PhilanTopic

The L.A. Riots, Twenty Years Later: A PubHub Reading List

Last Sunday, April 29, was the twentieth anniversary of the start of what became known as the Los Angeles Riots -- four days of civil unrest and violence sparked by the acquittal of white LAPD officers who had been captured on video in March 1991 brutally beating Rodney King after a high-speed car chase through the San Fernando Valley. In the days that followed the verdict, Reginald Denny, a white truck driver, and a Guatemalan immigrant were brutally beaten by a mob in the South Central neighborhood, home to many of the city's low-income African Americans; buildings were torched; stores were looted; and more than fifty people lost their lives. The prevailing view at the time, as captured by New York Times reporter Don Terry, was that "the acquittal...was only a spark put to a tinderbox of anger constructed from years of deep poverty, governmental neglect, racism, charges of police abuse and high unemployment."

Twenty years later, how much has -- and has not -- changed?

According to Reparable Harm: Assessing and Addressing Disparities Faced by Boys and Men of Color in California (126 pages, PDF), a report from the RAND Corporation, African-American and Latino men and boys continue to be negatively affected by structural racism and a variety of socioeconomic, health, and education disparities. Young African-American and Latino boys are more than three times as likely, for example, to live in poverty as their white counterparts; almost seven and more than three times as likely to have HIV/AIDS; more than five and almost three times as likely to end up in prison; more than sixteen and five times as likely to be a victim of homicide; and nearly twice and almost seven times as likely to drop out of high school. Funded by the California Endowment, the report calls for a range of targeted interventions, including more effective foster care and prisoner-reentry policies; community-based zoning laws that address the social determinants of health; and mentoring and school-based programs for children traumatized by violence. The California Endowment itself has funded the National League of Cities Institute's Gang Prevention Network and the Healthy Returns Initiative.

One nonprofit that has worked with disadvantaged and at-risk youth in Los Angeles since before the riots is the PUENTE (People United to Enrich the Neighborhood Through Education) Learning Center, which offers preschool, kindergarten, tutorial, and college preparation programs as well as job and computer skills training, English as a second language, and literacy programs for adults. Of, By, and For the Community: The Story of PUENTE Learning Center (21 pages, PDF), a report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, describes how the family-focused organization -- which had a thriving center in the Boyle Heights neighborhood -- was offered the site of a burned-out ARCO station by the ARCO Foundation in the wake of the riots. "The embers were still warm, and the total damage had not been tallied," recalled former ARCO Foundation president Russell Sakaguchi. "We wanted somebody to provide hope and relief to that very visible corner. We wanted an organization that wasn't going to flounder, that was sensitive to the shock in that community [and] had faith in its ability to deliver."

Starting with two trailers, PUENTE eventually built a state-of-the-art facility with ten classrooms serving a thousand students of all ages, one-third of whom are African-American and two-thirds Latino. (As of 2005, the population of South Central was 45 percent African-American, 47 percent Latino.) One of the organization's keys to success, the report notes, is its sharp focus on its educational mission, which enables it to address issues even more fundamental than racial disparities or cultural differences. "Our mission," says PUENTE vice president Luis Marquez, "is not about any particular ethnic group; it's about people. It goes way beyond ethnicity and race. It's about humanity."

Among other things, the riots highlighted the serious racial/ethnic tensions that existed between long-established African-American communities in Los Angeles and the more recently arrived Korean and Latino communities. The influx of immigrants into historically African-American neighborhoods has continued in the two decades since, and racial/ethnic tensions have become more pronounced as unemployment rates have climbed. All Together Now? African Americans, Immigrants, and California's Future (66 pages; 7.15MB; PDF), a report from the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration at the University of Southern California, examines the potential of inter-ethnic alliances to address tensions created by demographic and economic changes. But bringing the various communities together first requires a forward-looking agenda. To that end, the report notes,

• A number of community-based organizations have developed new mechanisms to both manage tensions and build toward a common ground. Leadership development is key, but the first step is creating the space for new and honest dialogue about what is shared and what is different.
• Seemingly specific issues can be effectively connected to both populations. The criminalization of black (and Latino) youth has its parallel in the excessive enforcement of a broken immigration system; the racial profiling embodied in Arizona's 2010 immigration law echoes an experience all too familiar to African Americans. If [minority groups] pursue economic opportunity and fair treatment for all residents, the [focus on] difference[s] can give way to a concert of common interest.
• A common and unifying agenda should be based on a vision of everyday social justice. "Everyday" means three things: address[ing] daily needs around education, the economy, and the social and physical environment; ensur[ing] that dialogues go beyond a more comfortable middle-class and multi-ethnic elite and reach grassroots participants; and realiz[ing] that this will require effort every day and over the long haul.

Funded by the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, James Irvine Foundation, and John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, the report calls for an approach which recognizes that "African Americans have laid the groundwork for America's commitment to equality and fairness" and "that immigrant rights will be insecure as long as African Americans remain vulnerable to racial profiling and economic despair."

All three reports suggest that twenty years after the L.A. riots and almost fifty years after the Watts riots, the City of Los Angeles, the state of California, and the nation still have a long way to go in addressing the racial and socioeconomic disparities that made South Central such a tinderbox on the eve of the Rodney King verdict. At the same time, all three reports suggest that we have only begun to tap the potential of civic engagement, advocacy, and community organizing efforts to bring communities together and advance the cause of social justice. And, of course, funders have a role to play here. Funded by the California Endowment and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the NCRP report Strengthening Democracy, Increasing Opportunities: Impacts of Advocacy, Organizing, and Civic Engagement in Los Angeles notes that for every dollar invested in the advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement efforts of fifteen Los Angeles County nonprofits between 2004 and 2008, $91 in benefits were generated for marginalized communities.

To learn more about the factors contributing to enduring socioeconomic, health, and education disparities in Los Angeles (and across the country), the demographic shifts that sometimes exacerbate racial/ethnic tensions, and efforts to address these and other problems, see also:

Why Place & Race Matter
PolicyLink; California Endowment

State of Metropolitan America: On the Front Lines of Demographic Transformation Brookings Institution

Critical Condition: Examining the Scope of Medical Services in South Los Angeles
California Endowment

Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities
Brookings Institution

Shared Prosperity, Stronger Regions: An Agenda for Rebuilding America's Older Core Cities
PolicyLink

What do you think? Have we made as much progress, as a country, as we should have in the twenty years since the L.A. riots? And if not, what is holding us back? Use the comments section to share your thoughts....

