PhilanTopic

Read of the Week: 'US Giving for Japan Disaster Exceeds $710 Million'

On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered a tsunami that devastated more than four hundred miles of Japanese coastline, swamped (and permanently disabled) the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power complex, and left more than eighteen thousand people dead and half a million displaced from their homes. According to a new report from the Japan Center for International Exchange, Americans have donated a total of $712.6 million for relief and recovery efforts in Japan in the two years since the disaster -- the most ever given by Americans in response to a disaster in a developed nation and the fifth-largest giving total ever for a disaster.

The report, US Giving for Japan Disaster Exceeds $710 Million (5 pages, HTML), notes that initial disaster relief tallies underestimated the giving of tens of thousands of Americans who, instead of donating to the usual suspects, organized their own fundraisers, as well as off-the-radar groups with connections to Japan that launched fundraising campaigns of their own. Indeed, the report argues that whereas the outpouring of charitable donations following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti was magnified by the well-documented poverty of the most of the victims and survivors, the American response to the disaster in much wealthier Japan seems to have been motivated in many cases by personal and/or corporate ties -- despite the fact that more than a few disaster-relief experts and media outlets suggested that Americans' donations would be more usefully applied to "everyday disasters" in poorer developing countries than in infrastructure-rich Japan.

Now, while it's true that the way we do disaster relief in this country doesn't always ensure the most efficient distribution of resources for victims and survivors, it's also true that, as wealthy as Japan is, its nonprofit sector is relatively underfinanced. In fact, donations from Americans made a significant impact, the report argues, precisely because the funding base of Japanese nonprofits -- which did and continue to play a crucial role in relief and recovery efforts -- traditionally has been limited.

The report includes links to JCIE's searchable database of roughly $1 billion in donations and grants made by overseas organizations in support of relief and recovery efforts, as well as a handful of innovative ideas that emerged from the response. It's worth checking out.

-- Kyoko Uchida

Weekend Link Roundup (March 9-10, 2013)

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

Communications/Marketing

In a two-part series on her Non-Profit Marketing blog (here and here), Katya Andresen shares highlights of a discussion she had with Allyson Kapin and Amy Sample Ward about the key themes in their recently published book Social Change Anytime Everywhere, including how nonprofits can use online tools to advance their work.

On the Communications Network blog, Courtney Williamson, the network's community manager, shares slides and video from Avoiding the Blind Spot: Telling Your Story With Pictures, a recent network webinar featuring Resource Media's Liz Banse and Scott Miller. Among other things, Banse and Miller outline three principles of good communication: 1) people are visual first, verbal second; 2) people's decisions and actions are based on emotional reaction more than rational thought; and 3) visuals are the most effective communications vehicles for evoking emotion and getting people to take action.

Disaster Relief

On the techPresident blog, Julia Wetherell looks at findings from a new Internews report on the effectiveness of crisis mapping following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan. Among other things, the report found that the crisis map created on the Ushahidi platform was "not as critical to [the humanitarian] response" as previously thought, in part because many victims of the disaster weren't aware of it. "The accessibility of crisis mapping was also dependent on the availability of Internet service," says Wetherell. To address that shortcoming, the report recommends strengthening IT infrastructure, particularly in less connected rural areas, before the next disaster hits.

NPR has a good interview with reporter Jonathan Katz, author of The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster.

Women

Daily Beast contributor Caroline Linton announces the launch of the Half the Sky game on Facebook -- a clever use of social media that seeks to turn virtual donations made by players into real-world donations to organizations that support women and girls around the world, including the Fistula and United Nations foundations, Girls & Education Mentoring Services, Heifer International, ONE, Room to Read, and World Vision. As Linton explains, the game "helps educate the players to some of the challenges women face around the globe, especially as [the Indian woman narrator] Radhika travels to far-off lands such as Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Kenya."

Writing on the For Women blog on Friday, Ms. Foundation for Women senior strategist reminded us that "we still have miles to go in [the United States]" in terms of advancing women's rights. As the organization's most recent report notes:

• The U.S. economy marginalizes women and consistently relegates women of color to the lowest-paying jobs;
• Quality, flexible and affordable child care is inaccessible to working families, particularly those headed by women;
• Control over women's bodies is legislated by people who often prioritize political posturing over women's health;
• Gender-based violence remains a prevalent and complex problem, despite important policy victories like the recent renewal of the Violence Against Women Act.

"[So on this] International Women's Day," writes Kay, "let's set high goals for the U.S. and challenge ourselves to make this a place in which a woman may obtain justice and equality regardless of her race, socioeconomic status, age or immigration status," writes Kay. "The U.S. should be a beacon of rights, rather than a place that offers privilege to some while turning a blind eye to others' inequality."

And while Congress did recently vote to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, extending protections to homosexual and Native American victims of violence, more needs to be done, writes Niki Jagpal on NCRP's Keeping a Close Eye blog, especially since "many of these community members do not report the crimes committed against them." To help address the problem, Jagpal urges grantmakers to prioritize "underserved communities intentionally and [fund] social justice work heavily, including funds for advocacy and community organizing by or on behalf of these communit[ies]."

Last but not least, Beth Kanter marked International Women's Day with a nice discussion of the Global Mom Relay on her blog. "Every time you share a relay post on Facebook, Twitter, or email or donate $5 or more as part of the relay," writes Kanter, "a $5 donation (up to $8,000 per day) will be donated by Johnson & Johnson and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to one of four initiatives [-- Girl Up, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action, and Shot@Life --] that are helping women and children lead healthy and happy lives."

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

-- The Editors

Weekend Link Roundup (January 13-14, 2013)

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

Disaster Relief/Recovery

It's been three years since Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, was devastated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. In the weeks and months following the disaster, individuals and the international donor community stepped up with more than $5 billion in cash and commitments for relief and recovery efforts. So where do things stand today? Mark Leon Goldberg, managing editor of UN Dispatch, provides some basic facts and figures.

Nonprofits

Marie Deatherage, director of communications and learning at the Meyer Memorial Trust, curates a nice list of 2013 predictions for nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, and the social economy. Her list includes Lucy Bernholz's Philanthropy and the New Social Economy: Blueprint 2013, which is available as a free download from the Foundation Center's GrantCraft site; Pantheon president Mark Tobias ((@PanthTech) on "Ten Technology Trends to Watch in 2013"; and Nonprofit Revolution Now's "missing" predictions.

