Glasspockets.org: A New Website Bringing Transparency to Philanthropy

March 15, 2010

There are 97,000 foundations in the United States, and each year these foundations control more than $500 billion worth of assets and distribute $46 billion a year in grants and programs (Smith, 2010.) The influence of philanthropy on the well-being of the nation is profound, yet strangely, although foundations wield so much power, the average individual often struggles to even define what philanthropy is.

In the past, many working in the field of philanthropy, although not actively trying to keep the public “in the dark” about their activities, were complicit with this general state of ignorance in the sense that they did not strive proactively to educate the public about their work. This old way of conducting business has fallen into disfavor with many large grantmakers, and Glasspockets.org is a powerful example of how these foundations are now making efforts to communicate clearly about their grantmaking and practices.

Launched in January by the Foundation Center, in conjunction with a number or partner organizations, Glasspockets.org’s mission is to “bring transparnecy to the world of philanthropy.” The site has a wealth of information on a number of large, well-known foundations such as:

The transparency of each foundation’s practices are rated on the site in a series of reports that look at 28 key indicators of transparency and accountability, including if they explain their grantmaking process, whether they provide a public assessment of their performance, and if they offer opportunities to share program evaluations and lessons learned with the public and grantees.

Other features of the site include a search tool called the “Only Foundations Search” that allows the user to search the websites of thousands of private foundations for information on their grantmaking activities. The search tool can be found at the bottom of the Glasspockets.org homepage. In addition to the search function, there are also resources that share general facts about philanthropy based on the Foundation Center’s research, as well as special focus pages that delve into to specific topics — like relief work in Haiti.

Join the conversation: Although many leaders in the philanthropic field are praising Glasspockets.org and its mission to encourage philanthropists to communicate about their work, there are some who feel that private foundations are not obligated to share this information. Do you support the mission of philanthropic transparency, or do you feel that this focus on transparency unduly impinges on the activities of private foundations?

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

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Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard

February 24, 2010

In the philanthropic sector, we talk a lot about making change.  “We are change agents.  We strive to make changes in the lives of others to improve our communities.”

According to authors Dan and Chip Heath, acknowledging the "inner elephant" is important when trying to drive change.

As much as we talk about making change, we also talk about how hard it is.  “People are resistant or slow to change.  Change takes so much work!”

According to a new book by Dan and Chip Heath, it’s not necessarily that change is hard.  In fact, some changes are pretty easy to make or even happen without people noticing (for instance, did you think ketchup was still the number one condiment in the U.S.?  Guess again!)  In Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, the Heath brothers explore why some changes are easier to make than others.  The stories, tools, and advice they provide can be useful in your personal life, in your organization, or when you are trying to make changes in a community.

Dan and Chip start off by stating that there are two sides of the brain that inform how we decide to make changes: 1) the rational side that prefers logic and reason, and 2) the emotional side that caters to our feelings.  When these sides work together, making a change is easier.  When they work against each other, it’s much harder to make a change.  The simplest example of this is demonstrated when someone is trying to lose weight.  The rational side of the brain knows that to lose weight you should eat salads, but the emotional side of the brain really wants a cookie.

The authors take this premise to build on a metaphor borrowed from The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt.  Imagine that the emotional side of your brain is a gigantic elephant that is instinctual and impulsive (“Mmmmm…cookie!”)  Now imagine that the elephant has a rider on its back, trying to guide that elephant in a certain direction.  The rider is the rational side of your brain (“Dressing on the side, please!”)

Using that image, it’s easier to understand why people make certain decisions when it comes to change.  The elephant is very powerful and doesn’t always listen to the rider, which can lead them down the wrong path.  On the other hand, the rider can sometimes over-think and over-analyze a situation, which causes the elephant to stall.  But, when the rider and the elephant agree, it can be a comfortable ride in the first steps towards change.

The Heath brothers believe there are three things we can do to make change easier:

1)      Direct the rider by finding the bright spots:

The rider spins his/her wheels when there is no clear direction.  The rational parts of our brains want to know the facts behind why we are going down a certain path.  The best way to find that path is not to focus on the negatives, but to ask: “What’s working well for us? And how can we do more of what works well? How can we be more like ourselves at our best moments?”  Answering these questions can provide direction for the rider.  When making a change, people want knowledge and guidance as to what clear, specific changes need to be made.

