Posts by Maria Di Mento
June 15, 2010, 01:17 PM ET
Why Charities Should Embrace Many Types of Donors, Plus More: Tuesday's Roundup
- "It sometimes seems like the effective-philanthropy movement is
trying to make all donors change their motivations for giving,"
writes Tris Lumley, of the nonprofit-evaluation
group New Philanthropy Capital. Her comments are part of a
continuing debate about how much donors care about charity
performance. Sean Stannard-Stockton, a Chronicle
contributor and an adviser to donors, discusses a
recent report on donor behavior by the research group Hope Consulting and
talks about what it would take to build a "more effective
philanthropy designed for real life, human donors."
- Mark Horvath, creator of InvisiblePeople.tv, says that there is still a significant amount of donor fatigue in the nonprofit world and that charities today do not make it easy for donors to give money. During an interview, Mr. Horvath and Chris Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs, discuss how...
June 14, 2010, 01:59 PM ET
Debate Over Gates Foundation's Mobile-Banking Program; Plus More: Monday's Roundup
- David Roodman, of the Center for Global Development, says a $10-million project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development to accelerate the use of mobile phones use for financial services is noteworthy, in part because of its prize model. But the anonymous author of the Gates Keepers blog says the investment could be a risky one.
- Lucy Bernholz, an advisor to foundations, discusses the scale of foundations' involvement with the federal government on her blog Philanthropy 2173.
- Nathaniel Whittemore, who writes about social entrepreneurship on Change.org, discusses a proposal to create companies that raise money in behalf of small charities, giving nonprofit groups the benefit of top fund-raising talent without having to pay high salaries.
- Mark Austin, a reporter for the online edition of The Daily Mirror, writes that...
June 11, 2010, 12:59 PM ET
Fatigue About Marketing Deals? Plus More: Friday's Roundup
- The proliferation of marketing deals between companies and
charities and too many "product promotions that masquerade as
cause-marketing programs" threaten to bring about consumer
fatigue, Mike Swenson, an advertising executive, writes on Good Works, a blog run by Advertising
Age magazine.
- Do donors care about charities' performance? Sean Stannard-Stockton, an adviser to donors and a Chronicle contributor, kicked off a discussion on this topic, writing that information about charities' impact has to be presented in an engaging way. Nathaniel Whittemore of Change.org says that if people are emotionally invested, they take it on faith that a charity is effective. Timothy Ogden, publisher of Philanthropy Action, and Jacob Harold, of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, also weigh in on Mr. Stannard-Stockton's blog.
- The Center for High Impact Philanthropy at...
June 10, 2010, 12:10 PM ET
Resistance Mounts to Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship; Plus More: Thursday's Roundup
- A new resistance to microfinance and the social-entrepreneurship approach to solving social problems has emerged at the Grantmakers Without Borders conference in San Francisco, according to the blog Adin Miller Consulting.
- Dan Palotta, musing about his time spent mowing neighbors' lawns and manning a paper route, wonders whether childhood has ceased to be a time for learning entrepreneurial skills— and explores some recent nonprofit efforts to reverse that trend — on his Harvard Business Review blog.
- The second iteration at Chase Community Giving has begun. In the competition -- which is for charities with annual budgets of $1-million or less -- Facebook users will vote to determine which 200 organizations will share $5-million in prize money. This time around organizations will be able to add photos and videos to their profiles, which groups can start working on now. Voting ...
June 9, 2010, 11:45 AM ET
Thinking of Donors as a Charity's 'Fan Base'; Plus More: Wednesday's Roundup
- On the blog A Small Change, Jason Dick writes about how nonprofit organizations should think of donors as a unified group or "fan base." Mr. Dick, a college fund raiser in Redmond, Wash., says that knowing certain information, such as areas where donors live, will lead nonprofit organizations to build stronger relationships with contributors through annual appeals and at events.
- On the Foundation Center's blog, Tamara Lucas Copeland discusses the Greater Washington 2050 Coalition's report Region Forward. In it, the group suggests using a regional approach to solve social problems. Ms. Lucas Copeland, president of Washington Grantmakers, argues that by following the Region Forward approach, nonprofit organizations could reduce duplication among publicity campaigns and advocacy efforts as well as have the opportunity to reinforce and build on one another's work.