Philanthropy

Writing in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Nick Penniman and Ian Simmons take philanthropy to task for its "chronic" underinvestment in political reform at a time when the "special interests that finance and influence the political process have amassed unprecedented power." What would be an appropriate amount? ask Penniman and Simmons. Their answer? One percent, or as they write:

Some $300 billion is donated annually to charitable causes. So, $3 billion for reform. Yes, $3 billion sounds like a lot of money. But 1 percent of philanthropy is not excessive -- especially not for a purpose as important as maintaining a government of, by, and for the people. We spend magnitudes more than that funding the arts and humanities, fighting infectious diseases, providing the poor and needy with the services they need, and trying to improve our educational institutions. Committing a sliver of philanthropy to making sure Washington and the state capitals are free of corruption -- both legal and illegal -- seems like a smart investment. Doing so should not be seen as merely advancing an abstract concept of “good government,” but as a concrete and necessary step in advancing solutions to the great challenges of our time -- solutions that the philanthropic sector often invests in but never sees actualized....

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, CEO and president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest healthcare philanthropy, is named one of New Jersey's most fascinating people and is profiled in depth by the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

On the Center for Effective Philanthropy blog, Chris McCrum, chief operating officer at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, argues that employee satisfaction is inextricably linked to feelings of empowerment and offers three lessons for foundation leaders looking to boost the sense of empowerment among staff.

And speaking of CEP, Nell Edgington has a nice Q&A with Phil Buchanan, the organization's president, on her Social Velocity blog.

Web Analytics

For those who are tired of (or don't trust) Google and Google Analytics, the search giant's ubiquitous Web analytics package, Sharon Hurley Hall, a professional writer and blogger, looks at a number of alternatives. In addition to good overviews (including screenshots) of Clicky, GoSquared, Woopra, KissMetrics, and Crazy Egg, Hurley Hall also lists nearly a dozen other packages in less detail.

That's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org. And Best Wishes for a very Happy and Productive New Year!

-- The Editors

Nonprofits and Disaster Response: 5 Questions for Gary Bagley, Executive Director, New York Cares

(Laura Cronin is a regular contributor to PhilanTopic. Recently, she asked Gary Bagley, executive director of New York Cares, the city's largest volunteer organization, about the organization's work with local nonprofit partners in response to Superstorm Sandy.)

Laura Cronin: City workers -- first responders, firefighters, transit workers, sanitation workers -- labored around the clock to restore critical systems in New York City that were overwhelmed by the storm surge created by Sandy. Alongside them were thousands of residents who provided volunteer support to victims of the storm and chipped in to clean up affected areas. Creative responses such as Occupy Sandy's  online registry and local groups like the Red Hook Initiative were part of a rapid, largely decentralized nonprofit response to the storm. Your organization has a long history of rallying volunteers and partnering with the leading nonprofits in the city, in ordinary times as well as in times of crisis. What did your Sandy response look like?

Gary Bagley: New York Cares has a Memorandum of Understanding with the New York City Office of Emergency Management through which we are responsible for mobilizing volunteers in response to disasters. So beyond the eight thousand volunteers who signed up to help, we had three full-time staff members stationed at the OEM as well as other staff fielding calls and e-mails from organizations and individuals that needed assistance. But because many nonprofits, schools, and faith-based organizations were as hard hit as residents of low-lying areas, we had to go beyond our traditional collaborative program delivery model. In the hardest-hit locations in Staten Island and Queens, we had teams of New York Cares staffers assessing -- on foot and by car -- local needs. At the same time, our volunteers canvassed neighborhoods, distributed food, and started on the debris cleanup. Now, a few weeks into the recovery, we see that much of the work will be about providing social services, from reading programs at libraries to adult education programs, in the most heavily impacted areas. Helping neighborhoods thrive again will be about much more than cleanup efforts.

LC: Many nonprofits in the city moved downtown in recent years in pursuit of lower rents and/or to take advantage of various incentives and rebates put in place by the city after 9-11. Indeed, New York Cares has an office near Wall Street. What was the effect of the power, heat, and Internet outages that hit lower Manhattan following the storm on your operations and on the operations of your partners?

GB: We never wanted to test our disaster-response plan, but we sure were glad we had one! The Thursday and Friday before Sandy came ashore, we reviewed our disaster-response procedures, from backup e-mail systems to phone trees to remote meeting locations. So, luckily, we were able to work remotely while we waited for power to be restored to our offices at 65 Broadway. But even after the electricity came back on, we were without phones for another two weeks. Our on-call phone service -- a cell number that our main line was forwarded to -- received a hundred and fifty calls a day in the immediate aftermath of the storm. We also have three staff members responding to e-mails submitted to our general information address (info@newyorkcares.org), and on any given day in the last few weeks they've had a queue of more than two hundred e-mails waiting to be answered.

LC: What do you think New York City nonprofits will need as we move past the immediate relief effort and really get into the hard work of recovery and rebuilding? And what role can volunteers play?

GB: The hard truth is that, post-Sandy, nonprofits will need what they've always needed: resources, both financial and human. And they'll need more of them. The recovery effort will extend far beyond physical rebuilding; the need for social services in the hardest-hit areas is already apparent, and volunteers will be key to helping organizations that were severely compromised by the storm ramp up their efforts. It's also important to note that nonprofits that were fortunate to escape the storm's wrath are feeling the impact. I've heard, to give you an example, that a lot of food banks in Manhattan are running short of supplies because so much food has been redirected to neighborhoods in Queens and on Staten Island.

LC: The storm made landfall early Monday evening. Two days later, I found myself in a church basement responding to a New York Cares/City Meals on Wheels tweet for volunteers. I don't regularly volunteer with either group, but through Twitter I found one of your projects. What role did social media play in mobilizing volunteers?

GB: As a tool for filling projects, social media was a pleasant surprise to me. We had some of our tweets mentioned in real time on a local newscast, filled projects like yours in record time, and even helped get four hundred blankets to a housing development that had lost heat and electricity within four hours of the initial tweet. Social media worked in a situation where there wasn't the type of lead time that day-to-day programming requires, and I'm already asking myself how we might use that kind of rapid response capability in our non-disaster programming.

LC: Governor Cuomo made headlines when, in one of his many press conferences in the days after the storm, he quipped, "We have a hundred-year flood every two years now." What kind of resilience planning are your nonprofit partners doing? And how can funders and volunteers help?

