” The only problem with poor people is that they are poor.”
-Bill Strickland

I was excited, but not surprised when I saw one of my favorite people in the world as a featured speaker on TED Talks. Bill Strickland is the kind of visionary leader that I think all of us strive to be but the amazing thing about him is that his vision is so basic that it makes it seem downright crazy. Bill believes that by treating people with respect and kindness anyone can achieve great things. This means that by filling your community center with fresh flowers and gourmet food you will be able to teach an illiterate single mother how to be a pharmacy technician. It sounds crazy but he has done this and so much more for many, many years. I had the great privilege of visiting the Manchester Craftsman Guild (his nonprofit) during a Council on Foundations conference in Pittsburgh. I believe that visiting his center has changed the way that I approach program officer work and has made me encourage my grantees to reach so much higher than I ever would have in the past. Please take a half an hour to view his TED Talk, I promise it will be the most useful half an hour that you spend all week.

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Today is a big day for me at work. I have a huge project that is nearing completion and we have a grant round that just started, so I have a lot of research to do on the grant applicants. So what am I doing on this busy Monday morning? I am sitting at home watching the Bratz movie. Is it because pre-teen movies based on sexist dolls is my idea of a good time? No, it is because my daughter is home with a painful case of strep throat and I am not willing to make feminist arguments while she is crying because drinking water hurts her throat. When my daughter was younger, I hated these sick days because I felt like everything I was working on at the office was collapsing while I was sitting at home doing nothing. As I have grown older and wiser, I have figured out that parenting my kids, especially while they are sick is not doing nothing.
Sick time isn’t something that can be figured out in Outlook, when it happens, my priority has to be getting myself or the kids healthy so that when I get back to work my head can be completely in the game. I’ve learned to always make sure that I have work at home that I can do, that my computer is configured to check my office email, and that I have a great team of people that keep the ball rolling when I’m out. I’d love to post more but I am missing a movie about friendship and the dangers of school cliques.

Here’s to your health and the joys of parenthood!

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The Grants Managers Network (GMN) provides a forum to exchange information about grants management and its relevance to efficient and effective grant making. GMN has more than 1,100 members nationwide representing 750+ private, community and corporate foundations. Twelve regional groups also support members–principally through periodic convenings–to discuss legal, technological, financial and other professional topics of mutual interest.

GMN enjoyed rapid membership growth in its first sixteen years of existence. The organization’s activities have also grown considerably, both in scope and complexity, as it has expanded the support it provides to members and become a national voice for the sector. As a result, GMN is now seeking a full-time Executive Director, working in close partnership with the Board of Directors, to represent the institution and manage the organization’s activities.

Position Summary

The Executive Director will be responsible for executing the major objectives of the institution, as articulated by the Board. He or she will provide leadership and oversight to all of GMN’s activities, represent GMN to its constituencies, and serve as the organization’s primary spokesperson for interactions with the philanthropic and nonprofit communities, regulatory bodies, funders, and general public. He or she will be responsible for advocating on behalf of and ensuring the ongoing delivery of quality services to GMN’s members in a cost-effective, responsible manner; establishing and implementing organizational policies and procedures; raising sufficient funds to support the organization’s activities; identifying staffing needs and managing personnel and contractual relationships; and, analyzing and evaluating the effectiveness of GMN’s operations.

Location and Compensation

The office location will be determined by the selection of the Executive Director. Once a final candidate is chosen, the Board and Executive Director will explore options for leasing space from a local foundation or nonprofit. A comprehensive salary and benefits package will be offered commensurate with salary requirements and experience. More here.

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Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice seeks an exceptional candidate to fill the position of vice president for community investment. This position’s primary roles are to create and implement the key strategies for achieving the Foundation’s vision of a vital nonprofit community and to serve as a convener and a catalyst on emerging regional issues, thereby driving the growth of endowed philanthropy. More here.

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Minnesota Council on Foundations is one of the oldest regional membership associations of grantmakers in the country. Its mission is to strengthen and expand philanthropy. Members include family and private independent foundations, community and other public foundations, and corporate foundations and giving programs. With a $1.2 million annual budget, the Council is committed to providing service to its members and providing leadership in the field.

The Council is seeking a manager for its Professional Development activities. Reporting to the Vice President of Member Services, the individual selected for the position will work with Council staff and members to assess the professional development needs of its members, identify emerging issues and trends and plan, develop, implement and evaluate high quality learning opportunities. These tasks bring the Manager, Professional Development and e-Learning into on-going direct contact with representatives of the Council’s member organizations. This is a full-time position (37.5 hours per week); the position qualifies for employment benefits. More here.

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Step right up. Now showing for the first time, a rare glimpse into the future of foundations. The brightest minds in the blogosphere make their predictions on what foundations will look like 10, 25, or even 50 years from now. Use their uncanny predictions to boost your career, improve your grantmaking, or to win bar bets. No questions are left unanswered. Will the Foundation of the Future only fund programs that benefit puppies and children? Will it be run by people that have attained the elusive PhD in Philanthropy? Will the Foundation of the Future actually be the donor advised fund of the future, since foundations are outlawed by Congress in 2016? There is only one way to find out, read the predictions below:

Change Fan wrote Foundations of the Future: Payout, Pooling, Prizes and Proposals.

Arlene at the Grant Plant’s foundation of the future may have the best view from it’s space dock.

Phil Cubeta at Gift Hub sees a more engaged future for foundations.

Christopher Scott at Nonprofit Leadership, Innovation, and Change sees a more agile foundation in the future.

Jason at a Small Change predicts more online foundations in our future along with more multi-year giving.

