Category Archives: Giving Blogs

Does Blogging Substitute Real Action?

November 21, 2007 – 11:19 am

This entry to the One Post Challenge comes from Perla Ni. Perla was the founder of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Her current project is Great Nonprofits, a “Zagat’s”-like guide to nonprofits.

By Perla Ni

Does blogging substitute real action?

I get asked about this a lot because I blog.   Why are all these people blogging?   Why aren’t they out there in the real world doing something?

Especially in the nonprofit world – where there’s so much need and most ED’s I know are busy enough running their programs, fundraising, doing the jobs of 4 people – blogging about nonprofits or philanthropy seems quite a luxury in navel-gazing.  There’s so much work that needs to be done in the real world, why waste time blogging?

I have two minds about this.  On one hand, yes, I’ve seen blogging become an end to itself for some bloggers.  One blogger I know started blogging in order to vent his frustrations about the lack of community spirit in his town.  Though he’s still very much looking for solutions, he’s equally absorbed with monitoring how many people have visited his blog and how long they’ve stayed on the site.  Because the “success” of blogs are measured by these metrics, it’s easy to see how some can get so absorbed in the process of blogging that it saps their focus from tackling the real world problem.\

On the other hand, blogging is essentially the mass, interactive, publishing and the dissemination ideas.  It’s an efficient means for spreading ideas.  As Seth Godin says, “ideas that spread, wins.  Period.”

When we think of some of the most important accomplishments of nonprofits – the civil rights movement, environmental movement, women’s rights movement – these are all massive systemic changes that required the winning of millions of hearts and minds.  The ideas and values at the heart of our nonprofit work – whether it be providing after school programs, cleaning up local streams, providing battered women shelter – need to be spread and supported even more widely if we want systemic change.

That’s where blogging can matter.  Blogging is not the only means – but one easy and efficient channel for you to spread your ideas far and wide.    Even those of you who are on the front lines – working with incarcerated juveniles, or running a museum, or providing health counseling – you are all also in the business of winning support for your patients, clients and cause.   You are all in the business of gaining converts to your ideals and goals.  Now if they can only add another 2 hours to the day!

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, One Post Challenge, Philanthropy, Social Media, nptech | Comments (4)

A Shout-Out to Youth!

November 18, 2007 – 5:23 pm

This entry to the One Post Challenge comes from Jamie Kong. Jamie is the Program Coordinator for YouthChoose, a DonorsChoose.org Youth Philanthropy Program.  DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit website that connects individual donors with teachers requesting materials and experiences their students need to thrive in the classroom.  When donors entrust large donations to the YouthChoose program, youth in the program have the opportunity to reflect on their own educational experiences and decide together how these funds can have the greatest impact on public school classrooms through the DonorsChoose.org website.  In this way, YouthChoose offers young people, who are often the beneficiaries of philanthropy, the chance to become philanthropists themselves.

Jamie Kong

A shout-out for youth.  They are the next generation of philanthropists.  It’s young people who are on MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Xanga, and are the segment of the population that is the most comfortable with blogging.  And it’s young people who will direct the future of philanthropy.  So, wouldn’t it be great if we could connect youth with the conversation that is happening here?

Reading the “$500 for Your Nonprofit” post got me thinking.  The beauty of this post is that it opened the conversation to everyone and gave everyone a chance to participate—even without a new idea to introduce.  It invited people who may not have their own conversation starter to join the discussion.

So, I would like to start a post for youth philanthropy.  If are a young person, share the issues you care about or your experiences with philanthropy. If you work with youth, share any ideas to increase youth engagement in philanthropy.  And if you don’t belong to either of these groups, share how your experiences as a young person informed your decisions about philanthropy today.  The sharing of experiences can be as catalytic as the sharing of ideas.

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, New Philanthropy, One Post Challenge, Philanthropic Technology, Philanthropy, Youth, nptech | Comments (4)

One Post Challenge Outcomes

November 15, 2007 – 5:15 pm

When this thing comes to a conclusion, we’ll get to look back at what we learned, what we can do better next time and what impact we’ve had.

