PhilanTopic

Weekend Link Roundup (November 7 - 8, 2009)

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

Corporate Philanthropy

On the Reimagining CSR blog, Jessica Stannard-Friel shares examples of "companies identifying CSR activities that are relatively cheap for them to carry out, but relatively high value for the community at large."

Economy

On Friday, the National Bureau of Labor announced that the unemployment rate had jumped four-tenths of a percent, to 10.2 percent -- the highest level in twenty-six years. On the Kaufmann Foundation's Growthology blog, a downbeat Tim Kane puts the number into sobering perspective.

Fundraising

In her new book, Reliable Fundraising in Unreliable Times: What Good Causes Need to Know to Survive and Thrive, Kim Klein suggests that fundraisers need to expand their definition of "donor" to include "someone who gives time, shares ideas about how your organization can succeed, says nice things about the work you do, opens doors for you, [and] expresses gratitude for the services you provide." In addition to sharing other tips from Klein, Joanne Fritz, on About.com's Charitable Orgs blog, offers this advice:

Look for people who have a lot of relationships, who offer to help in all sorts of ways, and who are grateful for your services. Then get in contact with them and stay in contact. Say thank you frequently for whatever gifts they provide, and nurture those relationships....

Using language like "we haven't heard from you" or "we want you back," says John Thompson on the Donor Power Blog, is a sure way to weaken rather than strengthen your donor relationships.

Social networking site MySpace has announced that it is dropping the online fundraising application Causes "due to the lack of activity." Amy Sample Ward argues that this will negatively impact nonprofits on MySpace and their "communities of supporters," while Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb suggests that it might not matter at all.

Impact/Effectiveness

On the WiserEarth blog, Diane Scearce, a consultant at the Monitor Institute, offers a few things to keep in mind when evaluating network effectiveness in terms of social impact.

Journalism/Media

In a two-parter at the Cohen Report, Rick Cohen looks at the looks at the emergence of online nonprofit news and investigative journalism venues and speculates about whether the Newspaper Revitalization Act introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) can save the industry.

Leadership

Live blogging from Independent Sector’s annual conference in Detroit, Rosetta Thurman shares some questions for emerging sector leaders posed by panelists David Simms, managing partner at the Bridgespan Group, and Michael Watson, senior vice president at Girl Scouts of the USA .

And in a different post, Thurman recaps the breakfast plenary session featuring Jeff Raikes, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Philanthropy

"Got a story about how many times you were asked to give in one shopping trip?" If so, Lucy Bernholz wants to know. Click here to share the "embedded giving" story from 2009 "that made you scratch your head."

Speaking of embedded giving, Philanthropy Action editor-in-chief Tim Ogden says the real problem with the approach is the "near complete lack of transparency (who gets the funds? when? how much?) in the industry."

Guest blogging on Tactical Philanthropy, Charles Bronfman and Jeffrey Solomon, chairman and president, respectively, of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies and co-authors of The Art of Giving: Where the Soul Meets a Business Plan, argue that understanding WHY you give is just as important as figuring out how and where to give. Their post has generated a lively comments thread (thirty-plus and counting), and visitors to the blog can also read an extended excerpt from the book.

Riffing on that conversation, Nathaniel Whittemore at the Social Entrepreneurship blog asks, "Is there such a thing as selfless giving?" Whittemore doesn't think so but does believe that "giving can be much more self-aware -- and in the process, much more fulfilling, sustainable, and effective."

Social Media

Nonprofit marketing guru Nancy Schwartz shares three tips for managing your nonprofit's reputation on social networking sites that she picked up at the recent Communications Network conference in New York City:

• Use what you hear: 1) To better serve your networks by knowing what they're saying to others and to you; 2) to respond to and/or engage critics; 3) to stay abreast of the latest developments in your area of work.
• Overcome objections that listening is unnecessary: Compile and share online conversations related to critical keywords and themes over a week or a month. Provide some concrete examples of how not listening to or participating in those conversations meant that others spoke for (and defined) your organization.
• Use the best free listening tools: 1) Google Alerts and RSS feeds for keywords (org name and URL, issues, leadership names, competitive/colleague org names); and 2) Twitter search/hashtags for real-time tracking.

Schwartz also recommends following Amy Sample Ward's advice about creating a one-stop listening dashboard.

Technology

"Just as we are phasing out snail mail a few decades after email first became popular," writes Kristin Ivie in an interesting post on the Case Foundation's Social Citizens blog, so may "many offline opportunities eventually be phased out as well."

In yet another information-packed post, Beth Kanter reminisces about the early days of the World Wide Web and offers her take on how nonprofits can use Twitter's new "Lists" feature to filter the growing flood of information that comes to us courtesy of the Internet.

Transparency

Building on a recent blog post by Lucy Bernholz, Allison Fine takes a closer look at copyright expert Lawrence Lessig's claim in a recent issue of The New Republic ("Against Transparency") that "there is such a thing as too much transparency in government." While Fine doesn't buy Lessig's argument, she does agree with Bernholz that "requiring too much transparency of foundations may drive them into the dark, back rooms...of donor advised funds." Writes Fine:

Even with their enormous tax breaks, foundations are private entities that more than any other kind of institution have very little incentive to make their operations and programs more open and transparent except out of a noble assumption that by doing so they will be more effective....

Fine goes on to suggest that nonprofits, which are not public or as "private as foundations," should ask themselves the following questions as they try to strike the right balance between transparency and confidentiality:

• Will sharing this information advance our mission?
• How can others build on our content and make it better?
• Will revealing this information improve morale and make staff feel better informed and able to make decisions on their own?
• Will sharing this information better connect us to our network and help us build the relationships that we need to be successful?

Last but not least, on the Social Actions blog, Christine Egger rounds up a number of thought-provoking conversations on the topic of transparency and data standards in the sector.

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

-- Regina Mahone

TED on Sunday: Geoff Mulgan on Social Innovation and the New Capitalism

Two-plus years after the global financial system began to melt down, we find ourselves in a "strange twilight zone" characterized by paralysis and retrogade thinking, argues Geoff Mulgan in this talk from the 2009 TED Global conference. Even as governments around the world borrow trillions of dollars from future generations in an attempt to reignite economic growth, many measures of social and environmental health are deteriorating. Indeed, says Mulgan, director of the London-based Young Foundation, the financial crisis has made plain the fact that economic growth doesn't automatically translate into social progress or human growth. Too much of it goes into boosting unsustainable consumption; too much of it leaves people feeling they aren't allowed to be useful -- and when people aren't allowed to be useful, they soon start to think they are useless. The question is, What are we going to do about it? Mulgan's answer may surprise and inspire you.

(Filmed: July 2009; Running time: 17:57)

Liked this talk? Try one of these.