-- Kyoko Uchida

Weekend Link Roundup (March 17-18, 2012)

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

Advocacy

See3 Communications chief executive Michael Hoffman offers three reasons why the Kony 2012 video went viral in a post on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's Social Philanthropy blog: the organization behind the video, Invisible Children, got its story out first; it simplified a complex set of issues by making the story about a single individual; and it made you, the person watching the video, the hero of the story.

On her blog, social media expert Allison Fine has a few suggestions for Invisible Children on what it could have done better.

And Future Fundraising Now blogger Jeff Brooks, while generally complimentary about the video, says there's one thing wrong with it: "The noise it creates in our industry." Adds Brooks: "Whenever a nonprofit pulls off something freakishly successful like this, there's a groundswell: Development directors everywhere are saying 'Get me some o' that Kony 2012'. Before jumping on that bandwagon, Brooks suggests that fundraisers take a few things into consideration -- including the fact that the success of the Kony video will be hard, if not impossible, to replicate.

Communications/Marketing

Last week, the marketing folks at BBH Labs were roundly criticized for their decision to help homeless people in Austin earn a few dollars during the South by Southwest conference by having them serving as mobile "hotspots" for conference-goers on a pay-as-you-wish basis. Not everyone piled on the company for its tone-deafness, however. InvisiblePeople.tv creator Mark Horvath, for one, applauded the company for its innovative approach. Said Horvath:

What BBH Labs did with Homeless Hotspots is a harmless and fun idea that provides a positive interaction between homeless people and the rest of you. Plus, our homeless friends made a few bucks. And even more important -- they were given self-worth. Unless you [have been] on the streets, you have no idea how low one's self-esteem gets. The number-one thing you can give another person is your attention, and the Homeless Hotspot vendors at SXSW got lots of that. Every one I met was smiling ear to ear....

Diversity

When it comes to diversity training, writes consultant and author (18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done) Peter Bregman, organizations should "stop training people to be more accepting of diversity. It's too conceptual, and it doesn't work." Instead, says Bregman, organizations should "train [employees] to do their work with a diverse set of individuals. Not categories of people. People."

Impact/Effectiveness

In a guest post on Beth's Blog, Greater New Orleans Foundation president and CEO Albert Ruesga, who was in Seattle last week attending the 2012 Grantmakers for Effective Organizations conference, takes a closer look at a report, Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter? (20 pages, PDF), based on a recent GEO survey. According to the report, not much has changed in the field of grantmaking since the last time GEO conducted the survey, in 2008. Indeed, "while the survey holds some interest as a mirror held up to the nature of US grantmaking," writes Ruesga, "foundation staff might use it most effectively to reflect on their own practices." For example, "The survey

can help convince trustees who...still object to the idea of making grants for general operating support. When so many grantmakers have adopted the practice, and for so many good reasons, there's strong motivation for their reexamining the basis of their resistance....

And speaking of Beth's Blog, Beth rounded up more than forty guest bloggers for the GEO conference, including David Colby, vice president for research and evluation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Annie Hernandez, program officer at the Lumpkin family Foundation; David Greco, vice president at the Nonprofit Finance Fund; and Gail Berkowitz, director of evaluation at the Mastercard Foundation. Beth will be sharing more guest posts in the next few days, so be sure to check back.

Social Media

In a post on her Nonprofit Tech 2.0 blog, Social Media for Social Good author Heather Mansfield explains why every nonprofit organization needs a mobile Web site.

Wealth

And on the New York Times' DealBook blog, Kevin Roose compares the latest "rich list" -- the new Bloomberg Billionaires Index -- to Forbes magazine's own long-running list of the world's billionaires. While some have criticized the lists, writes Roose, "on the grounds that they glamorize the ultra-rich, treating them like show horses in an era when income disparity has come into the political cross hairs," he believes there's a different question that warrants our attention: "namely, are [the lists] accurate?..."

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

-- The Editors

This Week in PubHub: Funding for Social 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 examined specific grantmaking strategies and practices designed to maximize fundamental long-term social impact.)

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, this week in PubHub we're featuring four reports that examine trends in funding for social justice and advocacy efforts in support of the rights of marginalized populations.

Foundation support is essential if advocacy and community organizing efforts to improve the lives of marginalized populations are to succeed, a report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy argues. Strengthening Democracy, Increasing Opportunities: Impacts of Advocacy, Organizing, and Civic Engagement in the Gulf/Midsouth Region (88 pages, PDF) found that between 2005 and 2009 twenty organizations in the Gulf/Midsouth region secured more than $4.7 billion -- $114 for every dollar invested -- in benefits for marginalized communities, trained more than 31,000 local residents in civic engagement techniques, and achieved significant policy changes in the areas of environmental justice and LGBTQ and immigrant rights, with foundations providing 78 percent of the funding for said activities. Funded by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the report urges grantmakers to invest more in building the region's advocacy and community organizing infrastructure, make flexible investments in groups working in rural areas, and support organizations with people of color in leadership positions.

Of course, foundations that fund social justice activities saw their endowments take a hit during the post-Lehman financial crisis, as described in the Foundation Center report Diminishing Dollars: The Impact of the 2008 Financial Crisis on the Field of Social Justice Philanthropy (35 pages, PDF). While the report found that giving for social justice as a percentage of total giving by foundations in the sample varied only slightly between 2005 and 2009, in 2009 it fell below 2007 levels, with small foundations experiencing the sharpest declines in the value of their assets. Funded by the Cricket Island, Edward W. Hazen, and Ford foundations in partnership with NCRP, the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, and the Social Justice Philanthropy Collaborative, the report projects that unless the field sees five years of above-average investment returns, social justice grantmaking in 2015 will remain below 2008 levels.

