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Tactical Philanthropy: Philanthropy Daily Digest

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:00:55 -0400

Further Thoughts on Unitus/SKS : Philanthropy Action

Tim Ogden, who guest posted on Tactical Philanthropy yesterday, clarifies some of his thoughts.

(tags: philanthropy)
REDF Leverages First Social Innovation Fund Grant | Stanford Social Innovation Review

Carla Javit, the head of Social Innovation Fund grantee REDF, reflects on the importance of the Fund and why it signals a break from "business as usual".

(tags: philanthropy)

Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: Zizek on Charity

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:14:09 -0400

"First as Tragedy, then as Farce," brilliant 10 minute animated lecture. Should be taught in every business school that teaches philanthropy.

Tactical Philanthropy: New York Times Looks at Unitus/SKS Story

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:16:50 -0400

Stephanie Strom of the New York Times is out with an overview of the Unitus/SKS story. Her story focuses on the interrelations between the two organizations and the IPO proceeds that Unitus will be receiving. For the first time, Muhammad Yunus, the father of microfinance and critic of for-profit microfinance approaches, weighs in on the Unitus situation.

From the story:

“The other nonprofit ensnared in controversy is a Seattle-based group called Unitus, which holds a stake in SKS that will be worth millions after the I.P.O. The group’s board shocked the nonprofit community this month by saying that all of the organization’s 40-person staff would be laid off and that Unitus would no longer be involved in microfinance activities.

…“If Unitus is closing down, that shows what is the real result of this I.P.O.,” said Muhammad Yunus, an economics professor who is considered the father of microfinance and has been critical of the SKS stock offering. “You are now encouraging the profit-maximizing part, and the nonprofits are closing down.”
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AFP Blog: News of Note: Charles Lawton: Waterfront preserved as private gets public help | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:02:38 -0400

Charles Lawton: Waterfront preserved as private gets public help | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Tactical Philanthropy: Philanthropy Daily Digest

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:01:39 -0400

Philanthrocapitalism » Betting on the Poor

Matthew Bishop of the Economist weighs in on the SKS/Unitus story.

(tags: philanthropy)
With Credit Tight, Microlending Blossoms – NYTimes.com

Microlending to US borrowers is on the rise.

(tags: philanthropy)

AFP Blog: News of Note: When changing careers, avoid these missteps - chicagotribune.com

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:50:08 -0400

When changing careers, avoid these missteps - chicagotribune.com

Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: Comic on Amusing ourselves to Death

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:05:22 -0400

Recombinant Records on Huxley versus Orwell's vision of Dystopia. The piece is a short comic. And it's moral is that Huxley was right; we are amusing ourselves to death. Given my attention span, I would have prefered a tweet rather than a one page comic. But I did like the pictures.

Tactical Philanthropy: Unitus To Guest Post on Tactical Philanthropy

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:19:30 -0400

I just got a call from Geoff Woolley, the person named to lead “Unitus 2.0” as they redirect their efforts away from microfinance and towards a new area of “maximum social impact”. Given certain legal issues around the SKS IPO, Geoff is unable to immediately take me up on my offer to have him guest post here on Tactical Philanthropy (an invitation I sent the day I first wrote about the story). However, Geoff very much wants to tell his side of the story (he’s been involved with Unitus since the very beginning) and is talking with his team about when he can send me his guest post.

I’ve talked to a lot of people about the Unitus situation. Everyone that I’ve talked to thinks the world of the Unitus team, including the founding board members. I continue to withhold any judgment because so much of this story is murky. I did reiterate to Geoff my opinion that Unitus blew an opportunity to really claim victory for completing their mission of “accelerating microfinance” and instead left many people with questions about Unitus and the field of microfinance which they are leaving behind.

Tactical Philanthropy: Why Every Social Entrepreneur Should Be Paying Attention to SKS & Unitus

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:05:05 -0400

This is a guest post from Tim Ogden. Tim is Editor-in-Chief of Philanthropy Action, a journal for donors, and Executive Partner of Sona Partners, a thought-leadership communications firm. Follow him on Twitter: @philaction and @timothyogden.