• Elizabeth Gilbert on Creativity
• Hans Rosling on the Global HIV Pandemic
• Bill Gates on the Importance of Being Optimistic
• Clay Shirky on the Transformed Media Landscape
• Katherine Fulton on the Future of Philanthropy
• Seth Godin on Leadership
• Barry Schwartz on the Paradox of Choice
• Alex Tabarrok on the Benefits of Globalization
• Majora Carter on Environmental Justice
• Al Gore on Climate Change
• Sylvia Earle on Saving the 'Blue Heart' of the Planet
• James Howard Kunstler on the Death of Suburbia
• Clay Shirky on Epochal Change
• Mark Bittman on How We Eat
• Hans Rosling on the Dimensions of Development
• Sir Ken Robinson on Education and Creativity

And for those who can't get enough of TED, check out Jim Simpson's post about a cool hidden feature of most TED Talks.

-- Mitch Nauffts

Sunk Costs and the Need for Social Innovation

(Farnaz Golshani is director of programs and services at the San Francisco-based Tides Center. This is her first post for PhilanTopic.)

I've been thinking a lot lately about the concept of "sunk costs." In economics and business decision-making, sunk costs are unrecoverable past expenditures that, under normal circumstances, should not be taken into account when determining whether to continue or abandon a project, effort, or initiative because costs that are already "sunk" cannot be recovered.

Inevitably, thinking about sunk costs reminds me of my "Saab stories." I purchased a used Saab for $15,000 a number of years ago and then spent more than $5,000 on repairs for it over the next few years -- not to mention the considerable time I spent at the repair shop and the stress I experienced each time the "check engine" light would blink on. But I kept sinking dollars into that Saab, if only to justify all the money I had already "invested" in it.

Organizations and bureaucracies often behave in a similar fashion. Rather than innovate, they choose to stay the course and keep sinking money into existing projects and initiatives simply to justify their previous investments. Indeed, government does this all the time. Two glaring examples -- failing workforce development systems and inadequate treatment of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) -- are particularly noteworthy, given that we are fighting two wars and the unemployment rate is the highest it has been in decades.

On the workforce development front, the federal government continues to fund WorkSource Centers through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). In 2009, the Department of Labor had a budget of $53 billion, a good part of which funded WorkSource Center "One-stops," even though the average WorkSource Center only has a 20 to 40 percent success rate.

In contrast, truly innovative workforce development organizations such as Chrysalis, the Delancey Street Foundation, and Rubicon have achieved phenomenal outcomes with the "hardest to employ" -- the homeless and individuals with multiple felonies. Even in this challenging economy, Chrysalis, a workforce development organization based in L.A.'s Skid Row area, helps more than 80 percent of its homeless clients secure jobs each year using transitional employment opportunities.

Sadly, the innovative workforce development models pioneered by these organizations receive only a pittance from DOL, forcing them to rely on variable and much more modest revenues donated by individuals, corporations, and foundations. Adding insult to injury, stimulus funds now going through DOL are simply getting dumped -- sunk -- into existing WIA programs and contractors/agencies already in place. This precludes workforce development programs lacking WIA contracts from receiving stimulus funds, even if those programs have been proven to be more effective.

It also pains me to see the government sinking funds into ineffective treatment for veterans rather than investing in proven models with better track records. The federally funded Veterans Affairs (VA) system offers a largely ineffective thirty-day Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) support program that leaves most of the young men and women who complete it with persistently high levels of anxiety and depression and often no recourse other than to turn to drugs, alcohol, violence, homelessness, or even suicide.

There are existing programs that actually help veterans with PTSD develop the coping skills they need to face their anxieties and reintegration challenges. One such program is the Pathway Home for Returning Veterans, an LLC of Tides. Most veterans entering Pathway are referred by other VA hospitals because their PTSD or traumatic brain injuries were so severe that they had attempted suicide or were still suffering from seizures. Through its holistic 90- to 120-day program, Pathway has helped veterans with PTSD overcome their fears, secure jobs, and live healthy lives with their families. Indeed, its graduates consistently attest that the program saved their lives, armed them with the coping mechanisms to deal with anxiety, and even helped their families to better understand their PTSD.

Pathway's successes could not have happened in the VA -- they are the result of innovative partnerships involving nonprofits, the state of California, and donors who are committed to doing right by those who put their lives on the line for our country. Yes, a 90– to 120-day program is more expensive, but the long-term cost of PTSD is far greater when you factor in the social costs of homelessness, violence, long-term medical issues, drug problems, and so many other problems plaguing our veterans.

In his first months in office, President Obama said it was time for the government to invest in social innovation. Most of us in the social sector were delighted to see our efforts and good work finally get some recognition -- even if it meant we had to ignore the fact that the federal government was willing to sink $85 billion into AIG to keep the giant insurer afloat or spend $13.4 billion on rescuing General Motors but was only willing to invest $30 million in social innovation.

That was then. The "official" unemployment rate in the U.S. is now over 10 percent. We continue to put the lives of brave young men and women on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's time for the public, private, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors -- as well as individuals -- to invest in best practices and proven models of successful social innovation and to stop sinking money into organizations and efforts that no longer work, or never did.

Even I managed to learn that lesson. After four years of waiting in dealerships for more bad news, I finally bought a new car.

-- Farnaz Golshani

Foundations' Year-End Outlook for Giving

Our Research colleagues here at the Foundation Center have issued a new advisory (5 pages, PDF) that looks at how foundation thinking has evolved since the center conducted its last giving forecast survey in January.

Based on a follow-up survey of leading funders conducted in September, the advisory suggests that foundation giving will decline by more than 10 percent this year -- toward the middle of the 8 to 13 percent range estimated by that initial survey -- and that overall foundation giving will decline further in 2010. Indeed, consistent with findings from the January survey, a larger share of respondents expect their giving to be lower next year (26 percent) than higher (17 percent).

Other findings from the advisory:

• More than two-thirds of respondents have reduced their operating expenses in order to shore up their giving or for other purposes, with cuts to staff travel budgets and conference attendance the most common action in the cost-cutting area, followed by freezing or reducing staff salaries, reducing staff training and professional development opportunities, reducing/cutting institutional memberships, reducing the number of publications produced, cutting staff and the use of consultants, and reducing staff benefits.
  
  
• Grantmakers expect the field of philanthropy to become more strategic as a result of the economic crisis, with 78 percent of respondents agreeing with that statement, 7 percent disagreeing, and 15 percent opting for "no opinion."
  
  
• The majority of funders believe that the nonprofit community in general was not sufficiently prepared to weather a significant economic downturn, but most (though not all) expect the sector to emerge stronger from the crisis. Still, skepticism that anything good will come of the crisis abounds, with one funder saying that "in a weak sector like the not-for-profit sector, crisis creates more weaknesses rather than increased strength," and another remarking that nonprofits "will lose good people with years of experience and will not be able to replace them."

What do you think? Will 2010 be an annus horribilis for nonprofits and the nonprofit sector? Will organizations, both good ones and those that are underperforming, fail in unacceptable numbers? Or will most find a way to muddle through and emerge stronger as a result? And what will be the most important quality or compentency for nonprofits in the new Reset Economy?