GB: At a recent meeting of nonprofits convened by the Staten Island Foundation, the number-one concern mentioned was "planning for the next disaster." As you know, it's tremendously difficult to raise money for infrastructure improvements and the development of disaster-preparedness plans and backup systems. During this disaster we've seen how critical it is that frontline nonprofits get back on their feet as quickly as possible in order to serve the additional clients created by the disaster as well as those who needed assistance before the event. Beyond the capital needed to develop these plans as well as repair damage to buildings, nonprofits may require skills and expertise that don't exist in-house. In both instances, volunteers can help fill the gap. Our volunteers have provided everything from translation services to IT consulting. Volunteers are not a substitute for full-time staff members, but they are a wonderful means of extending the reach of an organization. And a dedicated volunteer with skills, for example in the HR or IT area, can help build the systems for managing the additional and rapidly changing workload after a disaster.

-- Laura Cronin

Weekend Link Roundup (November 17-18, 2012)

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

Communications/Marketing

With the critical holiday fundraising season right around the corner, new reports from Charity Dynamics/NTEN and Blackbaud remind us that "Establishing emotional connections with donors remains paramount," writes Katya Andresen on her Non-Profit Marketing blog.

In a guest post on Beth Kanter's blog, Big Duck's Meghan Teich has some advice for nonprofit communications pros in the aftermath of a crisis or major natural disaster:

• Make sure your staff is kept up to date on your communications plan and that they have a clear understanding of your messaging.
• Strike while the iron's hot, but not so soon that it looks like you're capitalizing on the crisis.
• Don't use the crisis as an opportunity to do general fundraising for your organization (unless you have a particularly relevant mission). Instead, create a specific fund or give donors a tangible item or event to which they can donate.
• Reach out to other nonprofits, even those you view as "competitors," to explore how you might work together.
• Keep your supporters and donors updated on the progress you're making in real time via e-mail and social media.

"I urge you to take the steps necessary to make sure you are engaging the right people in the right ways to reach your marketing goals," writes Nancy Schwartz on her Getting Attention blog. "And to start today." Sounds like good advice to us.

Nonprofit Management

On the Social Velocity blog, Nell Edgington argues that for nonprofits looking or needing to change, merely wanting to change is not enough; certain key building blocks need to be in place. They include someone in a leadership position willing to be a champion for change; a clear statement of why change is necessary; a funder or funders willing to support the change process; and a "navigator" who can guide the organization through that process.

Philanthropy

In the first of a series of posts, the Association of Small Foundations' Andy Carroll argues that foundations, small foundations in particular, do not acknowledge the complexity of the problems they are trying to address "openly enough." Indeed, writes Carroll, "Many funders who keep asking how they can have more impact eventually come up against challenges that are too big for them to solve alone."

On the Philanthropy Potluck blog, Anne Bauers shares findings from a recent NCRP report which found that "foundation giving to support the general operations of nonprofits increased through the recent recession, but the share of foundation dollars classified as providing this vital type of funding remains the same, at about 16 percent." As the report explains, general operating support benefits nonprofits in a number of ways. For that reason, writes Bauers, funders should award more general support grants in addition to or in place of other types of support.

On the new Markets for Good blog, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations' Darin McKeever and Victoria Vrana, Brian Walsh, the executive director of Liquidnet For Good, and the Hewlett Foundation's Kelly Born share the first draft of a vision paper "that signals how and why we think that the sector needs to upgrade its information infrastructure. By that," they add,

we mean the architecture that helps to connect, organize and structure information so that it can be supplied and used more easily. We acknowledge that upgrading the information infrastructure will not change the sector's use of information overnight, and that other elements are needed to support the free flow of quality data in the social sector. But we believe that in order to move towards a more effective sector, powered by information, we need to begin by strengthening the core building blocks of data exchange....

It's buzzword time, which means Lucy Bernholz is collecting the words and terms that were on every philanthropoid's lips in 2012. But she needs three more to complete the list, so hop on over to Lucy's Philanthropy 2173 blog there and leave a suggestion or two.

Transparency

On the Foundation Center's Transparency Talk blog, Andrew Wolk of Root Cause and Wendy Yallowitz of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation discuss the benefits of collaborative learning, which, as Wolk explains, is "an intentional effort between two organizations to exchange, analyze, and apply knowledge that will lead to better outcomes."

And on NCRP's Keeping A Close Eye blog, Kevin Laskowski commends the Foundation Center for its recently announced Reporting Commitment initiative, which, in an effort to help foundations more effectively address the many complex problems confronting our communities and the world, aims to develop more timely, accurate, and precise reporting on the flow of philanthropic dollars.

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

-- The Editors

Weekend Link Roundup (November 10-11, 2012)

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

Communications

In a guest post on the Communications Network blog, Philanthropy New York's Michael Hamill Remaley shares five lessons he learned from Superstorm Sandy about communications during and after a disaster:

1. A little bit of forethought and planning can make a big difference to your organization's ability to keep communicating during a disaster, and once your team has been through a disaster like Sandy, it'll have a much better idea of what to expect next time.
2. After disaster hits, be prepared to improvise. After the power grid for lower Manhattan went down, Remaley just started walking north from his apartment on the Lower East Side and kept walking until he was able to get a cell phone signal thirty-five blocks later.
3. Make sure you have personal e-mail addresses for all staff and that they are cloud-based like Gmail addresses.
4. To be an effective communicator during a crisis, you have to already have a loyal audience that follows you on a number of channels -- blogs, Web sites, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
5. When you have a great team of people who are determined to stay connected, you can find mechanisms to make it work. There are so many channels for communicating now that, unless there is absolutely no cell service at all, you can find ways of establishing two-way communication with your key audiences even amidst significant system disruptions.

Disaster Relief

On Blackbaud's new NPEngage blog, Steve MacLaughlin looks at how fundraising in support of Superstorm Sandy relief efforts compares to that of other recent natural disasters, from the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2011. MacLaughlin says there are at least two aspects of Sandy giving to watch, including a rise in multi-screen fundraising and the long tail. "Giving to this and other disasters is going to continue for some time," writes MacLaughlin. "And very soon it will be important for organizations to start showing the impact these donations have had on those hit hardest by the storm."

Governance

On the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog, Measuring the Networked Nonprofit co-author Beth Kanter discusses how online social networking tools such as LinkedIn Board Connect make it easier for nonprofits to find the right people for their boards. "On LinkedIn, you can see past first connections, and check out a potential candidate's knowledge and their network," writes Kanter. "If all board members add their networks, this produces a richer set of potential candidates. And, remember, you are not just adding a board member to your team -- you are also adding their network."

