PhilanTopic

Weekend Link Roundup (October 20-21, 2012)

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

Communications/Marketing

Network for Good's Katya Andresen offers "five tectonic technology shifts changing our world, our work, and our potential," including the "messenger shift," in which one's peers are now the most influential and amplified messengers in a person's life; the "social action shift"; and the "message shift," where a single message for everyone is no longer enough.

Diversity

On her BlackGivesBack blog, Tracey Webb announces the most recent winners of the D5 coalition's Insights on Diversity grants.

Health

How is "big data" changing health and health care? Steve Downs, chief technology and information officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, chats with a colleague about the latest trends in the use of health-related data at both the personal and population level and the promise these innovations hold for the future.

Higher Education

Guest blogging on the James Irvine Foundation blog, Lisa García Bedolla, an associate professor at UC Berkeley, argues that trends in college completion rates in "Latino heavy" California have "important economic consequences for California and the United States as a whole." Unfortunately, "at a time when the state needs to be investing more in the education of its children," writes Garcia Bedolla,

California is caught in the worst budget crisis it has faced since the Great Depression, resulting in unprecedented disinvestment in the social safety net needed to address these structural disparities. That is where private philanthropy, like the James Irvine Foundation, may be able to step in. In an era of dysfunction within public institutions, perhaps the future lies in public-private partnerships geared towards addressing the cumulative disadvantage that lies at the heart of these inequalities. Children in poverty face a number of developmental challenges, rooted in inadequate prenatal care, nutrition, access to health care, quality housing and early-learning opportunities, before they even enter kindergarten. Institutions like the James Irvine Foundation have the ability to address those many structures of inequality by supporting holistic solutions that bridge the traditional silos and focus resources in the places where youth live, simultaneously addressing the numerous cumulative inequalities that negatively affect youths life chances....

Impact Investing

Writing in Alliance magazine, Sarah Gelfand, director of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing, shares some thoughts about the role that data can play in mobilizing additional resources for the solution of social and environmental problems.

Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer has floated a proposal to create a social impact bond to pay for expanded access to the Early Head Start program, and the implication, says the Nonprofit Quarterly's Rick Cohen, is that the approach will protect "the wallets of hard-pressed taxpayers." Is this "smart policy," asks Cohen, or just the "latest positioning of social enterprise...as an approach to governing that is less costly than the old-fashioned notion of taxpayer-funded government programs"? Good question, Rick.

Philanthropy

In a post on her Philanthropy 2173 blog, Lucy Bernholz shares a list of things we can no longer assume -- no one in the room has a video camera, every American wants to own a car, we will work until we retire, among them -- as a way to "help us see how different the world we live in now is from the world for which we created many of our institutional philanthropic and nonprofit practices, purposes, and regulations."

Social Media

"[Y]ou can no longer truly separate your personal life from your professional life on social media," writes Rosetta Thurman in a recent post on her blog. "We are...definitely in the era of online integrity. And no matter how scary it seems, this is a very good thing." Do you agree?

Volunteerism

And on the Idealist.org blog, Allison Jones has some advice for people who have surveyed the nonprofit landscape and are interested in creating their own volunteer opportunity.

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

-- The Editors

Weekend Link Roundup (January 28-29, 2012)

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

Civil Society

Writing on the White Courtesy Telephone blog, Greater New Orleans Foundation president Albert Ruesga urges grantmakers to invest less money in white papers and candidates' forums this election season and more on "helping advocates introduce democracy to the United States." Writes Ruesga: "While foundations might not have the resources to shift the political discourse in this country [in] the coming year, they can at least help liberate us from the illusion of free and fair elections...."

Communications

In a post on the Communications Network blog, Commnetwork board chair Mitch Hurst suggests that grantmaking organizations need to do a better job of monitoring social networks, blogs, and the mainstream media if they hope to understand "how their issues are being influenced in online conversations."

Corporate Social Responsibility

In a post on the Harvard Business Review blog, Rosabeth Moss Kanter argues that great companies are about more than a single-minded focus on the bottom line. Truly great companies, writes Kanter,

believe that business is an intrinsic part of society, and they acknowledge that, like family, government, and religion, it has been one of society's pillars since the dawn of the industrial era. Great companies work to make money, of course, but in their choices of how to do so, they think about building enduring institutions. They invest in the future while being aware of the need to build people and society....

Education

Philanthrocapitalism authors Matthew Bishop and Michael Green argue against the idea, suggested last week by former British prime minister Gordon Brown, of a Global Fund for Education to help address education funding cuts and boost the number of young people globally who attend and graduate from high school. Unlike fighting malaria -- which, write Bishop and Green, is "a finite task that can be achieved even where governments are weak" -- "educating the children of the world will need sustained investment indefinitely...."

Fundraising

Future Fundraising Now blogger Jeff Brooks explains why it's important to "keep your eye on the ball" in fundraising -- and life in general.

Impact/Effectiveness

The Nonprofit Quarterly has published a fascinating exchange between the Hudson Institute's William Schambra and Wallace Foundation president Will Miller on the use of metrics in "the development and dispersion of knowledge" as a driver of the foundation's grantmaking. A must read for anyone who works in the sector.

Technology

On the Impatient Optimists blog, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Deborah Jacobs considers how the surge in tablet and e-book reader ownership presents "huge opportunities in an increasingly digitized society where information access plays a critical role in building knowledge and skills," as well as a challenge, in that the trend threatens "to exacerbate the digital divide that is already perpetuated across the U.S."

Transparency

On the Foundation Center's Transparency Talk blog, Meyer Memorial Trust communications director Marie Deatherage discusses the foundation's "road to transparency," a decade-long journey that included the early and active embrace of the Web and other online communications channels.

Volunteerism

Last but not least, CauseShift managing director Scott Henderson offers a few ideas for folks interested in changing the world one good deed at a time.

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: Giving/Volunteerism Trends

(Kyoko Uchida manages PubHub, the Foundation Center's online catalog of foundation-sponsored publications. In her previous post, she looked at four reports that examine the impact of the Great Recession on rental housing and what philanthropic institutions are doing to address the situation.)

With the giving season in full swing, PubHub will be featuring reports on a wide range of topics about philanthropy and voluntarism through the end of the year. This week we're highlighting four publications that look at how much and why people give.