Use the comment section to share you thoughts....

-- Mitch Nauffts

Pep Talk for a Rainy Day

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way...."

The opening passage of A Tale of Two Cities is one of the best-known in English literature. Writing seventy years after the events portrayed, Dickens managed, in a few brilliantly turned phrases, to capture the fear, euphoria, and relief of a disillusioned society on the threshold of epochal change.

A hundred and fifty years after Dickens published his book, we find ourselves at a similar threshold. And if, like me, your view of the world is tinged with a healthy skepticism, you're probably thinking it will be a while before the clouds part, our animal spirits are revived, and we're ready to plunge once more into the breach.

If, on the other hand, you've been around the block a few times and, like John Mauldin (Thoughts From the Frontline), prefer the sunny side of the street, this is the best of times.

It's all a matter of perspective, as Mauldin explains in the most recent installment of his weekly missive. "[L]et's review those wonderful days from whence we sprang, so fraught with the advantages of having nothing," he writes, addressing himself to his good friend, the author (Empire of Debt) and financial newsletter (The Daily Reckoning) writer Bill Bonner.

It was the middle of the '70s....Inflation was high and rising. The Soviets were seen as a major threat. Japan was beating our brains out and buying everything, even if nailed down (like Pebble Beach and New York skyscrapers). I had to borrow money at 15% (or more) to buy paper in order to meet customer demands for printing. And guess what? The banks got into trouble and called loans willy-nilly....

There were multiple successive and ever-deeper recessions. Gold was rising and the dollar was seen as a joke. Howard Ruff (a good friend to both of us when we were starting out!) and almost every newsletter writer were telling people to buy gold and freeze-dried food to protect themselves against a near-certain economic, if not apocalyptic, catastrophe. Unemployment was high and rising for a decade.

The correct answer to the question, "Where will the jobs come from?" back then was, "I don't know, but they will." And that is the correct answer today.

In 20 years, no one will want to come back to the halcyon days of 2009. Our kids...are getting ready to live through what will be the most exciting period in human history. There will be a century's worth of change, measured by the standard of the 20th century, just in the next ten years, and then we will double that pace in the next ten after that. Medical miracles will mean our kids and grandkids will live a lot longer than their dads, although I intend to be writing well into my 80s, like our mutual hero Richard Russell.

There will be whole new industries developed in the US. How do I know that? Follow the money. The rest of the world spends a fraction of what we do on research and development. Where do you go if you are looking for venture capital?

Do I care if the Chinese and the "developing" world are far better off, relatively speaking, than the US in 20 years? Not a whit. Good on them. I hope they make discoveries and inventions and grow new businesses that benefit us all. But we are not going into some long dark night. We, and our kids, get to choose how we respond to what is the reality of the day.

Our nation had to almost hit the wall in 1980 before a Volker could come along and force us to take the pain of recession to beat back inflation. And we will have to come perilously close to the wall this time before we take action as a nation. Way too close for comfort. Maybe you are right, and we have a soft depression. I hope not; but even so, the world will be better, far better, in 20 years, with far more opportunities than today....

You are right in this: it is personal gumption that makes or breaks us. There are those who started out with less than we did (hard to imagine but true) and made a lot more. And there are those who started out with far more and made less. But there are very few who are happier than either of us. Or luckier.

Our kids? It is not the times that dictate the man (or daughter!), but the response of the man which dictates his own time. Today promises a brighter future for someone young than any other time in history, whether they are in the US or Brazil or China. They just have to seize it.

And as our kids do just that, and as the millions of kids of those who read us do so, and the billions of kids who are just now getting ready to bust loose all work to achieve their dreams, the world is going to be a far more fantastic place. Smooth ride? Not a chance. We didn't get one; and in thinking through history, there have not been many smooth rides. Why should we think that will get any better? Our kids will just have to live with our generational (and individual) iniquities, government debt and all, and figure out how to master their own fates. But if I had a choice to take the '70s or today? In less than a heartbeat I would choose today. And I bet you would too!

You're right, Mr. Mauldin. Good on you. Thanks for the reminder.

-- Mitch Nauffts

Managing in the Reset Economy

Unless you've been asleep for the last eighteen months, you know the economy stinks and folks are hurting. You've also probably heard that lots of people have been scared into a renewed appreciation for their hard-earned dollars.

This, in turn, has made things tougher for businesses and nonprofit organizations, many of which have cut hours, staff, and/or service offerings in an attempt to stay afloat until the storm ebbs.

In such an environment, managers who have been asked to do more with less are always on the lookout for advice about the challenge, as the Poynter Institute's Jill Geisler puts it, of managing people whose work is...well, mediocre. You know, the employees you might have carried in "fatter" times, even though their work is "uninspired, formulaic, lackluster, average, not awful but never great."

Before you give in to temptation and "jettison" that underperforming employee, says Geisler, ask yourself the following:

1. Have I been clear with this person about roles and responsibilities?
2. Have I communicated our standards of quality and how they are measured?
3. Have I provided regular performance feedback?
4. Have I avoided tough conversations with this person, and instead settled for "workarounds" of his or her performance?
5. Have I provided training to help fill gaps in this person's skill set?
6. Have I enlisted the help of managers or peers to help this person improve?
7. Have I communicated the urgency of the need for better performance?
8. Have I discussed the potential consequences of continued mediocre performance?
9. Are there ways this person is contributing that I haven't taken into account?
10. Might this person have skills that I haven't fully identified?

In an economy where listening and communication skills are more important than ever, the best place to start exercising them is your own shop.

For more advice about what great bosses know about mediocrity, check out Geisler's podcast on the subject here. And if you've got any timely tips for nonprofit managers trying to weather this tough economy, feel free to use the comments section to share them with others.

-- Mitch Nauffts

Weekend Link Roundup (September 26 - 27, 2009)

Here's this week's roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Arts and Culture

Over at the Createquity blog, Ian David Moss offers a detailed examination of Americans for the Arts' 2007 economic impact survey Arts & Economic Prosperity III and its finding that "the nonprofit arts sector is responsible for $166.2 billion in economic activity nationwide." His conclusion: "A&EP III is a serious study, one worthy of our attention and use for advocacy and research purposes. However, some of its potential impact is undermined by the hyperbolic language with which it is often presented to the press and politicians...." (Thanks for the tip, Ian).

Communications/Marketing

In the fourth installment of his "Connecting" series, Philanthropy Journal publisher Todd Cohen argues that stories "capture the indispensable role that nonprofits and charitable giving play in our communities" and can also "teach, inspire and engage." But in order to do so, says Cohen, they need to be clear, authentic, and genuine.

As part of the Case Foundation's Gear Up for Giving initiative, a month-long series of social media tutorials, Marnie Webb, co-CEO of TechSoup Global, lists five ways that nonprofits can build stronger relationships with their supporters:

1. Write them a note. For no reason at all.
2. Show up at their party.
3. Give your supporters something special.
4. Give them something else to do.
5. Ask for feedback and change because of it.