Human Services

In time for Veterans Day, Matt Cifaldi, a community engagement associate at Idealist, gives a shoutout to a handful of nonprofits working to address the needs of veterans, from providing retirees with counseling and arts programs to matching them with a companion dog or cat.

Leadership

In a post on her blog, Rosetta Thurman reminds us that regardless of who was elected president, it's up to each of us to address the collective challenges we face by being engaged members of society. "No president can or will dramatically change our communities," writes Thurman. "We have to do that ourselves. It is important to stay rooted in the reality that WE have to work for the change we want to see...."

Nonprofit Management

On the Duck Call blog, Big Duck's Sarah Durham has some advice for underresourced nonprofits based on this year's presidential campaigns.

Philanthropy

And on her Philanthropy 2173 blog, Lucy Bernholz wonders who will be the Nate Silver of philanthropy and "put predictive analysis to the test in the social sector." Silver, of course, is the New York Times-employed "data scientist" whose election predictions based on an analysis of aggregated polling data turned out out to be uncannily accurate. Writes Bernholz:

Silver's analytic model relies on calculating the probability that each candidate will win based on the results of numerous state and national polls. The model is inherently dependent on the quality of each of those polls but it also benefits from the sheer number of polls done during a presidential election.

As individual foundations share more of their information in more userful ways, IssueLab catalogues and organizes the research that foundations and nonprofits do, independent analysts like GiveWell or users of the Nonprofit Finance Fund's FinancialSCAN tool, and local, state and federal agencies make more data available publicly we may be reaching the point where meta-analysis of others' research -- whether program evaluations, strategy plans, or needs assessments -- is possible and worth considering. We are slowly building the repository of raw material -- data that can be shared, compiled, compared and considered in the aggregate -- that makes such research feasible....

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

-- The Editors

The Stars Come Out for Sandy Relief and Recovery

Superstorm Sandy's devastating impact on the East Coast resulted in the loss of more than a hundred lives, thousands being displaced from their homes, power outages that affected millions, and crippling disruptions of the region’s mass transit systems. The estimated financial cost of the storm may exceed $50 billion, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

In the aftermath of a disaster like Sandy, it's not unusual to see celebrities donating their time and money to relief and recovery efforts, and this disaster is no different. According to the most recent edition of the Foundation Center's Celebrity Foundation Directory, total giving by celebrity foundations exceeds $15 billion. As the center continues to track the response to Sandy, we're again seeing celebrities step up to donate their money and talents to help those affected by the storm. Here are a few examples:

New Jersey natives Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen joined Jon Stewart, Christine Aguilera, Sting, and Jimmy Fallon on Friday, November 2, for "Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together," a live one-hour telethon that raised $23 million for relief and recovery efforts.

In addition to the NFL's New York Giants donating $500,000 to Sandy relief and recovery efforts, a number of Giants players helped out by distributing food in the hard-hit community of Seaside Heights, while others spent an afternoon making sandwiches at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. Star quarterback Eli Manning traveled to Staten Island to help out with Red Cross relief efforts there.

The cast of MTV's popular series Jersey Shore will reunite for a "Restore the Shore" fundraiser, to be aired on the cable network later this month.

Celebrities who have announced cash donations to relief and recovery efforts include pop megastar Lady Gaga ($1 million); Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban ($1 million); Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade ($210,000) and Green Bay Packers star Charles Woodson ($100,000); television personalities Barbara Walters ($250,000), Chelsea Handler ($100,000), Bettheny Frankel ($50,000), and Simon Cowell ($25,000); network news anchor George Stephanopoulos ($50,000); Craigslist founder Craig Newmark ($25,000); and Virginia governor Bob McDonnell ($50,000).

It will take months, if not years, for some neighborhoods and communities to fully recover. In the meantime, we'll continue to track celebrities who are donating their time and resources to help those affected by Sandy. If you come across newsworthy celebrity relief efforts please share them with us in the comment section below.

And to learn more about the response by companies, nonprofit organizations, and grantmakers, visit the our RSS feed of Hurricane Sandy Grants, which to date has shared information on 181 grants totaling more than $110 million.

(Photo: Julio Cortez/AP)

-- Elia S. Glenn and Joey W. Guastella, co-editors, The Celebrity Foundation Directory

 

Weekend Link Roundup (November 3-4, 2012)

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

Civil Society

On the NCRP's Keeping a Close Eye blog, Niki Jagpal discusses a recent article from the Poverty & Race Research Action Council about the "unsettling statistics on the status of voting rights in our country." According to PRRAC, voter identification laws, early voting restrictions, purging of "legitimate registered voters because of baseless suspicion of their citizenship status," and felon disenfranchisement continue to marginalize low-income individuals, communities of color, younger voters, and the elderly.

Disaster Relief

In the days following the devastating landfall of Superstorm Sandy near Cape May, New Jersey, nonprofit bloggers were busy sharing resources for those interested in contributing to relief and recovery efforts. On her Have Fun, Do Good blog, Britt Bravo has compiled a list of articles and Web sites that suggest ways to donate and volunteer; Idealist's Allison Jones has a few additional suggestions for New Yorkers looking to get involved in relief and recovery efforts; and longtime New Jersey resident Nancy Schwartz suggests three organizations on the ground in that state -- the NYC Rescue Mission, the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless, and the Community FoodBank of New Jersey -- that are "providing services right now and need your help to keep it up."

Looking at the response to the storm through a tech/data lens, Philanthropy 2173 blogger Lucy Bernholz tracks, in a series of posts, the many ways in which organizations and individuals used information communication technologies during and after the storm, while the Weakonomist looks at how Sandy might affect the economy.

Professional Development

After another season of conferences and events, you're probably wondering what to do with all the business cards you collected. New York Foundation for the Arts program officer Eleanor Whitney has some advice about how to deepen your connection to individuals with whom you swapped cards, including how to prepare for the initial communication and what you can do to move the conversation offline.

In a post on her blog, How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar author Rosetta Thurman reminds us to invite young professionals to the table when discussing the future of the sector.

Social Media

On her blog, the tireless Beth Kanter, reflects on her experience to date as a "social media ambassador" for the #GivingTuesday campaign, an effort to make the Tuesday after Thanksgiving a national day of giving.

