Jacob Harold, a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation and co-author of the paper, “The Nonprofit Marketplace: Bridging the Information Gap in Philanthropy” has written an article for Alliance Magazine that is currently free to non-subscribers. The article is titled: Learning From the Farmer’s Market The global financial crisis has shaken our faith in markets. [...]
Category Archives: Philanthropic Capital Markets
GlobalGiving.org on Investing in Nonprofits
February 11, 2009 – 9:11 am
This will likely be the last guest comment I publish regarding my post Investing in Nonprofits. But Dennis Whittle, the CEO of Global Giving, a celebrated nonprofit, has offered his thoughts and the conversation to date has only included the perspective of funders. Dennis wrote: Let me validate many of the comments here based on [...]
Holden Karnofsky on Investing in Nonprofits
February 9, 2009 – 11:06 am
GiveWell was one of the organizations I listed as taking the approach of Investing in Nonprofits. GiveWell founder Holden Karnofsky has added his thoughts: On one hand, I don’t believe it’s wise for a funder to withdraw completely from the “What sorts of programs work?” discussion. Many programs simply don’t work, and the state of [...]
Mario Marino on Investing in Nonprofits
February 6, 2009 – 7:38 am
Many of the organizations I listed in my post about Investing in Nonprofits have added their thoughts to the conversation. Click on their names to see comments from George Overholser (NFF Capital Partners), Sasha Dichter (Acumen Fund), Paul Shoemaker (Social Venture Partners), Jeff Berndt (New Profit), and Chuck Harris (SeaChange Capital Partners). Now Mario Marino [...]
Sasha Dichter on Investing in Nonprofits
February 5, 2009 – 8:00 am
Sasha Dichter is director of Business Development at Acumen Fund, one of the organizations I listed as practicing a “capital market” model of philanthropy. He also writes his own blog. Here’s his take: Sean, my thanks to you for starting this conversation, and to George Overholser, Chuck Harris, and Jeff Berndt for adding their perspective. [...]
Paul Shoemaker on Investing in Nonprofits
February 4, 2009 – 11:22 am
Paul Shoemaker, whose group Social Venture Partners was on my list of funders who invest in nonprofit organizations, adds his thoughts to the conversation: There is no doubt room in the non-profit capital market for multiple approaches, but the fundamental premise here is that people on-the-ground that have been living their work real-time for many [...]
Chuck Harris on Investing in Nonprofits
February 4, 2009 – 9:36 am
Chuck Harris is co-founder of SeaChange Capital Parters (see profile in the New York Times). His organization was on my list of organizations utilizing the model I described in my post Investing in Nonprofits. He’s left a comment with his own thoughts on investing in nonprofits vs. executing a foundation designed program through buying services [...]
Jeff Berndt of New Profit on Investing in Nonprofits
February 3, 2009 – 8:39 am
After I wrote a post about investing in nonprofits that included a list of funders employing the model I was explaining, George Overholser (of Nonprofit Finance Fund Capital Partners, who was on the list) weighed in with illuminating comments here, here and here). Now Jeff Berndt, a parter at New Profit (also on my list) [...]
Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter?
January 29, 2009 – 10:35 am
Grantmakers for Effective Organizations is “a coalition of more than 350 grantmaking organizations committed to building strong and effective nonprofit organizations.” On their website they write: Why is it important to focus on organizational effectiveness? Nonprofits cannot have impact unless they have well trained, capable staff, strong management and a committed, accountable board of directors. [...]
George Overholser on Investing in Nonprofits
January 29, 2009 – 7:54 am
My friend George Overholser responded in a comment to my post yesterday about Investing in Nonprofits. George is head of Nonprofit Finance Fund Capital Partners (one of the organizations I listed) and my co-author of the op-ed Philanthropic Equity. Well said, Sean. Your argument is a bit like Copernicus putting the Sun at the center [...]