Diversity

For the next three weeks, Rosetta Thurman will profile Hispanic-American nonprofit leaders on her blog in observance of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Last week, Thurman posted the first and second installments in her series, highlighting the affinity group Hispanics in Philanthropy and posting an interview with Ian Bautista, president of United Neighborhood Centers of America.

On the Greater New Orleans Foundation's Second Line blog, guest contributor Martin Gutierrez, executive director of Neighborhood and Community Services, celebrates the contributions that Hispanics have made to the post-Katrina recovery of communities in the Greater New Orleans area.

Economy

"Isn't it time to ask how ideas from the non-profit world can improve business?" writes Seattle Times reporter Kristi Heim on her Business of Giving blog. The economic crisis has proven that "the market is [not] the best judge of success or failure," adds Heim. How then can nonprofits help the business world reinvent itself? Matthew Bishop, co-author of Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World, offered a few ideas in a recent talk, which Heim includes in her post.

Fundraising

Can money buy happiness? According to a recent op-ed in the Dallas Morning News, it can. On her Non-Profit Marketing blog, Katya Andresen connects the Morning News piece to charity and reminds fundraising professionals that they are not only in the business of doing good; they're in the business of making people feel great.

On a similar note, Gift Hub blogger Phil Cubeta admonishes fundraisers to rise above their own agendas and serve, rather than solicit, donors. Writes Cubeta:

If [fundraisers] want...a seat at the planning table where the big dollars are planned, they too will have to serve not solicit the donor. They do that by letting go of a personal agenda long enough to learn what motivates the donor, to recommend advisory work when needed, and to suggest a mission match and charitable tools when and only when they fit in the larger planning picture....

And on the Donor Power Blog, Jeff Brooks says that you shouldn't believe everything you hear about the imminent demise of direct mail.

Health

On the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation blog, Margaret Stanley, former executive director of the Puget Sound Health Alliance, suggests that they key to healthcare reform may involve forging bonds and achieving consensus among local organizations and stakeholders.

International Affairs/Development

Can microfinance institutions sustain their business models in a down economy? Perhaps, says John Liebhardt on the Global Voices Online blog, thanks to the emergence of social media technology. Writes Liebhardt:

The marriage of microlending and social media works two ways. First it allows a disparate group of people, perhaps the entrepreneurs, to communicate and become organized. Secondly, it allows them to reach out and relay their message with the larger world. Microlending organizations have latched on to this, leveraging technology to make sure potential lenders can put a face to recipients’ stories. Perhaps these personal bonds originate from the Grameen Bank, which began lending funds on the basis of trust and used peer pressure to insure the loans were repaid. Or, perhaps microlenders online use interpersonal connections as a bulwark against compassion fatigue....

"With all the technology supporting these sites, however," adds Liebhardt, one has to wonder "whether these schemes will pass the sustainability test that often separates good development projects from just good ideas....

(H/t: AFP blog)

Katrina

On the Foundation Center's Philanthropy Front and Center–Atlanta blog, Asia Hadley shares what she saw on a recent visit to New Orleans and asks, Where did the money go? As Hadley notes, a new Foundation Center report, Giving in the Aftermath of the 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes (2007-2009), attempts to answer that question and, in so doing, reveals "a shift in the focus of service providers and grantmakers from immediate relief to recovery and rebuilding." But as Hadley also notes, less affluent parts of the city still have a long way to go.

Leadership

Writing on the eJewish Philanthropy blog, Steven Windmueller argues that "we are experiencing the greatest institutional crisis since the 1930s" and that "thinking outside the box" may not be enough to lead organizations through the current crisis as the "box" itself has become a moving target. In the "new normal," adds Windmueller, complexity is the name of the game, nothing is sacred, and values-driven leadership must be embraced as an essential feature of successful institutions.

Philanthropy

"From the standpoint of foundation giving, more than half of the impact of the stock market crash has yet to be felt," writes Sean Stannard-Stockton on his Tactical Philanthropy blog. Indeed, says Stannard-Stockton, the

full effect of the financial crises will not hit the foundation sector until next year. When it does, the thing that will matter most to the social sector will be whether the influence of the collective expertise of foundation employees is greatly diminished or whether foundations step up to the plate and find creative ways to get their knowledge into the hands of major donors....

Social Entrepreneurship

The MacArthur Foundation has announced its 2009 fellows. And among the many terms used to describe these talented people, "social entrepreneur" fits best, says Nathaniel Whitemore on the Change.org blog. "[The winners] share a capacity to think differently and look for creative solutions," writes Whittemore, and "an unwillingness to accept the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be." Sounds like a pretty good definition of a social entrepreneur to us.

Social Media

On the Social Edge site, publisher and CauseWired author Tom Watson explains how this year's meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative became "a virtual boombox empowering women" thanks in part to social media wielded by celebs, bloggers, and journalists from traditional media outlets.

We can all learn from the social messenger framework developed by David Lipscomb, founder and president of communications firm Redpen21, says social media expert Beth Kanter. The idea, writes Kanter, is that nonprofits should not only use social media to listen and engage, but also think about how engagement supports their overall communications goals.

Technology

The Huffington Post has launched a new technology portal. Kicking things off, Robin Caldwell, managing editor at BlackWeb20, weighs in with a post about the "missing faces in technology and innovation." Writes Caldwell:

As we inch closer to Web 3.0, the question of ownership will be directly tied to who has access to the necessary tools to build on the "land." And if memory serves me correctly, the one who owns the land is the one who holds the power.

So why is it that I see the same names and faces -- none of which look like mine -- positioned as thought leaders and innovators in Web 2.0? Why do I see the same faces as representative of the power in technology

I've been informed on more than one occasion that we're hard to find....

[But] we're here. Now you know. And once you know, you're accountable....

And in part two of her forward-looking "Decoding the Future" series, Lucy Bernholz argues that cloud technology and peer to peer networks are on the verge of changing expectations about philanthropic data and the behaviors associated with those expectations. These changes, says Bernholz, "coupled with changes in the public and private sectors, are pushing a transition to a 'social economy' made up of interdependent public, private and philanthropic capital and creators of social goods." Good stuff, as always.

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

-- Regina Mahone

Gen Y and the Recession

Over the past year, young nonprofit workers have watched friends in other industries -- from book publishing to finance -- lose good-paying jobs. Now, with evidence mounting that it's the nonprofit sector's turn in the cross-hairs, many young nonprofit workers are nervously wondering if they'll be next.

So it was a pleasant surprise to come across a recent article by Generation Y expert Amy Lynch in the Cookeville (TN) Times that paints a more optimistic picture of my generation's response to the downturn.

