Recently I’ve been consumed with thinking about the implications for philanthropy of a mindset where donors want to achieve a certain goal they think is valuable (such as provide mentors to low-income students) and then go looking for nonprofits to help them do this vs. a model where donors go looking for great nonprofits in [...]
Category Archives: Philanthropic Capital Markets
Flashback: Breaking Frames in Philanthropy
January 22, 2009 – 7:14 am
This is the second flashback post to a discussion we had in January of 2008, prior to the cataclysmic freezing up of financial markets. Given my use of a “financial markets frame” to think about philanthropy, I’m revisiting these two posts as I think they are useful in understanding the frame I use and the [...]
Flashback: Efficient Markets in Philanthropy
January 22, 2009 – 7:06 am
It would be naive of me if I ignored the implications of the systemic freezing of capital markets over the past few months for my view of philanthropy. I’ve often referred to the fact that I use a “financial markets frame” when thinking about philanthropy and while I’ve always acknowledged that this is only one [...]
Philanthropic Equity
January 21, 2009 – 10:50 am
Underlying much of my recent debate with Paul Brest was my view that funders should emphasize investing in building great nonprofit more than working with nonprofits to execute a foundation designed programmatic strategy. One problem with this approach is the lack of understanding around the concept of “philanthropic equity”. To that end I’d like to [...]
What’s The Evidence For Evidence-Based Theories of Change?
January 8, 2009 – 3:13 pm
I have a guest post up today on Paul Brest’s blog Strategic Philanthropy in which I challenge a core assumption from his book Money Well Spent. Here’s an excerpt. Head on over to his blog to check out the full post. His response will be up tomorrow: In Paul’s book Money Well Spent and on [...]
Dan Pallotta & Robert Egger Hash Things Out
December 30, 2008 – 9:12 am
In the comments section to my post about Dan Pallotta’s new book Uncharitable, Dan skewered Robert Egger for his quote in the Chronicle of Philanthropy that Dan “Strip-minded the cause” and for the negative treatment that Robert afforded Dan in his book Begging for Change. Robert, the president of DC Central Kitchen and a member [...]
Signaling, Smart Money & Philanthropy
December 22, 2008 – 12:20 pm
A relative of mine owns two of the best restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. But when he wanted to open the first one 8 years ago, he had a hard time raising money from investors. It is tough to get people to invest in new restaurants. Like evaluating a charity, it is difficult [...]
“Investing” & Philanthropy Part 2
December 18, 2008 – 11:42 am
Jeff Trexler who is a professor of social entrepreneurship at Pace University leaves a comment on my last post: This is an important discussion. As we see with the way Obama and others have framed government expenditures on infrastructure, the investment metaphor can be an effective rhetorical tool for building support for public benefit activities. [...]