Researched by the folks at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and published by the Giving USA Foundation, Giving USA 2011: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2010 Executive Summary (34 pages, PDF) reports that estimated total giving increased 2.1 percent (adjusted for inflation) in 2010, to $290.89 billion, while giving by individuals increased an inflation-adjusted 1.1 percent. The report also found that corporate giving rose 8.8 percent, charitable bequests jumped 16.9 percent, and giving by foundations fell 1.8 percent. Funded by Blackbaud, the David and Linda Shaheen Foundation, and the Schwab Charitable Fund, among others, the report finds reason for optimism in the overall giving number but suggests that a return to pre-recession giving levels will be delayed by the the slow and uncertain nature of the recovery.

According to the Urban Institute report What's Been Happening to Charitable Giving Recently? A Look at the Data (7 pages, PDF), it would take six years at the current rate for charitable giving in the U.S. to return to its pre-recession level. Donations by individuals, which account for up to 80 percent of total giving, were hardest hit by the recession, with cash and non-cash contributions falling 13 percent and 47 percent, respectively, between 2007 and 2009. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the report also analyzes the effects of past tax policy changes with respect to charitable giving and finds that replacing the deduction with a 12 percent tax credit would result in a bigger drop in contributions than would capping the deduction at 28 percent.

In The Giving Commitment: Knowing Your Motivation (7 pages, PDF), the smart people at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors look at some of the reasons why individuals as different as George Soros, Oprah Winfrey, and Oseola McCarty -- a washerwoman with a sixth-grade education who gave $150,000 of her life savings to fund college scholarships for African-American students -- give. Whether motivated by legacy, faith, values, a sense of obligation, or some other factor, it is important, the guide suggests, for donors who want to be more strategic and effective in their giving to articulate their motivations and clarify what they hope to achieve.

Religion and identity are two of the factors discussed in Volunteering + Values: A Repair the World Report on Jewish Young Adults (66 pages, PDF), a report from Repair the World in partnership with the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and Gerstein | Agne Strategic Communications. Based on a survey that asked young Jewish adults about their motivations, attitudes toward, and concerns about volunteering, the report found that while individuals whose parents volunteered and those who are deeply engaged in religious life are more likely to volunteer on a regular basis, only a small percentage actually do so with Jewish organizations. And whereas some see their volunteer work grounded in Jewish values of compassion and social justice, others consider these to be universal values and do not see their volunteer work in connection with Jewish tradition, values, or identity. The report suggests a number of strategies for engaging a broader cross-section of young Jewish adults in volunteering, including framing service in universal terms and as a responsibility of Jews to help others in need, regardless of religious affiliation.

What motivates you to give or volunteer? And what determines how much you give, in what form, and to which causes? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

And don't forget to visit PubHub, where you can browse nearly fifteen hundred reports related to philanthropy and voluntarism.

-- Kyoko Uchida

Q&A With Kerry Sullivan, President, Bank of America Charitable Foundation

(Aaron Hurst is founding president of the Taproot Foundation, a nonprofit organization that makes business talent available to organizations working to improve society. As part of an ongoing series of interviews with the heads of corporate foundations, Hurst recently spoke with Kerry Sullivan, president of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, about her passion for improving education, the value of service in schools, and the glass ceiling for women in corporate America. Last month, Bank of America announced a $50 million philanthropic pledge to fund education programs that help at-risk youth successfully graduate and connect them to workforce development opportunities. This Q&A originally appeared in the Huffington Post. Click here to read Aaron's Q&A with Bobbi Silten, president of the Gap Foundation. To watch Regina's "Flip chat" with Hurst, click here.)

Aaron Hurst: If you suddenly received a huge sum of money to create your own foundation based on your personal passions, what would you invest in?

Kerry Sullivan: One would be education for the underserved. People need to be educated to find a job with a livable wage, particularly those who are trying to make a living in a democracy. It is the key to personal success, a company's success, and a country's success. The other thing I feel strongly about is basic health and human services, with hunger at its core. It is so essential, especially considering the economic downturn and the whole issue of food insecurity in this country, as well as other developed countries -- let alone developing countries. Looking right now at the drought in Somalia, we as a world player need to respond.

Even though they seem totally different, I see these two issues working together: one is a Band-Aid to provide for immediate and critical needs, while education serves to lift people out of that situation.

AH: That sounds wonderful -- I hope you get the money to start it! What do you feel you are able to take from your everyday life to help you understand the issues and be more insightful and effective in your job?

KS: I have two young girls who grew up volunteering, being engaged, and caring about issues. They understand there is a role for all of us to help individuals and families and communities move forward. I feel fortunate to have that perspective.

In this country, the divide between the haves and the have-nots is growing, and there's a shrinking middle class. I don't think any of us are that far removed from these issues. No one is immune from knowing somebody who is in a tough situation right now, given the protracted downturn. Every community has issues, and even in upscale neighborhoods there are people that are in need. There are millions of children in this country who go to bed hungry. When you analyze the numbers on how food pantries are being accessed right now, they are not used just by people who have been chronically unemployed. It's working poor and the recently laid-off. It's no longer something far afield from who we are as individuals.

AH: Speaking of your daughters, do you think you get exposure to what some of the educational challenges are in this country?

KS: They're fortunate to go to good schools, so I'm not seeing directly why we're falling behind compared to the rest of the world. But I do see we have some issues of equity in education. If we really look at what twenty-first century jobs are going to be, particularly in this country, you're going to need at least two years of postsecondary education. We need to develop a system where kids see hope, a track that will connect them to one of their goals in life. We need to ignite the excitement of learning in children and connect them to the idea that they need education to have a successful career that they are passionate about. I think we have a lot of things to work on, and it is clearly going to take collaboration between educators, nonprofits, and corporations to solve the problem.

Despite the issues we have in our education system, there is good news around what we are teaching children about volunteerism and cultures of service, which is something that didn't exist when I was in school. Particularly right now, there's a keen awareness of service as a noble profession and calling and the fact that everyone has something to give.

AH: I also have a daughter, who is five years old and a brilliant businesswoman. She runs the best lemonade stand in Park Slope. What are the challenges you've had to face as a woman in business, and what have you seen change that may make it easier for my daughter to succeed in corporate America in the future?

KS: I think sometimes women in corporate America think they have to do it all themselves, but that's not how life works. You need to make friends, and you need to connect with them along the way. I'm not a huge networker -- I'm actually probably more of an introvert -- but when I have a passion for something and admire someone for how they conduct themselves in business, I'm not shy about connecting with them. I often think we don't empower ourselves enough to find individuals who are willing to help. Sometimes it's just reaching out and making your needs and interests known. I've done that, and it has been very instrumental in the opportunities I've had. Women do have more control over their careers than they know.