Few of today's 20-somethings, Lynch reminds us, escaped childhood free of financial worries. Also know as Millennials, the oldest members of Gen Y were toddlers during the great downsizing wave of the early 1980s, were in elementary and middle school during the recession of 1991, and graduated from college just in time for the dot-com bust, the Enron fiasco, and the recession that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11. Members of Gen Y "have never experienced a sustained period of financial prosperity," says Lynch, "and they have no memory of job security. They don't even expect Social Security to be there for them later on. In one study, young adults said they believed they were more likely to see an alien spacecraft than ever to receive a Social Security check."

What does that mean in the context of the current downturn? And what qualities do Gen Yers bring to business during tough times? "Try optimism and hard work," writes Lynch. "You'd expect a generation raised on insecurity to be cynical like the Generation Xers who preceded them," she adds,

but that's not so. Prodigious volunteers and politically active (look at the record numbers who voted in this election), 20-somethings tend to bring can-do confidence to big problems. If you think of this group as trust fund babies, think again. In 2006, 37% of Ys between the ages of 16 and 19 held jobs.

Lynch goes on to list four things employers can do to ensure that their young workers weather the financial storm:

• Share information with them freely. Don't let them hear news about your business or your industry from anybody else first. Info is the air Millennials/Gen Yers breath. They respond to lots of info, even bad news, with trust. And trust creates loyalty.
  
  
• Tell the young people in your organization that it's time to be entrepreneurial inside the organization. Ask them to show you how they can be useful and what extra projects they can take on. Expect them to rise to the challenge, and many of them will.
  
  
• Be prepared to follow their lead. Because they're so heavily networked, Millennials/Gen Yers are the people most likely to scout out new trends, ideas, and markets first. Charge your Ys with finding solutions that will see your business through the crisis.
  
  
• Last but not least, put your mentoring programs on steroids. Link Millennials with your most experienced baby boomers. Pairings with professionals who have seen hard times before will enhance loyalty among the Gen Y talent you want to retain at a time when you need it most.

Good advice. Do you know of an organization that has done something creative to take advantage of the talents of its Gen Y employees during this downturn? What other steps can nonprofit leaders take to put the experience of their employees, of all ages, to good use? Use the comments section to share your thoughts....

-- Regina Mahone

2009 CGI: Where Did Our Love Go?

Can't put my finger on it, but the mood at this year's Clinton Global Initiative is, well...different. I'm not saying the event has jumped the shark. But something -- okay, a lot -- has changed over the last year. In no particular order, here's a short list:

• The Democratic Party has a new star, and his name is not Clinton.
• The rich donors and donor countries that were supposed to save the world almost drove it off a cliff (and still might). The idea that nonprofits and NGOs have much to learn from Wall Street and Harvard MBAs has been opened to question, if not ridicule. People don't want to hear the CEOs of Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil, both of which pulled in record profits last year during the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, talk about leverage or incremental approaches; they want to hear what resource-rich organizations are doing to address and fix problems now.
• The financial crisis has drawn the curtain on the complex, interdependent systems that drive the global economy, causing many people to feel helpless and/or disempowered. Who can say that he or she is master of his or her own destiny anymore?
• In the wake of the financial crisis, previously flush-feeling donors and foundations have cut back on funding, leaving many to anxiously wonder what philanthropy in the Reset Economy is going to look like.
• The explosion of social networking and social media tools -- and the collapse of traditional media business models -- has put lots of people out of work and served as a reminder to the rest of us (as if we needed one) that all bets are off, there are no guarantees, and the only constant at this hinge moment in history is change itself.
• The suffocating security in advance of President Obama's appearance at the opening plenary on Monday (and, for that matter, ever since) is a sobering reminder that extremism, foreign-bred as well as homegrown, is alive and well.

Or maybe it's just because since Sunday I've been battling what I hope is only a cold.

So as not to be a complete drag, I'll leave you with this thought from Alan Cohen, the popular speaker and best-selling author:

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power....

I hope so.

-- Mitch Nauffts

Still Hurting

Financial armageddon has been averted. A second Great Depression is off the table and, thanks to the bold actions of central bankers and governments around the globe, the "Great Recession" is on its way to becoming an unpleasant memory. Or so policy makers and the financial press would have us believe.

Not surprisingly, the reality for folks on Nonprofit Street is a little different, as two new snapshots of economic conditions in the Midwest make clear.

Based on a survey of nearly four hundred nonprofits in the Milwaukee metro area, the 13th Annual Report Card on Charitable Giving from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation found that the economic downturn has caused a drop in giving, with 63 percent of the respondents saying the state of philanthropy in the region is getting worse. And of organizations providing direct services to clients, 62 percent said that demand for assistance is increasing.

Other findings from the report:

• More than 80 percent of organizations have cut costs due to budget constraints, and one in four has laid off staff;
• Only one in four organizations describe themselves as financially healthy and not currently vulnerable;
• Over half of the organizations surveyed have six months or less operating reserve, while 31 percent say they are running an operating deficit in the current fiscal year;
• Half the nonprofits responding to the survey have considered collaborating with another nonprofit within the past year, nearly one in three has explored merging with another nonprofit, and five have considered closing.

The news isn't much better in Chicagloand, where the most recent installment of Metro Chicago Vital Signs, a monthly report from the Chicago Community Trust, found continued distress in the metro area's economic health. To wit:

• The region’s unemployment rate remains above the state and national averages at 10.5 percent;
• While remaining steady in the second quarter, layoffs rose sharply in July to 25,119 -- well above the 7,674 at the same time last year;
• Food security continues to be a problem for many in the region, with the number of households relying on food stamps reaching record highs, at more than 470,000, and the number of individuals relying on food pantries climbing back above 400,000;
• Calls for homelessness prevention aid remained steady in August, at over 5,400;
• A drop in foreclosures around the region in the second quarter, which many attribute to the Illinois Homeowner Protection act signed into law in April, may be short lived, with preliminary data for the third quarter revealing a sharp increase in foreclosures after the 90-day period in which homeowners are allowed extra time to deal with possible eviction.

As New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has been pointing out for months now, the country is in the midst of an employment crisis. Indeed, in the current issue of TIME magazine, Joshua Cooper Ramo reports that the number of long-term unemployed (more than twenty-seven weeks) in August was the highest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the number in 1948, while the total number of nonfarm payroll jobs today -- roughly 133 million -- is about the same as it was in 1999.

"That is why," writes Ramo, "the problem of how America works needs to become the focus of an urgent national debate. The jobs crisis," he adds

offers an opportunity to think in profound ways about how and why we work, about what makes employment satisfying, about the jobs Americans can and should do best. But the ideas Washington has delivered so far are insufficient. They reflect a pre-9%-11% way of thinking as much as old defense policy reflected a pre-9/11 notion of who our enemies were. The funding for job creation in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was based on an assumed 8.9% unemployment rate. Now 15% is a realistic possibility. And yet we're hearing few interesting ideas about how to enhance America's already groaning unemployment support system as millions of Americans sit idle. Tangled in the debate over health care -- and bleeding political capital -- the White House may find itself too weak and distracted to deal with the danger of joblessness....

