I recently had an eye-opening experience that helped me realize that many organizations promote their content but do nothing to ensure that it is being utilized appropriately. While some nonprofits allow others to make use of their content with proper attribution, some content users decide to make…

America’s charities face a brewing crisis with the upcoming comprehensive tax reform debate that is almost certain to envelop our nation. As Congress searches for ways to close the growing national debt, the charitable tax deduction is included in the “everything” often mentioned in the phrase “…

Nonprofit charity: water recently launched its innovative, annual September Campaign, seeking to raise $1.7 million in order to bring clean, safe water to nearly 26,000 people in Rwanda. Under the leadership of founder Scott Harrison, the organization is reinventing the nonprofit model by…

As a young professional and a newcomer to the field of philanthropy, the sessions at the Council on Foundations Fall Conference in New Orleans earlier this month offered a lot in the way of introduction. Not only an introduction to new colleagues from all over the map, but also to variations of the…

Our world has become increasingly dependent upon content to attract people’s attention. This content ranges from blogs on the Internet to television shows. Due to global shifts in our economy, economic developers have to work harder to attract companies and individual entrepreneurs. What used to be…

  As a grantmaker, you may be familiar with the usual measures of impact for a program that you have helped fund. But have you ever thought about measuring the impact of the publications that may be produced as a result of your program work? If you are interested in learning more about…

What if the once-a-year “reveals” of a charity’s impact had the hype of the iPhone 5? What if millions of people blogged about program and performance upgrades developed during the past year by the most dynamic charity in the world? What if people were making viral videos and sketching out…

Having spent three days at the Fall Conference for Community Foundations last week in New Orleans, a port city where the line between land and sea is ever-shifting, I’m thinking a lot about balance. That may help me understand my colleagues who lead community foundations better, because balance…

With fiscal crisis and a fragile economy the focus of concern in California, it is easy to overlook the state’s other challenges. But three troubling trends deserve attention because they threaten the well-being of Californians and the state’s prosperity for years to come. These threats also…

We often think of grantees as people who provide a service or act as advocates. But are they the only ways grantees can make change? And are there other kinds of grantees worth considering? I had the pleasure of attending the Brainstorming Bus Tour, hosted by the Greater New Orleans Foundation,…

Day two of the Fall Conference yielded several important insights, but the ones that moved me most began at lunch. To be honest, I get tired of talk about violence. It wears me out emotionally. It frustrates me about our society. It drains me. But we absolutely can’t stop hearing real truths if we…

Not a day has gone by since I joined the Council two months ago when I haven’t thought about the awesome responsibility and privilege I have to help make the Council an organization that fully reflects the promise of philanthropy and impact you generate. With more than a thousand philanthropic…

E.B White said, “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." It’s not so hard here in New Orleans at the Fall Conference. Last night, I took a leisurely stroll down flamboyant Bourbon Street where the only…

The first day of the conference presented several interesting opportunities to expand our understanding of the issues community foundations face. After a nice dinner with fantastic oysters at Bourbon House the previous night, we were well prepared for the first day’s options. Because I am attending…

One of my core identities is "learner." In fact, three of my top five strengths (according the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool) have to do with collecting, savoring, and sharing information. I love the Fall Conference for all its different ways to experience learning. But there is a flip side to every…

Traveling from Northern New Hampshire to the Fall Conference in New Orleans offered me a birds-eye reminder of the rural-urban connections in our lives. And got me thinking about a slightly different role for community foundations. Getting to the airport is often the first real leg of any…