Impact Item #1: One Post Challenge participant Rich Polt (find his entry here) caught the blogging bug and has signed up as a regular guest contributor to PhilanTopic, one of my favorite philanthropy blogs. You can catch Rich’s first post here:

Rich begins his post: “I am incredibly conflicted about Second Life.”

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, One Post Challenge, Philanthropy | Comments (1)

$500 For Your Nonprofit!

November 12, 2007 – 8:34 am

This entry to the One Post Challenge comes from the anonymous fundraiser who runs the blog Don’t Tell The Donor. If you’ve been forwarded this post, I vouch for the fact that the $500 is real and will be given to the winner. You can read about the details of this contest here. I would like to note that the winner is the post with the largest number of people posting a comment, not the most comments. So no need to post multiple comments from the same person.

By “a fundraiser”

I’m the anonymous fundraiser who runs the blog DontTellTheDonor.org and I am thrilled to be published on Tactical Philanthropy as part of Sean’s One-Post Challenge. I have also noticed the same tendency Sean cites that if we can encourage readers to leave just one comment - it can be a springboard for a rapid and engaging discussion.

My blog tries to inject a daily dose of humor into fundraising news stories… sometimes I get my hands on a juicy piece of gossip that makes its way from development office to development office… but my real love is for the profession of fundraising and the opportunity my day job gives me to connect people to the causes they believe in. I love providing opportunities for donors to give.

Therefore, I am going to use Sean’s “One Post Challenge” to demonstrate the power of fundraisers who understand the online world. Blogging is not about talking AT PEOPLE, it’s about making readers part of the story and giving them a reason to be engaged. I am going to attempt to win this first annual one post challenge by turning this contest on it’s very head.

I need your help… and I promise to try and make it worth your time.

The blogger who gets the most comments to their post will win a $500 “Good Card”, the new “gift card” from Network for Good that let’s the receiver make a grant to the nonprofit of their choice.

If I win, I will give the $500 to the charity named by the most people in the comments to this post. For example, if you are reading this post and you want me to give the $500 to your local Habitat for Humanity or your neighbor’s animal rescue - simply post a comment with the name of that charity. I hope to encourage people who love charities to visit this website and leave a comment.

Maybe I’m being conservative, but I think I would need 50 comments on this post in order to win the contest… and there will probably be a dozen different charities with varying level of votes… so, technically a plurality of 10 comments for one non-profit could win your favorite group a $500 donation. It’s that easy.
Forward this post to your friends and co-workers and encourage them to post a comment on my form and you could be a hero for your favorite charity

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, Fundraising, One Post Challenge, Philanthropy, nptech | Comments (700)

Blogging Anonymously

November 5, 2007 – 1:00 pm

This entry to the One Post Challenge comes from the anonymous author(s) of the Gates Keepers blog:

Gates Keepers amplifies civil society voices on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Anyone can join us in exercising our rights by blogging and commenting anonymously at http://gateskeepers.civiblog.org

By Gates Keepers

If we want to develop a critical analysis of the activities of Big Philanthropy we need to exercise our rights to freedom of opinion and expression without interference. To exercise these rights without fear we must blog anonymously.

Digital technology has allowed those of us who disagree with mainstream views and manufactured consent on Big Philanthropy to safely amplify our voices. Where formerly we feared retribution from governments, foundations, and the private sector, we can now speak out about the hegemony of the philanthropy-industrial complex in setting the agenda for global development and public health.

In the case of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we are afraid of what we like to call ‘Bill Chill’. If we criticise the Foundation in our own names our funding will be cut or we will lose our jobs. Anonymity is necessary for us to survive in our professional activities and our daily work. It allows us to exercise our right to expression without fear.

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, Foundations, One Post Challenge, Philanthropy, Transparency | Comments (13)

For-Profit Philanthropy Blogging

October 30, 2007 – 8:47 am

How big is the audience for philanthropy blogs? B5media thinks the audience is real and valuable to advertisers.

With more than 290 blogs, 15 vertical channels and over 10 million unique visitors a month, b5media offers advertisers a large, loyal and growing audience for companies looking to promote their brands and products.