In my journey in banking, I have not seen many roadblocks for women. With any work, you have to find passion for what you do, and if you have that it's easier to figure out your next steps because you're propelled by that passion. I think I've always had a passion for philanthropy, so I've always been able to find my next opportunity. I didn't graduate from college and know right then I wanted to work for a foundation. I did a couple of other things first, but I always made a link to the next opportunity and found my way. Talking to some younger graduates, they think it's a linear path, but it's not. It's okay to meander a bit and learn what your strengths are and develop a passion. You don't have to know what it is when you're going through school. It's always changing and evolving.

AH: You have about three hundred thousand employees at Bank of America. How can you be strategic in adding real value and impact to the community with that many people?

KS: Our challenge, despite our size and scope, is to resonate locally and take on and contribute to issues that matter. We fund across a broad range of interest areas, but right now we care about critical needs like providing international disaster relief, getting people back to work, and preserving neighborhoods. Domestically, those are the things we're focused on.

We are going to connect the dots from what we've done domestically to what we can do in the international space. As we build out, we're rebuilding and re-thinking our global strategy. We certainly are interested in national and global partnerships, but we also fund organizations that are specific to a city or community. We approach it both ways. We feel that despite our size, we make a difference in the communities where our business is. We've got folks on the ground, and the distribution of our philanthropy is local.

AH: You've been involved in Reimagining Service for a while now. Has that involvement caused you to think differently about the service you're doing at Bank of America?

KS: We've been helping people not only to contribute but also to have more impact by taking the skills they have to the community. Reimagining Service has been the catalyst for a lot of those discussions internally. The biggest change this past year has been the heads of large business lines in the company coming forward and saying, "I want my division and people to be engaged around one or two issues." Knowing that volunteerism can make a difference used to just be bottom-up, but now it's bottom-up and top-down. There's a preponderance of people wanting to leverage their skill-sets.

From a foundation standpoint, we tend to give general operating or unrestricted funding to nonprofits we believe in. We've been mindful to ensure that nonprofits feel comfortable and inspired to use some dollars to help build the structure they need to better handle volunteers. Not only are we supporting volunteerism and service through our own employees' actions, but we're committing unrestricted support to nonprofits so that they can work toward being more of a service-oriented organization, if that makes sense for their mission and the benefit they provide to the community. It works hand in hand.

AH: How does philanthropy and service fit within the broader corporate social responsibility strategy at Bank of America?

KS: The premise is simple: when communities are not vibrant and people are not working and the economy isn't moving, we can't grow and prosper as an institution and company. We look at creating opportunity through our philanthropy and volunteerism as essential to moving communities -- and hence our business -- forward. We're always trying to look at the opportunity that has the multiplier effect and reverberates more broadly than just a Band-Aid would. It's part of our business strategy.

-- Aaron Hurst

Q&A With Bobbi Silten, President, Gap Foundation

(Aaron Hurst is founding president of the Taproot Foundation, a nonprofit organization that makes business talent available to organizations working to improve society. As part of an ongoing series of interviews with the heads of corporate foundations, Hurst recently spoke with Bobbi Silten, president of the Gap Foundation and senior vice president of global responsibility for Gap Inc., about her career, her passion for service, and how her background in business is key to running a successful foundation. A member of the White House Council for Community Solutions, Silten is a driving force behind Reimagining Service, a multi-sector coalition dedicated to exploring the challenges and opportunities of increasing social impact through volunteer engagement. This Q&A& originally appeared in the Huffington Post. To watch our "Flip chat" with Hurst, click here.)

Aaron Hurst: Each generation seems to have such a different outlook on life and social change. What generation do you identify with and why?

Bobbi Silten: I'm technically a boomer, but I'm on the tail end of the boom, so I haven't felt as connected to this generation. I don't feel like I'm in that life stage, so it's different. I'm very curious about Gen Y and how optimistic they are, how much they are open to sharing their beliefs and possibilities. They're very much a generation that believes in innovation and technology solving a lot of things, and I like that hopefulness. In a lot of ways, they have that same kind of boomer optimism that it's a world of possibility.

AH: Definitely. I ask because one of the things I like about my generation, Gen X, which I see in you is the desire to leverage business for good.

BS: I think about the business side of things: creating a vision and strategy, converting that into an operating plan, setting goals, holding people accountable -- it's the same process. I don't lead any differently than I led in business. I think the biggest difference is when you're on the commercial side, it is inherently competitive. What's funny is that I never thought I was going to be in business. I thought I would run a nonprofit.

AH: What ever happened to that? What changed your mind?

BS: When I finished school, I ended up going into business with the social goal in mind. I wanted to change the way we marketed to women, and that's why I went into advertising. My senior thesis was on mass media's relationship to the onset of anorexia.

AH: One thing led to another, then you were selling khakis, and then...

BS: I almost quit in my late 20s. But it was actually Peter, my husband -- he defends people on death row -- who convinced me to stay in business. He told me businesses can do a lot to change the world, and he said if you can move up and influence business to do that, you can make a big impact. He's a wise, wise man.

AH: You are at the top of your game and at the height of your career. I wonder if most CEOs would ever even consider that someone with your background would want to run a foundation -- that it can attract that kind of talent.

BS: I tell my team all the time that my vision for the work we do is that, one day, it's going to be a deeper part of the business. It's not going to be a department anymore. I want to make sure all of my players keep their business skills sharp because one day they're going to go back [to the business side]. I understand how value gets created on the business side. I often think, How do I help the business leaders understand how this work creates value for everyone, and that this is an investment worth making -- not as a charitable cause, but truly as an investment to raise things for everyone?

I think what has happened to HR in the last thirty years is a great parallel. HR has moved from being a department to really being a way of thinking about talent management and development, and most corporations have experts at the center who are staying on top of the latest ideas and innovations in the field.

AH: How has the work of the Gap Foundation changed in the last few years?

BS: A little over five years ago, we identified our people and their talent as our greatest strengths. Being a company that has a lot of employees, we said we have to leverage this group beyond just their time. While time is valuable, we think that talent is a multiplier. Now, 100 percent of our youth-serving grants all have what's called "link and leverage," which is they're linking to a company asset beyond cash. We also leverage internal talent pro bono to get our work done as a foundation. From strategic planning to surveys to Web site redesign, employees from different areas of the company volunteer to help us meet our goals.