2)      Motivate the elephant:

The elephant is not going anywhere unless it wants to and logic doesn’t always provide the motivation.  We need to find out what motivates people emotionally that will trigger them to make the changes we are hoping for:  “What emotions are coming into play when people are considering this change? How can we use these emotions in a positive way towards change?”   The combination of motivation and direction is catalytic when advocating for changes to be made.

3)      Shape the path:

Once the rider and the elephant are in sync, there still might be obstacles in their path that can make things difficult.  These are things in the environment that can be adjusted to make the path easier to tread.  Sometimes, it’s easier to change some of the obstacles in the environment than to change the character of the people we are working with:  “How can we remove some of the obstacles that are making it hard for people to change?”

When we view the process by which people make decisions to change in this way, we realize that it’s not necessarily that change is hard, but it does take time.  It takes time to gather the information to define the clear path.  It takes time to find out what motivates people to change and then persuade them to act on those motivations to change.  It takes time to clear the obstacles in the path to change.  But that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth it.

Join the conversation: It’s often easier for us to understand the kind of information we personally need in order to make informed decisions (giving our rider directions) and how we feel about a certain subject (what motivates our elephants).  When we think about making changes within our organizations or communities, it’s not always apparent what kind of information other people need in order to feel comfortable moving in a certain direction or how their emotions affect the decisions they make.  How does your organization figure out what information to provide to lead people in a clear direction, and how do you motivate people to make those changes?

- Stephanie Jacobs, MCF member services manager

Image CC Stefan

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MCF Appoints Diversity Fellow

February 8, 2010
Tawanna Black

Tawanna Black, MCF diversity fellow

MCF announces today the appointment of Tawanna Black as diversity fellow to support inclusivity initiatives of the grantmaker association and its members.

Tawanna has a unique blend of for-profit and nonprofit leadership, public policy and communications experience that will serve MCF and its members well during her nine-month fellowship.  She is the former and first director of diversity for Cox Communications in Omaha, Nebraska.  While at Cox she advised senior management in setting high standards for business growth, innovation and stakeholder return by ensuring that the corporation understood and acted upon the needs of diverse communities.

Prior to joining Cox, Tawanna served as the first executive director for Destination Midtown, leading a public-private community redevelopment strategy in Omaha. Tawanna has also served on numerous nonprofit boards of directors, including several philanthropic organizations.

Outside of her part-time appointment with MCF, Tawanna leads consulting firm Innovations By Design.  In this capacity, she provides organizational development, capacity building, and diversity and inclusion services to nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

During her fellowship, Tawanna will work with MCF and its members to:

  • Increase MCF’s capacity to serve staff and members’ diversity and inclusivity educational needs.
  • Enrich existing MCF programs and services by integrating diversity content and applying an inclusion and equity lens across the full spectrum of grantmakers’ work, as exemplified in the MCF Diversity Framework.
  • Build MCF member and staff awareness and use of diversity and inclusion knowledge, resources, tools and best practices.
  • Foster stronger member commitments to the MCF Diversity Principle and create momentum for additional inclusivity initiatives.
  • Create a body of work that can be modeled by others who strive to advance philanthropy by enhancing diversity and inclusivity in the field.

To learn more about the Diversity Fellowship, contact Wendy Wehr or Tawanna Black at MCF.

- Wendy Wehr, MCF VP of communications and information services

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Economic Crisis Yields Challenges and Opportunities for Grantmakers

January 26, 2010

A year ago, as the economic turmoil was unfurling, looming questions of “How bad?” and “How long?” were top of mind. As we enter a new economic reality, grantmakers acknowledge that we won’t be returning to business as usual; we have to do our work differently.

How each grantmaker chooses to work “differently” is as varied as the number of foundations and corporate giving programs. Peter C. Hutchinson, Bush Foundation president, recently wrote about the challenges facing his organization: “Like others, we are pulled in competing directions. We want to do the right thing, but there are many right things we could do…The question is: Which right things are right for us?”

