Don’t Give Up on Green Jobs and Careers!
Preparing my slides for today’s “What’s Next for Green Careers?” session at the Second Annual National Fund meeting in Cincinnati gave me the opportunity to reflect on SkillWorks Green Jobs Initiative activities from 2009 to the present. It took me awhile to figure out what message I wanted to…
Learning From the National Fund for Workforce Solutions Model
It’s safe to say the time for rethinking the national workforce development system is way overdue: The reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) is now 12 years overdue and counting—with no one expecting it anytime soon. Not that a new and improved WIA will solve the myriad problems in…
Living in Anchorage, Alaska, I am reminded on a daily basis that freedom is not free. As an important part of our community, the Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard have a significant presence that transcends their service to our nation. Combined with the very high number of veterans who make our…
A lot can happen in a year. Twelve months ago, Osama bin Laden was the most wanted man in the world and “occupy” was just a word, not a movement. During the next year, one million men and women will leave the active duty military service and return to civilian life with their family and…
Staffing Small: Staying Strategic Makes It Work
At Placer Community Foundation, our small staff of just 3.1 full-time employees means we need a staffing model that works incredibly well. We made a couple of decisions early on that really helped shape how we staff.
First, we decided to focus on bequests. We knew that the professional adviser…
To Engage or Not to Engage
Should Congress direct 80 percent of the upcoming Clean Water Act civil fine from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill to coastal ecosystem restoration and rebuilding local economies in the coastal regions of the affected States (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida)? If you live and…
Making Early Childhood Education the Right of Every Child
How should a mid-sized foundation position its initiatives in this age of austerity and how can one county and community foundation influence state-level decisions? These are questions that the Erie Community Foundation asked when it planned an early childhood education initiative more than a year…
Breaking the Cycle of Dependency in Mississippi
Hundreds of miles from urban centers like Memphis, Atlanta, and New Orleans, the five counties served by the Community Foundation of East Mississippi are a textbook definition of “rural.” Cotton was king here years ago, but ever since it left—along with a good deal of the manufacturing industry—…
Making It Happen in the Dan River Region
Time flies when you are doing good work. The Danville Regional Foundation launched its Make It Happen! (MIH!) program in November 2010 to show that everybody can make a difference through incremental changes, no matter how small. Now, approximately 18 months later, we just awarded our 50th MIH!…
Inspiring the Next Generation of Change Agents: Key Lessons from L.A.
It’s been about a month since I returned from Los Angeles, where I attended the Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) National Conference and the Council on Foundations Annual Conference. I am extremely grateful that those organizations partnered to provide “Stay in L.A.” scholarships to…
I recently had the opportunity to connect with several young nonprofit professionals at a lunch meeting. After learning about issues several were facing that ended up complicating work with grantees, I immediately suggested several free technology tools that could streamline their current work.…
With one-third of Americans still lacking broadband Internet connections at home, access to the internet is often considered an equity issue. Yet programs aimed at narrowing the digital divide may leave their strongest legacies in the areas of community and economic development. Online access…
Social Media Guy: Gone But Not Forgotten
It was suggested in a half-joking manner that I should write a blog on my last day at the Council. At first I dismissed it, thinking it would be cheesy. I could write about the great colleagues I worked with, the knowledge of philanthropy I gained, or the numerous relationships I developed in the…
Advocacy Success: San José Passes Strong Controls On Payday Lending
On May 15, the San José City Council approved a strong municipal ordinance that will curb the impact of predatory payday lending on residents of America’s 10th largest city. The vote, on a motion by Councilman Ash Kalra, is the latest and largest victory in Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s…
Part 2: Collaboration
I see collaborative work and outcomes management as two sides of the same “working smarter” coin. I discussed outcomes management in my first post in this series, and my organization, Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP), has embraced its importance. VPP is committed to…
Two Sides of the Same Coin: Outcomes and Collaboration
Part 1: Outcomes Management
At Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP), we talk a lot about one number: $31 million. Well, $31.4 million to be exact, the amount of money we raised for our first fund of nonprofits in the National Capital Region. We are proud of this number, but there is another number…