working overseas? What are some of the issues that these types of nonprofits should be aware of? And how does a traditionally bureaucratic, top-down institution deal with the decentralized nature of social media?

In this installment of our "social media for social good" video series, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF's social media manager Renee Alexander (@luckyrenee) addresses all of the above -- and more. Alexander is no stranger to using social media to raise money and awareness for a cause, having recently helped the fund launch Haiti365, a year-long project that invites supporters to take action on behalf of Haiti's children.

(After you watch the short video below, be sure to check out this video from New Marketing TV in which Alexander goes into more detail about Haiti365 and UNICEF USA's social media efforts to help and support victims of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated coastal areas of northeastern Japan in March -- efforts that included building walls on the last day of this year's South by Southwest conference so that attendees could write or draw messages for children affected by the disaster.)

(If you're reading this in an e-mail, click here.)

 

(Total running time: 5 minutes, 01 seconds)

"No matter where you go there's unique sensitivities....We really have to think before we tweet," said Alexander when asked how the fund deals with the decentralized nature of social media. Although we couldn't agree more, we also understand that mistakes happen, especially in today's fast-paced digital world. Have you ever accidentally published a blog post or tweet that put your organization in a negative light? How did you and your organization handle the situation? What did you learn from the experience? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

For more on the "Social Media for Social Good" event, check out these videos.

-- Regina Mahone

Philanthropy's Role in Supporting Young Adults

(Peter Kleinbard consults and publishes widely on youth issues. A graduate of Yale University, he established the Young Adult Learning Academy (YALA), a school that assists older youth who have dropped out of school to enter the workforce and further their education, in 1984. In 2001, he became executive director of the Youth Development Institute, a national intermediary organization, and stepped back from that role in December of 2010 to work independently.)

(Photo credit: Susan Tolonen)

Private philanthropy has long addressed gaps in our nation's social safety net, funding new work that later shapes changes in how public dollars are spent. Perhaps no aspect of these efforts is more consequential than support to help young adults transition to independent adulthood. YouthBuild USA and New York City's Multiple Pathways to Graduation, for example, were nurtured for years by small, local grants before becoming major initiatives, again with the help of private funders.

Today, changes in the economy and challenges to the public sector mean that private philanthropy must develop creative and rigorous responses to a dire situation.

While the recent recession has greatly increased the obstacles for young people entering the workforce, not everyone has been affected equally. Unemployment among college graduates is only 5 percent, about half the national rate, while unemployment among young adults (ages 16-24) who have dropped out of school has hit the highest levels ever recorded — 18 percent for all youth, and 33 percent for African-American youth.

Young adulthood is a period of extraordinary potential — and vulnerability. It is a time when young adults consolidate their sense of self, test career possibilities, develop workplace skills, and begin to build resumes and relationships that will help them advance professionally. Work gives structure to young lives and practice in the discipline of being productive each day. Through their activities and earnings, young adults contribute to others, strengthening their sense of self-worth. All these activities help them to become independent adults.

While the recession is waning, its effects are certain to be long-lasting. Indeed, because of its deep and sustained nature, many young adults will go years without holding jobs that pay a significant wage. As a result, they may never become capable of earning enough to support a family. As studies have shown, lifetime earnings and even marriage potential are seriously reduced by long periods of unemployment.

In 2003, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation published a report, Connected by 25, focusing attention on the problem of youth disconnection. Still earlier, in 1988, the William T. Grant Foundation report The Forgotten Half: Non-College Youth in America highlighted issues in the transition of the non-college-bound population. Both studies highlighted the economic and moral dimensions of the issue. Yet, changes in the labor market over the last decade or two have made it even more difficult for young workers to land entry-level jobs.

Today, elected leaders and private foundations are seeking to increase high school and community college graduation rates — much-needed efforts that attempt to address root causes. Still, large numbers of youth continue to drop out. There are, for example, more than 3.5 million high school dropouts in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24, while community colleges, on average, manage to graduate only 22 percent of their students in three years. Both of these trends affect youth of color disproportionately.

Philanthropy has demonstrated that it can have a positive impact on such problems. As the Multiple Pathways initiative in New York City and Project U Turn in Philadelphia have demonstrated, thousands more students are graduating from high school. In both cities, private funders worked with municipal officials to identify problems, build support for solutions, and then fund implementation of those solutions. The models on which these projects are based were established years ago, often by local funders supporting innovative organizations like Good Shepherd Services, the Youth Development Institute, and the Philadelphia Youth Network. Other funders have helped YouthBuild USA, which assists youth who leave school, grow from a small East Harlem project into a national organization with hundreds of sites.

