“Don’t do something about me, without me” – The Importance of Promoting Diversity

December 3, 2009

Shawn Lewis, board trustee at the Pan African Community Endowment of The Saint Paul Foundation, sent us a message yesterday about a blogcast discussion that he had recently with blogger Rosetta Thurman, Tamar Cloyd from Education Voters of America, and Stephen Bauer from American Humanics and Nonprofit Workforce Coalition.

The program, which you can listen to on Rosetta Thurman’s blog, was a response in part to the Council on Foundations report titled Career Pathways to Philanthropic Leadership, which found that only 20 percent of successful candidates for leadership positions within the philanthropic sector are from racially diverse backgrounds.

During the show, the panel speakers talked about the importance of having diverse leaders at the top level in the independent sector, not only because a diverse staff affects organizational decision making, but because pitfalls can occur when nonprofits and grantmakers attempt to serve constituents that are not represented within their organization.

As Tamar Cloyd responded during the interview, “Don’t do something about me, without me.” Shawn Lewis also shared insights from his experience working within the sector. He stated that generally much of the progress that he’s seen in creating better recruitment practices has come from board or committee members who advocate strongly for better, more inclusive practices within organizations.

Stephen Bauer suggested that one of the best strategies for increasing the likelihood of hiring someone of color is to be willing to search again for diverse applicants if, after an initial collection of applicants, it’s revealed that the pool of people you’re considering does not have enough diverse candidates.

If you are interested in learning more about how your organization can recruit people of ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds, check out the recording of this interview at Rosetta Thurman’s blog. Then, after you’ve listened to the interview, visit the MCF Diversity Resource page to access the free, downloadable resources that we’ve created and collected to assist MCF member and non-member grantmakers to create better diversity practices within their organizations and fulfill the MCF Diversity Principle.

If you are currently searching for candidates for a position in your organization, you may also find the Minnesota Ethnic and Community Media Directory (pdf) produced by Twin Cities Media Alliance a helpful resource as you look for publications to advertise your job openings.

Join the conversation: Do you think that your organization is doing enough to recruit diverse candidates for leadership positions? Do you have any strategies or practices that you’ve found have been successful in encouraging people of color and other minority groups to apply?


Charting a Course From the Boardroom Table

November 16, 2009

At kitchen tables across America, we’re mulling over what the current economic situation means for each of us. Jobs, bills, education, loans, investments, travel, holiday shopping, donations.

With the exception of holiday shopping and perhaps travel, similar conversations are happening around foundation boardroom tables as well.

Decisions to shift funding guidelines, focus areas, investment practices, grant timelines, grant payouts, internal staffing and organizational short- and long-term priorities – the list goes on – are not made lightly or quickly. And for many board members and trustees, this is the first time they’ve encountered such significant and perhaps drastic discussions.

These conversations and decisions by foundation leaders are critical and necessary. MCF’s Effective Governance Principle calls for its members to share a commitment to excellence and achieve effective governance by ensuring performance in the areas of stewardship of assets, donor intent, fiduciary responsibility and sound decision-making.

Join the conversation: What types of effective governance decisions has your organization made during these challenging times? What shifts and changes in how your organizations does its work have resulted from discussions by your board or executive leadership in response to the economic stresses we’re facing?

Here is one example: Marina Munoz Lyon, vice president of the Carl and Eloise Pohlad Family Foundation, recalls going to the offices of Pohlad family members to discuss how the foundation could step up to support communities in need.  The foundation, winner of the 2009 Minnesota Nonprofit Award for Responsive Philanthropy, established a $20 million Economic Crisis Initiative last spring.

In the video below, which was shown at the awards presentation at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and Minnesota Council on Foundations Joint Conference Nov. 5-6, Jim Pohlad, Pohlad Foundation board member, says, “We took a big chunk of principle and decided that it’s more important to spend it now.”

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate


Awareness to Action: Where’s the Disconnect?

August 11, 2009

On Saturday one of our members forwarded to his MCF colleagues a link to the latest Strib article on child poverty.  The numbers, reported from The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2009 KIDS COUNT Data Book, show Minnesota is slipping, which does not bode well for our state’s children of color, who are already more than a few steps behind their white peers.

But my point of writing today is not to highlight poverty rates and racial and ethnic disparities.   It’s to muse about the frustration expressed by our members when they can’t seem to get any traction on community issues about which they care so deeply.

Where’s the disconnect?

Are you experiencing a disconnect with your stakeholders?