It's been hugely transformative for our foundation to integrate skilled volunteering into our work. We couldn't have the kind of community impact we are having if we only relied on our cash.

AH: How do you know whether the strategy is working?

BS: I had a nonprofit leader call me last week to tell me how much she's grown as a leader because of the Gap Leadership Initiative, a program that helps nonprofit leaders become even more effective by leveraging the talents of our Human Resources team and some of our company's best practices on developing leaders. It's not because of all the money we were giving them. It's a small organization, but she has essentially doubled her revenue in the last four years. She told me, "I have grown so much because of your volunteers and what you've been teaching me as part of the Leadership Initiative." It wasn't about "thank you" for the cash we gave them, which I think is really cool.

AH: What does it take to get CEOs to see the business value of philanthropy?

BS: Part of it is showing them the multiple levels of value it creates. I don't think there's just one door you open that appeals to everyone. Some people are more wired to be more community-minded. I'm a big believer in creating a sustainable cycle, and in order to do that, you have to think about all the stakeholders that are involved in your community investment and what they are getting out of it.

AH: Between Reimagining Service and the White House, you are doing a lot of coalition work. Why have you taken this approach to social change?

BS: Coalition work is important because it fosters diverse thinking. It needs to have its little collisions before it rests in a place where the most important things have surfaced, and it's not just a diluted or a lowest common denominator. With Reimagining Service, the different pieces that have been brought to the table have created a more compelling solution, and it's not a solution where you have to do every piece and part in order for it to work.

AH: Why did you decide to take part in Reimagining Service?

BS: There was an a-ha moment of "Whoa, there's going to be a lot of people volunteering, and are we ready? And are these good intentions going to turn into impact that means something of value to the community?" All of us who are involved in Reimagining Service were in violent agreement that there was a need to address this opportunity.

AH: When I started Taproot and started working in the volunteering and service fields, I was pretty shocked by the amount of territoriality and politics I encountered.

BS: I think that was a reaction to change. The things Taproot has done in the ten years you've been doing this work have been game-changing. I think change is scary, but when you look at [the past], it's those who change and embrace change, as scary as that can be, who ultimately succeed. As Don Fisher [co-founder of Gap Inc.] liked to say, "Change or fail."

-- Aaron Hurst

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

A 'Flip' Chat With...Aaron Hurst, President and Founder, Taproot Foundation

(This is the fifteenth in our series of conversations with thought leaders in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. You can check out other videos in the series here, including our previous chat, with Headwaters Foundation for Justice executive director Trista Harris.)

"The challenges nonprofit groups face today demand that we find a better way to insert business expertise into the nonprofit world," wrote Taproot Foundation president and founder Aaron Hurst in a Chronicle of Philanthropy opinion piece back in 2009. "If crafted well, an army of pro bono consultants can help nonprofit groups strengthen their own abilities to adapt so they can deal with constantly evolving social, economic, and environmental challenges...."

Indeed, as nonprofits -- like many foundations, corporations, and individuals -- struggle to recover from the Great Recession, working "smarter" and doing more with less has become the new mantra.

Fortunately, nonprofits and people interested in providing pro bono services can turn to the Taproot Foundation for advice and resources. Over the last ten years, Taproot -- which works in five metro areas to "strengthen nonprofits by engaging business professionals in service" -- has perfected its recipe for pro bono collaboration. The ingredients of that recipe include:

1. service grants;
2. advisory services;
3. leadership resources; and
4. advocacy

In our latest "Flip" chat, Hurst discusses the state of the pro bono industry, reflects on challenges his organization has faced over the last ten years, and offers some advice to folks looking to switch from the for-profit world to the nonprofit sector.

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

(Total running time: 4 minutes, 46 seconds)

What do you think? Do you have an experience or advice related to pro bono work you can share? Is it something you'd recommend to others? And what advice would you give Aaron and his Taproot colleagues as they enter their second decade?

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (October 30 - 31, 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 lists a few characteristics of what Clay Shirky, in his book Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age, calls "The People Formerly Known as the Audience."

Fundraising

In honor of Halloween, Future Fudraising Now blogger Jeff Brooks shares "some things that should scare the heck out of fundraisers," including cuts to their acquisition budget, branding experts (the "brain-eating zombies of the fundraising world"), and the boss who loves your work.

Leadership

Back from the Council on Foundation's Next Generation Task Force sessions, Jillian Vukusich of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties lists some of the benefits and opportunities for Gen Y leaders on Kris Putnam-Walkerly's Philanthropy 411 blog.

On the Deep Social Impact blog, Cynthia Gibson looks at a new study from the University of Michigan which found that "college students today are 40 percent less empathetic than they were in 1979." Gibson explains how the findings are likely to effect "young people who DO care about 'making the world a better place'."

Philanthropy

"Just because you have data doesn't mean you know anything," writes Lucy Berhnolz in a new post on her Philanthropy 2173 blog. "Just because you have a map doesn't mean you're an explorer. And just because you have data and cool visualization tools doesn't mean you'll make better decisions or be a more effective grantmaker." Adds Bernholz:

For donors and foundation program officers, data and data visualizations have to meet an even higher threshold -- they are going to have to make it easier to know something than to not know it. Right now, most of the structural incentives in philanthropy make it OK to not know what everyone else in your field is doing. Plus, it's hard to find out. Those two factors -- making it necessary to know and making it easy to know -- are big barriers to adopting these tools or changing the way foundations make decisions. Technology can make it easier to access data and easier to show the data in new ways. But unless the incentives for knowing and doing the work change, we'll have a lot of very cool tools that few will use....

In a two-part series on his White Courtesy Telephone blog (here and here), Greater New Orleans Foundation president and CEO Albert Ruesga takes issue with a Stanford Social Innovation Review article in which William and Flora Hewlett Foundation president Paul Brest disagrees with funders who "think it would be intrusive" to demand that their grantees be able to articulate a theory of change.

Voluntarism

On the Social Citizens blog, Emily Yu wonders whether downloading a Facebook app for a nonprofit or tagging photos online for a cause constitute "service," and, if so, how that type of service should "be weighted when it comes to evaluation metrics."

Women

The Nonprofiteer offers her take on a new study which found "that at all income levels women give more than men -- both more frequently and more generously when controlled for income." "If we're lucky," she writes, "the study will help eliminate the prejudice afflicting most professional fundraisers: that women are timid askers and chintzy givers who never donate without asking someone's permission...."