Those 290 blogs include blogs like Hot Mama Daily, Teen Style Lounge, Copyblogger, Pimp Your Work, and Britney Groupie. B5media sells ads on these blogs and the bloggers are paid to write the content.

The newest b5media blog is The 501(c) Files. Introducing the blog in his first post, author Tom Durso wrote:

I worked in higher education for a decade, and now, as a freelancer, I do contract work for universities and other nonprofits, and I’ve seen firsthand the sweat and effort that go into making those institutions run well. Just because an organization doesn’t produce a quarterly income statement doesn’t mean it can ignore the need for such basics as strategic-minded senior leadership, sound fiscal policies, and effective management.

What makes nonprofits unique is their focus on mission, not revenue. But many of the same strategies and tactics used by the corporate world to make Wall Street happy can and should be used by schools, charities, foundations, hospitals, and the like to create value for their unique stakeholders.

With an M.B.A. and a background in nonprofits, I like to explore the intersection of mission and business. And I enjoy putting the lie to the perception that the only people working hard are the ones struggling to push a share price up by 25 cents.

So welcome to the 501(c) Files, b5media’s new blog on the role of nonprofits in today’s business world.

Intrigued by the idea of a for-profit philanthropy blog I wrote Tom who quickly responded to my questions:

Why did you start 501c Files?

The 501(c) Files — or, more specifically, a blog about the business end of nonprofits — was not my idea, but b5media’s. They advertised for a blogger, and I liked the idea because I spent 10 years doing communications for higher education. So I answered the ad, provided some clips, gave them a sample post or two, and here I am.

Why does b5 think this is a profitable vertical?

As I noted, I’m not a b5 employee, so you’d have to ask them that. My sense is b5 has noticed that nonprofits are delivering an increasing array of services and enjoying greater and greater visibility. Some of them have become quite large and comprehensive. And the issues affecting nonprofits, regardless of their size and scope, are often similar to those impacting for-profit organizations.

In other words: There’s an audience there for a well written and useful nonprofit blog. And where there’s an audience, there will be advertisers who want to reach them.

What’s your background?

My b5 bio is at http://www.b5media.com/tom-durso/; you can also find more at my website, www.tomdurso.com.

How do you get paid?

I consider that a private matter between me and b5media. Thanks for understanding.

Who are you targeting as advertisers?

Beats me — that’s b5’s purview, not mine.

I imagine that some readers might think the concept of for-profit philanthropy blogging misses the point. I don’t. Todd Cohen runs ads on his Inside Philanthropy blog. Lucy Bernholz, Jeff Brooks, Susan Herr and I all have indirect monetary incentives for blogging (speaking on my behalf, I’ve brought in new clients at Ensemble Capital as a direct result of this blog). Is there something more pure about a blog without ads? I don’t think so. If Tom can add valuable commentary to the sector and he and b5media can both make money in the process, I say bravo. As Susan Raymond might say, we are at the End of Definitions and the line between for-profit and nonprofit activity is blurring.

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, Media, Philanthropy, nptech | Comments (4)

One Post Challenge Update

October 29, 2007 – 2:30 pm

I got an email from someone interested in the One Post Challenge today:

I’ve been managing a listserv that addresses topics in philanthropy for quite some time now and many of my recipients have been encouraging me to start my own blog. My listserv is a weekly e-mail where I normally address three to four topics in philanthropy and request feedback. The entire process has been very rewarding and I expect running a blog has the same potential… Thanks for your leadership on pushing philanthropy discussion in the blogosphere.

I’m convinced that there is a massive amount of wisdom about philanthropy that exists in silos. The expanding blog conversation offers an opportunity for the walls around these silos to be broken and the discussions from foundation conferences to mix with roundtables about Hacking Philanthropy and then being remixed into something real and valuable that truly transforms philanthropy. I hope you’ll submit an entry to the One Post Challenge.

After a couple conversations I’ve had, I’ll be tweaking the framework of the Challenge. If you have any input let me know. I look forward to seeing everyone’s entries.

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, New Philanthropy, Philanthropy | Comments (1)

One Post Challenge

October 26, 2007 – 10:35 am

Get ready for the first annual Tactical Philanthropy “One Post Challenge”!