Urbanism

And on the Huffington Post, Charles A. Birnbaum, president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, explores the significance of hedge fund manager John Paulson's recent $100 million gift to the Central Park Conservancy. "The gift is important in two ways," writes Birnbaum, "it directly benefits the park and the [conservancy]...and it impacts public perception. This gift places the park and designed landscapes on the same plane with other philanthropic beneficiaries -- cultural institutions including museums, libraries and performing arts centers, medical facilities, universities, etc. This helps elevate the understanding of landscape's fundamental role and value, and it could also spur similar acts of philanthropy for other parks in New York and around the country."

That's it for now. Our best wishes for a speedy recovery to all those who experienced the wrath of Sandy. Drop us a line if we missed anything at rnm@foundationcenter.org.

-- The Editors

Most Popular PhilanTopic Posts (October 2012)

Here in Manhattan, things post-Sandy are slooowly getting back to normal. For tens of thousands of people in Queens, Staten Island, and New Jersey, "normal" will never be the same. Our thoughts and prayers are with all who lost loved ones. For everyone else, these were the most popular posts on PhilanTopic in October:

• Walking the Talk: Philanthropy 'Does' Big Data (Brad Smith)
• Preparing Students for College and Careers (Jessica Pliska)
• Of Fire Trucks, Obama, Romney and Philanthropy (Brad Smith)
• On 'Networked Nonprofits' and Measurement: A 'Flip' Chat With Beth Kanter (Regina Mahone)
• Hurricane Sandy Resource Page (Mitch Nauffts)

What have you read/watched/listened to lately that you liked?

Corporations Pledge Support for Sandy Relief and Recovery Efforts

As officials from North Carolina to New Hampshire continue to assess the damage left by Superstorm Sandy, a number of financial institutions have announced million-dollar grants to the American Red Cross and other organizations for relief and recovery efforts.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Citi Foundation had announced a donation of $1 million to the American Red Cross for relief efforts, while TD Bank Group and the TD Charitable Foundation had pledged a total of $500,000. HSBC USA also announced a $1 million commitment for disaster recovery efforts, including $500,000 to the American Red Cross in Greater New York, and said it would match dollar-for-dollar all employee donations to relief efforts through its employee giving program and would work with community partners to provide emergency housing and financial assistance in affected communities. And the Bank of America Charitable Foundation announced its own donation of $1 million, including $500,000 to the American Red Cross Hurricanes 2012 fund. The remaining $500,000 will be directed to national, regional, and local nonprofits to support long-term recovery needs in affected communities.

Elsewhere, Wells Fargo & Company pledged $1 million for relief efforts, $250,000 of which will go to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and $750,000 to grassroots nonprofits involved in relief and recovery efforts in affected areas. In addition, through November 13, Wells customers will be able to donate to the Red Cross at most of the bank's more than twelve thousand ATMs nationwide.

Non-financial companies making donations include energy company Phillips 66, which announced a $500,000 contribution to the Red Cross for local disaster relief operations and said it would match individual employee contributions through its matching gift program; the Kellogg Co., which, through its Corporate Citizenship Fund, announced a $250,000 cash contribution to the American Red Cross and $250,000 worth of food to Feeding America; and Chevrolet, which announced that it was donating fifty Silverado pickup trucks and Express cargo vans to the Red Cross for use in relief and recovery efforts.

As of Tuesday, the Red Cross, in a press release, said it had mobilized 1,700 disaster relief workers from across the country, served more than 25,000 meals and snacks at 250 shelters, activated 167 response vehicles, and shipped more than 230,000 ready-to-eat meals to affected areas.

Bank of America Provides Relief in Wake of Hurricane Sandy
Bank of America Press Release
10/30/12

Chevrolet Donates 50 Trucks to Red Cross for Storm Relief
Chevrolet Press Release
10/30/12

Citi and the Citi Foundation Donate $1 Million to American Red Cross
Citi Foundation Press Release
10/31/12

HSBC Supports Communities, Customers Recovering From Hurricane
HSBC Press Release
10/30/12

Kellogg Co. Donates $500K to Hurricane Relief Efforts
Battle Creek Enquirer
10/30/12

Phillips 66 Contributes to Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief
Phillips 66 Press Release
10/30/12

Red Cross Continues Large Sandy Relief Operation
American Red Cross Press Release
10/30/12

TD to Donate 500K to American Red Cross to Support Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts
TD Bank Press Release
10/31/12

Wells Fargo to Give $1 Million to Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts
Wells Fargo Press Release
10/30/12

Related:

American Red Cross Receives $1 Million for Disaster Training, Preparedness Efforts (9/11/12)

Housing Partnership Network Receives $2.75 Million From Citi Foundation (10/03/11)

Joplin Tornado Relief Efforts Raise $39 Million (5/31/12)

American Red Cross Receives $3 Million for Online Volunteer Management System (4/27/12)

Hurricane Sandy Resource Page

Sandy, the largest storm ever observed in the Atlantic, has moved inland, and local, state, and federal officials are scrambling to assess the damage. The Jersey shore was devastated, as was a neighborhood in the beachfront Queens community of Breezy Point, where more than a hundred and ten homes were destroyed by fire Monday night.

Manhattan (where mass transit and a quarter of the power grid are down) got lucky; if the storm had continued to meander in a northwesterly direction, instead of speeding up and veering sharply to the west, the city would've taken an almost direct hit at high tide under a full moon -- a nightmare scenario.

Still, the damage in the storm's wake is enormous. Countless numbers of trees have been uprooted and millions of people are without power. In some neighborhoods, power won't be restored for weeks, and communities up and down the coast, especially in New Jersey, will be cleaning up for months. Bloomberg estimates that the economic toll from the storm could surpass $20 billion.

We've put together a list of resources for those affected by the storm and/or who are interested in contributing to clean up and recovery efforts. If you know of other resources that should be added, please e-mail us at mfn@foundationcenter.org.

Good luck and speedy recovery to all.

Updated: 10:30 p.m. EST, Friday, November 15

Shelter

To find a Red Cross shelter, download the Red Cross Hurricane app, visit the Red Cross Web site, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767), text "**REDCROSS" (**73327677), or check their local media outlets.

From the USA.gov blog: To find a shelter near you, text “Shelter” and a zip code to 43362 (example: Shelter 01234). You can also download the FEMA mobile app, which includes a maps/shelter tab.

