Monthly Archives: May 2008

Change is in our DNA

(This is a guest post from Beth Reiter, VP for Communications & Marketing, The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, who covered the Council on Foundations Conference for Tactical Philanthropy)
By Beth Reiter
Now that I’m back and immersed in the everyday, I’ve had a chance to reflect on the session “Community Foundations: Contemporary and Perpetual.” This panel examined the […]

links for 2008-05-16

PND - News - Younger Donors as Generous as Other Generations, Report Finds
New study shows that Gen Y gives just as much to charity as older generations.
(tags: philanthropy)

Stanford Social Innovation Review : The Poster Child for Failure in Philanthropy
My most recent post for the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog.
(tags: philanthropy)

The Foundations of Tax-Efficient Giving

This is my most recent On Philanthropy Column for the Financial Times. You can find an archive of past columns here.
The Foundations of Tax-Efficient GivingBy Sean Stannard-StocktonMay 10, 2008: Link to original story on FT.com
Many people think of charitable giving as an item in their annual budget, and measure it as a percentage of income. […]

links for 2008-05-14

Microsoft Executive Will Lead Gates Charity - WSJ.com
The Gates Foundation picks a business person (with a marketing background!) as their next CEO. The WSJ notes that he has experience “managing” Bill Gates, who will be working at the Foundation full time.
(tags: philanthropy)

The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Live Discussions: Marketing Nonprofit Causes
New marketing superstar Seth Godin (the […]

The Commodity Nonprofit

Yesterday I asked whether nonprofits delivered a commodity of a premium product/service. I want to reiterate that I did not use “commodity” to mean “inferior to a premium product.” I meant commodity to refer to homogeneous products that consumers general choose between based solely on price. Examples: milk, gasoline, printer paper, computer storage devices, generic […]

links for 2008-05-13

Does Being Ethical Pay? - WSJ.com
A Wall Street Journal study shows that consumers will pay a slight premium for ethically produced products and deeply penalize brands that are unethically produced.
(tags: philanthropy)

Seth’s Blog: Marketing the charity auction
Says Godin: “The goal of a non-profit seeking money needs to be to create an environment in which the community […]

Nonprofit Job

From the Tactical Philanthropy Job Board:
Senior Program ExecutiveUnited Jewish Appeal Federations of New York
UJA-Federation of New York’s Jewish Leadership Forum (JLF) offers current and future leaders of the Jewish community, between the ages of 30 and 50, both locally through federations and nationally through United Jewish Communities, a venue for sharing ideas, exchanging views, and […]

Nonprofit Job

From the Tactical Philanthropy Job Board:
Global Donor Program SpecialistTechSoup.org
If you are a project or product manager with international interest and a desire to better the world, we may have the position for you! We are seeking a talented, enthusiastic, socially minded individual to expand the offerings of our highly successful technology donation program. You’ll also […]

The Second Great Wave of Political Donors

I’m not political strategist, but I couldn’t help but notice this USA Today story titled, “Small Donors Increase Impact.” The story explains that while traditionally, political campaigns are fueled by large donors, this election cycle is seeing the growing importance of small donors.
Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are increasingly funding their presidential campaigns […]

The Philanthropic Family

My friend Sharon Schneider, a philanthropic director at Foundation Source, has launched a new blog called The Philanthropic Family. From the Christmas photo of her and her extended family on the masthead, to the tag line, “infusing everyday life with the love of humanity”, Sharon makes it clear that this is a very personal blog […]

Philanthropy: Commodity or Premium Product?

Saturday was my daughter’s fifth birthday party. At 8:30am she was running at top speed (the only speed she moves at) through her grandparents’ house, tripped and hit cheekbone first into the edge of a flight of stairs. 30 minutes later we were all in the ER where she was getting 7 stitches. They say […]

links for 2008-05-10

Social Solutions: ETOLUTION Conference
The conference keynote speakers are authors of books called “Trying Hard is Not Good Enough” and “Good Stories Aren’t Enough”. I really like that.
(tags: philanthropy)

Council on Foundations Conference Wrap-Up

Wow! Now only was the COF conference really interesting, fun and exciting, but I was deeply impressed by the performance of the blog team! Just to be clear, this is Sean Stannard-Stockton writing again. I’ve been a bit of a managing editor since last weekend, so I’m glad to get back to writing.
A few reflections […]

Vision, Leadership and Partnership

(This is a guest post from Peter Deitz, Founder of Social Actions, who is covering the Council on Foundations Conference for Tactical Philanthropy)

By Peter Deitz
On Tuesday evening, the famed cartoonist Milt Gross made an appearance at the Council on Foundations annual conference. In a session called Strategic Philanthropy: Theory and Practice, the […]

Are We Rising or Sinking?

(This is a guest post from Brian Walsh, head of global social engagement for LiquidNet, who is covering the Council on Foundations Conference for Tactical Philanthropy)
By Brian Walsh

There’s a giant statue of a mythic figure partially submerged in the sand of the marina at the new National Harbor where the Council on Foundations conference was […]