I’ve spent a lot of time and energy encouraging the philanthropy blog conversation and prodding foundations to launch their own blogs. Now I’m going to put my money where my mouth is.

During the month of November, anyone who wants to post a blog entry to Tactical Philanthropy can do it. Just email me your post, with a short bio. Every coherent, relevant post will be published.

But wait, there’s more!

The point here is not just to express your views, but to engage in conversation. Therefore, the author of the post that generates the largest number of commentators will win the challenge. I’ll personally write a check for $250 to the nonprofit of the winner’s choice [update: Network for Good has matched my grant and we will jointly award a $500 "Good Card", the new "gift card" from Network for Good that let's the receiver make a grant to the nonprofit of their choice] and buy the winner their choice of one of these newly released books:

So who should enter? If you’ve always wanted to launch a blog, but don’t have the time. If you write a non-philanthropy blog and want to write about giving. If you’re a philanthropic leader who thinks you can’t blog, but can email me your thoughts. If you’re young and new to the field and have something to tell the world. If you work for a nonprofit and want to tell foundations a thing or two. If you work for a foundation and want to tell nonprofits a thing or two. Or if you already write a philanthropy blog, but want to win the competition!

Entries will start being published on November 1. The last day for entries is November 30. The winner will be judged by the number of individuals who comment on the post (not the number of comments; the number of unique people who post a comment including the original author and myself). The comments will be counted as of December 3 at midnight pacific time. Anonymous posts will be included as long as you provide context for who you are (for instance, “I am a program officer at a large foundation”). You can also submit your post via the comment function on this post if you really need to protect your identity. I will retain the right to decline or edit posts for any reason (although I expect to do neither).

Here’s your chance to help jump start the conversation. Post your own thoughts. Talk your boss into writing just one post. And no complaining about not understanding technology or being too old for the online conversation. If you need some inspiration, read about this 95-year-old blogger.

I can’t wait to read your posts!

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, Philanthropy, nptech | Comments (16)

Small Foundations

October 18, 2007 – 9:49 am

PhilanTopic is a great new philanthropy blog. Authored by Mitch Nauffts, the publisher of Philanthropy News Digest, PhilanTopic has been posting regularly and insightfully about a variety of issues and even posted live from the Clinton Global Initiative.

Recently Mitch discussed my theory of a Second Great Wave of Philanthropy. He agreed with some of it, but questioned my statement that, “The philanthropists of the 21st century will be smaller in size, but much larger in numbers than the philanthropists of the last century.”

Mitch wrote:

[I] have yet to see much evidence to support [this argument]. Indeed, just as the rich are getting richer, big organizations, of all kinds, are getting bigger. I think this has a lot to do with network effects, the compounding "returns" that accrue to reputation in an attention-based economy, and other externalities.

I responded via a comment on PhilanTopic that I repost here:

Regarding evidence that "The philanthropists of the 21st century will be smaller in size, but much larger in numbers than the philanthropists of the last century." I think that the two areas of evidence come from the fact that foundations with assets under $1 mil are the fastest growing asset segment and the explosive growth of the Fidelity and Schwab Gift Funds and Foundation Source (catering to smaller foundations). We’re also seeing mainstream publications like the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and New York Times focusing more and more on philanthropy so they must believe that this subject is of interest to their mainstream readership (ie. smaller donors). Also , "charitable planning" is becoming a hot area for financial planners who cater to the less than ultra-wealthy, so we’re seeing the demand from smaller donors there as well.

But all of that being said, I think that the big influence is still with the big philanthropists. "The Second Great Wave" is still in its early stages and we’ll have to see if my prediction comes to fruition or not.

Today I ran across an article titled Foundation Trend: Less is More in the San Francisco Examiner:

Though large and small have their place in the nonprofit sector, smaller foundations are effecting change greater than their size and numbers suggest. It is the smaller, often family foundations that many believe are the wave of philanthropy’s future.

Next, I next I found a great collection of articles about the importance of small foundations on the Association of Small Foundations’ website.

