Lucy Bernholz

Yes! More Philanthropy Forecasting

InsidePhilanthropy has just published its 2016 philanthropy forecast. Check it out Ever since 2010 when I first published the Blueprint I've been hoping others would set their minds to discussing trends and near-term futures. So glad to see InsidePhilanthropy doing so. And here are some Development Forecasts (H/

Digital civil society requires analog civil society action

This video from the Open Society Foundations sums up the promise and peril of digital data, infrastructure, and governance to civil society. It is no coincidence that threats to civil society are increasing as we become more digitally dependent "Solidarity between the online blogger and the gay rights activist,

What is it about the nonprofit structure?

You’ve probably heard about OpenAI — a new, billion dollar nonprofit to focus on artificial intelligence research that is good for humanity. In their own words: “OpenAI is a non-profit artificial intelligence research company. Our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit

Philanthropy Buzzwords 2016 (and back to 2007)

Blueprint 2016: Philanthropy and the Social Economy is now available. You can get your FREE copy via Grantcraft here. This year's Blueprint has a worksheet focused on some of the big themes designed for nonprofits and foundations to use as part of organizational development or strategic planning processes

$45 billion ought to get your attention

That's the current value of the funds Mr. Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan have announced they will dedicate to social purposes. In doing so they are sending a clear signal that they recognize the choices available to them (and, indeed, all of us) and have chosen to use them

Democracy in digital times

I'm honored to have had my first ever newspaper article published in Portuguese in the Brazilian paper Gazeta do Povo. It was published as part of the first ever Semana da Democracia - Democracy Week. The link above will take you to the article, there's a

Money, Data, and Democracy

I'm proud to have submitted this commentary on a new tool from The Foundation Center  - a map of democracy funding. The following post was written for PhilanTopic and originally appeared on PhilanTopic here. They're running a series of posts on democracy as we head into

Ethical, safe, and effective digital data use in civil society

The Digital Civil Society Lab held workshop on ethical, safe and effective digital data use in civil society. A synthesis of the meeting and two DRAFT tools we developed are online here. We welcome your feedback

policy

Provocations on American Foundations and Policy

American foundations sometimes fund advocacy or policy analysis or community organizing as part of their strategies for particular types of social change. But who advocates on behalf of foundations about philanthropic policy? And what are the policy domains that matter to foundations as enterprises? In 2013 my Stanford colleague Rob

An index we really need

We've been measuring philanthropic giving for decades. There are several directories and annual tallies of American charitable giving. For about the last decade, the impact investing movement has been trying to establish definitions, baselines, and annual measurements. It's a work in progress, but they're

Digital Philanthropy

There’s a new research journal — RIO- that is an experiment in opening up science. As the description says "All outputs of the research cycle, including: project proposals, data, methods, workflows, software, project reports and research articles together on a single collaborative platform. Watch a short video explaining RIO

The blockchain and civil society

(Photo; BTC Keychain) A lot of the excitement about the blockchain - the distributed ledger technology that undergirds currencies such as bitcoin - has to do with the potential of distributed authority and record keeping. Super enthusiasts think it could do away with traditional regulatory practices and intermediaries. I think

A memorial to free speech

This stopped me in my tracks this morning. Apropos my comments about park benches on the Internet, let us hope we don't yet need to memorialize free speech. (Valencia Street, San Francisco, August 17, 2015.) In case you can't read the plaque, here's a

Park benches on the internet

Park benches are really important. They are places where you can grab a seat by yourself and read without anyone else knowing what you're reading. Or sit with a friend and chat and not be overheard. Or step out at midday with a work colleague to complain about

When what was new becomes old

Alliance Magazine published my article, From the Edge to the Middle, a few months ago and has now made it available for free to everyone. Enjoy.

(what if) we are not alone

(photo: http://www.hawking.org.uk/images.html) Today's headlines are bursting with announcements of Yuri Milner's $100 million gift in search of alien life. Professor Hawking (pictured above) accompanied Mr. Milner when he made the announcement. Let's suppose this philanthropic grant is effective.

#QuestionTheData

(photo credit: ISP) [This is not an "anti-data, anti-measurement" screed. This is a plea to "understand the data."] What do you do when the data sources you are looking at indicate that there are more black men in prison than there are alive? If you are

Ethical, Safe, and Effective use of Digital Data in Civil Society

A great set of speeches from the Media Impact Funders Conference - Van Jones, Brewster Kahle, Erin McKean, Craig Newmark. And me. All the speeches are here.

Minimum viable data collection

I worked for the federal government for several months in 1989. Along with at least 21,499,999 other people information that can be used to identify me (and as me) was stolen from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. I held up the letter I'd received

Random thought on #data governance and social good

Given the nature of digital #data (generative, remixable, scalable, storable, copyable, etc) it's hard to see how the current nonprofit corporate governance structures provide much assurance that these assets will be used for good. Nonprofit corporations must dedicate "excess" financial assets to their mission, what about

What do the data really show? Where should we draw the lines?

My colleague Rob Reich and I have been writing about the social economy for several years now. My Blueprint series - heading into its 7th year - changed its name to focus on the social economy in its 2nd year (2011). The basic point of the social economy frame was

The Future of (Nonprofit) Work

(Photo: U-M Library Digital Collections. Political Posters, Labadie Collection, University of Michigan. Accessed: July 09, 2015.) I'm thinking a lot about what it will mean to work (at nonprofits, for social good, in social movements, for the benefit of others) as I set my mind to Blueprint 2016.

State of Civil Society 2015

Civicus has released its annual State of Civil Society Report for 2015 - the full download is here. I'm proud to have contributed an essay on digital civil society - the first such analysis I believe. Here's a teaser: "Digital data and infrastructure are core

The data value index

It seems that the average joe is beginning to understand that his digital data has value. What nerds have long known (if you're not the customer, you're the product) about our interactions with "free" digital services is becoming common knowledge. Many of us would

Philanthropy policy reform

I think philanthropy needs to spend more time on digital policy issues.  Regular readers of this blog have heard that from me for years. But digital policy is still - despite my years of trying - not on the agenda of philanthropy policy actors. Tax law is their number one