Donate

AARP Foundation Relief Fund
http://www.aarp.org/aarp-foundation/

American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/charitable-donations

Community Foundation for the National Capital Region - Neighbors in Need: Sandy Relief Fund
http://www.thecommunityfoundation.org/

Craigconnects
Using the Crowdrise platform, CraigsList founder Craig Newmark is matching the first $25,000 in donations to Sandy relief efforts. Update: Newmark's $25,000 was matched in a matter of days.

Daily News Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund
New York's "hometown newspaper" has started a Sandy relief fund and pledges that all funds raised will go directly to those in need. Make checks out to Daily News Charities, specify in the memo field or in a note that the donation is for the Hurricane Sandy Relief fund, and mail to:

New York Daily News
4 New York Plaza
New York, NY 10004

Feeding America
http://feedingamerica.org/

Global Giving - Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund
http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/hurricane-sandy-relief-fund/

Great Nonprofits
http://greatnonprofits.org/disaster-response/storm-sandy/

Hurricane Sandy Long Island Disaster Relief Fund
-- Donate online (http://www.newsday.com/sandyrelief), or make a check payable to:

Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Newsday Charities Processing Center
25257 Network Place
Chicago, IL 60673-1252

Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City
https://www.nyc.gov/html/fund/html/donate/donate.shtml

New Jersey Recovery Fund
http://cfnj.org/new-jersey-recovery/

Network for Good
http://www1.networkforgood.org/hurricanesandy

North Star Fund's Grassroots Hurricane Relief Fund
http://northstarfund.org/grassroots-hurricane-relief-fund.php

Salvation Army
https://donate.salvationarmyusa.org/disaster

Save the Children - Hurricane Sandy Children in Emergency Fund
http://savethechildren.org/

United Way Hurricane Sandy Recovery Fund
http://unitedwaynyc.org/

Virginia Disaster Relief Fund
https://payments.vi.virginia.gov/donatenow

Foodbanks

City Harvest
http://www.cityharvest.org/donate-funds/

Community Foodbank of New Jersey
http://www.njfoodbank.org/

Met Council
http://www.metcouncil.org

Food Bank for NYC
http://www.foodbanknyc.org/

Island Harvest
http://www.islandharvest.org/

Long Island Cares
http://www.licares.org/

Sustainable Long Island
http://sustainableli.org/

Funders

Center for Disaster Philanthropy
http://disasterphilanthropy.org/

Council on Foundations' Disaster Grantmaking page
http://www.cof.org/events/Disasters.cfm

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation - Philanthropic Grantmaking for Disasters
http://www.hiltonfoundation.org/images/stories/Impact/InPracticeRpts/In_Practice_Philanthropic_Grantmaking_for_Disaster_2011.pdf

Haiti Relief

Hurricane Sandy Emergency Outreach - Haiti
http://www.americares.org/

Mobile Donations

Text HUMANE to 80888 to donate $10 on behalf of the American Humane Association

Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 on behalf of the American Red Cross

Text SANDY to 80088 to donate $10 on behalf of Global Giving

Text STORM to 80888 to donate $10 on behalf of the Salvation Army

Text SUSTAIN to 20222 and reply YES to donate $10 on behalf of the Met Council

Text RECOVERY to 52000 to donate $10 on behalf of United Way Hurricane Sandy Recovery Fund

Text GIVEUSA to 777444 to donate $10 on behalf of World Vision

Volunteer Opportunities

NYC Service
https://www.facebook.com/nycservice

Other Resources, Disaster Assistance

Federal Emergency Management Agency
http://www.fema.gov/disasters

Brooklynites who sustained property damage in Hurricane Sandy can apply for funds from FEMA. To request federal aid, register at disasterassistance.gov, or call (800) 621–3362. The agency asks that applicants have their address, insurance information, and social security number ready. (Source: The Brooklyn Paper)

New Jersey Office of Emergency Management
http://www.state.nj.us/njoem/

New York City Mayor's Office
http://www.nyc.gov/

New York City Office of Emergency Management
http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/

New York City Transit Tracker
http://transportationnation.org/2012/10/28/hurricane-sandy-what-you-need-to-know-for-transit-and-travel-in-nyc-area/

New York State Office of Emergency Management
http://www.dhses.ny.gov/oem/

Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management
http://oem.readyphiladelphia.org/RelId/606683/ISvars/default/Home.htm

Twitter's Hurricane Sandy Resource List
http://blog.twitter.com/2012/10/hurricane-sandy-resources-on-twitter.html

Weekend Link Roundup (October 13-14, 2012)

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

Communications/Marketing

In a guest post on the Communication Network blog, Hattaway Communication's Doug Hattaway shares a couple of insights based on psychology and neuroscience into how people make decisions:

Insight 1: Two mental systems work together to drive decision-making and behavior. Effective communications influence both intuition and cognition -- encouraging instant intuitive judgments and enabling fluent cognitive reasoning.

Insight 2: People are more likely to trust information that they easily understand. "Fluency" theory holds that if people readily comprehend an idea or information, they are more likely to believe it. Being easy-to-understand obviously doesn't mean the information is more reliable, but people are more likely to perceive it as true. Hattaway's advice for nonprofit communicators: "It's smart to dumb things down."

In a post on her Non-Profit Marketing blog, Network for Good's Katya Andresen shares seven tips designed to improve the stories that nonprofits tell about their impact, the people they help, and their generous supporters.

Disaster Relief

Eye-opening article by Deborah Sontag in the New York Times about Yéle Haiti, the charity created by Haitian-American hip hop artist Wyclef Jean in the wake of the January 2010 earthquake to help the people of that impoverished country.

Journalism/Media

Fasten your seat belts. With funding from the Open Society Foundations, the Reuters Institute for Journalism has released a report, "Ten Years That Shook the Media World," which shows "that even after more than a decade of often dramatic turmoil in the media sector, we are only at the beginning of a longer transitional period."

Philanthropy

Over at the Nonprofit Quarterly, Simone Joyaux looks at what has changed -- and mostly what hasn't -- about social justice philanthropy in the eight years since she first addressed the topic in her newsletter.

Regulation

While open to the "notion that non-charitable tax-exempt organizations should have to pay property taxes," The Nonprofiteer takes issue with the city council in Scranton (PA), which threatened to withhold approval of zoning changes from tax-exempt property owners unless they made "voluntary" payments in lieu of taxation (PILOTS). "Let's not torture the concept of 'voluntary'," she writes, "by suggesting that a payment extorted in return for rezoning is somehow a free-will contribution to the public fisc."

