Weekend Link Roundup (March 20 - 21, 2010)

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

Disaster Relief

On the Philanthropy Potluck blog, Chris Murakami Noonan, communications associate at the Minnesota Council on Foundations, shares some great takeaways from a Haiti-quake-relief briefing hosted by the Global Funders Network.

Diversity

In a different post, MCF fellow Tawanna Black discusses diversity with Shawn Lewis, a trustee of the Pan African Community Endowment at the Saint Paul Foundation. "[T]o create true inclusion that drives results for an organization," says Lewis, "it takes focus, commitment, deep authentic relationships with communities of color, and an enduring will to do the work."

Nonprofit Management

On his Harvard Business Review blog, Uncharitable author Dan Pallotta labels concerns aired by a group of U.S. senators about the compensation received by top executives at the Boys & Girls Club of America an "undeserved attack." Adds Pallotta: "It's immoral that in one 24-hour news cycle these leaders have manufactured a massive public relations and fundraising nightmare for the Boys and Girls Clubs without the slightest effort to evaluate the CEO's compensation in the context of the value she is providing." Be sure to check out the lively discussion in the comments.

Sarah Fischler, director of consulting and special projects for the Denver-based Community Resource Center, offers a different take on the debate at her blog. "The controversy over executive pay in the biggest organizations undermines and distracts from the equally important conversation about the continued starvation (for more) of the nonprofits on the other end of the spectrum," writes Fischler, who adds:

Without additional investment in organizational infrastructure and capacity, most small to mid-sized nonprofits will continue to piece together resources to inch their mission forward. While I mostly agree with Rosetta Thurman that CEOs of large nonprofits who want for-profit salaries should work for for-profit companies, those of us working at smaller, community-based nonprofits need to continue to advocate and make a stronger case for greater investments in the infrastructure and overhead necessary to support strong leadership, fair pay and benefits for staff, effective operations, and better organizational results....

Philanthropy

Noting that manifesto-issuing is "all the rage" these days, Lucy Bernholz offers a manifesto of her own related to "open philanthropy." In the post, Bernholz urges the philanthropic community to experiment with tools that increase transparency and adds:

The tools we have today for gathering input, sharing data, exchanging ideas with attribution while encouraging reuse and remixing, creating sustainable enterprises dedicated to social change, and engaging multiple communities over time have exploded in number and pervasive use....Now is the time to consider en toto the systems and tools of giving so that [they include] the tools, norms, and expectations of our times. This will position them to work most successfully in relation to the public and commercial sectors and increase our chances of making lasting change....

What do you think of Lucy's manifesto? Share you thoughts in the comments section below.

Social Media

Network for Good's Katya Andresen shares some new stats and insights on social media, Twitter usage, and mobile giving on her Nonprofit Marketing blog.

In a related post, Allison Fine takes a closer look at a post on the Mashable blog, What Social Media Users Want, which concludes "that people with similar interests gravitate to particular [social networking] sites." That's okay, says Fine. "[While] social networking sites need a critical mass of people in order to create vibrant, robust conversations...not everyone has to be on every platform." And that's something "that is important for nonprofits to understand."

On the Case Foundation blog, Kristin Ivie outlines what nonprofits can learn from past Twestival fundraising events.

Last but not least, Beth Kanter reflects on her experience presenting (alongside panelists Holly Ross, Amy Sample Ward, David Neff, and Kari Dunn Saratovsky) at the recent South by Southwest Conference in Austin. As always, Beth's thoughts are well worth your time.

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

-- Regina Mahone