Weekend Link Roundup (October 17-18, 2015)

Our weekly round up of noteworthy items from and about the social sector. For more links to great content, follow us on Twitter at @pndblog.

Climate Change

Does Bill Gates understand that divestment movements do not need to financially impact their targets to be successful? Not really, argues Katie Herzog in Grist.

And look who just came out in support of the UN climate goals. 

International Affairs/Development

It has been a deadly year for aid workers in the field. Iain Overton reports for the Guardian.

Education

Can separate be equal in education? In Boston, many black families have decided that diversity in the classroom is a luxury, not a necessity. Farah Stockman explains.

On Medium, Jeff Raikes, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has some thoughts on how philanthropy can promote innovation in Education.

Grantmaking

On the Barr Foundation website, Senior Program Officer E. San San Wong discusses three trends the Boston-based foundation's arts team is exploring in the context of a strategic planning process.

Higher Education

Looking for innovation in higher education? Washington Monthly's Matt Connolly highlights ten leaders who are delivering it.

Nonprofits

"A struggle is under way for the 'soul' of America's nonprofit sector,"writes Lester Salamon in NPQ, and how it shakes out will be determined, to a large degree, by how nonprofit organizations respond to four major "impulses" that are buffeting the field: voluntarism, professionalism, civic activism, and commercialism/managerialism.

"[T]here are so many practices [the nonprofit sector has ] adopted that do not necessarily reflect the challenges and reality that nonprofits face, or what we aspire to do." And one of them, argues NWB blogger Vu Le, is the annual performance review.

"Networks, nonprofits organizations, and movements are filled with people who are passionate about social change work but often work hard and long...without giving a thought to self-care," writes Beth Kanter. If it doesn't already have one, adds Kanter, it's high time your nonprofit developed a "wellness" strategy with its employees in mind.

What does a networked approach look like in practice for a nonprofit leader? Social Velocity blogger Nell Edgington  walks her readers through it.

Philanthropy

In the South China Morning Post, Channix Yau reports on the philanthropy boom in Hong Kong.

On the NCRP blog, Exponent Philanthropy's Andy Carroll argues that all family foundations, regardless of size, are in a position to do bold, changemaking social justice work. 

Are foundation grants to corporations defensible? In a guest post on the Transformation blog, Linsey McGoey, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Essex and the author of the recently released No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy, argues that until we have more "evidence of the cost-effectiveness of enrolling private players" in global development work, the  "eagerness to offer ever more charity to profitable corporations seems questionable to say the least."

Poverty Alleviation

Good analysis on the Wharton Public Policy blog of how the work of newly minted Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton may change policy makers' approach to poverty alleviation in the developing world.

And  if it does, their job might not be hopeless as Paul Erlich and others have long argued. NPR's Rae Ellen Bichell reports.

That's it for this week. What have you been reading/watching/listening to? Drop us a line at mfn@foundationcenter.org or via the comments section below....