June 8, 2010, 11:48 AM ET
Did Charities' Risky Investments Worsen the Economic Crisis? Plus More: Tuesday's Roundup
- John D. Colombo, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, writes on the Nonprofit Law blog about a new study that suggests risky investments by nonprofit groups made the economic crisis worse.
- Another reason charities should keep an eye on their Wikipedia page: Facebook's Community pages have a tab that pulls information about an organization directly from Wikipedia, Heather Mansfield, a nonprofit communications consultant, writes on Nonprofit Tech 2.0.
- Fund-raising appeals without a so-called teaser on the envelope bring in more money than solicitations that have one, Jeff Brooks, a nonprofit consultant, writes on Future Fundraising Now. But he doubts the reason is aesthetic. "I have seldom seen a nicer, more classy, more professional piece of direct mail outperform a more junky piece," he writes. "Time after time, junk beats class."
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June 7, 2010, 11:51 AM ET
Companies Score High Marks for Charity Partnerships, Plus More: Monday's Roundup
- A recent survey on cause marketing issued by Network for Good
found that only 21 percent of respondents felt that companies are
not doing a good job forming partnerships with nonprofit
organizations. Forty-nine percent believe cause marketing could
lead to a positive social change. Several campaigns that were
regarded as being most effective include: Chase Community Giving,
Lance Armstrong Yellow bracelet campaign (Nike), and Product
Red.
- Alice Korngold, a blogger for Fast Company magazine and an expert on nonprofit boards, writes about the importance of measurement to corporate philanthropy, as discussed at the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy's meeting last week. (See this Chronicle article about the event). And Matthew Bishop writes about the discussions around measurement -- or "the great data debate" -- from the same conference on his blog...
June 4, 2010, 02:36 PM ET
A New Map Highlights Cross-Border Grants, Plus More: Friday's Roundup
- The new Map of Cross-Border Giving on the Foundation Center's Web site offers information about more than 35,000 grants totaling more than $10-billion awarded by U.S. foundations to organizations overseas.
- How can small nonprofit groups approach the task of measuring whether their programs make a difference? Curtis Chang, chief executive of Consulting Within Reach, discusses that question on the Social Edge blog.
- Holden Karnofsky, a co-founder of the nonprofit-evaluation group GiveWell, asks: "Are great charities made or born"?
- This American Life, a weekly radio program produced by Chicago Public Radio and Public Radio International, recently looked at how aid money is being spent in Haiti after January's massive earthquake. One story follows a Haitian farmer navigating a maze of relief organizations and government agencies to try to get plastic crates to store and...
June 3, 2010, 11:45 AM ET
Are Minorities in Illinois Hit Hardest by Recession? Plus More: Thursday's Roundup
- A new report by the Heartland Alliance, an advocacy group for people living in poverty, suggests that minorities in Illinois have been hit hardest by the recession. Amy Rynell, director of Heartland's Social IMPACT Research Center, said in an interview with WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight that the group is hoping legislators can make some important decisions to invest in services that families need.
- To get a full picture of a charity's social impact requires both qualitative and quantitative assessment, Melanie Moore Cubo, an evaluation consultant, argues on Full Contact Philanthropy. But, she cautions, "high-quality, systematic qualitative research is not the same thing as collecting a few anecdotes and photos to put in the sidebar of a report."
- Leadership development needs to move from its traditional emphasis on the "heroic model" of individual leadership and focus...
June 2, 2010, 01:55 PM ET
Criticism of the Reimagining Service Coalition; Plus More: Wednesday's Roundup
- Susan Ellis, head of a volunteer-consulting firm, criticizes the Reimagining Service coalition for viewing corporate human-resource professionals as best-suited to help nonprofit groups recruit and manage volunteers. "Somehow they never discovered the profession of volunteer resources management, with its courses, books, journals, conferences, and experienced practitioners," she writes on her group's Web site.
- The watchdog organization Charity Navigator has published its list of the country's most "charity conscious" cities on The Huffington Post. Pittsburgh tops this year's list. According to Charity Navigator, Pittsburgh's nonprofit groups have assets that are double the national average.
- Finding out donors' very specific reasons for supporting a charity -- "say, biodiversity versus clean air" -- and using that information to report back to them in future...