January 5, 2009
Individuals make resolutions every January. What about organizations? Several bloggers have suggestions for what nonprofit and philanthropy organizations — as well as staff — should strive for in 2009:
- New Voices in Philanthropy’s Trista Harris hopes to see five things from foundations this year, such as “unrestricting grants that you have already given to nonprofits” and “using 5% as a guideline, not a rule.” See her complete post.
- Leading By Design’s Anne Ackerson lists ten resolutions for nonprofits, including “review your mission out loud” to see if your activity accurately reflects it, and “undertake a formal assessment of strengths and weaknesses.” Read the complete list.
- Next-generation nonprofit blogger Rosetta Thurman details 10 ways to become a better nonprofit leader in 2009. She says that even though there are unknowns in the year ahead, we are all in control of our own actions and intentions. Three of her recommendations are to clarify your personal purpose, find a mentor and take care of yourself.
- Tactical Philanthropy’s Sean Stannard-Stockton wants philanthropy to make mistakes: “Let us humbly resolve that in 2009 we will make better mistakes than we did in 2008. Let’s make mistakes that are the result of daring, well informed risks. Mistakes that demonstrate our willingness to embrace the unknown and try things that other people tell us can’t be done.” Read more of his advice about building a better philanthropy.
Join the conversation: What resolutions did you make for your foundation or nonprofit?
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evaluation, leadership, philanthropy blogs | 
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Posted by Crystal Colby
December 9, 2008
Peg Birk begins her role as the first full-time executive director of the George Family Foundation today. Most recently, she served as the co-executive director of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation; she previously was the interim president for The McKnight Foundation.
Birk is on the Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable board of directors, the dean’s advisory council at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation board of directors.
Update: MinnPost published an article about Birk today: George Family Foundation, New Director Share Values, Passions.
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family foundations, in the news, leadership | 
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Posted by MCF Webmaster
December 4, 2008
Over the past summer, I took part in a survey by GrantCraft for a new project they were working on called Roles@work. This project focused on grantmakers and how they manage a lot of expectations about their work. GrantCraft researchers talked with hundreds of grantmakers (and grantmaker-related folks like me) about what foundations and grantees expect of them to get their work done — and what they expect of themselves. Their new card deck-style tool named Roles@work collects the 29 roles grantmakers mentioned most often. My “Top 10″ list of roles:
- Convener - Bring people together to discuss and learn about a problem or topic
- Consultant - Provide advice or expert assistance to grantees or grantseekers
- Bridge Builder - Make it possible for strange or unlikely partners to work together
- Translator - Help internal leadership understand what’s happening in a field or community…and vice versa
- Talent Scout - Keep an ear to the ground to learn who’s doing what (and well) in a field or community
- Sounding Board - Listen actively for ideas, opinions, and points of view
- Scanner - Gather information from many sources as a prelude to grantmaking action
- Organizer - Think and act tactically to get something done
- Facilitator - Lead or coordinate the work of a group to get ideas on the table or to get things moving
- Wild Card - Invent a role to suit the situation!
Grantmakers can use the cards to jumpstart a conversation among colleagues about topics like how you weigh different roles, what you do too much of or not enough of, how you orient newcomers, or how you talk about the grantmaker’s role with board members and leaders.
The cards, and the six activities included, encourage you to reflect more deeply on how to meet and manage expectations: your own, your foundation’s, and your grantees’. For example, Activity 3 “Too much, too little” asks you to choose the cards that represent what you do too much of and what you don’t do enough of. Then, what would it take to change the balance?
These activities induce quiet reflection upon what you do on a daily basis and why. They would make an excellent staff/team meeting activity… especially as a new year approaches and we all pause to reflect upon the past year.
Join the conversation: Are there any grantmaker roles you would add to the list? Can these cards help you better define — and manage — your many work roles?
- Lisa Johnson, MCF’s manager of professional development and e-learning
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Posted by Lisa Johnson
November 6, 2008
On the morning after the historic election of Barack Obama, I had the privilege of hearing Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chair of the Carlson companies and trustee of MCF member Curtis L. Carlson Family Foundation, speak about leadership and life. Her talk was filled with jewels of wisdom, and the audience’s mood shifted from joyful to somber and back again as she shared personal anecdotes and lessons learned during her fascinating life.
One of her recurring themes was inclusivity — how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go.
Her stories of gender discrimination really struck a chord with me. She was hired for her first job under one condition: That she sign her name “M.C. Nelson” so no one would know she was woman. When she became pregnant with her first child, the company didn’t want to lose the successful “M.C.,” but having a pregnant woman in the workplace was unthinkable in those times. The company’s solution to the dilemma? Tuck her away in a hidden office with a separate entrance so no one would see her come and go from the building.
We may smile and say we’re grateful that those times are long gone, but are they? Women still earn 80 cents on the dollar that men earn. And while we’re ecstatic that an African American has achieved our country’s highest office, what about the many minorities in our own community who face huge barriers to success in school and life? As Carlson Nelson said, we still have a responsibility to work toward the greater good for a greater number.
At MCF we have a diversity framework that helps guide the work of our members. At Carlson companies, the inclusivity statement is one of Carlson Nelson’s favorite Edwin Markham poems:
He drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout
But love and I had the wit to win –
We drew a circle that took him in
Join the conversation: What historic moment, personal anecdote or favorite quotation inspires you to break down barriers and create a larger circle?