The good news, according to Cultures of Giving: Energizing and Expanding Philanthropy by and for Communities of Color (112 pages, PDF), is that giving within and on behalf of communities of color is increasing. Commissioned by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, with support from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the report found that, given the disproportionate need in communities of color, those communities typically have received a too-small percentage of mainstream philanthropic dollars -- a gap that was exacerbated by the Great Recession and cuts in public-sector funding. In response, the report argues, donors of color and others have begun to direct more resources to communities of color, with an eye to building advocacy skills in those communities and empowering local leaders and residents to lead short- and long-term change efforts. The report calls on mainstream funders to advance this kind of identity-based philanthropy by providing seed funding for grassroots efforts and forging stronger connections with local philanthropic leaders and other change agents.

What about trends in social justice work abroad? Mobilising for Social Justice: Migrant Rights Centre Ireland's Community Work Model (50 pages, PDF), a report from the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland that was funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies, offers case studies of MRCI's "community work practice" model on behalf of migrant workers' rights -- work that, among other things, encourages marginalized migrant groups to take part in decision-making structures through participation in discussion/action groups, empowers them through consciousness-raising and skills-building activities, and promotes advocacy and collective action.

What are your thoughts about the future of funding for social justice philanthropy? Are you aware of any new trends or developments that could energize the field or take it to the next level? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments section below.

And don't forget to check out PubHub, where you can browse more than a hundred and fifty reports on the topic of civil and human rights.

-- Kyoko Uchida

Weekend Link Roundup (December 17 - 18, 2011)

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

Communications/Marketing

In a post on her Non-Profit Marketing blog, Network for Good's Katya Andresen weighs in on a new Silverpop white paper that looks at where digital marketing trends are headed. Among other things, writes Andresen, nonprofit marketing staff should expect their work to become more personal, "human," and mobile in 2012.

Disaster Relief

On Oxfam International's From Poverty to Power blog, Chris Anderson, Oxfam's global adviser for disaster risk reduction, makes the case for more investment in disaster preparedness, noting that investment in DRR accounts for less than 1 percent of official humanitarian assistance to the world's twenty biggest recipients of such assistance.

Diversity

Rosetta Thurman shares a new article from the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group in which Katherine E. Jacobs and Andrew Grant-Thomas explain that when it comes to recruiting there "is no such thing as a diverse candidate."

Education

Writing about federal education policy in the New York Times ("Class Matters. Why Won't We Admit It?"), Helen Ladd, a professor of public policy and economics at Duke, and Edward B. Fiske, a former education editor at the Times and the author of the Fiske Guide to Colleges, pose what they believe is a critical question: "Why do presumably well-intentioned policy makers ignore, or deny, the correlations of family background and student achievement?" Ladd and Fiske propose that rationales for ignoring such correlations range from a belief that schools are capable of offsetting the effects of poverty, to not wanting to lower expectations for poor students, to the huge challenges posed by tackling poverty as a whole. "Let's agree," they write in closing, "that we know a lot about how to address the ways in which poverty undermines student learning. Whether we choose to face up to that reality is ultimately a moral question."

Global Health

On his Humanosphere blog, Tom Paulson has some nice things to say about Seattle-based PATH's acquisition of the nonprofit drug company OneWorld Health.

Philanthropy

On his Inside Philanthropy blog, Todd Cohen commends foundations and corporations for "moving beyond grantmaking and investing more of their assets to address critical social and global problems." "[T]hat kind of innovation," adds Cohen, "is critical to help make the social economy more productive in serving people and places in need."

Philanthropy 2173's Lucy Bernholz shares her annual list of new buzzwords and phrases, including evidence based, shapeshifting, and disruption.

Social Media

Nonprofits shouldn't confuse content curation -- "the organizing, filtering and 'making sense of' information on the web" -- as aggregation, writes social media expert Beth Kanter in a recent post on her blog. "The debate in content curation circles [right now]," adds Kanter, "is that [if] we treat content curation as aggregation, then we’ll miss the point and just create noise. We don't need more content but a human point of view guided by intelligent tools that can help others find and make sense of the information and resources out there."

Transparency

On the Foundation Center's Transparency Talk blog, Bill Somerville, executive director of the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, offers his take on the relationship between transparency and effectiveness that was the subject of recent event in San Francisco co-hosted by the Foundation Center and the Center for Effective Philanthropy. Writes Somerville:

Does transparency and glass pockets help effectiveness? I don't know. What difference does it make for people to know foundation salaries? If it does make a difference, then we are talking about accountability not effectiveness. Is the foundation accountable in being efficient, frugal, responsible, responsive and productive?

Foundations have a special place in the community in that they are answerable to themselves. They are independent and have maximum latitude to do their work. They have a unique asset in that their money is not political, not in competition with anything or anyone, and they have no ax to grind. So, what are the factors of excellence in the exercise of philanthropy? A question foundation personnel should ask themselves every day....

One is leadership. Foundations should exercise leadership in their willingness to venture where others haven't gone, to take risks, to think into the future rather than indulge themselves in endless paper. A leader is one who brings out the best in others. Isn't this what foundations should be doing?

Another factor of excellence is modesty. Money is the tool of philanthropy and money is power. Foundation personnel must understand that it is not their money nor is it their power. Foundations are investing funds in people and programs worthy of the investment. They are not "giving money away."

Somerville concludes by noting that his comments are meant to "create a dialogue and stimulate other people to add their thoughts on what makes for effectiveness." Here's your chance to join that conversation. What do you think an "effective" foundation looks like? And what is the relationship between transparency and accountability? Use the comments section to share your thoughts....

That's it for now. With the holidays looming, most of our shopping still be done, and miles to go before we sleep, we'll be posting a little less frequently over the next couple of weeks. Here's hoping you get to spend time with friends and loved ones. Have a great holiday!

-- The Editors

Weekend Link Roundup (October 22 - 23, 2011)

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

Communications/Marketing

Writing on her Non-Profit Marketing blog, Katya Andresen suggests that at this time of year fundraisers need to ignore the cliche "it's fundraising season." "The problem with that framing," says Andresen, is that "time of year is not a reason to give, unless it's the last week of December, in which case there is a tax year deadline relevant to donors. We may live by the campaign calendar, but our audiences do not...."