For their part, young adults have demonstrated in programs such as Community Education Pathways to Success in New York City that, with adequate support and a focus on learning, they can make rapid gains in preparing for work and furthering their education.Yet, there is a large gap in support for these youth. The Workforce Investment Act, the largest source of public funds for school dropouts, serves only a small percentage of youth, most of whom are close to completing their GED. Major youth brands like Year Up, AmeriCorps, and City Year are showing promise but focus on more highly skilled youth. Most dropouts are low skilled, reading below the eighth-grade level. These youth represent by far the majority of dropouts. They have few options.

What can private philanthropy do? The field offers lessons as well as challenges, and both need to be examined. Here are a few thoughts and observations.

Collaboration with the public sector and each other is essential.

• Thoughtful collaborations have been responsible for much of the success of initiatives like the ones mentioned above, and they invariably include roles for both large national and small local foundations.
• Joint initiatives that pool resources often are the only way to move the field.

The power of convening and dissemination to drive change should not be underestimated:

• Funders should not be shy about using their clout and resources to increase understanding of a problem by bringing people together and disseminating information.

Build on sound research about existing needs and proven solutions:

• Learn the field. Generic business-oriented outcomes models are useful but do not ensure good investments. Draw upon strong research and best practice to identify what works and where there are gaps.
• Identify the key subpopulations most likely to benefit from targeted investments. Much private and public funding is focused on youth who are job- and GED-ready, while youth with low or poor academic skills represent a far larger population.
• Address education and work experience for young adults. Both are essential for success later in life.
• Build pathways: Look for opportunities to connect programs that serve youth as they move to higher levels of proficiency and paid work.
• Be rigorous but sensible: It may take time for programs to achieve strong outcomes, but improvements in capacity should be apparent in the shorter term.
• Examine carefully the idea du jour with an eye to whether it will make a difference for young people.

Enabling thousands of young adults to further their education and work experience will reduce social and personal costs in many ways and will help to build a more equitable society. Given our current political and economic challenges, however, progress on this front will require the flexibility, boldness, and vision of the private sector. The good news is that history has shown philanthropy can make a difference. The time to support this proud tradition is now.

-- Peter Kleinbard

This Week in PubHub: LGBTQ Issues

(Kyoko Uchida manages PubHub, the Foundation Center's online catalog of foundation-sponsored publications. In her last post, she looked at four reports that examined efforts to protect and promote international human rights.)

This week PubHub is concluding its month-long focus on civil and human rights by featuring a group of reports that explore LGBTQ issues. To be sure, the decision to end the U.S. military's "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy marks an important milestone in the LGBTQ community's struggle for full rights. Yet given the recent spate of suicides by gay youth who had been bullied, not to mention the ongoing legal and political opposition to gay marriage, the LGBTQ community still has a ways to go.

According to Religion and Same-Sex Marriage in California: A New Look at Attitudes and Values Two Years After Proposition 8, a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, as of June 2010 more than half (51 percent) of Californians surveyed said that if another referendum were held on Proposition 8, they would vote to legalize same-sex marriage, compared with 45 percent who said they would vote against it. Funded by the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and the Ford Foundation, the survey also found that among the religiously affiliated, white evangelicals and Latino Protestants were most likely to oppose gay marriage, Latino Catholics and white mainline Protestants were least likely to do so, and support went up when religion was taken out of the equation altogether.

The links between religion, race/ethnicity, and LGBTQ issues are complicated, of course. And while the connection between LGBTQ rights and broader human rights issues is a recurring theme in many analyses of the LGBTQ movement, Better Together: Research Findings on the Relationship Between Racial Justice Organizations and LGBT Communities cites "fear of community division" as one barrier preventing racial justice groups from taking up LGBTQ issues. The Arcus Foundation-funded report from the Applied Research Center found that resistance from religious institutions, the perceived lack of demand within communities of color, and concerns about driving a "wedge" between members of racial justice organizations — in addition to a lack of strategic clarity and sufficient funding — can limit LGBTQ engagement. At the same time, the report's authors note, there needs to be deeper discussion if we are to overcome the gaps between the experiences of largely white and non-poor LGBTQ activists and those fighting for racial and economic justice.