That would be a tragedy.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be blogging from the 5th annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in midtown Manhattan. CGI is one of the premier gatherings of the movers, shakers, and thought leaders responsible for maintaining and improving the architecture of globalization. And globalization has been one of the most important factors -- if not the most important -- in the restructuring of the American labor market over the last thirty years. I'll be very interested to hear what the many panelists -- and former President Clinton himself, who voiced his concern at last year's CGI meeting about a populist backlash in this country against free trade and global money flows -- have to say about the issue.

In the meantime, you can vote on whether the recession is over in our current PND poll. Or weigh in below on the jobs crisis, the growing pressure on safety-net services, and/or the impact of globalization on American workers.

-- Mitch Nauffts

Weekend Link Roundup (September 19 - 20, 2009)

This week's roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Communications/Marketing

Marketing expert Seth Godin riled up a few people earlier this week by suggesting that the problem with nonprofits is that they tend to resist the very thing they profess to be about: change. Writes Godin:

When was the last time you had an interaction with a non-profit (there's that word again) that blew you away?

Please don't tell me it's about a lack of resources. The opportunities online are basically free, and if you don't have a ton of volunteers happy to help you, then you're not working on something important enough. The only reason not to turn this over to hordes of crowds eager to help you is that it means giving up total control and bureaucracy. Which is scary because it leads to change.

If you spend any time reading marketing blogs, you'll find thousands of case studies of small (and large) innovative businesses that are shaking things up and making things happen. And not enough of these stories are about non-profits. If your non-profit isn't acting with as much energy and guts as it takes to get funded in Silicon Valley or featured on Digg, then you're failing in your duty to make change....

Writing on the CauseWired blog, Tom Watson, author of the book of the same name, says that just because the meme that "nonprofits are afraid of change" has been around for a while doesn't mean it's accurate. On the contrary, says Watson, many nonprofits "hate change less than vast swaths of the corporate world." Sure, Watson adds, control and bureaucracy can be big problems with nonprofits. But

does anyone now living believe that the most philanthropic nation in the history of the world should devolve its nonprofit and service sector into a crowd-sourced cyberlibertarian throw of the dice at utopia....

It's a great line, and Watson's rebuttal to Godin has sparked a great conversation (more than thirty comments and half a dozen follow-up posts by other bloggers), which you can follow here.

On the Have Fun Do Good blog, Britt Bravo reminds nonprofits about the ways they can use blogs to engage their audiences:

1. Share your expertise
2. Share breaking news within your field
3. Share the story behind your brand
4. Share your community's opinions
5. Share notes and photos from events
6. Share notes and photos from the field
7. Share organizational news as it happens
8. Use it as your website

Economy

Gen Y blogger Rosetta Thurman addresses a subject near and dear to her heart: the plight of young nonprofit professionals in an economy that no longer generates a sufficient number of jobs. Thurman cites the following stats from a recent AFL-CIO report:

• More than half of young workers earn less than $30,000;
• More than one in three young workers say they are currently living at home with their parents;
• 31 percent of young workers do not have health insurance coverage;
• One-third of young workers cannot pay the bills and seven in ten do not have enough saved to cover two months of living expenses.

"There are so many opportunities for the younger generation of nonprofit workers to contribute to the success of organizations imperiled by the recession, but we’re clearly missing them," adds Thurman. "This is why if you are a young nonprofit professional, you must be prepared to be your own best advocate. No one is going to do it for you, especially in these difficult economic times.

Nonprofits aren't the only institutions struggling to keep their doors open. Public library systems all over the country have been curtailing their hours and services, and some are in danger of closing, writes Allison Jones on her Entry Level Living blog. And that's a tragedy, says Jones, not just because we're losing free access to books; "we also risk losing safe public spaces for community meetings...and most importantly, personal growth."

Fundraising

Technology has not only changed the way organizations communicate online but also the nature of "do-gooding" and how Americans take action in support of charitable causes, writes Cynthia Gibson. "Membership may be moving from check-writing to signing up for email lists," she adds, "but that

may reflect a new generation of young people who’ve grown up with technology and are using it to go around traditional institutions and make change in ways they believe are more cost-efficient and get results more quickly. Rather than writing checks to big institutions or taking to the streets in protest, young people who care about an issue can whip up a powerful protest movement [online]....

A new paper by the Monitor Institute, Working Wikily 2.0: Social Change with a Network Mindset, suggests nonprofits will have to begin working with a network mindset -- embracing principles like openness, transparency, decentralized decision-making, and distributed action -- and that doing so can help funders and activists increase their impact....

Health

Bob Ottenhoff, president and CEO of GuideStar, takes a closer look at how nonprofit medical cooperatives might work.

International Affairs/Development

At the GiveWell blog, Holden Karnofsky argues that "repayment rate" should not be the only metric used to evaluate the impact of microfinance institutions.

Journalism/Media

Wrriting on his blog, Geoff Dougherty, editor at the Chi-Town Daily News, explains why he and his colleagues are abandoning the site and their nonprofit businesses model to launch a new, for-profit local news venture. Jim Barnett, a copy editor at the Washington Post who blogs at the Nieman Journalism Lab site, thinks Dougherty et al are throwing in the towel too soon. Writes Barnett:

The hard truth...is that it takes more than four years to build a donor base and diversify sources of revenue to sustain a nonprofit. The fact that Dougherty got to $300,000 in just four years is a major accomplishment. Sure, it's easy to look at an outfit like ProPublica and wish that you too could find a benefactor willing to put up $10 million a year to pay for your newsroom. But that kind of one-stop shopping isn’t a business model; it's a lightning strike -- something that the people who run ProPublica know better than anybody....

I don't doubt that Dougherty and his team knocked on every door they thought possible before giving up on CTDN. But the great strength of the nonprofit model, I believe, is that it puts the needs of the newsroom ahead of all others. More importantly, it treats socially responsible journalism not as a product, but as a cause greater than any individual institution that serves it....

(H/t: Give and Take)

Philanthropy

Writing on the Second Line blog, Albert Ruesga, president/CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, asks: What's the line between public and private responsibility when it comes to providing healthcare, education, and other services for the poor? And: Is it the proper role of foundations to plug the gaps created by retreating public funds?

Weighin in with another thought-provoking post, Lucy Bernholz argues that "data are the new platform for change" and "will continue to fundamentally alter how philanthropic capital flows."

Public Affairs

Alan Khazei, founder of Be the Change -- an organization that played a major role in securing passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act earlier this year -- has announced that he will run for the U.S. Senate seat occupied for forty-three years by Senator Kennedy. Does he have a chance? asks Nathaniel Whittemore, who concludes that "It's hard to say...."