Guest blogging on the Tactical Philanthropy blog, Communicate Good founder Rich Polt has a few suggestions for funders and their grantees facing conflicts of interests in their communications campaigns. Writes Polt:

This tension in funder-grantee communications mirrors the already documented tensions between funders and their grantees in other areas: program efficacy, mission drift, boardroom relations, etc. In a study by the Center for Effective Philanthropy on funder-grantee relationships, a key finding (detailed on the bottom of page 10) is that the "pressure grantees feel to modify their priorities in order to receive a grant" is an important contributor to the measure of the overall relationship. We know this is a very real issue. So it stands to reason that this also impacts the realm of communications.

While I am looking at this problem from the lens of the nonprofit, it is equally possible for the reverse situation to hold true. When smaller foundations, ambitiously working to create their own brand in the market, make grants to powerhouse nonprofits, they run the risk of having their messages eclipsed by that of their steamrolling grantees....

Diversity

On the White Courtesy Telephone blog, Greater New Orleans Foundation president Albert Ruesga wonders what "would be the understandings and principles that would make for a good discussion about racial inequity."

Fundraising

After examining three recent surveys that highlight the highs and lows of the current fundraising climate, About.com's Joanne Fritz concludes that "[p]robably, the bottom line is that things are turning up for some organizations, and that sticking to one's knitting is the best way to get through a still turbulent environment."

Nonprofit Management

On the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog, Taproot Foundation founder and president Aaron Hurst offers five examples of "best" practices every nonprofit leader should ignore. His list includes recruiting and managing volunteers, customized Web design, and a social media presence.

In a post on his blog, GuideStar president and CEO Bob Ottenhoff advises nonprofit human resources directors to "embrace adaptability," especially during times of economic uncertainty.

Philanthropy

"Philanthropy has a role in the ecosystem of funding for public goods," writes Lucy Bernholz on her Philanthropy 2173 blog. "It is one key way in which we use private resources for public goods -- volunteering and impact investing being two others. [But claims] that philanthropy can replace public funding fail to understand its actual scope and potential. Counting on it to provide core public services is, among other things, simply undemocratic...."

Guest blogging on the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy's Keeping a Close Eye blog, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation executive director Bill Somerville looks ahead to 2014 and shares six predictions for philanthropy.

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

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (October 8 - 9, 2011)

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

Diversity

BlackGivesBack guest contributor B. Denise Hawkins chats with California Endowment president and CEO Robert K. Ross about the endowment's recent investment in the D5 Coalition, "a five-year [effort] to grow philanthropy’s diversity, equity, and inclusion...."

Fundraising

Future Fundraising Now blogger Jeff Brooks explains why most donors who stop supporting your organization won't explain why. "What goes wrong?" asks Brooks, "You fail to be a relevant, meaningful part of their lives. Something else takes your place that fits them better...."

Impact/Effectiveness

Guest blogging on the Tactical Philanthropy blog, William Schambra, director of the Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal at the Hudson Institute, explains why metrics don't necessarily tell grantmakers whether a program works by taking a look at the center's efforts in welfare reform.

Innovation

On the Chronicle of Philanthropy's Social Philanthropy blog, Peter Panepento remembers Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

And on their blog, the folks at the Case Foundation share some thoughts and reflections on Jobs' achievements and impact on society on their blog.

Nonprofit Management

In response to two recent investigations into nonprofit executive salary levels (in New Jersey and New York), John Brothers, principal of Cuidiu Consulting and a senior fellow at the Support Center for Nonprofit Management, tells nonprofit organizations to start taking these inquiries seriously. "In previous Stanford Social Innovation Review articles, I've talked about how the sector is left out of major pieces of legislation and how groups like NPR and Planned Parenthood are under attack," writes Brothers. "Now there is a focus on executive pay at the state level. Government has routinely picked battles with the nonprofit sector, and the sector has taken a beating -- mostly without a fight. The sector holds a great deal of power, but right now, it is not mobilized and therefore carries very little weight...."

Social Media

Beth Kanter discusses content curation for the twenty-first century and offers a list of online tools to help nonprofit organizations get started.

In a recent post on his blog, Geoff Livingston, who co-founded the communications consulting firm Zoetica with Kanter, offers a few reasons why Google+ has lost "its perceived mojo so quickly." For one thing, writes Livingston, Facebook "has responded quickly to Google+, and is taking the competition seriously...."

Transparency

And in the second installment of her two-part series on the Foundation Center's Transparency Talk blog, Diana Scearce, a senior consultant with the Monitor Institute, chats with organizational effectiveness consultant Jeff Jackson about the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s yearlong experiment to embrace the "network mindset."

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

-- Regina Mahone 

Weekend Link Roundup (July 16 - 17, 2011)

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

Capacity Building

At Beth's Blog, Paul Connolly of the TCC Group argues that "fortifying nonprofits' fundraising capability" is not a "no-brainer." In fact, new research conducted by the TCC Group on the Packard Foundation's nonprofit capacity-building efforts suggests that while "fundraising capacity is essential...it needs to happen in conjunction with solid leadership and organizational learning."

Diversity

On the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy's Keeping a Close Eye blog, Nathan Henderson-James, online director at the Leadership Center for the Common Good, commends the Freedom from Fear Award program for its use of social media tools like Twitter to crowd-source nominations for the award. "Not only does this approach have the ability to help expand the potential grant pool beyond those with the most 'insider' knowledge," writes Henderson-James, "[but] it also has the ability to reach potentially deserving grantees from traditionally underserved communities, because those communities tend to be among the most voracious users of social media."

Fundraising

"Never accept a gift that costs your nonprofit more than it's worth," writes Stephen L. Goldstein on the Fundraising Guru blog. "A gift of a collection of ancient coins to a historical museum may be interesting, but impractical to receive because of prohibitive insurance costs. Sometimes, you must say 'No.'"

On her About.com blog, Joanne Fritz shares findings from the most recent installment of Blackbaud's Index of Charitable Giving, which found that "charitable organizations experienced an uptick in donations in May to the tune of 11.3 percent."

Governance

On his Nonprofit Board Crisis blog, Mike Burns shares a few thoughts about effective nonprofit board governance.