By Tim Ogden

Tactical Philanthropy: Philanthropy Daily Digest

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:01:36 -0400

California Plan Your Giving Day

California has officially declared October 1 "Plan Your Giving Day". The effort looks to build on the Gates/Buffett Giving Pledge.

(tags: philanthropy)
Prof Yunus to star in The Simpsons: The Daily Star

This is hands down the best headline I've seen in a long time. Microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus is going to guest star in The Simpsons.

(tags: philanthropy)
Boy’s Latest Charitable Act Is Long Walk With Mom – NYTimes.com

What an unusual and fantastic story. A 12-year-old "do-gooder prodigy". His mom's quote: "He’s just like every other kid, except he likes to do community service work for some odd reason. He likes doing it. It’s weird."

(tags: philanthropy)
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Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: Who Owns the Rain?

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:53:17 -0400

Just because it falls on your property does not mean the rain water belongs to you. Before leaving an empty bucket outside, please check your local statutes. (A Public Service Announcement from the Wealth Bondage Public-Private Water Initiative.)

Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: Inheritance and the Competent Heir

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:23:58 -0400

In the WSJ,If your children are competent they don't need a big inheritance, if they are not competent, the money may only hurt them.

Tactical Philanthropy: Audacious Ideas Redesign

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:15:52 -0400

I’ve gotten a ton of feedback and suggestions regarding the new Audacious Ideas guest blog series (you can read the first post in the series by Jim Canales here). I think this concept has legs, but I’ve also been convinced that it needs some changes. I’d like to get your ideas and help in deciding where to go from here.

First off, I think we need to establish a small Audacious review board. I’ve been deluged with inquires from people who want to submit an entry to the series. Frankly, my interest is in running truly audacious ideas. My thought here is to have interested parties send a short summary of their concept, maybe three bullet points and a paragraph of narrative, which the review board would then give a thumbs up or down.

Do readers agree with this approach? If so, who is audacious enough to be a member of the review board? I’d love your nominations.

Secondly, we need a new name. It turns out that there is an interesting blog called Audacious Ideas run by the Soros Foundation’s Open Society Institute in Baltimore. The blog runs weekly “audacious” guest posts with the goal of stimulating ideas and discussions about ways to improve the city of Baltimore. The Open Society Institute has asked that I changed the name of my series and I’ve agreed.

So I need your help on this too. What should the series be called?

Tactical Philanthropy: Philanthropy Daily Digest

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:01:43 -0400

SIF Awards – Public Info

Adin Miller is working on a public spreadsheet with info on the Social Innovation Fund grantees.

(tags: philanthropy)
Analysis of Social Innovation Fund Results | Adin Miller Consulting

Excellent analysis of the Social Innovation Fund grants from a former employee of the Corporation for National & Community Service (which runs the SIF).

(tags: philanthropy)

Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: Pay Per View MBA Beatings

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:29:50 -0400

Doing well by doing good is my goal. With my mentor, the Happy Tutor, Dungeon Master to the Stars in Wealth Bondage, I, as a Morals Tutor to America's Wealthiest Families, will set up an Executive Moral Rehabilitation Center (Dungeon) to modify the behavior of those MBA's who, through weakness of the will, fail to keep the MBA Oath ("I will refrain from corruption....") These beatings will give real meaning to the Oath, and will help keep the backsliding MBAs on the straight and narrow. Now, for the business model. For-profit? Or, nonprofit? Would a foundation pay for such a public service? Would Bill Gates fund it? Could we take up a collection from the general populace? Would many people give say $5 a year to have corrupt MBAs beaten half to death? I would. Were the spectacle public, we could charge admission, or go pay per view.

Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: Stewarding Social Actions

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:20:58 -0400

Social Actions,

...we're requesting formal Letters of Interest from those who have an interest in stewarding all or some of Social Actions' programs. We're posting that request here not just as an update but to encourage everyone to share it and chime in with ideas and proposals.

Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: American Corporatism

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:14:40 -0400

From a 2002 article by Robert Locke,

The first thing big business has in common with big government is managerialism. The technocratic manager, who deals in impersonal mass aggregates, organizes through bureaucracy, and rules through expertise without assuming personal responsibility, is common to both.

To that we might add that the first thing Gates, Ford, and Hewlett Foundations have in common is managerialism (called social venture philanthropy, or strategic philanthropy, or high impact philanthropy). The technocratic grantmater, who deals in impersonal mass aggregates, organizes through bureaucracy, and rules through expertise and metrics, without assuming personal responsibility, is common to all three - big business, big government, and big business funded big foundations.

Tactical Philanthropy: What is Impact All About?

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:00:50 -0400

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post titled Getting Results: Outputs, Outcomes & Impact, in which I explained the “jargon” of tracking results in the social sector and argued that these metrics were critically important. In a follow up post, I argued that tracking results in this way should not be seen as “finger wagging campaign by the funding side of the table,” but instead was the key to a nonprofit becoming a high performance organization.

One of the comments on the first post (which generated a lively discussion in the comments section) came from Isaac Castillo, head of evaluation at Latin American Youth Center. LAYC is known for their diligent efforts to track their performance (they even consult for other nonprofits) and was recently announced as one of the few pre-selected subgrantees of the Social Innovation Fund. Isaac wrote:

“I actually think measuring outputs, outcomes, and impact is fairly easy and straightforward. The truly difficult part is getting nonprofits to identify the specific things they want to track.”
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Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: Tightening the Metrics for Gifthub

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:39:51 -0400

In return for a generous grant, or as she calls it, "a robust social investment," from Candidia Cruikshanks, CEO of Wealth Bondage, I am supposed to Save Capitalism by 2015. Annually, I must report on progress against plan. I can measure and manage my outputs (posts, word count) and my outcomes (subscribers, page reads, incoming links, and comments), but now Candidia is also asking for objective proof of impact. How much Capitalism have I actually saved? And, in investment terms, how much Capitalism is she saving for every dollar she invests in Gifthub? "Sweetie, I can't manage what I can't measure," as she so well puts it.

Tactical Philanthropy: Philanthropy Daily Digest

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:00:55 -0400

Pictures and video from the Social Innovation Fund announcement in Washington, DC « Fuel for the Field

Carla Javits, the head of REDF, a Social Innovation Fund grantee, shares photos and video from her trip to Washington.

(tags: philanthropy)
WINDING DOWN the ATLANTIC PHILANTHROPIES

A new report authored by Tony Proscio for Duke University looks at the Atlantic Philanthropies decision to spend down their endowment. Interesting look at how the concept works in reality.

(tags: philanthropy)

Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: The Liberator

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:49:12 -0400

John Robb,

No big surprises at the Aspen Institute conference: the big money is still flowing towards huge, global-scale projects and schemes that aren't likely to work. In stark contrast, Marcin and his team of farmer scientists working on post-scarcity economics is making lots of progress (see Marcin's economy in a box presentation for context). They are doing this on a shoestring, which is a shame. Here are some highlights:

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Tactical Philanthropy: Builders, Buyers & the Social Innovation Fund

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:16:16 -0400

On Friday afternoon, Nathaniel Whittemore of the Social Entrepreneurship blog sent me an email questioning the enthusiasm in my recent post about the Social Innovation Fund (SIF). Nathaniel is someone whose opinion I greatly respect and his points of contention were very valid. So I sent him back a detailed response, which (with his permission) I’ve decided to republish here.

Nathaniel’s email to me made the following points:

Nathaniel argued that the SIF grants were run of the mill, writing “The government just gave College Summit $3 million more dollars, about 20% of their annual budget. Big whoop.”
He argued that the SIF did not do anything unique and different.
He asked why I was focused on the intermediaries funded by the SIF rather than the subgrantees who would ultimately receive the grants.

In response I wrote:

Tactical Philanthropy: Philanthropy Daily Digest

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:01:11 -0400

Wise Picks? Commentators Weigh In on the Social Innovation Fund Grants – Give and Take – The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas

The Chronicle of Philanthropy rounds up the different opinions on the grant decisions of the Social Innovation Fund.