Are you experiencing a disconnect with your stakeholders? Connecting with your audiences is challenging, but vital.

The question takes me back to my days as a professional communicator in the for-profit sector.  Marketers have long understood that consumers progress along a continuum before they make a purchase:  from Awareness to Interest to Desire to Action . . . A-I-D-A.  Skip any of those steps and it’s an instant disconnect, and the sale is lost.

I think grantmakers understand this idea, too.  Although when consumed by passion for one’s mission, it’s easy to forget the complex process of connecting with one’s audience.

Aspects of the A-I-D-A concept seem to be summed up neatly in MCF’s “Engaged Learning” principle, one of eight “Principles for Grantmakers” to which all MCF members subscribe.  The “Engaged Learning” principle states: ”To foster continuous learning and reflection by engaging board members, staff, grantees and donors in thoughtful dialogue and education.”

The juxtaposition of the two words — “engaged” and “learning”  — really resonates with me.  How can we really learn without discovering the personal connection between our selves and our subject matter?  And how can we encourage others to move along the continuum toward action without first engaging and connecting in ways that foster sincere interest in and desire to address community issues?

Join the Conversation: When it comes to achieving your mission, where are you and your audiences on the A-I-D-A continuum?  How can grantmakers use their resources to create connections that will guide us from awareness toward action?

- Wendy Wehr, MCF V.P. of communications and information services

Photo CC DJ King

Social Giving Contests, a New Trend in Corporate Philanthropy?

June 12, 2009
As the economy tightens and the Costanza wallet becomes a thing of the past, I encourage more companies to engage in their own social giving campaigns. The cash-strapped public will appreciate the chance to donate, even when they cant afford to give as much personally.

As the economy tightens and the "Costanza wallet" becomes a thing of the past, I encourage companies to do social giving contests. The cash-strapped public will appreciate it.

As a web-junky up to her eyeballs daily in news about philanthropy, I am excited to note what may be a new trend in corporate giving, letting the public decide where dollars should go through what I’m calling corporate social giving contests.

Both Target, an MCF member, and Toms of Maine have recently launched online campaigns to engage the public directly in deciding where their precious giving dollars should go.

Target’s campaign, conducted entirely on Facebook, allowed members of the popular social networking site to vote on how $3 million would be distributed among 10 different pre-selected charities. St. Jude’s was the eventual “winner” of the campaign, receiving almost $800,000 from the online contest.

Similarly, Toms of Maine announced a new campaign and site entitled 50 States for Good. At the site visitors can nudge their favorite nonprofits from anywhere in the nation to apply for the competition until August 30.  Then on September 21, voting begins!

Any site visitor will be able to vote on the nonprofit finalists to determine who will receive a $20,000 scholarship out of a pot of $300,000 to be given away.

I salute both Target and Toms of Maine for embracing innovative ways to get the public engaged in their own corporate giving.

Not only does it help them be more transparent in their giving practices, something that we at MCF advocate, and get some great PR, it also gets people engaged in giving at a time when many of us may find our own ability to give diminished.

Let’s face it, as our wallets get thinner, it’s nice to have a chance to get that warm-fuzzy feeling by giving away someone else’s cash!

It’s my hope that this recent activity becomes a trend, and I’ll see more tweets about companies undertaking their own corporate social giving contests.

Update: Just saw a tweet that said Staples has begun its own Facebook campaign with DoSomething.org. Participants can fill a virtual backpack, and then go to the store and buy the items to donate to students of low socioeconomic status. It’s not a social giving contest, but definitely in the same vein. Read more about Staple’s campaign here. (6/19/09)

-Cary Lenore Walski, MCF Web Communications Associate


Principal Principles in Education Grantmaking

May 15, 2009

As a follow-up to the blog I wrote earlier this week about transparency and funding education successes (and failures), I wanted to write about the Principles for Effective Education Grantmaking developed by Grantmakers for Education.

The tagline on the publication containing the principles reads, “Roadmap for Results in Education Philanthropy.”  Effective education grantmaking has the power to change lives.  All the more reason to take a closer look at principles that, when adopted and pursued, can impact educational outcomes, influence policies and practices, engage and empower stakeholders, and leverage needed resources.

The eight principles are:

  1. Discipline and Focus
  2. Knowledge
  3. Resources Linked to Results
  4. Effective Grantees
  5. Engaged Partners
  6. Leverage, Influence and Collaboration
  7. Persistence
  8. Innovation and Constant Learning

Click on the link above to read more about each principle.  Which of these education grantmaking practices – drawn from the experience and wisdom of successful grantmakers and donors – do you think is the principal concept that can create change through our support of education endeavors?