The 1980’s and 90’s showed a consistent trend of wealth being concentrated in the hands of the ultra wealthy. Nevertheless, that did not stop the major macro trend impacting the financial markets from being the emergence of the individual investor. The big story of the next two decades is going to be the emergence of the “individual philanthropist” and the development of the infrastructure to serve their needs.

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Foundations, New Philanthropy, Philanthropy | Comments (0)

Stanford Social Innovation Review Blog

October 16, 2007 – 10:15 am

I joined the blogging team at Stanford Social Innovation Review yesterday. They’ve put together a group including Britt Bravo, Albert Ruesga, Lucy Bernholz, Peter Manzo, Perla Ni, Jeff Brooks and Paul Shoemaker. I’m honored to be a part of such an all-star team.

I saw SSIR managing editor Eric Nee at a recent event and we discussed the idea of whether philanthropy blogs should have some sort of common platform (as the Huffington Post has done for a segment of political bloggers). I have mixed feelings about this. In a way, Eric has already built this at SSIR. Would you as a reader like to have a single website where you could find a cast of philanthropy bloggers who posted regularly and interacted?

Here’s my recent SSIR post. You can find it on their site here.

Paul Brest Needs a Blog

Recently I have had the pleasure of talking with two major foundations about why I believe blogging is important to philanthropy and why foundations in particular need to begin blogging. So why should foundations blog? It seems to me that the imperative is not for them to embrace technology so much as it is for foundations to join and begin to drive the online philanthropy conversation.

In the most recent Hewlett Foundation annual report, Paul Brest wrote a fascinating essay titled, “Creating an Online Information Marketplace for Giving”. In the essay, he talks about the lack of impact data available to donors and contrasts the state of affairs to the vast amount of information available to investors in the for-profit world. The need for an information marketplace, where data on nonprofit impact and social investment opportunities flows freely, is critical to the creation of “efficient markets” in philanthropy. But it is not enough.

Marketplaces are not just a collection of transactions. They are a swarm of interpersonal interaction between people. Real people with opinions and beliefs, who haggle with each other and trade “market information” as much or more than they trade products and services. There once was a time when financial markets were physical locations. Where people knew each other by sight and gathered to engage in trade. Today, financial markets are virtual, but no less human. Philanthropy is making this same transition as we head full tilt towards a fast moving global stream of social investments benefiting high-impact social enterprises with both nonprofit and for-profit status. This transition does not just require data; it requires conversation.

Philanthropy needs a robust, cross-disciplinary conversation for a philanthropic marketplace to thrive. That conversation must include funders. What makes the concept of Web 2.0 special is the two-way communication aspect. Information does not just flow from a centralized location to the masses, it also flows back to the center and bypasses the hierarchical structure altogether. As we seek to build the “online information marketplace” that Brest suggests, we must also build an “online conversation”. Blogs are one vehicle for facilitating that conversation and currently the best. But it is the two-way flow of information that blogs encourage that is important, not blogs themselves. For instance, blogs that are one-way mechanisms to pump information out, but not let any in, are not part of the conversation. The only way to learn is to listen and the only way to improve is to learn.

As this philanthropic marketplace emerges, foundation communication efforts will need to move away from disseminating information out from the foundation to managing the flow of information into and out of the foundation. I think it is no coincidence that foundation communication employees were early readers of my blog and regularly leave comments and send me emails.

Conversations are key to the next leg of growth in philanthropy and blogs are the best existing platform for this conversation. My blog, Tactical Philanthropy, has already played host to the ideas of Jed Emerson, Charles Collier, Tracy Gary, Peter Karoff, Clara Miller, Daniel Ben-Horin, Paul Shoemaker, Bill Schambra, Jim Canales, Nancy Roob, and Phil Buchanan among many others. Blogs are not a cutting-edge technology anymore. But they are where the conversation is emerging. So join the conversation. Launch a blog or simply begin reading and interacting with the ones already in place.

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, Philanthropic Technology, Philanthropy, Transparency, nptech | Comments (2)

Tactical Philanthropy Redesign

October 15, 2007 – 9:05 am

I’m in the process of redesigning Tactical Philanthropy. Some of the changes will be cosmetic, some will make navigation easier, but I am also thinking about new features to add.