Social Media

As part of the Case Foundation's Gear Up for Giving program, Katya Andresen lists six common mistakes nonprofit organizations make when getting involved in social marketing:

1. We fear losing control
2. We think social networking is a way to get our message out
3. We see dollar signs
4. We fail to set small, achievable goals
5. We forget to set some ground rules
6. We give up when we make mistakes.

Is Twitter a micro-blogging site? Allison Fine thinks it functions more like a social network, "where interesting ideas and exchanges are happening that we can participate in, or watch, just as we would at a neighborhood diner."

Last but not least, YouTube, the video-hosting site, has taken its nonprofit program to the next level and now allows nonprofits to annotate their videos with "Donate" or "Sign this Petition" links. Guest blogging on Beth Kanetr's blog, Michael Hoffman, CEO of See3 Communications provides additional background on the new feature, including this video.

What did we forget? Drop us a note at rnm@foundationcenter.org. Have a great week!

-- Regina Mahone

From the Answer Desk: Contingency and Scenario Planning -- What's the Difference and How Do Nonprofits Get Started?

(This entry has been cross-posted on the Foundation Center's Philanthropy Front and Center-Cleveland blog.)

A: Both are structured ways for organizations to think about the future. In the context of planning, the terms "contingency" and "scenario" are sometimes used interchangeably. In simple terms, a contingency plan can be described as your organization’s "Plan B" or "worst case scenario" and is often tied to something specific, like a natural disaster. They are also sometimes called business continuity plans or disaster recovery plans. Scenario planning, on the other hand, is a “strategic planning method expressly developed to test the viability of alternative strategies," according to Mal Warwick in his book, Fundraising When Money is Tight. Warwick suggests six steps for creating an effective scenario plan, starting with exploring answers to the question, "What keeps you awake at night?," to draw out fundamental issues, and concluding with testing your strategic choices using "what-if" reasoning. Warwick describes scenario planning in detail and goes on to suggests Peter Schwartz’s classic 1991 book, The Art of the Long View, for further reading. (Listen to our February 2009 podcast with Mal Warwick here.)

In the July 2, 2009 Chronicle of Philanthropy article "Worst Case Scenarios," author Ben Gose advocates that forming a contingency plan can help a nonprofit navigate the recession more successfully. Offering tips ranging from setting priorities and identifying "trip wires" (actions to take when revenues drop, for example), Gose cautions that organizations must come to terms with the fact that "painful decisions will still have to be made." However, Mr. Gose goes on to note that during contingency planning "a charity may find that a program it considered cutting is in fact worth saving, and that finding can make a compelling story for donors."

Additional resources:

Financial Scenario Planning for an Uncertain Future
Slides from a presentation made by Emil Angelica at the June 2009 annual conference of Dance USA.

Nonprofits Assistance Fund Scenario Planning Worksheet
A "step by step guide to nonprofit contingency planning."

ScenarioThinking.org
Open community on scenario thinking and scenario planning where you can publish scenarios, reflect on the planning processes and share online resources about scenario planning in a democratic and inclusive manner.

Do you have a question? Ask Us!

-- Rob Bruno

2009 Clinton Global Intiative Annual Meeting

As I have for the past couple of years, I'll be blogging the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City next week. Billed as "the only venue where business, government, and civil-sector leaders work together to plan and launch specific projects to address global economic, environmental, and social challenges," this year's CGI meeting will overlap with the 64th session of the UN General Assembly and the G-20 summit (Sept.24-25) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and, per usual, will feature a Who's Who of public-, private-, and third-sector leaders.

Here's the schedule:

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Opening Plenary: A Call To Action
Time: 4:00 – 5:45 P.M.

The opening plenary will frame the agenda for the three days to follow. World leaders will identify critical areas for action and collaboration across a multitude of sectors, ranging from education, energy and climate change to global health and the reduction of poverty. Recognizing the stresses that stakeholders are feeling due to the economic downturn, CGI's four program areas will stress achievable ways to empower communities; harness innovation for development; strengthen infrastructure; develop human capital; finance a sustainable future; and invest in girls and women.

• William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd President, United States of America; Founding Chair, Clinton Global Initiative
• Her Excellency Michelle Bachelet, President of the Republic of Chile
• The Honorable Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia
• Mike Duke, President and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
• Muhtar Kent, President and CEO, Coca-Cola Company

Special Session: The G20 and its Impact on Global Challenges
Time: 6:00 – 7:00 P.M.

With a focus on major modern challenges -- growing populations, natural resource scarcity, global warming, dynamic global and financial markets, strains on social systems, and incomplete economic opportunity for billions of people -- this session will enable G20 Heads of State who represent the largest economies in the world to preview their positions in advance of the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Special Session: Approaches to Innovation
Time: 9:00 - 10:30 A.M.

At a time when the world finds itself on an unsustainable course, facing an increasing number of complex challenges for which traditional approaches are no longer sufficient, innovation -- the transformation of ideas into new strategies, products and practices -- stands as a key to addressing many of the issues confronting us today, from energy and education to healthcare and the environment. During this session, innovation experts will discuss the importance of innovation as a vehicle for building a sustainable future. Where does innovation begin? What should be the role of government in promoting and facilitating innovation? Which countries are leading the charge, and how do you best position yourself and your organization to take advantage? This panel will provide a broad introduction to innovation, various approaches to cultivate it, and implications for those who pursue it and those who don't.

• John Kao, Chairman and Founder, Institute for Large Scale Innovation

Plenary: Investing in Girls and Women
Time: 10:45 - 12:15 P.M.

Even though women make up 50 percent of the world's population, girls and women continuously lack the same access as men to education, health care, jobs, and the political arena. Smart businesses appreciate that increased support for girls and women is integral to fostering successful markets for the future. Innovative programs are already producing remarkable results, and far-seeing countries and organizations are finding that reaching out to girls and women deepens confidence, creates opportunity, and raises profits. This panel will examine a few notable success stories.

• Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
• Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director, World Bank
• Zainab Salbi, Founder and CEO, Women for Women International
• Diane Sawyer, Co-Anchor, Good Morning America, ABC Broadcasting
• Rex Tillerson, Chief Executive Officer, ExxonMobil Corporation
• Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Women’s Issues, U.S. State Department

Plenary Session: Harnessing Innovation for Development
Time: 1:00 - 2:15 P.M.

2008 will come to be recognized as the turning point, when a series of crises gripped the planet: the spike in oil prices, the world food shortage, and the global financial meltdown. Add these crises to the list of ongoing mega-problems and it becomes clear that innovation on a massive scale is required to move us toward a more sustainable world. This plenary will explore the innovation strategies needed to effectively address the planetary crisis we now face.

• Matthew Bishop, New York bureau chief and American business editor, The Economist
• Al Gore, Co-Founder and Chairman, Generation Investment Management
• Jack Ma, Chairman and CEO, Alibaba Group,/li>
• Judith Rodin, President, Rockefeller Foundation
• Muhammad Yunus, Founder and Managing Director, Grameen Bank
• Robert Zoellick, President, World Bank Group

Special Session: From CEO to NGO
Time: 5:00 – 6:00 P.M.

