Posts by Maria Di Mento
October 29, 2009, 02:54 PM ET
Questions About Malaria Data, and More: Wednesday's Roundup
- Bill and Melinda Gates continue to cite questionable malaria data as part of their new effort to promote U.S. foreign spending on global health, say William Easterly and Laura Fresch, of New York University’s Development Research Institute, on their Aid Watch blog. Read The Chronicle’s article about the Gateses’ advocacy campaign.
- While two recent reports present interesting information about the gender and ethnic diversity within foundation leadership, they fail to look at age and whether foundation chief executives are getting younger, writes Marion Conway, a charity consultant, on her blog.
- Cause Marketing, the blog for the communications consulting company Alden Keene & Associates, asks whether ubiquitous promotions for breast-cancer-awareness month have made it impossible for other business-charity partnerships to get attention during October.
- Shweta S....
October 27, 2009, 01:04 PM ET
Sexism in the Nonprofit World, and More: Tuesday's Roundup
- Dan Pallotta, founder of a company that raised money for charities and author of a book on the nonprofit world, argues on the Daily Beast that sexism is holding back the charitable field.
- Andrew Taylor, director of a graduate program in arts administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, writes on the Artful Manager blog about an effort by several theater companies to develop a system of financing based on locally supported agriculture, by which a group of people promise to invest in a farm and share its risks and benefits.
- Arts organizations need to rethink how they approach diversity in their programming, Michael M. Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, writes on The Huffington Post.
- Katya Andresen, a marketer for the charity Network for Good, offers four ways nonprofit groups should be tailoring their appeals during...
October 26, 2009, 12:11 PM ET
Characteristics of an Effective Board Leader, Plus More: Monday's Roundup
- Board leaders need to effectively communicate a group’s mission to the public, work well with a chief executive, and be a major financial supporter, writes Alice Korngold, a charity consultant in New York, on a Fast Company magazine blog.
- The word donor is used to describe anyone who supports a charity, but the title should be reserved for contributors who give at least 10 percent of their household income to charity and meet other criteria, writes Greg Fox on the Donor Power blog, which is operated by Merkle, a fund-raising company.
- The traditional model of conferences — keynote speeches, plenaries, networking breaks — is dead, writes Nathaniel Whittemore on Change.org’s social entrepreneurship blog. Mr. Whittemore, director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, predicts that conferences will become less hierarchical, and he cites the Pop!Tech...
October 23, 2009, 12:54 PM ET
Questions Remain About Federal Innovation Fund; And More: Friday's Roundup
- While the Corporation for National and Community Service sought to explain the new Social Innovation Fund during a conference call this month, Adin Miller, a nonprofit consultant, says “many significant challenges and questions remained unaddressed.” He lists the questions on his blog.
- Saying that the success of microfinance is often exaggerated, GiveWell, a charity research group in New York, examines on its blog six myths that donors should know before supporting organizations that provide small business loans to the poor.
- As the number of homeless people rises due to the recession, local governments should work closely with charities to help them, instead of proposing new laws to prohibit loitering and public camping, says an editorial in The New York Times.
- With some British animal charities garnering more contributions than domestic-violence prevention...
October 22, 2009, 12:45 PM ET
Challenging a Pundit's Views on Volunteerism Efforts, and More: Thursday's Roundup
- The national role of volunteerism can be debated, but Fox News’ host Glenn Beck has a “distorted view” of service when he says the entertainment industry and the Obama administration’s efforts to promote volunteerism border on Marxism, writes John C. Ronquillo, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia who studies nonprofit management, on his personal blog.
- Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, authors of the Philanthrocapitalism blog and a book on philanthropy by the same name, discuss a paper by a former British aid official suggesting that foreign aid should be more decentralized and that there ought to be more information about what works and what doesn’t. Donors, like the William and Flora Hewlett and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations, are already working to provide this sort of information, write the bloggers.
- What can philanthropy do to improve the 2010 census? ...