What would you like to see? Some of the ideas under consideration right now include:

  • Tag streams of interesting news articles, philanthropy research, opinion pieces and websites.
  • An educational database of philanthropic tools.
  • A Tactical Philanthropy Reddit that would allow readers to submit links of interest and have those links rated by other readers (such as the one in place at the blog Joel on Software).
  • A stream of interesting posts from other philanthropy blogs.
  • A “Comment of the Moment” highlighting an interesting reader comment.
  • A Question & Answer widget that would allow readers to submit questions about philanthropic tactics. The goal would be to answer specific questions and create a searchable FAQ database.

What do you think of these ideas? Are there features you see on other blogs that you’d like to see here? Any unique ideas? Leave a comment or send me an email.

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Philanthropic Technology, Philanthropy | Comments (0)

Chronicle of Philanthropy Blog

October 5, 2007 – 8:23 pm

The Chronicle of Philanthropy launched their blog summary service Give & Take in February. It was a major milestone in the “coming of age” journey of philanthropy blogs.

I asked Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, if they would ever launch their own blog(s) during her Tactical Philanthropy Podcast interview and she answered:

We have discussed that a great deal, and one of the things the Chronicle feels strongly about is that we are reporters covering this field, we’re not experts on the field, and we love to give other people’s views but we don’t want to ourselves be giving opinions about the non-profit world and for the most part blogs tend to take a position in some way or another. So I think that we won’t, but we may ask bloggers to post regularly for us or something like that. I could see that possibility in the future, much like in our opinion page where we ask people to state their views all the time but we don’t ourselves write editorials.

Now the Chronicle has launched what might be called a blog. The new Government and Politics Watch on the Chronicle home page presents government and politics related philanthropy news in a blog format. The authors are the same authors behind Give & Take. Comments are enabled and the authors’ emails are made available.

What makes a blog a blog? Sometimes when I talk with people who don’t read blogs, I get the impression that they think a blog is, by definition, a web page where the author screams and yells and makes outrageous claims and generally carries on in a way that would be inappropriate in public. Certainly some blogs are like that. When I spoke to the Hewlett Foundation about philanthropy blogs, I tried to make the point that blogging is just a technology. It can be used as a cost effective, simple eNewletter tool, the way that Google.org is using it or it can leverage the fundamental two-way architecture of blog software to facilitate a conversation.

I was impressed that Stacy Palmer even agreed to appear on my Podcast. She did have reservations, but when I told her that I wouldn’t ask for her opinions about how philanthropy should be performed, she agreed. If you listen to the interview or read the transcript you can see that she is an interesting person to have a conversation with, even though she is careful about the opinions she expresses. I hope that’s true about me; I never express opinions about philanthropic causes yet we have a lively conversation going on this blog.

So is Government and Politics Watch a blog? The answer lies in the September 28 post where Peter Panepento wrote about new IRS workshops. In the comments section a reader commented and Peter wrote back. It’s just a glimmer, but we know that the Chronicle has not made it policy to ban the blog authors from responding to comments and having a conversation. Peter’s short comment is a whole lot more than we’ve ever gotten from the Google.org blog. So check out their new blog and let’s drown them in comments. Peter and Suzanne and the other authors are smart and they know philanthropy. They are a great addition to the conversation.

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, Media, Philanthropy | Comments (0)

Hewlett Foundation Blogging Discussion

October 3, 2007 – 8:25 am

Yesterday I sat on a panel at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation with Lucy Bernholz, Perla Ni (founder of Stanford Social Innovation Review and GreatNonprofits), Tim Ogden, and Peter Panepento (one of authors of the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Give & Take). The topic of conversation was an overview of philanthropy blogging. Tim, who moderated the discussion, asked each of us “Why do you blog?” In going through the discussion and answering questions from the audience, it became clear to me why foundations should blog. I’ve encouraged foundation employees to blog or comment on this blog, but I’ve never really given a solid argument for they should.