The need for "community development and cohesion" across race/ethnicity, gender, economic status, religion, and other social constructs is one focus of A Meeting of Queer Minds, a report from Atlantic Philanthropies that looks at LGBTQ-related advocacy efforts in Ireland and South Africa. By working with other human rights organizations — which, given the pervasive poverty and inequality in the latter, is inevitable — LGBTQ activists have created an opening for broader coalitions around issues such as HIV/AIDS and domestic violence that affect all groups.

How does philanthropy fit into all this? The Arcus Operating Foundation's Saving Lives, Promoting Democracy, Alleviating Poverty, and Fighting AIDS: The Case for Funding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Populations describes how LGBTQ advocacy and empowerment efforts in the developing world have advanced human rights and development goals, helped to protect minority rights and reduce poverty, contributed to the building of civil society and promoted the rule of law, and improved public health. Nevertheless, LGBTQ organizations still receive less than 0.01 percent of the aid from OECD countries. In addition to arguing for more funding, the report recommends that funding for LGBTQ advocacy efforts be channeled through local intermediary organizations engaged in active collaboration with nonprofits and technical assistance providers, and that more of it be used to address gender inequities within the LGBTQ movement.

In response to a number of recent suicides by LGBTQ youth, various celebrities, President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and others posted videos on the It Gets Better Web site. What does it mean to say to the LGBTQ community, visible and invisible, that "it gets better"? And in what other ways might the philanthropic sector contribute to advancing LGBTQ and related human rights and racial and economic justice issues? What advocacy strategies or models of engagement have been effective? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

And be sure to check out the more than one hundred other reports related to civil and human rights in PubHub.

-- Kyoko Uchida

This Week in PubHub: Mental Health and Juvenile Justice

(Kyoko Uchida manages PubHub, the Foundation Center's online catalog of foundation-sponsored publications. In her last post, she looked at four reports that examined different aspects of child well-being.)

The reports discussed in my last post explored the ways in which childhood poverty can affect educational, employment, and other outcomes later in life. This week, PubHub is featuring a group of reports highlighting the need to address the effects of childhood trauma on mental health and behavioral outcomes in a variety of settings, including schools, the juvenile justice system, and foster care.

There's a growing awareness of the need to identify and refer children suffering from developmental and mental health issues early on. State Case Studies of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Systems: Strategies for Change, a report from the Commonwealth Fund, describes efforts to establish early identification and intervention systems for children up to age five in Colorado, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The report also shares best practices in stakeholder engagement and planning, innovative interagency collaboration, and community-based early childhood health and development services that could serve as models for federal policies and programs.

According to the Justice Policy Institute report Healing Invisible Wounds: Why Investing in Trauma-Informed Care for Children Makes Sense, national surveys estimate that up to 34 percent of all children in the United States have experienced, directly or vicariously, at least one traumatic event, whether physical or sexual abuse, violence, maltreatment, the loss of a caregiver, or life-threatening injury, illness, or accident. The report also found that between 35 percent and 46 percent of adolescents report having witnessed an act of violence. Such childhood trauma can affect brain development, the authors argue, resulting in increased risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system. Indeed, between 75 percent and 93 percent of youth entering the juvenile justice system every year are thought to have experienced some form of trauma. Given that people of color are more likely to be victims of crime and violence, that incarceration itself can be traumatic, and that youth who spend time in juvenile facilities have poorer adult outcomes, addressing the effects of trauma before a child becomes involved in the justice system is critical to breaking this cycle. In addition to raising awareness of the issue, the authors call for better screening and assessment procedures for trauma victims; more and better evidence-based treatment programs; a greater emphasis on trauma-sensitive handling, sentencing, and placement within the justice system; and greater support for targeted prevention efforts, including counseling in schools.

The need for targeted intervention services within the juvenile justice system is also a theme of Pathways to Desistance, an initiative of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The initiative's December 2009 update, Research on Pathways to Desistance, questions the efficacy of "locking up" juvenile offenders, given that researchers have found no benefit, in terms of recidivism, to placing offenders in institutional settings instead of on probation; in fact, among "low-level offenders," institutional placement slightly raised the level of recidivism.

Youth in foster care, who often experience multiple and complex trauma yet have limited access to mental health services, is the focus of the RAND Corporation's Toolkit for Adapting Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) or Supporting Students Exposed to Trauma (SSET) for Implementation With Youth in Foster Care. The report outlines recommendations for implementing school-based targeted prevention programs for youth in foster care -- those designed for school-based mental health professionals as well as those designed to train teachers and school counselors in cognitive behavoral intervention techniques. Both approaches teach youth how to deal with trauma, including methods for relaxation, cognitive restructuring, addressing their fears, social problem-solving, and reducing coping by avoidance.