Amy Ellsworth and Lisa Spalding of the Philanthropic Initiative wonder what a new foundation board member is to do when he/she observes "a number of bad behaviors that have become normalized." "How do you approach a difficult subject? How do you determine the best people to talk to?" ask Ellsworth and Spalding. Have you ever been around a situation like the one they describe? What's your advice? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Philanthropy

Guest blogging on the Tactical Philanthropy blog, Jacob Harold of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation reflects on the challenges and opportunities facing program officers, many of whom are well positioned to facilitate collaboration among nonprofits working to address the same problem.

In a three-part series on the Philanthropy Potluck blog, the Minnesota Council on Foundation's Chris Murakami Noonan shares insights from program officers at MCF member organizations, including some of their pet peeves with respect to the grant application process, tips on how to get on a PO's good side, and general advice for development officers.

On Kris Putnam-Walkerley's Philanthropy 411 blog, Richard Woo of the Russell Family Foundation explains why it's important for foundations to frame their "grants, programs, and initiatives" around "the relevance of those offerings and the nature of our relationship with the community." Writes Woo:

What if we offered a grant and no one wanted it?

We must emphasize our relationships even as we deliver grants, programs, and initiatives. When we pay as much attention to authentic relationship development as we do to program development -- there is a greater chance of becoming relevant. Relationships are boundless, programs are finite.

Technology

On the Idealist.org blog, Jeremy MacKechnie lists a number of new Web sites that have adopted the Groupon model to promote social good.

While tools like Visual.ly make it easy for organizations to "show" their data, "You still need to know what kind of data representation (picture) helps make what kind of point," writes Lucy Bernholz on her Philanthropy 2173 blog. "No doubt about it, a picture is worth 1000 words. Especially if it shows us something we can't see in the raw numbers or raw words, shows relationships we wouldn't otherwise find, or sparks new questions. If not, it's just a cool picture."

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

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (May 14 - 15, 2011)

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

Communications/Marketing

On her Non-Profit Marketing blog, Katya Andresen explains why it's important for community foundations and (nonprofits with a broad mission) to use a "modular" approach to donor cultivation.

Kivi Leroux Miller shares a new video on her Nonprofit Communications blog in which the Foundation Center's social media manager Jereme Bivins explains how he helps the center maintain an active presence on various social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter.

Diversity

On the Minnesota Council on Foundation's Philanthropy Potluck blog, Chris Murakami Noonan shares an interview with David Nicholson of the Headwaters Foundation for Justice in which Nicholson discusses what it takes be a leader on diversity and inclusivity issues. Among other things, says Nicholson, leaders should be humble, push themselves (and others) to have relationships with the "other," and "be interested in advancing systems thinking, to understand how things work in our society."

On her blog, Rosetta Thurman takes a look at The Voice of Nonprofit Talent: Perceptions of Diversity in the Workplace (17 pages, PDF), a new study from Commongood Careers and the Level Playing Field Institute. According to the study, there's "a significant disconnect...between the stated values and beliefs of nonprofit organizations regarding the importance of racial diversity, and their attempts to proactively increase diversity and inclusiveness within their organizations." This explains why "even if recruitment is successful, retention can be a challenge," writes Thurman. "Once people of color join the staff of a nonprofit, they need to feel included and supported within the organization -– or else they feel like they've been duped...."

Philanthropy

At NCRP's Keeping a Close Eye blog, field director Sean Dobson suggests that the "Giving Pledgers" who met recently in Arizona to discuss their giving should adopt the "winning approach" that helped them build successful businesses in the first place. Writes Dobson:

Comparing notes with each other about effective strategy is a good first step. But the fact remains that many of the Giving Pledge billionaires are philanthropic rookies who have either just set up a foundation or are in the process of doing so. Thus, their next step should be to reach out beyond Giving Pledge members and learn from knowledgeable outsiders such as colleagues at older foundations and from best-practice research by groups such as NCRP, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Alliance for Justice, the Center for Effective Philanthropy, GrantCraft and others.

Social Innovation

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF) at the Corporation for National and Community Service has published an excellent map/legend detailing its subgrantee initiatives by state, metro area, and funding area.

Social Media

"For the most part, foundations are using social media as a one-way communications tool about their programs, not for interaction with grantees," writes Beth Kanter, who appeared on a panel at last week's Center for Effective Philanthropy conference. "Grantees are reading about foundation's programs through social media channels, but not engaging with funders. A skeptic's view might be: why waste time? Another lens, ask why?"

Kanter's Zoetica colleague Geoff Livingston suggests on his blog that the echo-chamber quality of the blogosphere is creating a social ecosphere predicated on "an oral-based retelling of the same story." What's scary about that, writes Livingston, "is that the 'good referred stories' may not be grounded in reality. And that's when whole sectors are led by their digital bards off the proverbial cliff...."

Technology

In between tri to her next speaking gig, Philanthropy 2173's Lucy Bernholz shares some thoughts about how different kinds of institutions are crowdsourcing new ideas and creating tools and resources as part of the sharing economy.

Transparency

On her About.com Nonprofit blog, Joanne Fritz recaps a recent Small Nonprofit Twitter Chat (#smNPchat) that explored nonprofit accountability. Among other things, the group agreed that "nonprofits owe their donors transparency, which is all about making it easy for a donor to look into the organization's finances and management, and what impact the organization is having on the problem it addresses." Fritz goes on to provide examples of how some nonprofits are demonstrating impact.

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

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (April 23-24, 2011)

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

Communications/Marketing

On her Getting Attention blog, Nancy Schwartz suggests when the key to crafting an effective fundraising appeal about a difficult issue is to "focus on the positive changes...that will be made by the organization's work" and then describe the strategy to be used.

Diversity

"In the charitable marketplace, diversity and inclusiveness can be powerful strategies for building the capacity of nonprofits and foundations, and helping them fulfill their mission of boosting the capacity of people and places in need," writes Todd Cohen on his Inside Philanthropy blog. "But while they preach diversity, far too few nonprofits and foundations will take on or can handle the difficult job of practicing it...."

Fundraising

Future Fundraising Now blogger Jeff Brooks shares this chart from Jessica Hagy of Indexed which highlights why it's important to respect your donors.