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

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (June 19 - 20, 2010)

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

Arts and Culture

Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, explains in a Huffington Post entry why size doesn't matter in the arts. "If [small orgs] take the time to plan large, exciting programs four or five years in advance," writes Kaiser, "they would be far more likely to find the resources they require to mount these programs."

Capacity Building

On the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog, the Monitor Institute's Heather McLeod Grant discusses how the organization KaBOOM! used online tools to scale its offline program model.

Fundraising

"There's nothing dainty or secretive about a nonprofit arts organization's need for money," writes the Nonprofiteer in a new post, "so the more directly and entertainingly and memorably you state it, the better your chance of actually receiving the money."

On the Future Fundraising Now blog, Jeff Brooks explains why the best fundraising copy is written at a sixth-grade "reading ease" level.

Philanthropy

On the Tactical Philanthropy blog, Sean Stannard-Stockton argues that "smart funders who want to invest in the growth of outstanding [nonprofits will have] to restructure their process[es] so that the thrust of their work revolves around proactively locating great philanthropic opportunities rather than passively wading through grant applications."

Aaron Dorman and Niki Jagpal of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy offer three reasons why a new Florida law that keeps grantmaking institutions from having to disclose demographic information about their staff and board is problematic.

Social Media

Beth Kanter explains why you need to use social network analysis "to better understand your network." To ignore such analysis, writes Kanter, "[is] like a weatherman trying to predict a snowstorm without seeing a whole weather map."

On the Nonprofit Tech 2.0 blog, Heather Mansfield wonders whether Facebook will authenticate her Nonprofit Organizations Facebook Page, which has over 10,000 fans, or shut it down, as it has with other unofficial cause pages.

Volunteerism

On the Social Citizens blog, Kari Dunn Saratovsky outlines what every nonprofit should know about engaging the next generation of volunteers.

"It's obviously essential that people work for the common good through service and volunteerism," writes Zach Maurin on the Case Foundation's blog, "but we can't solve our most pressing social challenges if our citizenry only does that...."

That's it for now. What did we miss? Drop us a line at rnm@foundationcenter.org. And Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there. Have a great week!

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (May 8 - 9, 2010)

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

Economy

On the Kaufmann Foundation's Growthology blog, Tim Kane shares new research and charts on the state of the U.S. economy, including this neat infograph:

Environment

With all eyes focused on the worsening eco-disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Alex Kolker of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium writes that "If there is a silver lining in this event, I hope it will be redoubled focus, at the state and national levels, on restoring coastal Louisiana...."

Philanthropy

In a post at his newly redesigned Tactical Philanthropy site, Sean Stannard-Stockton discusses the new Grantmakers for Effective Organizations project Scaling What Works.

On the Case Foundation's blog, Jean Case details what happened last fall when the foundation learned that its PlayPumps initiative, which was designed to leverage the PlayPumps technology to bring clean drinking water to rural African villages, was coming up short. Writes Case:

Of course, there really is only one appropriate response when things aren't humming along as planned, and it is the same response Bill Gates offered, "So, what do we do next?" Because just like in business ventures, personal undertakings and public sector initiatives, things often go wrong. The unexpected happens. Reality doesn't always play out like the business plan calls for. Look at any great business today and chances are their road to success was fraught with potholes -- low moments that required fresh, new thinking and important course corrections. As a nation, I think we've learned that progress comes through trial and error, and much of what we enjoy today is because somebody somewhere was willing to blaze new ground....

In response to Case's post, World Affairs Council president Jane Wales offers a post of her own in which she commends Case for highlighting the fact that "mistakes matter."

The MacArthur Foundation recently announced grants totaling $5.6 million to ten universities in eight countries to establish new Master's in Development practice programs. Responding to the news, Laura Freschi, on the Aid Watch blog, asks what if, instead of "more development practitioners who can understand the 'languages' and practices of many specialties, and who can work fluidly and flexibly across intellectual and professional disciplines and geographic regions," the world really needs "more of something else?"

Social Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship blogger Nathaniel Whittemore takes issue with a recent post by social venture capitalist Josh Cohen and Taproot Foundation founder Aaron Hurst. In their post, Cohen and Hurst "advance the argument that the framework of social entrepreneurship is inadequate" and will not help Millienials -- the generation born between 1982 and 2000 -- attain meaningful careers. While Whittemore agrees with many of their points, he also lists five reasons why their argument is flawed.

Social Media

On the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog, Amy Sample Ward examines "how some of the most popular [social networking] tools...for 'community building' online are actually not community-centric tools at all."

Technology

On the Huffington Post, Rahim Kanani, a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, cites examples from this year's Global Philanthropy Forum to support his contention that philanthropy is "harnessing mobile and internet technology for change, social impact, and accountability...."

Voluntarism

Guest blogging at the Case Foundation blog, Evan Hochberg of global accounting firm Deloitte looks at a new Volunteer IMPACT study which found "that more than eight in ten companies (84 percent) believe that volunteerism can help nonprofits accomplish long-term social goals." While that's good news, writes Hochberg, "I am concerned that the reported widespread lack of planning, accountability and measurement will limit the full potential of volunteerism...."

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 10 - 11, 2010)

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

Diversity

On the Philanthropy Potluck blog, Wendy Wehr, VP of Communications and Information Services at the Minnesota Council on Foundations, argues that "institutions and individuals must take joint responsibility for diversifying leadership" within the nonprofit sector.

Economy

"Nonprofit leaders need to take a bigger view of how their organizations and missions are financed," writes Nell Edgington at the Social Velocity blog. "It's not enough to manage money wisely," adds Edgington. "Nonprofit leaders need to create a comprehensive, fully integrated financial strategy for the social impact they want to achieve and then execute on it."

The dire situation of many cash-strapped nonprofits isn't solely due to the economic downturn, writes John Brothers of Cuidiu Consulting on the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog. In too many cases, he says, it's the result of "problems that have grown and festered over time, even when resources were more plentiful." How can you tell whether a nonprofit is in or heading for trouble? Brothers shares "six...tell-tell signs."

On the the Business of Giving blog, Seattle Times reporter Kristi Heim interviews Judy Pigott, an heir to the Paccar fortune, about the advocacy efforts of Responsible Wealth, a project of United for a Fair Economy, a Boston-based nonprofit.

Fundraising

Frogloop blogger Allyson Kapin and Network for Good's Katya Andresen share some takeaways from a new fundraising benchmarks study conducted by solutions provider Convio.