In our winter issue of Giving Forum, we highlight several foundations and how they’ve chosen to address the challenge of finding and then focusing on what’s the “right thing” for them to do during these tough times:

The Bush Foundation is keeping its sights on longstanding aspirations and its Goals for a Decade. Explains C. Scott Cooper, director of engagement and communication: “We have decided that the role we need to be playing in this economy is not to react to new problems, but to stay focused on the issues that we think are important – which are the same issues that were important to us before the recession – and to be held accountable for outcomes.”

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in the midst of developing a strategic framework when the recession hit, stepped back to look for new answers. “Our big ‘a-ha’ came when we decided that – as we sat here in Battle Creek, Mich., where the bottom has repeatedly fallen out of the job market – we needed new answers to grow the economy and to bring into our workforce development perspective entrepreneurship skills and the mindset and tenacity that go with them,” recalls Anne Mosle, vice president for programs.

The Minneapolis Foundation partnered with its donors to establish a Crisis Assistance Fund to assist individuals and families with food, heat and housing, and it matched additional funding from donor-advised funds to support workforce development, education, housing and other human and social service agencies.

The McKnight Foundation is maintaining its long-term focus to fight catastrophic climate change, among other priorities. “There is often a tension between responding to changing times and remaining focused on long-term goals, addressing the most critical issues with appropriate resources, urgency and creativity,” acknowledges President Kate Wolford. Over the course of 2009, Wolford reports that the McKnight board “sharpened our strategic focus in several priority areas, including accelerating the shift to a low-carbon economy, improving third grade literacy in the metro area, and implementing place-based strategies to increase opportunities for low-income residents.”

Land O’Lakes Foundation, in the enviable position of experiencing added funding due to the company’s record growth, launched its Feeding Our Communities initiative. “We looked at who owns us – we’re a cooperative owned by farmers,” explains Lydia Botham, executive director. “And, we looked at rising needs: people who never had to go to a food shelf before who now just can’t make ends meet. We felt that more needed to be done to address hunger, especially in rural areas, where it is somewhat hidden, but just as great as it is in urban communities. Feeding Our Communities is taking our ongoing support of hunger issues to a much higher level, using our expertise and resources locally, nationally and globally.”

Foundations’ responses to the hardships created by the economic downturn are not limited to decisions on funding priorities and strategic plans. Like the nonprofits they support, many also face tough administrative and operational choices. The wellbeing of nonprofits is always top of mind, though. For example, at the McKnight Foundation, “When looking at administrative reductions, a key goal was to minimize any negative impact on grantees,” Wolford says.

Articles in Giving Forum also address funders’ perspectives on the state budget plight, the advent of federal stimulus dollars and where they believe all this turmoil is leading.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

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Is philanthropy via TXT a fad or a revolution?

January 19, 2010

I heard a “fad vs. revolution” question posed on the radio this morning on the way to work. It was in reference to another topic, but it struck me, because I’ve been thinking this past weekend about all the various ways individuals are donating to the relief efforts in Haiti – via text messaging being the vehicle most prominently publicized.

Two men pause to send text messages on their smartphones.

Fad or future? What's your take on using SMS or texting to make donations?

I’ve been keeping my eyes open for any organization that is asking people to send in checks, but those appeals are almost nonexistent as most organizations are directing donors to their websites. A few are promoting phone numbers that take credit card donations, but these also are rare.

Is appealing for financial support via text messaging a fad or a revolution? How many more people will donate who wouldn’t have given otherwise, because it’s just a quick few punches with the thumbs and $10 is on its way? Preliminary numbers certainly point to the success of this appeal. If people give $10 via texting, but they would like to give more, will they? How?

Charitable giving is a $5.5 billion endeavor in Minnesota, according to MCF’s Giving in Minnesota, 2009 Edition research. Of this, 76 percent or $4.19 billion came from individuals. Over the past decade, charitable giving in Minnesota increased 67 percent, and the number of grantmakers in the state rose by more than 65 percent. In just a year, from 2006 to 2007, foundations and corporate giving programs increased their giving by 10.1 percent to $1.32 billion.

Has innovation or evolution in philanthropy contributed to this increase? What factors – technology, outreach strategies, messaging, donor-advised initiatives to name just a few examples – are redefining how and what we give? Which individuals and organizations are leading the way? These topics and more will be the focus of our spring issue of Giving Forum.