During this session, former executives will come together to discuss the importance of philanthropy and how their background in the private sector has allowed them to effectively run nonprofit organizations and foundations. Now that their main focus is on improving the global community not their bottom line, what advice do they have for the private sector? And what do they know from their current work that they wish they had known when they were running multi-million dollar enterprises?

• Eli Broad, Founder, Broad Foundation
• Chrystia Freeland, U.S. Managing Editor, Financial Times
• Ted Turner, Chairman, Turner Enterprises, Inc.
• Bob Wright, Co-Founder, Autism Speaks; Senior Advisor, Lee Equity Partners

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Plenary Session: Strengthening Infrastructure
Time: 9:00 – 10:00 A.M.

Strong and vibrant infrastructure is central to solving pressing global challenges, from improving healthcare delivery and reducing poverty and hunger to fixing slums and responding to global warming. But today we are seriously under-investing in the world's physical and institutional infrastructure. Public works investments and new information technology can provide a foundation for recovery by facilitating job creation, unleashing private-sector investment, and promoting an equitable transition to a lower-carbon and more prosperous global economy. This plenary will explore how strategic public investment in smarter infrastructure can create opportunities for industry, address deep social needs, promote effective public-private collaboration, and jumpstart the world economy.

• Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General, United Nations; Chairman, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
• John T. Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco
• Carlos Ghosn, President and CEO, Renault Nissan
• Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO, General Electric
• Ray Suarez, Senior Correspondent, The NewsHour

Plenary Session: Creating Good Jobs and Strong Communities
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 P.M.

Access to education, health care, and work is an essential foundation for a prosperous community. It is more important than ever in the face of the recession, which has cost 50 million jobs and pushed millions back into poverty. Yet some 180 million children work instead of attending school. Many in school fail to achieve their potential because of a lack of teachers. Even in developed countries, young people do not get the education they need to succeed in the high-tech knowledge economy that will determine future competitiveness. But there are inspiring examples of partnerships between companies, governments and civic leaders who are building opportunity in a way that makes sound business sense. This session will identify practical ways for more partners to act.

• Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, Queen of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
• Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman and CEO, Carlson Companies
• Nicholas D. Kristof, Columnist, The New York Times; Co-Author, Half the Sky
• Andrew Liveris, President, CEO and Chairman, Dow Chemical Company
• Carlos Slim Helú, Chairman and CEO, Grupo Carso
• Hilda Solis, United States Secretary of Labor

Friday, September 25, 2009

Plenary Session: Moving from Crisis to Opportunity – Financing an Equitable Future Time: 9:00 – 10:00 A.M.

The plenary will address how to move beyond the current economic and financial crisis to tap innovative sources of financing that can provide stable, ethical, and scalable funding for organizations addressing the world's most challenging problems.

• Fazel Abed, Founder and Chairman, BRAC
• Maria Bartiromo, Anchor, CNBC
• James Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JP Morgan Chase & Co.
• Peter Sands, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered PLC

Closing Plenary Session
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 P.M.

The closing plenary will highlight progress over the past five years, showcase the accomplishments of the 2009 Annual Meeting, and inspire attendees to continue their work via Commitments to Action in the year ahead with a keynote address from Hillary R. Clinton, United States Secretary of State, and closing remarks from President Clinton.

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Should be an interesting three days. And the CGI team always does an excellent job with the live feed. Stay tuned for details.

-- Mitch Nauffts

Philanthropy's Leadership Moment?

It's been a year since Lehman Brothers, the New York City investment bank, declared bankruptcy, turning what had been a somewhat mysterious credit crunch into a full-fledged global financial panic.

Much has happened in the intervening twelve months. The country elected a new president, the first African American chief executive in its 233-year history. Housing prices and the stock market tanked, erasing trillions of dollars of homeowner and investor equity. Private endowments, and the smart people who manage them, suffered right along with Main Street. Employers followed the markets' lead and cut jobs with a vengeance. By summer, the "official" unemploment rate was approaching 10 percent and poised to go higher. Meanwhile, on Nonprofit Street, demand for services was up and donations and grant revenue were down, sometimes dramatically so. And on Wall Street, the deck chairs were rearranged, gaping holes on bank balance sheets were plugged (with taxpayer dollars), and the good ship Business As Usual was sent on its jolly way.

If you detect a note of disbelief in that last sentence, well, forgive me; it's been that kind of year. And what about foundations? Have they risen to the occasion over the last year, as Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the Council on Foundation, argues in a recent Washington Post op-ed (Philanthropy's Leadership Moment")?

In his piece, Gunderson points out that, in October, as some really serious stuff was hitting the fan, he and CoF board chair Ralph Smith sent an open letter to the field encouraging foundations "to rise and face the new economic realities."

In the letter, Gunderson and Smith asked CoF members and philanthropic leaders to do three things:

1. Reach out to their nonprofit partners and find ways to maintain service amidst the economic crisis;
2. Use philanthropy's convening power to help communities and regions develop appropriate strategies to meet their respective needs; and
3. Pay special attention to those circumstances where philanthropic mergers, consolidations, and outright evaporation of resources resulted in the immediate loss of support for local nonprofit services.

In PND, we've tracked and published dozens of stories about foundations, large and small, that have stepped up to the plate in this difficult time. And our Foundation Center colleagues have gathered additional information on the response to the crisis by the hundred largest foundations.

Now we want to hear from you. How would you rate the foundation response to the crisis? How have foundations done in terms of the three criteria laid out by Gunderson and Smith above? And, keeping in mind the old adage "If you've seen one foundation, you've seen one foundation," what more could or should foundations be doing to mitigate the pernicious effects of this downturn? Use the comments section below...

--Mitch Nauffts

Sign of the Times

(The following letter was sent to Jacksonville City Council vice president Jack Webb on July 22. The letter was signed by eighteen Florida philanthropies, including the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, the Community Foundation in Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation, and United Way of Northeast Florida....)

Dear Councilman Webb:

According to published reports, if the mayor's proposed budget is not passed, nonprofit-related programs and entities in Jacksonville will experience cuts amounting to $15 million.

Many in Jacksonville believe that private funders will contribute money to make up for these cuts.

This is a myth.

The reality is this:

Jacksonville's major private funders have lost, on average, 25% of their assets during the recession. To make up for the $15 million in budget cuts, these funders would have to increase their grantmaking 27% over pre-recession levels. That is not realistic.

Moreover, individual giving dropped 6.3% during 2008 (Giving USA) and there are no signs it is rebounding.

In addition, a recent survey conducted by the Conference Board indicates that 45% of businesses surveyed have already reduced their 2009 corporate giving budgets and an additional 16% were considering cuts in their 2009 philanthropy budgets as well.

There simply is no safety net of private funding available to replace government dollars for these nonprofit programs and entities.

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-- Mitch Nauffts