October 27, 2009
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 these tough economic times on Getting to the Point.
- On Beth’s Blog, Michael Hoffman, the chief executive of the communications company See3, discusses why nonprofit groups should have a presence on the video-sharing site YouTube.
- Jeff Brooks, a marketing consultant for nonprofit groups, criticizes a new advertisement created by the environmental group WWF-UK, saying it fails to compel viewers to take action. Do you agree? Watch the video below and share your reactions in the comments section.
Comments
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I disagree with Jeff Brooks’ assertion that the WWF ad fails to compel viewers to action. It quite specifically lists an action that the viewer can take.
I believe what Jeff is taking issue with is the fact that he does not think that letter-writing has a significant effect on policy and the environment. However, if this ad compels a couple thousand people to write letters who otherwise would have done nothing, hasn’t it achieved its objective?
— Alyssa Oct 27, 02:39 PM #
Here’s the info about a video on climate change from the National Academies of Science, from the www.Americasclimatechoices.org website.
“Policy advice, based on science, to guide the nation’s response to climate change.” View this video to learn about the National Academies America’s Climate Choices study from the experts who are working on it.
It’s not on Youtube, so you need to go to the website to view it, it’s on the home page.
AmericasClimateChoices.org
— Bill Huddleston Oct 27, 06:09 PM #
The essence of Pallotta’s thesis is that the public perception of nonprofits resulting from the feminization of their workforce and inflexible evaluation standards inhibit nonprofits from taking risks that could ultimately lead to greater efficiency and groundbreaking accomplishments in future years.
If we expect the nonprofit sector to even make a dent in the myriad new and expanding problems our society faces, we can’t fail to address this issue.
At the very least, what is needed to unhandcuff nonprofits is a creative and fairer way of judging the efficacy of their operations over a longer period of time than a single fiscal year.
— Jeff Steele Oct 27, 07:43 PM #
I love the WWF video. It’s cute, simple, and sensitively created. The dominio effect is a powerful image and a positive message. I don’t feel overwhelmingly compelled to write a letter, but it does raise my attention to climate change. More importantly it gives me the overwhelming feeling that whatever efforts I make to help the environment count. I do agree though that it doesn’t compel me to write a letter, but I’m not sure anything would. On the other hand, maybe I’ll do it this time. I’m certainly going to post the video to my social sites so that others will see it and then pass it along too. I think it’s brilliant.
— Genna Davidson Oct 28, 01:23 PM #
Even if I did feel compelled to write a letter, I wouldn’t know to whom I should write. And I wouldn’t have any idea whether writing would do any good — I don’t know if the ad is wishful thinking or truly represents… well, something or other. I respond to much more concrete calls to action — do this and x-number of people will eat/bears will be saved/children will be innoculated/etc. In this ad, I couldn’t even figure out what specific issue they were promoting. Write letters to some vague entity about some undefined issue? I don’t think so.
— ERII Nov 3, 01:13 PM #