In the meantime, join the conversation on texting to support relief efforts in Haiti by commenting on this entry. I’m interested to hear others’ perspectives.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

Image CC Kiwanja

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Minnesota Council of Nonprofits: Current Economic Conditions

December 21, 2009

On Friday of last week I joined more than 200 attendees to hear Jon Pratt, Christina Wessel and Ruth Duran Deffley of MCN present the findings of their Nonprofit Current Conditions Report and the Minnesota Nonprofit Economy Report.

Their findings in a nutshell — “grim”:

  • Sixty percent of organizations reported an increase in need for services, compared with 42 percent in 2008.
  • The ability to meet this increase in need for services is undercut by the reduction in revenues to these organizations.
  • The types of organizations most frequently reporting declining total revenue were environment related, education and employment/jobs related.
  • Organizations with budgets under $400,000 have faced the most difficulty in 2009.

Many nonprofits are trying to stay afloat by cutting staff, creating hiring and salary freezes and reducing employee benefits. The outlook for 2010 according to survey’s nonprofit respondents? Gloomier still than 2009. What are nonprofits to do?

Marcia Avner, public policy director at MCN, says, “This is not a time to wring our hands.” Marcia went on to make a plea for nonprofits to band together in these troubled times and create a unified voice to advocate for creating a sustainable state budget through participation in Invest in Minnesota, a coalition of nonprofit, faith and labor organizations.

The response panel carried forward this theme of defiance in tough times. Mark Peterson of Lutheran Social Services challenged attendees to build “a culture of possibilities” by developing practices in their organizations that encourage everyone from staff to board to innovate, create goals and execute them.

Similarly, Kate Barr of the Nonprofits Assistance Fund stated that, whereas 2009 was a time for “trimming the edges,” survival in 2010 and beyond will be determined by how willing nonprofits are to rethink their way of delivering services and maintaining back office operations. Short-term thrusters will no longer drive solutions for maintaining operations; organizations must look to the long term — three years out — and develop a plan for sustainability.

Renae Oswald-Anderson, director of MAP for Nonprofits’ Project ReDesign, asked nonprofit leaders to look within and define first what they do best as an organization, and then seek partners to shore up gaps. She stated that this strategy — sticking to your core services and finding opportunities to collaborate and share resources with others — may be the key to continuing operations for many nonprofits that are facing hard times in the recession.

“Now is the time to ask, What can we do better together?” Renae reiterated in her closing statement. Fortunately there are resources available for funders and nonprofits considering just this question. Project ReDesign has many resources available on its website, and Grantcraft recently released a guide for grantmakers on funding collaboratives.

Upcoming program: MCF’s 2010 Funding Outlook for Minnesota Grantmakers and Nonprofits
Registration is now available online for MCF’s Outlook event happening on January 29th in St. Paul. At the event philanthropic and nonprofit colleagues will convene to learn about the funding outlook for 2010, based on MCF’s survey of grantmakers conducted in October-November 2009, and to network and discuss opportunities to work toward shared goals. For further information and to register, visit mcf.org.

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

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Resources from FREC Conference “Overcoming Racism: Why IS It So Hard?”

December 16, 2009

Resources from the recent conference held by the Facilitating Racial Equality Collaborative (FREC) are now online! The conference, entitled Overcoming Racism Why IS it So Hard, was held on November 6th and 7th in St. Paul and featured prominent speakers from the field including Zeus Leonardo, Victor Lewis and Heather Hackman.

Many of the speakers and presenters have made their PowerPoint slides, handouts and other resources from the conference available for download. To access those resources, please visit the FREC website.

In addition to these resources, you may also want to check out the upcoming programming opportunities that FREC has announced on their website. The next FREC Community of Practice meeting is on January 13. These bi-monthly meetings are opportunities for anyone interested in learning more about incorporating cultural competence, anti-racism, and organizational transformation into his or her business, foundation, or nonprofit organization.

The FREC has also announced the launch of ASDIC Anti-racism Study Dialogue sessions beginning in February. The registration fee for this unique, 12-week course is $150 (scholarships are available). Those who successfully complete the series can apply for continuing education credits. For complete details, download this flyer (pdf).

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