With increased postage rates, "shorter attention spans of...direct mail readers, and less discretionary spending capacity by donors," direct mail will be challenging for nonprofits in 2011, writes Joanne Fritz on her About.com Nonprofit Blog. To help development staff get back to basics with their fundraising letters, Fritz shares some advice from professional fundraiser Allan Sharpe.

Nonprofit Management

CBS caused a ruckus last week with a "60 Minutes" segment that accused best-selling author Greg Mortenson of exaggerating the number of schools built by his charity, the Central Asia Institute, and of improperly using funds donated to CAI. Withholding judgment, GuideStar president and CEO Bob Ottenhoff offers a few lessons to-be-learned from the controversy on his blog.

Philanthropy

On his White Courtesy Telephone blog, Greater New Orleans Foundation president Albert Ruesga writes an open letter to younger people in philanthropy. In the letter, Ruesga explains what he believes needs to happen in order for philanthropy to change. Says Ruesga,

I believe [philanthropy] will only evolve into an engine of transformation by the efforts of people -- young and old -- who are honest about the gap between its aspirations and its outcomes, and who offer an alternative to what has become, in my view, an especially expensive means of maintaining current systems of social, economic, and political oppression....

Social Media

Networked Nonprofit co-author Beth Kanter shares some examples of how arts and cultural organizations are using QR codes -- bar codes that can be scanned by a mobile phone and are currently being printed in magazines and on T-shirts to point people to more information online.

And on her Non-Profit Marketing blog, Katya Andresen explains why "it's crazy to participate in NO social media, and...equally nuts to participate in ALL social media."

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

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (April 16-17, 2011)

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

Communications/Marketing

Writing about his favorite topic, social media, Zoetica co-founder Geoff Livingston says he hopes that "amateur hour is over, and that unknowledgeable social media communicators go the way of the dodo bird...."

Disaster Relief

Last Monday marked the one-month anniversary of the massive 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck northern Japan, a calamity that claimed the lives of at least 13,000 people and has left more than 154,000 people homeless. On the GiveWell blog, Holden Karnofsky provides a thorough update on the philanthropic response to the disaster.

Diversity

Nonprofit Quarterly correspondent Rick Cohen takes a closer look at a new report from Boston-based Commongood Careers and the Level Playing Institute which suggests that while nonprofits are perceived as valuing diversity and inclusiveness, they often fail to live up to those goals. While Cohen generally agrees with the report's findings, he also notes that "real diversity includes providing the opportunity for marginalized population groups to have a stake in the organizations, not just paychecks."

Philanthropy

On the Deep Social Impact blog, Maureen O’Brien and Cynthia Gibson share findings from the 2011 Millennial Donor survey, which analyzed giving trends among nearly 3,000 respondents between the ages of 20 and 35. According to the survey, "Millennials don't actually prefer to donate through texts, mobile apps, Twitter or Facebook...[and] Millennials, who are commonly seen as following Hollywood trendsetters, are really not swayed to give by celebrity endorsements." Surprised? We didn't think so. But as O'Brien and Gibson note, "The data gleaned from this study are hard to interpret without comparable data from other generational cohorts."

"For the last hundred years Americans have given about 2% of income to charity," writes Sean Stannard-Stockton in a recent post on his Tactical Philanthropy blog. "This percentage has been remarkably consistent during good times and bad. Maybe the key to increasing the amount given to charity is to get away from the 'give because it is good for you' (good for your soul, good for others, something you 'should' do) approach and embrace a philanthropy as junk food mentality...." Read the rest of Sean's post to see what he means.

A number of philanthropic leaders who traveled to Philadelphia this week for the Council on Foundation's annual conference shared their thoughts and perspectives on Kris Putnam-Walkerly's Philanthropy 411 blog. We especially liked the posts by Levi Strauss Foundation social media fellow Jorge Cino, who in a three-part series provided a look at how the foundation communicates its work through stories; Draper Consulting Group president Lee Draper, who recapped a lecture on diversity and philanthropy by Ambassador James Joseph; and Horizons Foundation executive director Roger Doughty, who discussed the importance of investing in fundraising to increase overall giving.

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy field associate Christine Reeves shares her top ten themes and takeaways from the Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy conference, which also was held last week in Philadelphia.

Social Entrepreneurship

Philanthropy Action's Tim Ogden commends the "Microfinance in Crisis?" panelists at this year's Global Philanthropy Forum for acknowledging that it's time for the industry to reflect on where it is and where it is going. But Ogden being Ogden, he goes on to criticize the panel and the industry at large for not digging deeper into "how microcredit clients are managing cash flows and the rest of their financial lives when they no longer have confidence in the availability of microcredit."

Volunteerism

In conjunction with National Volunteer Week, Idealist's Amy Potthast shares three volunteering ideas "that even busy professionals -- including folks with families -- can try."

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

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (February 5 - 6, 2011)

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

Communications/Marketing

On her Getting Attention blog, Nancy Schwartz chats with Nonprofit Marketing Guide author Kivi Leroux Miller about Miller's new report detailing "the most important (and least important) communications tools for [nonprofits in] 2011."

Diversity

Writing on the NCRP blog, Meredith Brodbeck offers some reflections about the Kellogg Foundation's work to address racial disparities in the United States.

Leadership

Case Foundation VP for Social Innovation Kari Dunn Saratovsky disagrees with Special Olympics CEO Tim Shriver, who said at a recent conference that past generations "have failed at inspiring the big ideas of the next generation." Not so, writes Saratovsky. "The rising generation is inspired to fight the good fight -- we just have a different way of going about it. Perhaps," she adds,

we forget that it’s the Millennial generation who in large part moved social technologies into the mainstream -- and are now moving them to mobilize around social issues through platforms like Facebook and Twitter. We were the first segment of users who discovered the utility of the technology and exploited it in ways that our parents would have never dreamed. Perhaps this quality of creative thinking when it comes to technology, comes from not being taught or forced into institutional thinking or traditional business cultures, but instead by living lives in a very open and transparent ways -- always searching for answers and willing to take risks. Something that parents like Tim allowed us to do....

On her blog, Beth Kanter shares a few takeaways from a recent discussion on the art of reflection.

