Lucy Bernholz

Philanthropy Buzzwords 2015

I have been keeping a list. Checking it twice. (And doing so since 2007). Below are the Philanthropy Buzzwords to look out for 2015. The list is also featured on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's site. The 2015 Blueprint - which goes global this year with help from the

The Artist as Philanthropist:

Artists see the future first. Last time I went to the de Young Museum in San Francisco was to see the David Hockney exhibit that featured his room size paintings as well as his iPad paintings. Here's a great video interview with the painter about his ipad. The

The Nominet Trust 100 and Social Tech Guide 2014

What do cancer, cow fertility, and civil rights have in common? How about encrypted email, e-democracy, and educational access? Stumped? Here's one more - what about 3D printing, distributed networks of open source building plans, and privacy protecting search engines? These, and 91 other issues, are areas where

Data ethics

This reading list from the Markulla Center on Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University is a great collection of materials covering ethical issues related to digital data. The articles do not specifically focus on civil society per se but they cover a lot of the questions about privacy, data ownership,

The values that guide us

Questions about civil society in the digital age are all I think about these days. Let me practice some of that thinking for you, if you have a minute...if not, let me wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving (USA and beyond). Recently, there's been a lot of good

Blueprint 2015 - coming soon!

Are you ready? Blueprint 2015, my sixth (!) annual industry forecast, will be available from the GrantCraft website on December 10, 2014. With six of these under my belt I'm proud to say we've cycled through the primary colors (blue, red, yellow) and the secondary colors (green,

Data trusts and data trust

Trust and integrity are key to nonprofits. They trade on these virtues. It's no accident that "Trusts" are the name for one type of nonprofit enterprise.  The defining aspect of the nonprofit corporate structure - the non-distribution clause relating to the use of financial assets -

Philosophy Talk: Digital Activism

My laugh is not nearly as engaging as Tom Magliozzi's of Car Talk but I'll do my best on December 14 when I'll be talking about Digital Civil Society on Philosophy Talk. Here's the write up about the show: “Cyber-Activism” with Lucy

New Power (or lessons for business from the social economy)

(photo: https://hbr.org/2014/12/understanding-new-power) Henry Timms (founder of #givingtuesday and my colleague via Stanford PACS) and Jeremy Heimans have a new article in the December issue of Harvard Business Review called "Understanding New Power." In it they discuss characteristics such as co-ownership and participatory governance.

Apps and Ethics

I just got an alert from a trusted friend* to the existence of an app - Radar - which is designed to alert you if social media accounts start showing signs that your friends are in distress. The app is intended to help friends help friends in need. It was

New questions for nonprofits and philanthropy

Among other things, the digital age is bringing us new kinds of nonprofits. I've been talking about this for several years, using examples of the Internet Archive, Mozilla, Creative Commons, and Wikimedia Foundation as "anchor institutions" of digital civil society. Each of these organizations is at

Three kinds of code

Imagine it's 1913. John D Rockefeller has gone to the U.S. Congress to charter an innovative new philanthropic enterprise. He's been turned down. He turns instead to the State of New York, which says yes, and the modern philanthropic foundation as an enterprise form is

Nonprofits and Cybersecurity

Today's New York Times reveals that the folks who hacked the website of JP Morgan Chase, one of the world's largest banks, also hacked the website and account of the bank's affiliated charity arm - the Chase Corporate Challenge. In July, GoodWill Inc announced

Data, Work, and the Social Sector

(photo from https://www.linkedin.com/company/3632240?trk=hk_egc_website) Organizations that support nonprofits in the U.S. are quick to point out the contribution these organizations make to the economy. $1 trillion in assets, $2 trillion in revenue, 10% of jobs or GDP - the economic impact

Ten Innovations in Global Philanthropy

Thrilled to see this new report from New Philanthropy Capital - Ten Innovations in Global Philanthropy.* (photo and report: http://www.thinknpc.org/publications/10-innovations/) One of my partners in the upcoming Blueprint 2015 - betterplace lab - is featured as one of the innovations. Check out their incredible work

Ethics of Data Conference - First Quick Summary

The #Eod14 Conference was a huge success. Thanks to all who participated. We're still decoding, transcribing, and following up so a more formal synthesis is still to come. But in the meantime: The conference encouraged real work. One and one-half days of small group sessions, filled with the

Apple's Watch and the Ethics of Data

Apple made big news this week with the announcement of its new phones with mobile payment built in and it's new watch, which seems to be a platform for everything from telling you the time to heartbeat sharing (?!) Much has been written by privacy experts, tech geeks, health

Why focus on civil society and data?

This is the third of a three-part series leading up to the Ethics of Data in Civil Society Conference at Stanford on September 15-16. Big data and government. Big data and business. Big data and consumers. Why are we focused on data and civil society? First, what is civil society?

What codes inform our work with digital data?

This is the second of a three-part series on the ethics of data in civil society, leading up the Stanford Conference on September 15-16. Ethical codes abound - here's a list of just a few of them with relevance to how nonprofit organizations or private action for the

Why "ethics" of digital data?

This is the first of three posts leading up to the Ethics of Data Conference at Stanford. I've posted some earlier thoughts here. In early August, the New York Times ran a "Room for Debate" series about big data. Over the course of a week columns

Cases for Discussion - data, ethics, and civil society

Last year when I wrote the Blueprint 2014 I included a few scenarios regarding nonprofits, foundations and the uses of digital data (see pages 22-23). Now we're on the brink of hosting an entire conference on the Ethics of Data in Civil Society. We're pulling together

A new calculus for civil society

In the analog era, when you took action for social good the math was relatively straightforward;                                 1 action = some result. It might have been a 1:1 relationship: 1 donation = 1 meal. It might have been more than that: 1 volunteer act = multiple additional donations = multiple benefits It might have

The last 20 years and the next 20 years

I had a great conversation this morning with Sara Davis at the Hewlett Foundation. It led to these two napkin sketches of the past and the future of organizational structures - what do you think?* The last 20 years in nonprofits and foundations: The next 20 years in nonprofits and

Opting in in digital civil society

One of the defining features of civil society, the independent sector, the nonprofit and philanthropic sector or whatever you want to call it...is that participation is voluntary. Giving your time or money is your own choice. Partaking of services offered, for the most part, is by choice (less so

Ethics and the Age of Digital Assumption

It turns out that Facebook is manipulating your news feed and OK Cupid is playing with your heart. Neither of these digital algorithmic head games came as a surprise to folks in the digital know, but that doesn't make them OK. And they did come as a surprise