leadership

In March 2007, the Leadership Learning community (LLC) held a Health Leadership Learning Circle retreat near Napa, California. The retreat gathered 30 health leadership development funders, practitioners, and evaluators to share resources, tools, information and successful approaches to supporting, developing and connecting health leadership. Ginny Oehler and Tracy Patterson were both at the retreat. read more »

Top Trends:

On Nonprofit Collaboration...

• The objection to nonprofit collaboration has always been that “we’re all competing for a limited pool of resources.”  This is true, Debra Askanase of the Community Organizer 2.0 blog states, but it is also true that cooperation makes that pool larger; collaboration brings in more traffic, clients and funding sources which benefits nonprofits and their causes.  We are in a new world in which coopetition (cooperative competition) is becoming the norm.

Inclusive, networked, and collective approaches to leadership are vital for the development of the social sector, for its power to influence public will and public policy, and for the personal survival of leaders in the sector.

At present, the social sector leadership system privileges the exercise of leadership within organizations. An assumption exists that organizations are the most efficient and accountable way to deliver services and advocate for change. read more »

Top Trends:

On Nonprofits and Haiti... read more »

• The Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania publishes an article explaining how donors can most effectively help in Haiti.  The Center has created a chart documenting the phases of effective philanthropic support and they offer tips to donors about what to look for in different charities.  Donors should focus on organizations that have a large impact rather than those that place emphasis on not spending money on overhead and  they should look at nonprofits that have the capabilities to have a large impact.  They also offer a list of charities that they believe have those capabilities.

Top Trends:
 
On Disaster Relief… read more »

• The tragic earthquake in Haiti has sparked debate about the best way to provide relief.  Philantopic publishes a blog post suggesting that the U.S. should create some sort of a joint appeal that would “manage a coordinated fundraising campaign for a specific emergency.”  Donations would be collected by a central committee and then would be distributed to organizations which could make the best use of them at the time.
• Rosetta Thurman offers ways that the philanthropic community can help in Haiti.  She includes things that we should do (mobile giving) and that we should not do (collect canned goods).

Top Trends:

On Social Impact and Investment... read more »

• A new initiative, Social Impact Exchange, from Growth Philanthropy Network and Duke University has been launched.  Social Impact Exchange is a “focal point for studying, funding and implementing large expansions of proven social purpose organizations.”  It offers an “investment clearinghouse” of the most effective nonprofit organizations.  Sean Stannard-Stockton, of Tactical Philanthropy, comments on the Clearinghouse and how it is similar to the stock exchange; the most relevant aspect of the stock market which also applies to philanthropy, he says, is that the stock market has certain ongoing requirements that organizations must adhere to.

Top Trends:

On Nonprofits, Values, and Building Social Capital... read more »

• According to Sean Stannard-Stockton of Tactical Philanthropy, trust is a necessary component in building social capital in philanthropy.  He cites a Forbes article that argues that trust (in its broadest definition) is responsible for the difference between the richest countries and the poorest, demonstrating the value and utility of trust.  Although philanthropy is, at times, a dysfunctional system, trust is still a vital and necessary component of making it work.

On the Future of Philanthropy... read more »

• The New York Times terms the everyday donor as “philanthropy’s newest hero” and states that it is the smaller donors (who are being organized around the principle of modest giving) which charities are beginning to target.  The article cites smaller scale efforts, like the Facebook group Fight Global Poverty and the online fund-raising organization, GlobalGiving, which have had big impact.

Top Articles:

On Networks and Change... read more »

• Beth Kanter writes about the power of networks and how they create social change.  Specifically, she touches on such issues as opened vs. closed networks, the different purposes of networking and network vibrancy (“things you don’t expect to happen take hold”).
• According to the nupolis blog, our use of networks and networking is still in the beginning stages, but it has the potential to be a big movement.  Networks have the potential to reduce costs and increase effectiveness of organizations, promote advocacy, facilitate integrated place-based development and improve the effectiveness of grantmaking.  There are few organizations who have determined that network building (as a strategy) is crucial and should be funded, but that number is growing and corresponds with the idea that organizations should concentrate on maximizing the number of resources they have at their disposal.