The Minnesota Council on Foundations asks its members to formally subscribe to its Principles for Grantmakers.  Read more about these. Which do you think is principal?

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF Communications Associate


What good can come from earning an “F”?

May 11, 2009
Flickr photo by nojhan

Flickr photo by nojhan

I’ve been reading a great deal to gather context for the next issue of MCF’s Giving Forum, which will focus on philanthropy in education.

Something stood out when I came across “Lessons in Education Philanthropy: Proceedings from BHEF’s Inaugural Institute for Strategic Investment in Education (PDF),” held in April 2008, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  (BHEF is Business-Higher Education Forum.)

Acknowledging that private philanthropic dollars in education are small compared to overall educational financial support, the report goes on to say that “strategically targeted philanthropic resources can serve as a vital catalyst for positive, lasting and high-impact change in public education.”

Strategy 3 in the report is: “Use information, research and data to make decisions and assess outcomes.”  Within this strategy, the report recommends, “Practice transparency.”  I was drawn to this recommendation because one of MCF’s eight “Principles for Grantmakers” is the Transparency Principle. 

All this being said, I was still struck by this paragraph in the report:

“Unlike business, where failure is a necessary part of learning and improving the product, in education, failure generally is unacceptable.  While a lost profit or a failed product isn’t desirable, discontinuing an unsuccessful venture is an option for business.  Failing to educate students has much more dire consequences, and culturally is not considered a viable outcome of an educational improvement effort. … Because the ‘bottom line’ is student achievement and the future workforce and economy, transparency and the ability to build on past efforts is crucial to success.”

Join the conversation: How difficult is it for educational improvement efforts to build on lessons learned – whether they be successes or something less?  What can we do to enhance our commitment to providing transparent information, so that others can learn and build on our work?

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF Communications Associate


Welcome, New MCF Member!

April 28, 2009

The Minnesota Council on Foundations (MCF) is pleased to announce that Sunrise Community Banks has become a member of this grantmaker community, which actively works to strengthen and expand philanthropy and improve the vitality and health of communities.

The mission of Sunrise Community Banks, which includes Franklin Bank, Park Midway Bank and University Bank, is to be the leader in improving our urban community.  They strive to create healthier, safer and more successful neighborhoods in the economically distressed inner-city areas of St. Paul and Minneapolis.  

Each of the banks offers a Socially Responsible Deposit Fund (SRDF) that allows customers to designate that their funds support local community development through socially responsible initiatives such as affordable housing, small business development and nonprofit work.

As a member of MCF, Sunrise Community Banks recognizes that it plays an important role in the community and that its role is sustained by the public trust.  Sunrise Community Banks is committed to operating effective and ethical grantmaking programs, and as an MCF member, is guided by the “Principles for Minnesota Grantmakers” as it helps to create positive change in the community it serves.


NCRP: Conflict, Creativity and Common Ground

March 12, 2009

When I wrote about the kerfuffle over the NCRP report last week, I noted that conflict, in the right circumstances, can lead to creativity.  One of those circumstances is the ability to find common ground.

Some of NCRP’s criteria for maximizing grantmaking impact are remarkably similar to our own MCF Principles for Grantmakers.  For instance:

NCRP: Criterion III: Ethics — A grantmaker practicing Philanthropy at its Best serves the public good by demonstrating accountability and transparency to the public, its grantees and constituents.

MCF: Ethics and Law Principle: To sustain public trust by adhering to the highest ethical principles and practices and abiding by all state and federal laws that govern philanthropy.

MCF: Transparency Principle: To achieve transparency in our relationships with the public, applicants, grantees and donors by being clear, consistent and timely in our communications with them.

How’s that for common ground?  Of course, putting principles into practice is where some differences emerge.  Based on the strong reactions for and against the NCRP work so far, I wonder if all parties will be fully committed to identifying common ground, so that they can begin to jointly seek creative, higher level solutions.

If the conversation (or conflict) continues, I hope those on opposing sides will practice two other MCF principles — Engaged Learning and Respectful Relationships.  These call for thoughtful dialogue and constructive relationships based on mutual respect, candor and understanding.

Join the conversation: What’s your reaction to the NCRP recommendations?  If you were debating its merits with someone who held a different view, what points of agreement could you find?

– Wendy Wehr, MCF Vice President of Communications and Information Services