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.
A few years ago, Mark Sedway lead a research project called The Philanthropy Awareness Initiative. PAI's aim was to help foundations and philanthropic associations “improve communications and outreach to influential Americans,” such as elected officials, business, government and nonprofit leaders. Have we made any progress?
Beginning this week, twenty regional associations representing over 2,700 organizations and more than $38 billion in grantmaking will work with funders across the country to harness the data that supports our individual and collective work and enables all of us to tell a more accurate version of the story of philanthropy.
Public policy work is hard. Collaborative work is hard. Add the two together and you get a complex enterprise. There have been no magic formulas or can't-miss strategies. Determining why and how to take on policy work requires steady inquiry, analysis, strategy, openness, and horsepower. But the results can be significant.