With four million children and youth thought to have experienced at least one traumatic event, reducing the mental health and behavioral problems associated with trauma is an urgent issue for the well-being of our children and youth, public safety, and society in general. Do you know of other ways these issues are being addressed? Let us know in the comments box below.

And don't forget to check out PubHub for the latest reports on children and youth.

-- Kyoko Uchida

This Week in PubHub: Child Well-Being

(Kyoko Uchida manages PubHub, the Foundation Center’s online catalog of foundation-sponsored publications. In her last post, she looked at four reports that explore options for funding the news.)

Summer is over and America's children are heading back to school. How are they doing? This week in PubHub, we're featuring four reports that examine the well-being of our children and youth.

The 2010 edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Book provides state-by-state data in ten categories, as well as an analyses of national trends. According to the report, overall child well-being has stagnated since 2000, with five indicators (including infant mortality and teen birth rate) showing improvement and three (percentage of low-birth-weight babies, children living in poverty, number of children in single-parent families) having deteriorated. Especially worrisome is the upward trend in the child poverty rate, which fell 30 percent between 1994 and 2000, but rose 6 percent between 2000 and 2008.

Nowhere is child poverty more dire than in the South, where 2.4 million children live in households with incomes below 50 percent of the federal poverty line, a recent study by the Southern Education Foundation finds. The Worst of Times: Children in Extreme Poverty in the South and Nation, a report based on the SEF study, examines the percentage of children in extreme poverty by state and county and estimates that, between 2008 and 2010, extreme child poverty increased by 25 percent in the South, 41 percent in the West, 19 percent in the Northeast, and 23 percent in the Midwest. An SEF analysis of more than 2,700 school districts also reveals the pronounced gap between the educational needs of disadvantaged children and federal funding and per pupil expenditures.

As seen in the distribution of students in high-poverty districts, communities of color are disproportionately represented among the poor. Childhood Poverty Persistence: Facts and Consequences, a new report from the Urban Institute, finds that while 37 percent of children experience poverty before age 17 and 10 percent are persistently poor, African-American children are about 2.5 times more likely than white children to experience poverty and seven times more likely to be persistently poor. How does childhood poverty affect adult outcomes? According to the report, the number of years spent in poverty as a child is closely correlated to lower high school graduation rates, higher teen birth rates, and reduced employment prospects over time. Focusing resources on low-income parents in the form of training, work supports, and/or home visiting programs, the report suggests, could improve children's future prospects.

America's Future: Latino Child Well-Being in Numbers and Trends, a data book from the National Council of La Raza, notes that, if current trends persist, Latinos/Hispanics, another minority group overrepresented among the poor, will comprise 44 percent of all poor children by 2030. The report found that 59 percent of Latino/Hispanic children are members of low-income families, and that by eighth grade 42 percent of Latino/Hispanic kids score below basic reading levels (while only 55 percent graduate from high school). Latino/Hispanic children and youth also fare worse than other racial/ethnic groups in terms of childhood obesity, teen pregnancy rates, and access to health care, and are disproportionately represented in the juvenile justice system.

Given these findings, the well-being of our children -- our future -- should be of concern to all. Indeed, many would argue that the situation can only be rectified by targeted policies and programs that address the persistent poverty and lack of opportunity confronting so many of our young people. Identifying strategies and practices that deliver concrete results is another story. Do you know of any programs/initiatives that are delivering positive outcomes for our children? We'd love to hear about them.

And don't forget to check out PubHub, where you can browse and search more than 650 reports related to children and youth.

-- Kyoko Uchida

'Emerging Adulthood': Life Stage or Fad?

A recent New York Times Magazine article by Robin Marantz Henig seems to have struck a chord with twenty-somethings in the non- and for-profit sectors. In the article, "What Is It About 20-Somethings?", Henig asks whether the large number of 18- to 29-year-olds who are not following the traditional path to adulthood -- leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying, and having children -- represents the "dawning of a new life stage" or "just a temporary aberration caused by passing social mores and economic gloom."

According to Clark University psychology professor Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, twenty-somethings who are not committed to a relationship or a job are "simply acting their age." And the characteristics of that time of life, which Arnett labels "emerging adulthood," include entity exploration, economic instability, a focus on oneself, and feeling "in-between." Those who disagree with Arnett insist that the behavior of today's twenty-somethings does not represent a new life stage because it is neither universal nor essential.