Sean at Tactical Philanthropy expects that the “social stock exchange” will be where foundations look for grantees in the future.

Richard Marker at Wise Philanthropy sees increased collaboration and a decrease in grantmaking dollars.

Jake at Seliger and Associates thinks that foundations will remain stingy and self-interested.

I wrote about survival of the fittest for foundations of the future.

Do you think our crystal balls are foggy? What do you see for foundations of the future?

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January Giving Carnival Submission

The year is 2035, foundations have faced increased attention because of the extraordinary success of the Gates and Google Foundations in solving pressing social issues. The Federal government intervened and the following changes to the sector were implemented:

990 is used to apply for foundation funding. A combination of a backward looking 990 form and a strategic planning document for the next fiscal year is used by nonprofits to apply for foundation funding. This online document can be accessed by anyone and individuals and foundations choose to support projects and general operations of organizations that meet their interests. This system keeps a running total on how close a project is to full funding, it also gives donors access to clear outcomes for each organization and project. These systems are funded by the federal government because a 2015 study of the nonprofit sector by the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota found that investments in the infrastructure needs of the nonprofit sector had the best return on investment of any government subsidy. This was a surprise to government officials who thought that sports stadiums had the best return on investment.

Nonprofits are not granted 501(c)(3) status until they have proved the effectiveness of their service model. Nonprofits will begin their existence as a test project of local and national nonprofit incubators. These incubators will be funded jointly by the government and the foundation sectors to support emerging nonprofit organizations. Services of these incubators will include fiscal sponsorship, training, financial services, employee benefits, and administrative support. The role of incubators will be to help these fl edging organizations develop strong programming that will provide a benefit to the community. Ineffective programs will be scrapped or redesigned within two years. (See how this survival of the fittest model could apply to the world of M & M’s). Programs that are effective may become a registered 501(c)(3) or more likely will become a program of an existing nonprofit. Matches with existing nonprofits will be made through the collaboration coordinator of the incubator. Nonprofits will be encouraged to take on successful program models because funding for nonprofits will be closely tied to universally accepted effectiveness ratings.

Minimum Foundation payout is not measured in dollars but by return on investment for the community. Once the Federal government understood how much effective nonprofits could save the local and federal government in future spending the 5% minimum payout was reconsidered. A new formula was developed that took into account the return on investment of foundation grants. Foundations that were supporting ineffective programming had an increased minimum payout (15-30%), so that they would spend themselves out of existence. Foundations that made effective grants were then subject to a 7% minimum payout. Foundations then had an increased self-interest in hiring the best training staff possible. Enrollment in philanthropy and public policy master’s degree programs increased exponentially, as did hiring from these programs. Creating a younger and more diverse foundation sector.

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I thought I would give you a sneak peek of the submissions for this month’s Giving Carnival, you still have till tomorrow to send me your submissions. On Monday you will see the full list of submissions here.

Change Fan wrote Foundations of the Future: Payout, Pooling, Prizes and Proposals

http://www.changefan.com/CFContent/Blog/cfb0003_foundation_of_the_future_011508.asp

Arlene at the Grant Plant’s foundation of the future may have the best view from it’s space dock http://thegrantplant.blogspot.com/2008/01/foundation-of-future.html

From Phil Cubeta at Gift Hub sees a more engaged future for foundations http://www.gifthub.org/2008/01/the-foundation.html

Send me your postings or make your own prediction below, the future of foundations depends on you.

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There is a great new website that is being called the YouTube for ideas. I always get excited when I see new forums for people sharing ideas and finding solutions to problems. Spend some time on Big Think’s philanthropy section and add your own ideas to the mix. Check out the New York Times article below to see how it all got started.

Ex-Harvard President Meets a Former Student, and Intellectual Sparks Fly
Published: January 7, 2008

In June 2006, Peter Hopkins, a civic-minded and idealistic 2004 Harvard graduate, trekked up to his alma mater from New York for a meeting with Lawrence H. Summers, the economist and former Treasury secretary. Mr. Hopkins, who finagled the appointment through his friendship with Mr. Summers’s assistant, had a business idea: a Web site that could do for intellectuals what YouTube, the popular video-sharing site, did for bulldogs on skateboards.

The pitch — “a YouTube for ideas” — appealed to Mr. Summers. “Larry, to his credit, is open to new ideas,” Mr. Hopkins recalled recently. “He grilled me for two hours.” In the age of user-generated content, Mr. Summers did have one worry: “Let’s say someone puts up a porn video next to my macroeconomic speech?”

Big Think (www.bigthink.com) mixes interviews with public intellectuals from a variety of fields, from politics, to law to business, and allows users to engage in debates on issues like global warming and the two-party system. It plans to add new features as it goes along, including a Facebook-like application for social networking, and Mr. Hopkins said he would like the site to become a popular place for college students looking for original sources.

“I’ve had the general view that there is a hunger for people my age looking for more intellectual content,” said Mr. Summers, who resigned as Harvard president in 2006 after making controversial comments about the lack of women in science and engineering. “I saw it as president of Harvard when I saw C.E.O.’s come up to my wife and want to discuss Hawthorne.” (His wife, Elisa New, is a professor of English at Harvard). See the rest of the article here.

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Stretch assignments aren’t just for the office. Penelope Trunk from the Brazen Careerist has an interesting post about how your overall satisfaction with life is tied to how willing you to challenge yourself at home. If your routine is the same every night (fast food, 2 hours in front of the tv, and 3 hours surfing the internet aimlessly), how can you expect to be a challenge-taking go-getter at work? Mix up your routine just a little bit and you will be surprised at the results.

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