Microfinance

Philanthropy Action's Tim Ogden explains why there may yet be sunny days ahead for the microfinance industry. While a study released at the 2010 Microfinance Impact and Innovation Conference found "little evidence that borrowers significantly increase their incomes, invest heavily in their businesses, or that children attend more school or women become empowered," writes Ogden, the findings are "driven by unrealistic expectations. The studies have thoroughly exploded the myth that microcredit is a silver bullet for eliminating poverty. But believing that microcredit -- or anything -- is a silver bullet for poverty was silly in the first place...."

Philanthropy

World Affairs Council president and CEO Jane Wales responds to a New York Times article that criticized the leadership of Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the search giant, for making bold claims "and raising expectations to a level that could not be met in a period short enough to match our attention span....While that criticism may be fair," writes Wales,

in the scheme of things, it seems unimportant. Like the rest of us, Googlers could not and cannot foresee the full social, economic and political implications of providing the world’s knowledge to those who were previously isolated by poverty or politics....But Googlers do know one thing, and that is the level at which large decisions will be made -- and that is at the level of the individual....

Social Media

In this month's installment of her Social Good podcast, Allison Fine chats with Network for Good's Katya Andresen and UC San Francisco's Lena Shaw about how nonprofits can use social media in their annual appeals.

And on her blog, Fine, co-author (with Beth Kanter) of The Networked Nonprofit, responds to a blog post by New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell, who in October touched off an Internet firestorm with an article that seemed to minimize the importance of social media as a driver of social change, in which Gladwell says that the use of social media by Egyptian protestors is "less interesting, in the end, than why they were driven to [protest] in the first place." Fine couldn't disagree more and argues that the "advent of social media provides three critical resources for protesters today":

1. The ability to initially organize as the Egyptian protesters did on Facebook and Twitter to connect with their friends, but more importantly, the friends of friends, the network.
2. The power to change meeting places or times in real time using tools like text messaging, Twitter or Foursquare.
3. The ability to share their stories, pictures, and videos with the rest of the world.

Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Jeffery Rayport argues that Facebook, the social networking super site, has become a sort of ubiquitous branded utility that not only is changing business, but is "changing us in ways that are arguably out of anyone's control...."

Technology

Last but not least, Netsuite philanthropy program manager David Geilhufe makes a case on the Nonprofit Technology Network blog for hiring experienced technology experts rather than relying on the limited knowledge of "accidental techies."

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

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (November 6 - 7, 2010)

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

Communications/Marketing

On her Non-Profit Marketing blog, Katya Andresen reminds nonprofit marketers why the old adage "less is more" is as relevant as ever.

Diversity

"Underestimating the critical role of culture may be the reason," writes Chris Murakami Noonan on the Philanthropy Potluck blog, "there has been little change in the number of board members of color in the past fifteen years, despite all the talk in our sector about the need to diversify, the focus on recruiting board members of color, and organizational strategies developed to highlight diversity and inclusiveness...."

Impact/Effectiveness

Writing on the Harvard Business Review blog, Uncharitable author Dan Pallotta explains why the movement by "well-meaning social entrepreneurs...and one established watchdog" to create an evaluation platform for measuring the effectiveness of charities "may prove as inadequate to the task of helping the public make good donation decisions as the 'overhead' religion it seeks to replace...."

Guest blogging on the Tactical Philanthropy blog, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations' Kathleen Enright identifies some "common conceptions about innovation and scale [that] could actually prevent those who command philanthropic dollars from successfully leveraging limited resources for maximum impact...."

On the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog, Ann Goggins Gregory of the Bridgespan Group explains why "across-the-aisle conversations" between donors and nonprofits "can be a powerful tool for change."

Social Entrepreneurship

Philanthropy Action's Tim Ogden has a nice round up of blog posts written about this year's Microfinance Innovation and Impact Conference.

After sharing a few takeways from the conference on his GiveWell blog, Holden Karnofsky makes a case for more research and evaluation on the impact of microloans. Writes Karnofsky, "My greatest fear about microfinance is that all (or nearly all) of [the philanthropic capital]...is chasing a good story rather than a good program...."

Social Media

In the latest installment of her Social Good podcast series, Allison Fine interviews Seattle-based journalist Dan Savage about the It Gets Better Project, a video series for gay teens Savage launched with his partner Terry Miller.

Guest blogging on Beth Kanter's blog, Blackbaud's Frank Barry shares a few videos from the fundraising software provider's 2010 Conference for Nonprofits. In one video, Barry interviews Claire Williams Diaz, who heads up the social innovation unit at Twitter, while in a different one he chats with Zoetica co-founder Geoff Livingston about grassroots fundraising and "the rapid growth of online platforms that allow people to raise money for the causes they support."

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

-- Regina Mahone

Foundation Leaders Divided on Diversity Disclosure Legislation

Since 2008, two attempts have been made to pass state-wide legislation regarding the public disclosure of private foundation practices related to diversity; one succeeded and one failed. In California, AB 624, a proposition requiring foundations to report on the diversity of their staffs, board, and grantmaking practices, failed to become law in 2008. And earlier this year, in Florida, SB 998, a law that prohibits the state from collecting such information, passed.

In July, the Foundation Center surveyed members of its Grantmaker Leadership Panel to gauge the reaction of foundation leaders to these developments. Based on completed surveys from 73 of the 228 members of the panel (a response rate of 32 percent), the results showed that, on balance, respondents tend to have unfavorable opinions of both initiatives.

As shown below, a slight majority of foundation leaders (51 percent) disapproved of the California legislation. Overall, twice as many foundation leaders had an "unfavorable" opinion as had a "favorable" opinion (51 percent vs. 25 percent), while the remaining 24 percent were either "neutral" (20 percent) or "unfamiliar" (4 percent) with the legislation.

 

The sentiments of the "unfavorable" camp were captured by a private foundation president who expressed concern that "federal intrusion and prescriptive models of giving and places to give will erode the genius and diversity of philanthropy," while the views of those who had a "favorable" opinion of the legislation were summed up by a foundtion president who said, "We expect and demand disclosure of demographic diversity from corporations, so why not philanthropy?"

When it came to the recently passed Florida legislation, almost three times as many foundation leaders had an unfavorable opinion as had a favorable opinion (42 percent vs. 15 percent), while a quarter (26 percent) were neutral and 16 percent were unfamiliar with the legislation.

