Early this month, the British research and consulting firm YouGov released the results of a study on whether donors are interested in charity ratings.The report was headlined, ““Mixed response towards grading system for charities.” UK based New Philanthropy Capital, a nonprofit rating and philanthropy consulting organization, reflected on the results in a recent blog post: […]
Category Archives: Storytelling
Philanthropic Impact & The Search for The Truth
May 10, 2010 – 8:29 am
When we talk about measuring the impact of philanthropy, we are in essence discussing how to know the truth. We are examining how we might best understand the reality in which we live and the ways in which our actions affect the world around us. While “impact assessment” can sound like an academic or theoretical […]
Kiva.org: Made to Stick
March 19, 2010 – 9:37 am
What if there was a way to trigger a $150 billion influx of new money into the social sector? Recently, in my public speaking, I’ve been talking about Kiva.org and why Kiva is like a “gateway drug to social investing”. The fact is, most people are not sitting around wishing that they could make high […]
Words That Describe Great Philanthropy
February 5, 2010 – 9:03 am
On Wednesday, I asked readers to submit words that they thought best described great philanthropy. You will find all the details here. On Monday, we’ll be randomly selecting a reader who submitted a word and give them a $50 gift certificate to Vittana.org (microfinance for student loans in developing countries). Here’s a couple of entries […]
Making Philanthropy “Made to Stick”
February 3, 2010 – 8:49 am
The book Made to Stick should be required reading for all nonprofits and foundations. The book examines how ideas spread and why some ideas are “sticky” (ie. spread easily) and some are not. Today I have a little project for my readers (with a prize!). In Made to Stick, the authors talk about why some […]
What’s News in the Social Sector?
December 14, 2009 – 9:04 am
An event isn’t newsworthy if it is widely expected to happen. The media doesn’t run news stories about the sun rising in the east for instance. But if one day the sun rose in the west or didn’t rise at all, you can bet that would be a huge news story. Unfortunately, the social sector […]
Saving Philanthropy: The Documentary
November 23, 2009 – 9:30 am
A documentary film called Saving Philanthropy is currently under production. The subtitle is “Moving from charity to social investing before it’s too late.” From the website: “Saving Philanthropy is a documentary film exploring the issues confronting effective philanthropic giving, specifically those involving the funding of direct service organizations. The film contends that direct service organizations […]
Philanthropy Debate in a Twitter World
October 14, 2009 – 9:05 am
The recent debate about Kiva is the first major philanthropy blog debate since Twitter added a number of philanthropy focused users to their Suggested User list. What makes the debate doubly interesting is that Kiva and their CEO Matt Flannery are two of the Twitter users on the Suggested User list. So let’s look at […]
Video of The Philanthropist Debate
July 30, 2009 – 5:44 am
The video from The Philanthropist debate has been edited into chapters so you can now skip around to each speaker: William Schambra starts things off. Tom Fontana describes the making of the show. Ian Wilhelm puts the show in context. Steve Gunderson explains why the Council on Foundations is concerned about the show. The Q&A […]
Debating NBC Drama The Philanthropist
July 13, 2009 – 10:42 am
Last month the Council on Foundations CEO Steve Gunderson released a public statement condemning the new NBC drama The Philanthropist. I followed up the next day with my own review of the premier and argued that it was really quite good. Now, thanks to the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal and […]