While the debate has been mostly confined to academia, "its resolution has broader implications." Indeed, if the idea of "emerging adulthood" was to gain traction, as the concept of "adolescence" did in the early 1900s, many of our existing social institutions would be forced to adapt. Moreover, the outcome of the debate would directly impact the nonprofit sector. Writes Henig:

The Network on Transitions to Adulthood has been issuing reports about young people since it was formed in 1999 and often ends up recommending more support for 20-somethings. But more of what, exactly? There aren't institutions set up to serve people in this specific age range; social services from a developmental perspective tend to disappear after adolescence. But it's possible to envision some that might address the restlessness and mobility that Arnett says are typical at this stage and that might make the experimentation of "emerging adulthood" available to more young people.

[For example], how about expanding programs like City Year, in which 17- to 24-year-olds from diverse backgrounds spend a year mentoring inner-city children in exchange for a stipend, health insurance, child care, cellphone service and a $5,350 education award? Or a federal program in which a government-sponsored savings account is created for every newborn, to be cashed in at age 21 to support a year's worth of travel, education or volunteer work....

Whether you agree with Arnett’s argument or not, it's clear that more services are needed for twenty-somethings who are struggling to gain their footing in a post-meltdown economy.

In a recent post on her blog, leadership development consultant Rosetta Thurman writes:

I disagree with the idea of an "emerging adulthood" for twenty-somethings. Instead, I believe we're entering into a different kind of adulthood, one that's different from our parents' and one that we do, in fact, get to define (and redefine) for ourselves....

What do you think? What, if any, programs or services do you think the nonprofit sector should be providing for Generation Y -- my generation? And how, if at all, is your organization working to accommodate the Millennials it will depend on in the not-too-distant future? Feel free to share your thoughts and comments below.

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (February 13 - 14, 2010)

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

Children and Youth

The March issue of City Limits magazine takes an in-depth look at Harlem Children's Zone, Inc., the much-praised organization/movement that some have called the "most innovative poverty-fighting initiative in decades."

Disaster Relief

When it comes to fundraising, not all disasters are equal, writes Future Fundraising blogger Jeff Brooks.

Economy

In the March issue of the Atlantic Monthly, Don Peck takes a long, sobering look at how a new jobless era will transform America.

Leadership

In a recent post, Rosetta Thurman wonders why individuals in the nonprofit sector are not asking the tough questions. Writes Thurman:

When I first started out in my nonprofit career, I was constantly praised for implementing all the neat stuff I'd learned in grad school. "This is how you write a grant proposal," I would say to organizations that needed help building their capacity. Not once did I broach a conversation with them about why they were using problematic language. Not once did I question the status quo....

But after a while, I did begin to ask questions. Why do we do what we do the way we do it? Why do we say one thing in the staff meeting and another in the fundraising meeting? Why do we have to kiss so and so politico's ass when they clearly don't give a damn about the people we serve? Why aren't we using our power to compel the community to action? Why are there so many white people in nonprofit leadership positions when so much of our work is serving communities of color?

I learned the answers to these questions and more very quickly. The easy answer? Because that's just the way it is and always will be. The more nuanced one? Because no one wants to rock the boat with their boards, with their "friends" inside the City Council or the White House, with their funders. Especially with their funders. It's much easier to obey....

Philanthropy

After a fundraising appeal issued by Idealist executive director Ami Dar a few weeks ago, Social Velocity blogger Nell Edgington and Louder Than Words president Rich Polt weighed in on the wisdom of Dar's move in a series of posts on the Tactical Philanthropy blog. Edgington's main concern was "how [Idealist is] going to get out of this position after the emergency funds that they are attempting to raise dry up," while Polt compared Dar's appeal to one made by Kjerstin Erickson of FORGE last year and wonders whether we might not be witnessing the beginning of a trend.

Social Entrepreneurship

On the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog, Yoga Bear founder Halle Tecco shares ten "invaluable" resources every social entrepreneur should know about.

Social Media

In honor of Valentine's Day, Social Citizens blogger Kristin Ivie explains how to land a "social-Web savvy, cause-oriented team player."

Technology

The 2010 Technology Entertainment Design conference, better known as TED, kicked off last week. On the Mashable blog, Matt Silverman shares five "insightful" TED Talks about social media, including presentations by Clay Shirky (Here Comes Everybody), Twitter CEO Evan Williams, and marketing guru Seth Godin.

In a related post, Social Entrepreneurship blogger Nathaniel Whittemore shares five "game-changing, mind-bending or generally vital" ideas from participants in the TED Fellows program.

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

-- Regina Mahone