And on her Philanthropy 2173 blog, Lucy Bernholz asks readers to answer the following question: "What would affect donors' behavior more, changes in the tax deductions associated with their giving or rules requiring greater transparency about their giving?" What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Social Entrepreneurship

Earlier in the week, serial social entrepreneur Robert Egger, the founder of DC Central Kitchen, Fresh Start Catering, the Campus Kitchen Project, and CForward, announced that after twenty-five years at the helm of DCCK, he was "moving on." To retirement? Not likely. No, Egger is "returning to the city of my roots -- Los Angeles -- to launch the L.A. Kitchen in 2013." As the always enthusiastic Egger writes on his personal blog, the new endeavor

will roar into an incredible vacuum in America. Our first goal is to recover millions of pounds of California’s abundant fruits and vegetables. The traditional model moves perishable foods through the system (from farm to food bank/kitchens to pantry to people) at a brisk pace to avoid spoilage. We want and use these precious commodities to fuel a job training program that will produce nutritionally dense salads, snacks and vegetarian/vegan meals. But we also want to develop inter-generational volunteer opportunities so that, working side by side, we can prep, package and freeze millions of pounds of produce and fruit, which will allow our partners to distribute portion controlled product that can be used in a more purposeful way, at a more focused pace.

We will also explore social enterprise through a new business we will launch named Strong Food. Like the name says, it isn't about sustenance, it's about helping people stay strong, vital and engaged.

We will also explore large scale urban composting, showing how every part of a plant can be used to build stronger bodies and healthier communities.

Most of all, I want to delve deeply into the issue of aging in America. L.A. Kitchen will be at the very forefront of supporting a new era of inclusion and health for our elders. I don't want to feed to old; I want to help redefine aging in America. And I want to show the role that food and a dynamic nonprofit organization can play in keeping our elders engaged, healthy, vital and active....

We wish Bob the best of luck in these, and all future, endeavors!

Social Media

In the most recent installment of her Social Good podcast series, Allison Fine chats with filmmaker Marc Erlbaum about his use of crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to raise $150,000 and crowdsource stories about the meaning of life for his next film project.

On LinkedIn, Charles Best, founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org, asks for help in developing a mobile strategy for his organization. "We know that mobile is important," writes Best. "We agree that mobile devices are becoming many people's primary way to connect to the Internet. We see that the percentage of site visitors coming to us from mobile devices is steadily increasing. We know we have to do something, but we're not sure what." Has your organization had success with mobile? Share your experience with Best and others in the comments section below.

Women & Girls

Thursday was International Day of the Girl, and, as Beth Kanter notes on her blog, the launch of the "Because I Am a Girl" campaign by the Plan, one of oldest and largest children's development organizations in the world. Why a campaign to raise awareness about the importance of educating girls? Because, as Kanter writes, "Globally, one in three girls around the world is denied an education by the daily realities of poverty, violence and discrimination. Every day, girls are taken out of school, married far too young, and subjected to violence in school. Not only is this unjust, it's also a huge waste of potential with serious global consequences...."

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

-- The Editors

 

Weekend Link Roundup (September 15-16, 2012)

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

Communications/Marketing

Looking to create or strengthen a tagline for your organization? Nonprofit marketing expert Nancy Schwartz has selected sixty-three nonprofit taglines from fourteen hundred submitted to her Getting Attention blog over the summer and is asking readers to help choose the 2012 Nonprofit Tagline Award winners. Voting is open through midnight on October 5, and if you subscribe to the Getting Attention e-update while you're on the site, you'll get a free copy of the 2013 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Report (due in late fall).

In a post on the Communications Network blog, Louis Herr says that "limiting Web evaluation to a clickstream product like Google Analytics starves you of critical information." In his post, Herr highlights the argument made by Avinash Kaushik in Web Analytics: An Hour a Day -- to wit, that to be truly actionable, Web analytics should focus on measures of behavior, outcome, and experience, not just page views and click counts.

Fundraising

On the Philanthropy Potluck blog, Lissa Jones, director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Minnesota Council on Foundations, discusses the implications of the Millennium Communications Group's Donors of the Future Scan, which identified twelve key trends in giving. Those trends include a giving population that is growing more diverse, increasing pressure on endowed giving, and the growing popularity of "flash" and Internet giving portals.

Impact/Effectiveness

The Knowledge@Wharton blog has a good post on the potential, and obstacles to broader adoption, of social impact bonds (SIBs), which generate a return for outside investors only if the program is successful. 

Philanthropy

Writing on the Re: Phlanthropy blog, new Council On Foundations president Vikki Spruill lays out her vision for a re-energized CoF, one that is focused "on the future and what philanthropy can make possible," that supports its members with tools and ideas, that works to increase the understanding of the impact of philanthropy and enhances members' ability to effect positive change.

In a post on the Philanthrocapitalism blog, Matthew Bishop and Michael Green discuss #givingtuesday, a new grassroots campaign spearheaded by the 92 Street Y in New York City that seeks to get "everyone -- individuals and organizations alike -- to make a fresh commitment to give" on November 27. "The hope is that #givingtuesday will be a sort of 'opening day' for the giving season, the launch pad for a more productive than ever period of giving in the weeks and months ahead," write Bishop and Green. "It aims to build on the existing National Philanthropy Day (November 15th), which is a time to reflect on and celebrate past acts of philanthropy, with a day of action devoted to new giving, when everyone can make their personal giving pledge for the giving season and year to come."

Writing on his White Courtesy telephone blog, Greater New Orleans Foundation president and CEO Albert Ruesga urges young professionals working in the philanthropy field who may by "haunted...by the memory of some infelicitous essay on Plato’s Republic to "Let it go! Let it go...! Our first inklings of a world beyond that described to us by our parents have extraordinary value. The exhilaration we felt at being invited to question authority can still save our field from grave errors."

And on our sister Glasspockets blog, Foundation Center president Brad Smith takes a look at the Chinese Foundation Center's recently launched Foundation Transparency Index and asks, "[A]re Chinese foundations more transparent than American foundations?” His answer? Maybe. But while "American foundations may be different than Chinese foundations in some ways," Smith writes, "in facing growing demands for transparency from government, media, and the public [they] are more alike than we realize."