 

Only ten foundation leaders (14 percent of all respondents) disapproved of both initiatives, while nine (12 percent) were neutral on both. As one private foundation put it: "While I fully support self-governance and full disclosure as those issues relate to private foundations, I find it difficult to support legilstaion that requires and/or prohibits the gathering of any sort of information."

To download Foundation Leaders Divided on Legislation; Supportive of Field-Building Efforts (4 pages, PDF), the report based on the survey, click here.

What's your view of the recent attempts to pass, or prohibit, diversity disclosure legislation? Do you agree with the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, which labeled passage of the Florida law as "a major setback for grantmaker accountability"? Or do you lean more toward the Philanthropy Roundtable/Alliance for Charitable Reform view that the California bill was an overreach and a threat to philanthropic freedom?

Use the comments section to share your thoughts.

9/11: Lest We Forget

(Michael Seltzer is a regular contributor to PhilanTopic. In his last post, he wrote about the Cordoba House controversy.)

Nine years ago today, on a similarly gorgeous morning in the Northeast, almost three thousand individuals lost their lives in coordinated terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the crash of United Airlines Flight 43 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The horror of 9/11 will never be forgotten by the tens of thousands of people who lost loved ones or the hundreds of millions around the world who watched or listened to the terrible events of that day unfold on television, radio, or the Internet.

Nine years later, as we honor the innocent victims of the attacks and the hundreds of brave men and women who sacrificed their lives to help others, let us also remember that the attacks were designed to strike at the core of what most sets America apart from every other nation in history: Its (sometimes fraught) embrace of pluralism, freedom of expression, and the right to worship in one's own fashion.

Nothing illustrates the unique nature of the American experiment better than the fact that individuals from 77 different countries lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Here's the list of countries, courtesy of the U.S. Department of State's Office of International Information Programs:

Antigua & Barbuda	Ghana	Panama
Argentina	Greece	Peru
Australia	Guatemala	Philippines
Austria	Guyana	Poland
Bahamas	Haiti	Portugal
Bangladesh	Honduras	Romania
Barbados	Hong Kong	Russia
Belgium	India	Slovakia
Belarus	Indonesia	South Africa
Belize	Iran	South Korea
Bolivia	Ireland	Spain
Brazil	Israel	Sri Lanka
Cambodia	Italy	St. Kitts & Nevis
Canada	Jamaica	St. Lucia
Chile	Japan	Sweden
China	Jordan	Switzerland
Colombia	Kenya	Taiwan
Costa Rica	Lebanon	Thailand
Czech Republic	Luxembourg	Trinidad & Tobago
Dominica	Malaysia	Turkey
Dominican Republic	Mexico	Ukraine
Ecuador	Netherlands	United Kingdom
Egypt	New Zealand	Uruguay
El Salvador	Nicaragua	United States
France	Norway	Uzbekistan
Germany	Pakistan	Zimbabwe

On this, the ninth anniversary of 9/11, let us remember and honor all those who lost their lives, celebrate our differences, and stand together for peace, tolerance, and international understanding.

-- Michael Seltzer

Weekend Link Roundup (August 21 - 22, 2010)

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

Corporate Philanthropy

According to a survey by USA Today and the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Walmart was the nation's biggest corporate donor in 2009. "But at what cost to...the communities where all the Walmart products are made?" asks Nonprofit Board Crisis blogger Mike Burns in a recent post.

Disaster Relief

On the Foreign Policy Web site, Pakistani journalist Mosharraf Zaidi asks, Why doesn't the world care about Pakistan?

As the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, the Greater New Orleans Foundation shares the stories of five nonprofit leaders who have "marshaled armies of volunteers to help rebuild the fabric of [the] city."

Diversity

In response to a Fox 5 News segment about Generation Y, Rosetta Thurman, who was interviewed for the clip along with Mobilize.org's Maya Enista, highlights some of the problems with the too-common media tactic of pitting older generations against Millennials.

On the Black Gives Back blog, Tracey Webb announces the launch of Nonprofit Insider, a new blog sponsored by the BlackEnterpise.com site that's "geared towards those who work for, donate to, and run nonprofit organizations." In the first post, Webb shares four tips for starting a nonprofit.

Impact/Effectiveness

In a recent post on the Harvard Business Review blog, Uncharitable author Dan Pallotta urges his readers to "rethink what it means to work and to be productive."

On the Center for Effective Philanthropy blog, Phil Buchanan defends the use of the term "nonprofit" to describe the work of our sector. Buchanan further suggests that people "spend less time debating semantics and more time focusing on making the organizations in our sector -- whatever we call them -- as effective as they can be."

Social Innovation

It hasn't been a good couple of weeks for the Corporation for National and Community Service's Social Innovation Fund (SIF). A week or so after the fund announced one- and two-year grants totaling $49.2 million to eleven intermediaries working to "address urgent needs in three key issue areas -- economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development and school support," the Nonprofit Quarterly published a lengthy editorial questioning certain transparency practices at the fund. Then, in the Washington Post on Wednesday, Paul Light, a professor of public service at NYU Wagner who helped review applications to SIF during its initial funding round, weighed in with his own concerns. Light's op-ed prompted a pointed response from fellow reviewer and Billions of Drops in Millions of Buckets author Steve Goldberg (in the comments and, in much greater detail, here). In the last day or so, New Profit Inc., one of the intermediaries to receive a grant and the subject of some sharp questioning owing to the fact that one of its former executives, Paul Carttar, is now executive director of SIF, posted its unredacted application to the fund on the Web; and the New York Times' Stephanie Strom reported that the fund had agreed to release the ratings of its review panels. Is the controversy over transparency at SIF a tempest in a teapot or symptomatic of deeper problems at what Tactical Philanthropy blogger Sean Stannard-Stockton calls "one of the most important experiments in building a functioning philanthropic capital market" this country has seen? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Technology

On the Case Foundation blog, Joshua Tabb, a project coordinator at the foundation, identifies three practices that helped catalyze the Web 2.0 revolution in hopes that the tenets behind the "techvolution" in information sharing and communications can be translated from the online world to ossified offline industries.

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

-- Regina Mahone and Mitch Nauffts