October 21, 2009, 11:24 AM ET
Sparking Creativity Among Nonprofit Workers, and More: Wednesday's Roundup
- Greg Baldwin, of the recruitment site VolunteerMatch, writes on Engaging Volunteers that technical problems prevented the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s iParticipate public-service campaign from meeting expectations on its first day.
- As nonprofit groups draw up employee guidelines for how to use online social networks, organizations should “keep the lawyers out of it” and give staff members some freedom to explore Twitter and other tools, writes Mitch Hurst, a Chicago nonprofit communications consultant, on his blog.
- As charities and grant makers seek the input of poor people about how best to fight poverty, more nonprofit employees who grew up in tough economic conditions should speak up about what they have learned, says Albert Ruesga, president of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, on his personal blog.
- On eJewish Philanthropy, writer Tova Serkin explore...
October 20, 2009, 12:02 PM ET
A Call to Shift Philanthropic Focus for International Aid, Plus More: Tuesday's Roundup
- While there is a growing call for donors to provide more money for grass-root efforts to help impoverished women, philanthropists should instead focus on pushing politicians to support large aid programs that improve maternal health, argue Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, co-authors of Philanthrocapitalism, on The Daily Beast.
- Google Wave, the new online communications tool from the Internet search giant, has some bugs, but eventually it may “revolutionize” how charities that work abroad in multiple locations communicate, says Andrew Stroehlein, communications director for the International Crisis Group, on AlertNet.
- With the growth of social media, Jocelyn Harmon wonders if Americans are still “bowling alone?” On her blog, Ms. Harmon, who helps charities with marketing, looks at how new Web tools may change the social scientist Robert Putnam’s famous study.
October 16, 2009, 12:01 PM ET
How Universities Calculate the Price of Naming Opportunities, and More: Friday's Roundup
- How do universities and colleges calculate the price tag for an endowed professorship or other naming opportunities for donors? Catherine Rampell, economics editor, at The New York Times examines that question on the newspaper’s Economix blog.
- With the Obama administration focused on spurring social innovation, Bob Giloth, director of the family economic success program at the Annie. E. Casey Foundation, wonders if the government and others should take a look at innovation efforts that have failed and learn from them. His views appear on his personal blog.
- Are so-called social entrepreneurs predominantly white and graduates of business schools? Marcia Stepanek, a blog writer for JustMeans, a Web site about businesses with charitable missions, raises this question.
- The design for the new Philadelphia home of the Barnes Foundation art collection would probably...
October 15, 2009, 11:43 AM ET
Reasons to Collaborate Using Mapping Software, Plus More: Thursday's Roundup
- New mapping technology will benefit aid groups responding to disasters, but it requires that the organizations collaborate more, writes Astrid Zweynert, deputy editor of AlertNet, a Web site that covers humanitarian emergencies. Also, see the Chronicle‘s recent slideshow on how other nonprofit groups are using online mapping to further their causes.
- While media experts caution that nonprofit newspapers must make sure that donors do not threaten editorial independence, for-profit publications face the same risks with their advertisers and other commercial interests, writes Dan Kennedy, a columnist for The Guardian, in London.
- The Keystone Center, a public-policy group in Washington, is seeking advice on how to improve a fund-raising letter on The Chronicle’s Prospecting blog.
October 14, 2009, 12:16 PM ET
A Push for Higher Pay for Nonprofit Employees, and More: Wednesday's Roundup
- Dan Pallotta, the author and former fund raiser, writes that the nonprofit field should stop playing up the “psychic benefits” of working in the sector and should instead find ways to pay its talent more competitive salaries on Free the Nonprofits.
- Jeff Brooks, the marketing consultant, offers strategies for fund raising during bad months on Future Fundraising Now.
- While the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s decision to hire Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel is a good first step, other cultural institutions in the city need to do more to develop a Latino audience, says Gregory Rodriguez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
- President Obama should fulfill his campaign promise to prohibit churches and other religious groups that receive federal money from hiring employees based on religion, argues an editorial in The New York Times.