(tags: philanthropy)
The inefficient nonprofit marketplace « Sasha Dichter’s Blog

Sasha Dichter wonders if the idea that resources are allocated less than optimally in the nonprofit sector is wrongheaded.

(tags: philanthropy)
Unitus fund to cash out on Indian IPO – Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle)

The Puget Sound Business Journal reporter covering the Unitus story has published a blog post linking to his source documents.
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Tactical Philanthropy: Social Innovation Fund Announces Grantees

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:50:38 -0400

I’m thrilled with the Social Innovation Fund’s newly announced list of grantees. In many ways, the results read like my personal wish list for how I thought they should approach their decision.

The Fund has announced 11 intermediary grantees, who will select subgrantees to receive the final funding. The full list is here.

In the official comment that I submitted to the Fund back in January, I offered a number of recommendations including:

AFP Blog: News of Note: Timothy Geithner: Obama will look at changing tax code next year - CSMonitor.com

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:28:30 -0400

Timothy Geithner: Obama will look at changing tax code next year - CSMonitor.com: "The Obama administration may also press Congress to restore the estate tax, which lapsed this year. “The president’s position is that we should restore the estate tax and extend it at its ’09 rates going forward,” said Geithner, whose purview also includes the IRS.After one reporter asked if the Steinbrenner family

AFP Blog: News of Note: George Soros tries arts philanthropy -- but he's not saying `Move over, Eli Broad' | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:23:59 -0400

George Soros tries arts philanthropy -- but he's not saying `Move over, Eli Broad' | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times: "So the news Wednesday that hedge fund titan George Soros is giving $11 million to New York City performing arts organizations through his Open Society Institute to help them out of the squeeze caused by cuts in local government grants got us thinking. We'd be more than glad

Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: Unionizing Fundraisers

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:27:10 -0400

Mazarine on unionizing fundraisers to combat bullying bosses:

You may not be able to ban bullying in your state YET, but you can organize to make sure that you and people you work with have more power to stand up to bad management practices. Here is a union that you can join for public service workers, UFCW.

AFP Blog: News of Note: The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit Management

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:36:45 -0400

The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit Management: "Social Innovation Fund Picks $50 Million WinnersBy Mark HrywnaNearly a dozen organizations from around the country will share in the first round of Social Innovation Fund (SIF) grants from the federal government totaling $50 million. Combined with private matching funds of $74 million raised so far, more than $123

Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: The MBA Oath

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:16:10 -0400

The MBA Oath developed by recent graduates of Harvard Business School is harmless enough though it does contain one hilariously tone-deaf statement: "I will refrain from corruption..." It makes it sound like taking the oath makes you some kind of teetotaler in a brewery, or virgin in the Bordello. Maybe the Catholic Church in the light of recent scandals should have priests take an Oath, "I will refrain from seducing minors on Church property." That might reassure a troubled public.

Gift Hub Phil Cubeta: Case Study in Values Based Planning For Esteemed Predators

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:21:49 -0400

Richard (Dick) Minim is an advisor to R. Rump, the R. Rump, of Rump Consolidated Enterprises, the double bottom line social venture division of Wealth Bondage International: Let Freedom Reign! Dick is friends with Miranda Chase, a fundraiser for the University of Wealth Bondage's Cruikshanks School of Business, to which R. Rump is a distinguished Board Member and Significant Donor. Miranda has just now confided to Dick that R. Rump has made persistent and undesired sexual advances upon her, and that she knows of several other instances of similar behavior. She says that she is unable to talk to those above her about this issue since she knows of several other women who have been victim blamed for making accusations agains R. Rump, the R. Rump.

Dick's game plan is to conduct a Values-Based Interview with R. Rump to determine the Esteemed Philanthropist's Vision and Values, so as to help Mr. Rump project those values down through the generations of his family, and The Cruikshanks School of Wealth Bondage University. Dick's modus operandi is to have High Net Worth Clients sort a Deck of Values Cards to determine the client's Moral Compass so as to align the Client's Financial Capacity with that Compass.

Questions