posted on: November 5, 2014

On October 23, NCRP hosted “Freedom Funders Then and Now: What Lessons Foundations Can Learn from Philanthropy during the Civil Rights Era,” a webinar based on NCRP’s report on the four foundations that helped fund leading civil rights movement organizations in the decade before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The presentation, moderated by NCRP’s Jeanné Isler (@j_lachapel), featured:

Dr. Colin Greer, president of New World Foundation (@NewWorldFound)
Gara LaMarche, president of Democracy Alliance (@garalog)
Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project (@jbrownedianis, @adv_project)

The #freedomfunders of the Civil Rights Movement were @NewWorldFound, Field Foundation, Stern Family Fund and Taconic Foundation #ncrpchat

— NCRP (@NCRP) October 23, 2014

Jeanné

Tags: Advancement Project, Civil Rights Act, Civil Rights Movement, Colin Greer, Democracy Alliance, Freedom Funders, Gara LaMarche, Jeanne Isler, Judith Browne Dianis, New World Foundation, Pulse Webinar, voting rights

Diversity and Effectiveness: What Is the Link for Foundations?

By: Lisa Ranghelli

posted on: October 30, 2014

This week Philamplify is introducing a new poll question, our third since we launched philamplify.org in May:

Do you think greater staff and board diversity helps make foundations more effective and impactful? (Yes/No/Maybe)

We were prompted to ask this question in part by the recent announcement that Guidestar and the D5 Coalition have joined together to enhance the Guidestar Exchange as a tool for online tracking of nonprofit and foundation diversity data. In announcing the new initiative, Kelly Brown at D5 and Jacob Harold at Guidestar each made comments linking diversity data to improved effectiveness and impact.

D5 further contends that, “For philanthropy to be effective and relevant in our increasingly diverse society, philanthropic organizations have to bring new

Tags: D5 Coalition, DEI, diversity, Dr. Bob Ross, equity, foundation assessment, GuideStar, Guidestar Exchange, inclusion, philamplify, The California Endowment, William Penn Foundation, Woodruff Foundation

NCRP, The Cleveland Foundation and Tides Celebrate Leaders in Philanthropy

By: National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

posted on: October 24, 2014

This past Tuesday, NCRP teamed up with The Cleveland Foundation and Tides to co-host our Philanthropy Leadership Dinner during the Council on Foundation’s 2014 Fall Conference for Community Foundations.

This was NCRP’s third such dinner during COF’s Community Foundations conference, and together we’ve traveled to New Orleans and San Diego. Nearly 40 foundation leaders joined us in Cleveland to talk shop — and enjoy each other’s company.

Among the attendees were several Philanthropy’s Promise signatories, and our co-hosts, The Cleveland Foundation’s Bob Eckardt and Tides’ Toby Thompkins, both gave speeches explaining why their foundations have signed on. NCRP’s own Aaron Dorfman, Jeanné Isler, Niki Jagpal and Christine Reeves also helped lead table discussions, asking “If your foundation had a magic wand,

Tags: Bob Eckardt, Cleveland, Community Foundations Conference, Council on Foundations, Philanthropy Leadership Dinner, The Cleveland Foundation, Tide, Toby Thompkins

Why Don’t Our Elected Officials Look Like Us?

By: Dan Petegorsky

posted on: October 17, 2014

pollingplace In August, a federal judge ruled that Yakima, Washington’s prevailing election system violates the Voting Rights Act, finding that “the non-Latino majority in Yakima routinely suffocate the voting preferences of the Latino minority.”

In early October, a U.S. District Court in Virginia ruled that the state’s congressional district maps illegally concentrated the state’s African American voters into a single district in order to dilute their influence in others.

These rulings go to the heart of remarkable and, indeed, incendiary new research by Who Leads Us?, a project of the Women Donors Network’s Reflective Democracy Campaign. The research shows in sharp terms just how poorly the demographics of America’s elected officeholders reflect who we now are as a nation:

Tags: Central Washington Progress, Freedom Funders, Reflective Democracy Campaign, representative government, U.S. Supreme Court, voter discrimination, voting rights, Voting Rights Act, Who Leads Us, Win/Win Network, Women Donors Network

Mission Investing: A Conversation with Flozell Daniels, Jr. & Foundation for Louisiana

By: Christine Reeves

posted on: October 14, 2014

Earlier this year, NCRP released a special edition of our quarterly journal dedicated to mission investing, or making investments that reflect an organization’s values. As foundations are only required to pay out 5 percent of their assets annually in grants and the administrative costs of making these grants, much of the remaining 95 percent is invested to strengthen the foundation’s economic viability. As such, mission investing can be just as important to creating change as grantmaking.

Many great groups promote investments that support both the economy and the greater good, such as Mission Investors Exchange, Confluence Philanthropy, The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF) and Divest-Invest Philanthropy, just to name a few.

Foundation leaders,

Tags: FFL, Flozell Daniels, Foundation for Louisiana, Impact investing, Jr., mission investing, PRIs, program-related investments, Q&A, Southeastern Council on Foundations Conference

Do Feedback Loops in Philanthropy Create Stronger Accountability?

By: Lisa Ranghelli

posted on: October 7, 2014

Editor’s note: This post first appeared in the Nonprofit Quarterly.

Three years ago, I accepted the challenge of implementing a program that provides “actionable feedback” for major foundations. It entailed assessing foundations, whether or not they wanted it, and then telling them and the public what the foundations were doing well and how they could improve.

When I described the idea to a close friend, she asked me, “Aren’t you worried about being able to get your next job after this one?”

Somehow, my answer was “No.” I was confident that there was a welcome mat in the sector for unsolicited, honest feedback and that many people in philanthropy would agree, perhaps secretly, that this would be good for

Tags: actionable feedback, cooperation, cross-post, feedback loops, foundation assessments, Fund for Shared Insight, GCIP, Grantmaking for Community Impact, honest feedback, Nonprofit Quarterly, philamplify, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation

Patrons Can Have Non-Patronizing Site Visits

By: Christine Reeves

posted on: October 3, 2014

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), like many organizations, encourages grantmakers to meet with their grantees and the communities they serve, as part of a greater strategy of engaging constituents, receiving feedback and witnessing firsthand the impact of philanthropic work in the “real world.” But, let’s face it: not all site visits are equal, and not all site visits are necessary.

So, let’s consider three questions grantmakers can ask themselves before pursuing a site visit.

(1) How do power dynamics affect the grantee-grantmaker partnership?

Before a site visit, let’s study the actors (grantees and grantmakers) and the relationship (partnership). “Grantee-grantmaker partnerships” is a popular phrase, but does it reveal a power imbalance? Let’s look deeper. Is

Tags: grantee-grantmaker partnership, opportunity costs, philanthropy, power dynamics, site visit, stakeholder engagement

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keeping a close eye on philanthropy … NCRP’s blog

Today’s Movement Leaders Share Lessons from the Freedom Funders

Diversity and Effectiveness: What Is the Link for Foundations?

NCRP, The Cleveland Foundation and Tides Celebrate Leaders in Philanthropy

Why Don’t Our Elected Officials Look Like Us?

Do Feedback Loops in Philanthropy Create Stronger Accountability?

Patrons Can Have Non-Patronizing Site Visits

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