On May 31, an op-ed appeared in the New York Times, Who Will Watch the Charities?, from David Callahan, founder and editor of Inside Philanthropy, calling for more oversight of the philanthropic sector and presents four ideas for reform. The Forum and Philanthropy New York, along with others in the field, have submitted responses over the past couple of days.
The gist of the product teams approach is recognizing that great technology is essential to delivering our programs and creating the impact we want to have in the world. Each key technology system is treated as a "product" and managed by a team comprised of both technology people and "domain experts" who bring in-the-trenches programmatic and business process knowledge. Most importantly, though, products are resourced and managed on a permanent, ongoing basis, not as one-time, "big-bang" initiatives.
In a guest blog post for the D5 Coalition, Debbie McKeon of the Council of Michigan Foundations reveals the genesis of CMF's successful "Is Your Foundation Leveraging the Power of Differences?" Discussion and Assessment Toolkit.
David Biemesderfer, Board Chair of the Forum and the President & CEO of the Florida Philanthropic Network discusses the power of the Forum Network to advance philanthropy and the recent success of Foundations on the Hill on the Center for Effective Philanthropy's blog.
Jessica Bearman of Project Streamline has a new blog post up on the Grants Managers Network's site concerning Letters of Inquiry (LOI) which provides clear goals for adopting an LOI program along with several strong examples in use by the field.
Guest post by Tiffany Langston, Multimedia Manager, Philanthropy New York
The last five years has been a time of experimentation in social media. Luckily for the Forum Network, we have 33 regional associations all running separate experiments, sharing data, and reporting back what works best so that we can all succeed in our social media goals, whether that’s amplifying member voices or achieving policy change through advocacy.
Paul Daugherty is the President of Philanthropy West Virginia, the statewide professional association of private, family, corporate, community and public foundations.In this interview, Paul discusses philanthropy in West Virginia, Foundations on the Hill, throwing a good party, and the value of the Forum Network. Regarding this week's Foundation's on the Hill, Paul said, "With our Members of Congress our key issues are advocating on behalf of tax policies regarding the IRA Rollover Act becoming permanent in the tax code as well as the simplification of the excise tax on foundations. Those components are so important, especially to rural America, which we represent."
David Biemesderfer, board chair for the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers and the president & CEO of the Florida Philanthropic Network discusses the value and strength of the Forum Network and highlights our partnership with Foundation Center on The Center for Effective Philanthropy's blog.
In a recent piece for Stanford Social Innovation Review, Paul Shoemaker, Executive Connector for Social Venture Partners, makes an interesting case for fundamentally changing the underlying practices of philanthropy to achieve breakthrough social change, the most important of which is to provide unrestricted funding.