Social Media

In the most recent installment of her Social Good podcast series on the Chronicle of Philanthropy site, Allison Fine chats with network-weaving expert June Holley about how network weaving can help steer nonprofit organizations in the right direction with respect to their social media activity. "Network weaving...is the intentional activation of networks to do something together," adds Fine, "but it isn’t intuitive for people coming with a command and control mindset."

Beth Kanter explains why she had to reschedule a trip to Tunisia following a wave of anti-American protests there and in other Arab countries fueled by anger over an anti-Muslim video created by a Muslim-hating provocateur in California. Recent events in Libya, where the American ambassador and three others were killed by angry mobs, and Egypt, writes Kanter, raise a number of questions about censorship on the Internet and the need for "nonviolent approaches to resolving conflict."

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

-- The Editors

 

Weekend Link Roundup (August 11-12, 2012)

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

Communications/Marketing

Welcome to the Fifth Estate author Geoff Livingston has a list of tips for artists and writers seeking to brand and market themselves. The list includes:

• Focus on actions.
• Go beyond Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• Monitor social media conversations.
• Let your fans embrace your experience.

Disaster Relief

GiveWell's Holden Karnofsky shares findings from a recent evaluation of charities working to help people in Japan recover from the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeastern part of the country in 2011. After reviewing reports about their activities over the past twelve months, Karnofsky concludes that he and his partners "stand by the conclusions we reached last year: that the relief and recovery effort did not have room for more funding, that those interested in emergency relief should have donated to Doctors Without Borders, and that those determined to help Japan specifically should have donated to the Japanese Red Cross."

Diversity

On the Philanthropy Potluck blog, Wendy Wehr, vice president of communications and information services at the Minnesota Council on Foundations, reminds us that while gathering data to monitor diversity among foundation staff and boards is a critical step, organizations also must focus their attention on "turning data into knowledge, and then acting on that knowledge."

Leadership

Rosetta Thurman shares some helpful tips on plotting a guilt-free vacation.

Social Media

On the Foundation Center's Transparency Talk blog, our colleagues chat with Jane Lowe, senior program officer and team director of the Vulnerable Populations Portfolio at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, about how social media, and more broadly, the transparency and participation they offer, are adding critical new dimensions to [the foundation's] work.

Technology

Buzz Machine blogger Jeff Jarvis shares a few principles for news and technology companies trying to develop online platforms:

• Users come first. A platform without users is nothing. Screw your users, screw yourself.
• A platform is defined by its users. In other words: Hand over control to your users. Give them power. Design in flexibility.
• Platforms collaborate.
• Platforms need principles.

Transparency

"With all that they have at their disposal (money, expertise, networks, flexible time horizons, and reputation), foundations have a great opportunity to try lots of different ways to share information," writes Lucy Bernholz on her Philanthropy 2173 blog. "It's not as simple as having a publications arm or a communications officer or a learning office or a knowledge management strategy, but it's about using whichever of the above means/mechanisms fits the 'who' and the 'why'...."

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

-- The Editors

Weekend Link Roundup (July7-8, 2012)

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

Civic Engagement

On the Knight Blog, Elizabeth Miller looks at the report The Civic Tripod for Mobile and Games: Activism, Art and Learning, which explores the three dimensions of mobile games that focus on art or neighborhood civics: civic learning, performance/art, and social change. "Learning is inherent in games, since their engagement depends on providing challenges that are just barely possible," the report's authors note. "And when games are tied to physical space,

their action ties to learning about our own neighborhoods -- how to move through them, and to change them. The art of such games is often the physical world itself, with better sounds and graphics than any screen! And the digital side of games draws in the civic, if only because it is so easy to link to more information on how to take action, or how to learn more. In other words, the experiential nature of games pulls mobile experiences on civics into being a mix of art and learning....

Disaster Relief

On her Nonprofit Charitable Orgs blog, Joanne Fritz offers tips on how to help those affected by the wildfires raging in Colorado and elsewhere out West.

Fundraising

Fundraising is a valuable skill that nonprofits cannot afford to underinvest in, argues Joe Garecht on the Fundraising Authority blog. It is also a marketable skill that a good fundraiser can take to another organization if, as the title of his post suggests, "You Aren't Paying Your Development Staff Enough." Writes Garecht:

If your organization's executive director is making $150,000 per year and the top development staff member is making $60,000 per year, your nonprofit is in trouble. Likewise, if your organization is raising $5,000,000 per year and you only have one full-time development person, your nonprofit is in trouble. Under either scenario, you will never raise what you really could and should raise, and

never do all of the good that you really could do, simply because you aren't making a big enough investment in your development [function]....

"It seems that the Great Recession is similar to the Great Depression in one more way -- the drastic drop in large charitable gifts," writes Joanne Fritz in another post on her Nonprofit Charitable Orgs blog. Citing the Chronicle of Philanthropy's  Holly Hall, who found that the decline in large charitable gifts between 2007-10 mirrors a similarly precipitous drop between 1931-45, Fritz writes: "I have trouble with the idea that our tough economic times have been a match for the Great Depression, or that the decline in large charitable gifts will last as long. But I do think that large, monolithic fundraising campaigns of any kind are doomed...."

Governance

Gene Takagi has an excellent post on the Nonprofit Law blog, which he co-authors with Emily Chan, about the roles and duties of nonprofit board members.

Innovation

On the Forbes site, contributor Lori Kozlowski chats with Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin about the meaning of philanthropic innovation in 2012.

Social Media

"Although we often focus our discussion on how organizations can use social media for marketing and fundraising, the best reason for nonprofits and foundations to be on social media is to practice thought leadership," writes Rosetta Thurman in a post on her eponymous blog. "When it comes to foundations in particular, this opportunity can be even more impactful, as they are often seen as conveners, curators and catalysts for change within the nonprofit community." Thurman goes on to single out the Geraldine Dodge Foundation, the Rasmuson Foundation, and the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region for blogging "not just to share information, but to influence public opinion and community collaboration."

And on the First Giving blog, Taylor Corrado highlights six nonprofit branding lessons from the book Made to Stick, by Dan and Chip Heath:

1. Keep it simple -- Don't dumb it down, but get straight to the point.
2. Embrace the unexpected -- In other words, create curiosity.
3. Be concrete -- Provide details, examples, and facts.
4. Be credible -- Testimonials from beneficiaries are more effective than those from board members.
5. Don't shy away from emotion -- Humans respond better to emotions than statistics.
6. Think "story" -- Good stories are unexpected, filled with concrete details, and should always be emotional.

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

-- The Editors