Impact/Effectiveness

On the new Community Research Exchange blog, CRE managing director Louisa Hackett argues that it is incumbent on nonprofits groups "to take back...evaluation language and explain to funders [that] this is how we define and measure success." (Thanks for the tip, Caitlin!)

On the Good Ideas blog, Great Nonprofits CEO Perla Ni shares four ideas that could help nonprofits and the nonprofit sector:

1. Provide tax deductions for volunteer time
2. Donate vacant office space at a discounted rate to nonprofits
3. Eliminate tax deductability for donations to religious congregations
4. Create localized Web sites that make it easy for people to contribute to various community-based groups and projects

Philanthropy

In a new post, Charity Navigator president and CEO Ken Berger looks back at ten sector-related predictions he made in 2009 to see how they worked out -- and offers a few more for 2010.

Following the Corporation for National and Community Service's announcement of Paul Carttar as director of the Social Innovation Fund, Gift Hub blogger Phil Cubeta shares his reservations about the growing involvement of government in the nonprofit sector.

On the Smart Assets blog, Philanthropy New York senior fellow Charles Hamilton takes a long and thoughtful look at the 5 percent "minimum" payout rate for foundations. You may be surprised by some of his conclusions.

And on the Philanthropy 2173 blog, Lucy Bernholz continues her musings on the disruptive impact of new technologies on philanthropy with a sharp post about cloud computing and the "infostructure."

Voluntarism

Last but not least, the Nonprofiteer is back with a bullet-point manifesto that addresses how organizations can make the most of their high-skill volunteers. "High-skill volunteers are...people with significant experience and leadership ability," she writes. "So the best way to deploy them is to give them an opportunity to lead."

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 (January 30 - 31, 2010)

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

Communications/Marketing

A recent Nancy Schwartz & Company survey of more than 900 nonprofit leaders found that most nonprofit messages don't connect strongly with the key audiences for those messages. The survey also found that 86 percent of nonprofits characterize their messages as difficult to remember. On her Getting Attention blog, Schwartz reminds readers that "messaging is the first step in effective marketing communications."

On IssueLab's Footnotes blog, Luise Barnikel, host of this month's Nonprofit Blog Carnival, offers a selection of posts on the topic of nonprofit communications on a budget.

On the Nonprofit Tech 2.0 blog, Heather Mansfield offers simple definitions of "Web 1.0," "Web 2.0," and "Web 3.0," and then explains what it all means for nonprofit communicators.

Disaster Relief

How fast are donors losing interest in Haiti? According to data gathered by Network for Good, the answer is quickly, though not as quickly as has been the case in other recent disasters. On her Non-Profit Marketing blog, Network for Good VP Katya Andresen offers some advice to charities working in Haiti who want to keep the attention of potential donors.

Responding to the increase in online donations following the January 12 earthquake in Haiti, Doctors Without Borders asked potential donors to give to its Emergency Relief Fund so that "funds pouring in for Haiti relief can be spent more flexibly." Not such a good idea, says Future Fundraising Now blogger Jeff Brooks, who thinks that designating future donations to a general fund serves to discourage individuals interested in supporting Haiti relief specifically.

Economy

On the Philanthropy Potluck blog, Minnesota Council on Foundations communications associate Chris Murakami Noonan highlights what a number of the largest foundations in the state are doing to address the economic downturn.

Last week, Idealist founder Ami Dar announced on Twitter the imminent launch of a "Save Idealist" fundraising appeal. In a recent post on her blog, Rosetta Thurman reflects on the news and wonders what the future holds for nonprofit infrastructure organizations now that the "pool of funding sources for non-direct service programs, [which] has always been slim,...is...getting slimmer."

Fundraising

Allison Fine reflects on the growing popularity of text message fundraising campaigns and identifies what could be a major shortcoming of such campaigns down the road: "relationship building...is going to be inherently difficult."

Philanthropy

In an "open letter" on the Fast Company site, Do Something CEO Nancy Lublin shares with "her power[ful] 'friends' at foundations" four things she'd like them to stop doing:

• Stop thinking you know everything
• Stop mistaking marketing for overhead -- and stop hating on overhead
• Stop funding redundancy
• Stop thinking that newer is better

Lublin concludes her letter by offering one promise: "I [will] stop calling 'for advice' or 'just to check in' when...we both know what I really want: your check."

Over at Tactical Philanthropy, Sean Stannard-Stockton challenges the views articulated by Michael Edwards, former director of the Ford Foundation's Governance and Civil Society Program, in Why "Social Capital Markets" Could Be a Really Bad Idea, the second in a five-part series of posts by Edwards on the Intrepid Philanthropist blog. "The social capital market Edwards describes is a shallow, mechanical market that has little resemblance to how real markets work," writes Stannard-Stockton. "It is critical that as we build robust social capital markets, that we create vibrant, human markets, not some sort of mechanical sorting machine."

In a comment rebutting Stannard-Stockton's charge, Edwards writes:

As I said in my first blog post on Philanthropy Central on Monday, civil society and the social economy are very different things, animated by different mechanisms, fulfilling different roles, and requiring different forms of support from philanthropy. One cannot simply ignore the trade-offs that exist between competition and cooperation as you do. nor sweep under the carpet the difficulties imposed by the fact that social ‘goods’ are not commensurable or substitutable (now there’s a mouthful!). That’s the subject of today’s blog post, so I encourage you to check it out.

A "farmers market" is still a market, and markets are places where people buy and sell. Civil society is not, and that’s why we need more "meeting grounds," not markets....

You can find the other four posts by Edwards here, here, here, and here.

On the heels of the release of Bill Gates' second annual letter, Seattle Times reporter Kristi Heim shares this brief Q&A with the co-chair of the world's largest private philanthropy.

Here on PhilanTopic, Foundation Center president Brad Smith argues that foundations need to be more transparent and explains how the center's new Glasspockets initiative will facilitate greater transparency on the part of major U.S. foundations.

Social Media

Following lots of grumbling about the final outcome of the Chase Community Giving Contest on Facebook, the debate over the value proposition of such contests continues. Beth Kanter, for one, doesn't think they should be banned, just changed. To that end, Kanter offers three suggestions for designing better contests in the future: don't promote scarcity thinking; create (and clearly identify) a role for expert opinion; and strike an appropriate balance between social good and cause marketing to avoid tha appearance of "cause washing."

