October 21, 2010, 11:30 pm
By Ben Gose
Can five short questions change the nonprofit world?
Independent Sector, BBB Wise Giving Alliance, and GuideStar USA are collaborating on an effort to get charities to answer five fundamental questions about how they operate. The very process of answering the questions could help charities with strategic planning or describing themselves more clearly to the public, says proponents of the effort, called “Charting Impact.” If the idea catches hold, it could also provide a standardized framework through which to evaluate charities.
The five questions are:
* What is your organization aiming to accomplish?
* What are your strategies for making this happen?
* What are your organization’s capabilities for doing this?
* How will your organization know if you are making progress?
* What have and haven’t you accomplished so far?
The effort, supported by the William …
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October 21, 2010, 11:24 pm
By Ben Gose
A discussion of how tax incentives affect charitable giving turned heated during a session at the Independent Sector meeting on Thursday, as audience members weighed whether a gift to a university provides as much benefit to society as a gift to a soup kitchen.
Rob Reich, an associate professor of political science at Stanford University, kicked off the session on a provocative note by questioning whether tax deductions for giving were even necessary. Mr. Reich, the author of a paper called “A Failure of Philanthropy: American Charity Shortchanges the Poor and Public Policy Is Partly to Blame,” noted that people volunteered and gave money to charity long before tax breaks came into being in the 1920s. “It is our current era that is totally anomalous,” he said.
He suggested changing the federal tax code to give a tax credit, rather than a deduction, for charitable gifts so that …
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October 20, 2010, 9:26 pm
By Ben Gose
The Independent Sector annual meeting kicked off in Atlanta on Wednesday, with a sober opening session about how gridlock in Washington is stymieing progress on social issues.
Norman J. Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said the inability of Democrats and Republicans in Congress to agree on a common set of facts was making progress difficult and that expected gains by Republicans in the November elections would make the situation worse.
“I’ve been in Washington for 41 years and I’ve never seen it this dysfunctional,” he said. “The next two years are going to be even more nasty and brutish.”
Gara LaMarche, president of Atlantic Philanthropies, said conservatives, including those in the Tea Party, have done a better job of motivating their supporters on issues like lower taxes and smaller government than progressive Democrats have in push…
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April 27, 2010, 2:00 pm
By Ben Gose
Denver
After a round of dating, will the budding romance between foundations and government amount to much?
Several participants used the metaphor of a relationship at a Council on Foundations session here focused on public and philanthropic partnerships.
“We’ve spent a year letting each other know how much we love each other,” said Chris Gates, executive director of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, a Denver group. “As we get over that crush moment, we’re getting to much harder questions.”
Among them, he said, is the increasing accountability that foundations will face as they collaborate with government and use more public dollars to finance their projects. Questions will rightly be asked, he said, about who is making decisions and what might be motivating board members.
Likewise, said Lance Lindblom, president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, it is too early for government to…
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April 27, 2010, 12:08 pm
By Ben Gose
Denver
The author Chip Heath urged foundation officials to turn their burgeoning interest in measuring outcomes and effectiveness toward “finding the bright spots,” in a breakfast speech at the annual meeting of the Council on Foundations.
Mr. Heath, a professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and a co-author with his brother Dan of Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, cited an example from his new book that focused on malnourished children in Vietnam.
Jerry Sternin, working for Save the Children in 1990, knew the conventional explanations for malnutrition: poor sanitation, nearly universal poverty, lack of clean water. He dubbed such facts TBU — “true but useless.” So he went to a village and found children who were a little taller and healthier than others and looked for things they were doing differently.
All mothers were feeding their children…
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April 26, 2010, 8:00 pm
By Ben Gose
Did foundations do enough to respond to the economic crisis?
Foundations have made grants worth $443-million to respond directly to the economic crisis since the stock market plunged in fall 2008, Bradford K. Smith, president of the Foundation Center, reported during a session on the topic Monday afternoon at the Council on Foundations annual meeting.
Emmett D. Carson, president of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and the moderator of the panel discussion, pressed Mr. Smith for a qualitative assessment: Was it enough?
“I think foundations did a pretty good job,” Mr. Smith said.
Over the same period, total grant making by foundations has added up to $60-billion or more. That’s well under 1 percent of total grant making going to respond to the crisis.
Mr. Carson contrasted the numbers and was not impressed. “You say that’s a helluva job?” he asked Mr. Smith.
Aaron Dorfman,…
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April 26, 2010, 5:36 pm
By Ben Gose
Denver
As the one-year anniversary of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act approaches Wednesday, stories are appearing in the press noting that little of the money set aside to create volunteer opportunities has yet been distributed.
At a luncheon speech here, Patrick Corvington, the new head of the Corporation for National and Community Service, may have been alluding to the slow process when he said he’s thrown out his earlier views about philanthropy’s plodding pace and has come to appreciate the sector’s “gazelle-like” agility.
“The turning-on-a-dime ability of philanthropy is something that I miss,” Mr. Corvington said, in a remark that elicited plenty of laughs.
Even if the pace may be slow, Mr….
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April 26, 2010, 12:55 pm
By Ben Gose
Denver
Former Vice President Al Gore called on the nation’s foundations to steer more of the expected wealth transfer between generations toward efforts to combat global warming, in a keynote address here at the annual meeting of the Council on Foundations.
He argued that foundations have an important role to play in combating the problem — which he described as “by far the most serious problem facing our civilization” — and in encouraging the nation’s young people to get involved.
“How can we appropriate for ourselves all of the benefits of the generations who have come before, and then give the back of our hand to future generations?” Mr. Gore asked.
He envisioned future generations looking back in dismay if…
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April 25, 2010, 10:00 pm
By Ben Gose
Denver
“Social innovation” is not about dreaming up new concepts but is rather about taking existing ideas and putting together a network to make a new venture successful, Andrew Hargadon, a professor of entrepreneurship at University of California at Davis, said at a session here today.
He urged foundations to look to create networks, much like venture capitalists in Silicon Valley do, so that when the right social entrepreneur comes along, the grant maker will be able to put together a team to help the individual bring the idea to fruition.
“Are you creating the Rolodex so that when the right program comes along, you can make the connections?” Mr. Hargadon asked.
Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, another speaker, said new innovations in financing should make it easier to get funds in the hands of successful charities. The new approaches can emphasize financial return…
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April 25, 2010, 9:59 pm
By Ben Gose
Denver
Polls show that Americans are dissatisfied with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January that lifted restrictions on corporate campaign spending, and foundations that share that sentiment should act now to try to thwart the impact of the ruling, a panel argued at a session at the Council on Foundations meeting here today.
Stephen B. Heintz, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the moderator of the panel, said that if the 100 largest U.S. companies spent just 1 percent of their profits on campaigns, it would double the current spending by political-action committees.
“We’re talking about an overwhelming influence of money coming into a system already influenced by money,” he said.
The Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that a law prohibiting corporations from using money from their treasuries for “express advocacy” — to urge that a…
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