- Wendy Wehr, MCF V.P. of Communications and Information Services
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Posted by Wendy Wehr
October 30, 2008
Northwest Area Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation and Blandin Foundation sponsored a workshop this week for grantmakers that provide support for developing leadership capacity in nonprofits, neighborhoods and communities. The workshop was presented by Deborah Meehan and Claire Reinelt of Oakland, California-based Leadership Learning Community (LLC), a national network of leadership funders, practitioners and researchers.
Their workshop was held at the Northwest Area Foundation in St. Paul and focused on the trend toward collective leadership and ways to get there through the use of a tool called “A Framework for Leadership Investment and Evaluation” that focused on individual capacity, organizational capacity, collective capacity and field capacity for individuals, organizations, communities of place, and fields of practice.
The LLC hosts a public wiki that provides valuable information and resources for those interested in this topic. They have also started learning circles on various leadership investment and evaluation-related subjects around the country and are thinking of starting one here.
If you’re interested in participating in a local funders learning circle, please notify Deborah Meehan at LLC.
– Lisa Johnson, MCF’s manager of professional development and e-learning
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Posted by Lisa Johnson
October 29, 2008
What bloggers are saying about philanthropy and nonprofits (mostly about the economy, this time):
- Nonprofits Need Gen Y Leadership in an Uncertain Economy
Perspectives from the Pipeline (cross-posted on the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog): It’s clear that the old top-down hierarchy isn’t the best model for what needs to happen in organizations today. When we just don’t have time to come up with another 5-year strategic plan to survive in this economy, how do we generate new ideas to address issues head on? Right now is an opportunity for young nonprofit professionals to bring fresh, innovative ideas for how we do the work of social change.
- Charity Uses Blog to Disclose its Financial Woes
Give and Take: Kjerstin Erickson’s charity is in financial trouble — and she’s telling the world about it. Tactical Philanthropy’s Sean Stannard-Stockton has been following the story and says that “if you care about nonprofit transparency, I think this is a conversation you need to be a part of.”
- A Trip Down Merger Lane
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Is yours a mid-size agency that is strong and that wishes to grow, but you don’t have the financial capital to do so? Is your unrestricted financing shrinking? Are you having difficulty raising the quality of your back-office services because you can’t afford the investment? If so, perhaps it is time for you to seek a full or partial merger partner for your nonprofit.
- Philanthropy Calls to Action
Philanthropy 2173: There are at least five current examples of organizations that are promoting or encouraging certain types of collective action by philanthropists during this economic cycle and in preparation for a new presidential administration. These are positive signs of efforts to work together, to aggregate action, to respond and work within tough external realities, and to think deeply about the timing and commitment philanthropists make to the causes they care about.
- Start Your Turnaround Stories Today
Balancing the Mission Checkbook: Turnarounds make great case stories after the fact - when the organization is revitalized and builds a new reputation for connections with the community, strong leadership, and financial health. Who wouldn’t want all that? So why wait until things are bad?
- In Defense of Raising Money: A Manifesto for Nonprofit CEOs
The director of business development at the Acumen Fund has been linked all over the web for his essay that begins “I’m sick of apologizing for being in charge of raising money.” He wonders, “How is it that in the nonprofit sector we create this illusion that growth and change and impact can happen absent … energy and engagement?” This link goes to Seth’s Blog; original PDF here.
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Posted by MCF Webmaster
October 13, 2008
Last week the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers (the national association of which the Minnesota Council on Foundations is a member) and the national Council on Foundations announced a new alliance between these two important national organizations. As one of the architects of this alliance, I felt it was important to share that our goal in bringing these two national organizations closer together in the work they do is to better serve the field of philanthropy at both the national and the local level.
I’ve been a long time proponent that “all philanthropy is local.” By that, I mean that most grantmakers do their work in their local communities, states or regions. So philanthropy as a whole and our local resources, such as our Minnesota Council on Foundations and its 188 member foundations, are best served by having a strong statewide association of grantmakers. We in turn rely on a national network of colleague organizations, such as the Forum and the Council, to provide thought leadership, effective products and services to grantmakers and efficient delivery models in which to serve our foundations and corporate giving programs in Minnesota and surrounding states where we have members.
This new alliance brings together the knowldege resources of the these two national organizations, along with those of the 32 regional associations serving America’s foundations and corporate giving programs, in an effort to better use the limited resources available for building and sustaining the infrastructure serving grantmaking organizations. Our goals are about efficiency and effectiveness. We hope to eliminate duplication of services, provide efficiencies in delivering high-quality services to local philanthropies, and to pool the knowledge of the philanthropic network of these important organizations.
To do that, our first project will be to develop a comprehensive “grantmaker education” framework. From that framework, new educational offerings can be developed nationally or locally, but with a more clear, comprehensive approach to grantmaker education and professional development than has been available in the past.
I’ve heard there is some confusion about whether this is a merger of national organizations. It is not. This is an alliance of two independent organizations that seeks to take the best of both organizations and develop a collaboration that better serves the needs and interests of grantmakers throughout the country. If successful, I’m sure we’ll see more cooperative efforts that will benefit the field of philanthropy for years to come.
Join the conversation: In what other ways can national and local organizations serving philanthropy achieve efficiencies and effective service delivery to the philanthropic community?
- Bill King, MCF president
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Posted by billking
What comes to your mind when you hear the word “community?” Since you’re a blog reader, you may immediately think of the growth of online communities . . . virtual spaces rather than geographic places.