Volunteerism

A recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that rates of volunteerism increased in 2009 -- but not by much. While a recent post at the New York Times' Economix blog takes a "pessimistic" view of the report, an upbeat Joanne Fritz says the report shows the glass is half full.

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

-- Regina Mahone

Weekend Link Roundup (October 31, 2009 - November 1, 2009)

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

Arts and Culture

“I do not think I believe anymore in forcing Eurocentric arts organizations to do diverse works or to put one minority on a board,” writes Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in a recent Huffington Post blog entry. Adds Kaiser:

When large, white organizations produce minority works they typically select the "low hanging fruit," the most popular works by diverse artists featuring the most famous minority performers and directors. This almost invariably hurts the minority arts organizations in the neighborhood, most of which are small and underfunded, and cannot afford to match the marketing clout or the casting glamour of their larger white counterparts....

And when a single minority is placed on a board with no responsibility other than to represent a race, it does nothing to change the true mission, or audience base, of the organization. More is required....

Kaiser goes on to suggest that "we...build the board strength of these vital groups and work with them to build individual donor bases that match their white counterparts," and he concludes by stating, "I am not certain I am right. We need more discussion."

What do you think? Is he right? Share your thoughts below.

Communications/Fundraising

Given the state of the economy, it's impossible to know the particular circumstances of every one of your organization's donors, says Katya Andresen on her Non-Profit Marketing blog. To keep those all-important donor relationships intact, Andresen suggests a few "tweaks" to your fundraising appeals:

1. Empathy is appropriate
2. Show you are tightening your belt
3. Demonstrate that all donations count
4. Show your impact

As always, great advice.

According to fundraising guru Dr. Stephen Goldstein, there are at least seven things fundraisers can learn from a good panhandler:

1. Tell the truth
2. Have a plan
3. Use psychology
4. Be persistent
5. Be creative
6. Make your donor feel good
7. Be upbeat and thankful

On her Nonprofit Blog at About.com, Joanne Fritz, host of this month's Nonprofit Blog Carnival, offers a selection of blog posts on the topic of fundraising. (H/t: Katya Andresen)

Impact/Effectiveness

On his blog, Ken Berger, president and CEO of Charity Navigator, explains why donors should care about outcomes and impact. For starters, writes Berger, 98 percent of all nonprofits are unable to demonstrate that their programs create impact. In fact, all "the evidence we see," adds Berger, "shows that objective data on nonprofit performance is needed and desired now more than ever."

Nonprofit Management

In an opinion piece in the Christian Science Monitor, Paul Lamb, a former nonprofit executive, considers the question of whether there are too many nonprofits in America and concludes that the more important issue is the cost-effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the nonprofit service delivery model.

The Minnesota Council on Foundations has compiled a helpful list of resources related to partnering -- from collaborations to mergers and everything in between. (H/t: MCF's Philanthropy Potluck blog)

Philanthropy

According to a recent study by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, regional trends and values have less of an impact on donor motivation than income and education. But as Sharon Schneider explains on the Philanthropic Family blog, not all donors feel that way. Writes Schneider:

Charity, for me, is about living up to my inner voice, about bridging the gap between the person I am today and the person I aspire to be. And that's also why check-writing isn't the pinnacle of charity, no matter how big the check. In fact, it's just the first step on a journey of a million steps....

Increasingly frustrated by how "profoundly segregated the people trying to change the world are from one another," Dan Pallotta argues on his Free the Nonprofits blog that it's

time for a gathering that will bring everyone in the nonprofit world together, every year, for four or five days of unbelievable 20-minute talks, a la TED, to introduce each of the silos to the others; to expose them to each other's frustrations, expertise, and potential. It should be held in the biggest indoor arena in the country. And it should be open to the world....

Social Entrepreneurship

Last week, twenty-five social entrepreneurs met at FailCon to learn how to turn their failed ventures into learning experiences. Shalyn Hockey, VP of Operations at Assetmap, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that creates Web tools to help other organizations leverage their social capital, summarizes the event on the Social Entrepreneurship blog and offers ten sure-fire "equations" for failure, as well as five equations for success.

Social Media

On the Chronicle of Philanthropy's Prospecting blog, Nicole Wallace notes that of the 587 people who responded to a recent Cone survey, nearly three-quarters agreed with the statement that "new media raise[s] their awareness about causes but do[es] not motivate them to do any more to help."

Guest blogging on Beth Kanter's blog, Michael Hoffman, CEO of See3 Communications, explains how nonprofits can make the most of the video-sharing site YouTube.

Twitter has rolled out a new "lists" feature that allows individuals to categorize and create public lists of other Twitterers. Lauren Cochrane, a "geek girl" who works for a nonprofit in Australia, shares a half dozen or so list building ideas for nonprofits on her blog, Geeking for Good, including: lists of your organization's chapters and campigns, related organizations and campaigns, and media types with an interest in your cause.

Following on Cochrane's post, Amy Sample Ward counsels nonprofits to also create a list of their supporters on Twitter.

Technology

At the Case Foundation's blog, Andrew Jensen, CEO and senior consultant for Sozo Firm, an SEO and Web marketing outfit, offers some advice to nonprofit organizations on how they can improve the visibility of their Web site.

Volunteerism

A week or so ago, Greg Baldwin, president of VolunteerMatch, wrote a thought-provoking post about the Entertainment Industry Foundation's failed iParticipate campaign, which aimed to promote volunteerism by incorporating service themes into primetime television shows. Despite the cooperation of the industry, wrote Baldwin, the efforts did not result in a surge of visits to VolunteerMatch, VolunteerSolutions, Craiglist, 1-800-Volunteer.org, or Idealist. In fact, notes Baldwin, "Google and the long-tail of the Internet...out performed Hollywood on Thursday [the day of the event] 16 to 1."

In a thought-provoking post of her own, Allison Fine suggest that the iParticipate campaign was a case of "malmeasurement," of "hyperbole gone wild." Writes Fine:

We hear this kind of language so often. That the next campaign will be a "game changer," or create a "tidal wave" of interest, etc. The expectations that highlighting volunteerism within TV programs would be a catalyst for millions of people to volunteer was never realistic in the first place. The distance between raising awareness and action is too far through the light touch of a mention in a TV show. But that doesn’t mean that raising awareness isn't important....

The whole post is worth reading.

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 17 - 18, 2009)

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

Climate Change

This year’s Blog Action Day, on October 15, saw bloggers from 155 countries contribute posts and resources related to climate change and the environment. For a roundup of featured posts, check out the Change.org site.

