mayorschallenge Where good happens "What's up this weekend?" I asked, reaching around my friend to the sugar packets while trying to stay out of the way of the long line of Friday-excited coffee purchasers behind me. "Volunteering. Hacking." She said. "Where?" "DMV." She bent
Data Philanthropy On Monday I posted a brain dump on how data can change philanthropy. (I hope you'll add to that list of ideas. Feel free to put other examples up as well) But the real change coming from data is much bigger - because it's everything in
How can data change philanthropy? I've written about this at length (search this blog for "data"). So here are some ideas in short form that consider all kinds of data - trend, legitimacy, performance, outcome, digital exhaust - and how they can change philanthropy: * Pattern finding - aggregated revenue and organization
Awesome! Four answers to several questions: A: Forty-six in nine countries. Q. How many chapters of the Awesome Foundation are there? A. 2009 Q: When did Awesome Foundation start? A: The power of networks, good ideas easily replicated, and people like you. Plus, the Institute on Higher Awesome Studies. Q: How
bookstores What would your community do for you? In the last several years a trillion independent book stores have gone out of business. OK, that might be an exaggeration, but a lot of them have closed. Over the last decade the numbers have dropped from about 4000 to 1700 or so. Some have opened - membership in the
Google.org A hybrid foundation According to Steve Case, the hottest topic for discussion at the second annual meeting of The Giving Pledgers was impact investing. This puts some emphasis on an idea that was raised at our recent ReCoding Good charrette on Impact Investing, Philanthropy and the New Social Economy. That idea, quite simply,
ReCoding Good: Impact investing, philanthropy and the new social economy ReCoding Good: Part 5 | Stanford Social Innovation Review The next ReCodeGood charrette is May 15th. We will be looking at the policy implications of a social economy in which impact investing, new enterprise forms, philanthropy and nonprofit co-exist. You can read the full blog post at Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Strategylandscape Putting data in context (logo from NFF Financial Scan) The Nonprofit Finance Fund has a new tool out, called Financial SCAN, that is quite exciting. It takes the deep financial analysis for which NFF is noted as a framework for gathering and making sense of nonprofit organizations' 990 data. In partnership with Guidestar,
Governance in the 21st Century Remember the public pressure on the Komen Foundation that led the organization to change a board decision? I said back then this was a harbinger of a new expression for public accountability that foundations need to understand. It is an early edge of a new kind of governance capacity for
ReCoding Good - Are Nonprofits People, Too? Stanford Social Innovation Review just posted the latest in our series of #Recodegood updates. Here is the synthesis of the conversation on March 20 about Citizens United, political giving, and the nonprofit sector. The SSIR post has links to the previous updates as well. The conversation also catalyzed thinking about
Data and ... On March 20 a group of researchers, policy makers, data experts, and nonprofit policy experts met to talk about Citizens United and the Future of the Social Sector. This was one of the #ReCoding Good charrettes I'm organizing as part of the Stanford Philanthropy, Policy and Technology Project
The most transparent grantmaker Twitter made my day this morning when I received this: Check out David's blog post for what he's up to - here's a short list of what he's aiming to post "I commit to publishing a blog post within 15 days
Nonprofits as the bad guys Today at Stanford we're holding our #ReCodeGood charrette on Citizens United: Are Nonprofits People, Too? This post from Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, couldn't have been more timely. It raises several issues about transparency, trust, disclosure, advocacy, and anonymity. The question Roll Call asks,
crains REVISED AGAIN: Technology and future of social sector What follows is a small collection of recent interviews, public discussions on technology and good. (my photo, The Creators Project) 1) "The Joy of e-Giving," @MattBish in The Economist on Davos panel with Chelsea Clinton, Sean Parker, Eric Schmidt, Yuri Milner, and Alec Ross. Best part is suggestion
dallasfoundation Institutions as conversations Why does corporate philanthropy usually get slotted into the marketing budget/ vision of the company? In this age of conversation and co-production, community engagement/community affairs/community philanthropy seems to me to be a ripe R & D activity. Get out into communities or issues, see what they need, see
charette Are Nonprofits People, Too? (Cross posted on Stanford Social Innovation Review. See also #ReCoding Good Citizens United Charrette) Citizens United and the future of the social sectorPresidential primary season has put the practical effects of the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. the FEC on painful display. By removing contribution limits, the
Navigating the New Social Economy I'm thrilled to announce that Blueprint 2012 is now a customizable toolkit for use by foundations, nonprofits, or any group seeking to improve their community. Navigating the New Social Economy: Making Sense of Philanthropy's Future presents practical information on the implications of three key issues for
Thinking about the future in a room full of history It's not often I that I get to walk in Winston Churchill's footsteps. This past weekend I had a chance to think about the future of philanthropy with three dozen philanthropists, advisers, scholars, and others at The Ditchley Foundation. The Foundation is housed a manor house
Buzzwords 2012.1 and 2012.2 Data and Flash Mob Philanthropy February already? Time to get buzzwords 2012.1 and 2 up and out. Buzzword 2012.1 - Data Data are everywhere. And talk about data - big, open, mined, as an asset, as something to protect - is going to be everywhere in 2012. Here's the New York
pacs ReCoding Good - Part Two We published a synthesis and reflection on our ReCoding Good Charrette, part of the Project on Philanthropy, Policy and Technology, on SSIR. Similar pieces will be published before and after each charrette. This reflection comes from the charrette on the sharing economy that we held on January 24. Part one
allisonfine #takebackthepink - reflection roundup I wanted to put links to five reflection blogs on #takebackthepink all in one place. Here they are, linked below. I've added a brief "reflection reflection." http://amysampleward.org/2012/02/14/observations-and-reflections-on-takebackthepink/ http://www.bethkanter.org/aar/ http://www.allisonfine.com/2012/02/13/take-back-the-pink-lessons-learned/
storytelling Tell your story! In the past I've given out a number of "person's choice" awards for digital data use and storytelling. Humanity United won one for their performance report and the Knight Foundation for a slide presentation of evaluation findings. As the person's choice they
allisonfine Creating 21st C Governance Models - #Takebackthepink Yesterday (Sunday) I attended a women's basketball game at Stanford (The Cardinal beat UCLA 82-59). Maples Pavilion, home to Stanford basketball is usually a sea of cardinal red. Yesterday, it was a sea of pink. Pink Zone Day to support breast cancer awareness - Wear Pink! In honor
Book review Abundance: The Future is Much Better Than you Think I jumped at the chance to review Peter Diamindis and Steve Kolter's forthcoming book, Abundance. I'm a believer in the power of shifts created by everpresent data, ever-expanding processing power, creativity, and human connectedness. I read a lot of future oriented stuff - both pro and
datavisualization And the award goes to... ...Humanity United for it's creativity in presenting foundation information. Here's the link to what they're calling their 2011 Performance Report. It looks good, it's inviting, it's somewhat interactive, it's designed for the web. It brings the concept of
