I can’t believe the month of May is almost over and I am embarking on my 60th day at the Council! I have enjoyed meeting various corporate foundations and hearing about the amazing work you are leading across the country during my first two months. This week, I met with Tiffany…

The Career Pathways program is designed for leaders like me. I have a proven track record of leadership, and I offer extensive experience in cultivating strategic relationships and implementing innovative solutions to advance the position, value and, reputation of a Fortune 50 company. While I have…

Anyone who has had the responsibility of putting together a team has wrestled with the challenge of determining who will be the best match for the positions that need to be filled. At the recently completed NFL draft, teams approached these decisions from one…

On April 23, the Council on Foundations hosted an invitation-only event at the Surdna Foundation in New York to talk about Race, Poverty and Trust. Our featured speaker, Tiziana Dearing, Professor of Macro Practice at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, discussed lessons learned from…

Our economic landscape today looks very different than it did 25 years ago. This pattern of change will inevitably continue as technological advancements are rapidly introduced to the world. To adapt to this new landscape, foundations must be willing to shift and evolve with the changing…

“You get nothing done if you don’t listen to each other.” -Barbara Bush   Listening to the remembrances of the late First Lady Barbara Bush this week, I was struck by her sense of humor, and by her uncanny talent for cutting to the heart of the matter. Mrs. Bush may not have been the…

As we consider the road ahead for the Council on Foundations, “leadership” is a word that comes up over and over again. The question is how the Council can continue to serve the broader philanthropic field while also helping to define issues and bring our members together around solutions and…

On December 20, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced the first recipient of our 100&Change competition’s $100 million grant: an early childhood intervention for children in the Syrian refugee region co-developed by Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee.…

I am excited to introduce you to Lindsay Mason, the Council’s new Director of Corporate Philanthropy!   Lindsay has more than 10 years’ experience in the philanthropic sector, with a strong background building partnerships, leveraging resources, and increasing opportunities for private…

Following upon the first-ever North American Community Foundations Summit held in Mexico City February, we invited nine travel scholarship recipients who attended to write about their experiences and observations. This is the second compilation of blogs in that series. We are especially thankful to…

As you read this, I’ve landed on the beautiful island of St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to engage with community foundations, our federal partners, FEMA, and other associations to discuss how philanthropy helps this U.S. territory, as well as Puerto Rico, continue its recovery from the…

The first-ever North American Community Foundations Summit was held in Mexico City on February 5-6 and was co-hosted with Comunalia, Community Foundations of Canada. With over 200 attendees, the Summit focused on achieving the SDGs and included discussions about reducing poverty, building resilient…

Philanthropy, at large, is a burgeoning variety of strategies for community innovation, investment, and a true love for people and the world we live in. Coming from Alaska and a place-based family foundation, I find this larger world enticing and responsive to the innovative partnerships that we…

I am deeply impressed by the relationships built in our field, sometimes from just one simple interaction at a Council event. While serving as the CEO of an Indiana community foundation, I traveled out-of-state to a Council event in 2014 to be introduced to a colleague who, to this day, remains an…

As I reflected on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week, I spent some time honing in on the words of a little song by the legendary James Taylor. “Shed A Little Light” is an homage to Dr. King and in it, the lyrics say, “We are bound together by the task that stands before us.” Those…

For some parts of the country, 2018 arrived in full force—with an arctic blast of frigid temperatures in the east and torrential mudslides in the west—all while tax reform brings new unknowns to our work. While in some respects, the impact of this tax legislation on charitable giving seems mightily…