Communications/Marketing

On her Getting Attention blog, nonprofit marketing expert Nancy Schwartz shares a recent case study in which Tracy Mitchell, general manager of the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York, explains how she "tackled her marketing dilemmas, even before the recession hit in full force."

Community Improvement/Development

Referring to the recent incident involving ACORN workers who were caught on videotape allegedly advising individuals how to evade the law, Nonprofit Board Crisis blogger Mike Burns argues that as "in the public...and private sectors, mistakes...can be made by individual nonprofits." What is worrisome, says Burns, are the efforts by some members of Congress to use the incident as an excuse to repeal the Community Reinvestment Act, which, as Burns notes, was designed to end redlining -- the nefarious practice of "walling off" inner-city neighborhoods from mortgage loans. Adds Burns: "When [an organization’s] failing becomes a rallying cry to turn against parts of society that have limited voice, it's time for the nonprofit sector to take a stand."

Fundraising

After reading a new study from the Center on Philanthropy which found that donors who were asked to give in person by someone they knew were more likely to give than those asked by phone, mail or email, Todd Cohen says nonprofits need to "get back to basics" and "invest the time...to understand, cultivate, and engage their givers."

International Affairs/Development

A lively debate erupted early in the week as bloggers responded to an october 2 post by the Center for Global Development's David Roodman in which Roodman argued that popular microfinance site Kiva isn't quite what it seems. According to Roodman, that's because fewer than 5 percent of Kiva loans are disbursed after they are listed and funded on the Kiva site -- the way most people think the site works. After defending that practice in a separate post, Philanthropy Action editor-in-chief Tim Ogden raised other questions about the microfinance lender. Writes Ogden: "First, all losses from Kiva-securitized loans are borne by the Kiva user. Second, Kiva's monthly repayment reports are not based on actual repayment data." Then he asks: Will the "illusion...of person-to-person" giving lead to Kiva's demise, as it did for sponsor-a-child organizations in the '90s? Tactical Philanthropy's Sean Stannard-Stockton weighed in with his own thoughts on the controversy (here and here), as did Holden and Elie at GiveWell (here). By week's end, Kiva co-founder and CEO Matt Flannery had posted a thoughtful response to Roodman, and, as GiveWell reported, the Kiva team had made some changes to its donor-facing page.

On her Business of Giving blog, Seattle Times reporter Kristi Heim takes a closer look at Africa Rural Connect, an online community that uses crowdsourcing technology to find a "solution for Africa's development challenges."

Nonprofit Management

According to a recent article in the Wall Sreet Journal, the "Great Recession" is over. (And we have a bridge in Brooklyn we'd like to sell you.) If that's true, says Sean Stannard-Stockton on his Tactical Philanthropy blog, nonprofits should move quickly to "reset the future path of [their]...financial health." According to Stannard-Stockton, that means:

• developing the next generation of your most effective program;
• putting in place an outcome measurement system;
• creating and starting to build a reserve fund;
• upgrading your technology infrastructure; and
• hiring a top notch fundraiser.

Uncharitable author Dan Pallotta argues on his Free the Nonprofits blog that the so-called psychic benefits of nonprofit work are overrated. Writes Pallotta:

Most nonprofits are small and starved for capital, preventing employees from fully capitalizing on their personal potential. Nearly every good idea is met with a dearth of resources, a prohibition on taking risk, or a broken donated computer. Whatever psychic benefit that theoretically might have accrued from putting those good ideas into action is outweighed by the grind of shoestring budgets and overstretched systems that is the reality....

If you work for a nonprofit, you'll want to read the rest of his post.

Philanthropy

In part three of her "Decoding the Future" series, Lucy Bernholz offers further insights into the possible future nexus of philanthropy and technology. The big issues front and center in any such discussion, notes Bernholz, include "networks + network governance, the [giving] commons, [and] cloud technology."

Social Media

Ten Gen Y bloggers, including Allison Jones, Rosetta Thurman, Elisa M. Ortiz, Tracey Webb, and Kevin Gilnack, have formed the Nonprofit Millennial Bloggers Alliance to help "young...bloggers reach wider audiences and collectively bring important issues...to the forefront." Congrats and best wishes to all involved.

Social media has moved beyond "shiny new object syndrome," says Future Buzz blogger Adam Singer, and that means the key to success for organizations (and individuals) hoping to establish a meaningful presence in an increasingly crowded landscape is to be the starting point of conversations. Adds Singer:

[T]hose who continuously start conversations in a niche become referential for the rest of that niche. And once people are conditioned to go somewhere on the web for certain type of content, it is a habit that may prove hard to break. If this place is your site, you’ll greatly benefit. This is because we have designed the web to be a very social place -- and so the places where people regularly converge will continue to grow....

On her blog, Beth Kanter explains how to put "social learning" (aka "learning in public") into practice.

Volunteerism

On Friday, President Obama visited former President George H.W. Bush in Texas to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Points of Light movement, which was created to bring "individual citizens together in their own organizations to solve problems in their own communities." Writing on the Huffington Post, Points of Light CEO Michelle Nunn argues that while the movement has been a resounding success, "the call to citizens to step up and make a difference has never been more important."

Women

Last but not least, Allison Fine offers her takeaways from the recent Voices Against Violence blogathon. Sponsored by the Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham and NBC Birmingham affiliate Channel 13, the event was designed "to raise awareness of the terrible toll of domestic violence on women and communities." And it was a success, says Fine, because

the importance of the partnership between broadcast media and social media was clearly highlighted....Rather than being threatened by the bloggers, NBC and the Women’s Fund recognized the importance of building a strong relationship with them. The future won’t be social media or broadcast, it will be social media AND broadcast -- in some combination that we are still developing....

We couldn't agree more.

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

-- Regina Mahone

Quote of the Day (October 10, 2009)

"The main reason for [the] upsurge of volunteer participation in the United States is not an increase in need. The main reason is the search on the part of the volunteers for the search for community, for commitment, for contribution. The great bulk of the new volunteers are not retired people; they are husbands and wives in the professional, two-earner family, people in their thirties and forties, well educated, affluent, busy. They enjoy their jobs. But they feel the need to do something where 'we can make a difference', to use the phrase one hears again and again -- whether that means running a Bible class in the local church; teaching disadvantaged children the multiplication tables; or visiting old people back home from a long stay in the hospital and helping them with their rehabilitation exercises...."

-- Peter Drucker, "Citizenship Through the Social Sector," The Essential Drucker