The problem is the question is wrong. It is not “why should foundations blog,” it is “why should foundations enter into a discussion with a cross-disciplinary group of people who share their interest?” Blogging is just a technology. Conversations are as old as humankind. What blogging technology does is make it really easy for Paul Brest, who runs the Hewlett Foundation, to have a conversation with intelligent people who share his interests and goals (or for that matter, disagree with his interests and goals). One of Tim’s other questions was “Is blogging just an echo chamber where people who already talk to each other talk even more?” The answer is no. Foundations talk to foundations, nonprofits talk to nonprofits, financial experts talk to financial experts. That’s what conferences; industry participants talking to each other. That’s great but remember the quote I keep repeating:

“I have always felt that the action most worth watching is not at the center of things but where edges meet. I like shorelines, weather fronts, international borders. There are interesting frictions and incongruities in those places.”

Anne Fadiman
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

In the most recent Hewlett annual report, Paul Brest wrote a fascinating essay titled, “Creating an Online Information Marketplace for Giving”. In the essay, he talks about the lack of impact data available to donors and compares the state of affairs to the vast amount of information available to investors in the for-profit world. This theme has been a recurring point of discussion on this blog and others. Brest may not want to discuss his ideas with other people. But if he does, a blog would provide an extremely low cost vehicle for that conversation to unfold.

In the stock market, there is a concept of “efficient markets”. The idea is that all available information about a company is reflected in the price of its stock because investors who have the information will act on it. This thesis is believe to be true to varying degrees in different situations, but it is clear to everyone that markets are less efficient in situations where information about a company is difficult to come by. I think that philanthropy represents a vastly inefficient market. Money does not flow to the best places because information is so limited. If foundations begin to engage in a conversation with stakeholders of all types, information would flow more freely. Personally, I believe that there is too much money flowing to low-impact nonprofits and too little going to high-impact nonprofits. While large foundations may have varying degrees of skill in allocating capital to high-impact nonprofits, the fact is they have a vast body of information about giving. While Brest’s essay focuses on making information about nonprofits available, an efficient online marketplace for philanthropists requires a robust conversation between participants. Marketplaces are not just transactions occurring, they are people interacting with each other.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from the conversations we have on this blog. And readers tell me they learn a lot too. I think that we could all learn from foundations if they would willingly enter the conversation and I would suggest that they might learn a bit as well.

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, Effective Giving, Foundations, New Philanthropy, Philanthropy, Transparency | Comments (4)

The Giving Carnival

October 2, 2007 – 8:20 am

The next Giving Carnival will be hosted by Seeking Grant Money Today. The deadline for submission is October 15. Arlene Spencer describes this edition’s topic:

The topic for this Giving Carnival is… Are relationships "everything" in philanthropy, today? Here are some questions to get you thinking: If philanthropic relationships are not everything, what is critical to philanthropy’s modern success? Who do relationships in philanthropy form between today, compared to the past? Where is the innovation, in developing relationships in philanthropy? How do modern relationships in philanthropy begin; and how are they maintained? Who or what do they matter for? What are philanthropic relationships’ effects on the causes they are supposed to serve? Is their oversight of relationships in philanthropy, and if so, what are the checks and balances on them? Are there times that relations should be broken, and if so, in what situations?

You don’t need a blog to be involved! If you don’t have a blog, just post your response to the October 2007 Giving Carnival topic as a "Comment", below, on this blog post; or email me your response at aspencer at thegrantplant dot com, and I’ll post it on the Giving Carnival response post, for you. Otherwise, please blog about whether relationships are "everything" in philanthropy, today, and email me the link to your post. I’ll post your link, along with everyone else’s!

So head on over and give Arlene you submission.

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Philanthropy, The Giving Carnival | Comments (0)

Foundation Center Blog

September 24, 2007 – 1:19 pm

The Foundation Center has been publishing Philanthropy News Digest for some time. Now they’ve launched a blog called PhilanTopic. Recent posts have discussed the Giving Carnival, Stephanie Strom’s controversial article about the tax breaks for charitable gifts, and the impact of 9/11 on philanthropy.

Check it out.

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Media, Philanthropy, Resources | Comments (0)