The Simplicity of Social Change

Given that Thanksgiving is this week, I wanted to share a great video from the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, a Washington DC area foundation that fosters women philanthropists to improve the lives of women and girls (HT PhilanTopic blog). It’s a really cool organization, doing some interesting things to encourage more giving overall, and more giving to nonprofits that improve the lives of women and girls.

They recently launched a new campaign to support their work. I thought this video was a really great demonstration of how solutions to social problems are often incredibly simple and can unleash the potential for communities and individuals to heal themselves and each other.

So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving and all that it encompasses about giving back and building community, here is the video.  Have a great Thanksgiving!

Tags: PhilanTopic, Thanksgiving, Washington Area Women's Foundation

A New Social Innovation Project Comes to Texas

There is something underway in Texas that I’m pretty excited about.  The OneStar Foundation, the Texas state office of nonprofit capacity building and social innovation and administrator of the state’s AmeriCorps grant, has just launched a new project called the Texas Social Innovation Initiative (TSI). TSI is a partnership with Root Cause, a national organization supporting social innovation and headquartered in Boston.

The TSI creates an opportunity and a marketplace for socially innovative nonprofit organizations to present a compelling case for support to scale their programs.  OneStar will pick six nonprofit organizations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area to receive consulting, networking and other assistance to create an investor pitch for growth capital to scale their results-driven program. The award for each nonprofit totals about $25,000 in money and services.  The project is modeled on Root Causes’ Social Innovation Forum, where nonprofits are given strategy consulting, executive coaching, and introductions to social investors.  Their goal is to “build a philanthropic investment community that will invest and re-invest resources based on performance, in order to increase progress in solving pressing social problems.”

OneStar’s TSI will similarly offer this introduction to social investors when the project culminates in June with a Fast Pitch event where these six nonprofits will present their growth pitches to Dallas Social Venture Partners and other individuals with money to invest in nonprofits.

Aside from the fact that it is so exciting to see this kind of social innovation activity in Texas, I’m particularly excited about this project because Social Velocity is involved.  We helped to review applications (which were amazing by the way–I was so impressed with what these nonprofits are accomplishing) from the 60+ nonprofits who applied.  And Social Velocity will be one of the consultant teams working with the six nonprofits to craft their growth plans and pitches.  I love helping a nonprofit organization take the results they are achieving  and translate those into a compelling ask of people who have money to invest.  Bridging that gap between work that creates social change and those who have money to invest in social change is a thrilling experience.

The six social innovators that will participate in this year’s TSI will be notified by OneStar today, and announced publicly at the Governor’s Nonprofit Leadership Conference on December 9th.  The work crafting their pitches will begin in January.  If the project is a success, there is potential to expand it to other parts of the state.  That would be amazing.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Tags: Dallas Social Venture Partners, Fast Pitch, Governor's Nonprofit Leadership Conference, nonprofit, OneStar Foundation, philanthropic investment, root cause, scale, Social Innovation Forum, social investors, Social Velocity, Texas Social Innovation Initiative

Thoughts on Social Innovation

Last month I attended the Social Venture Partners International conference in Dallas. It was a great gathering of an organization that is helping to lead the movement for social innovation. In 25 chapters in the US, Canada and Japan, 2,000 social venture partners contribute time, money and expertise to the nonprofits in their communities. The goal is two-fold: 1) to create communities of lifelong, informed and inspired philanthropists, and 2) to make strategic investments that build long-term capacity for nonprofits.

Theirs is an innovative model for creating engaged philanthropists who understand the need to strengthen the capacity of the nonprofit sector.

While I was there, I met up with Stacy Caldwell, Executive Director of Dallas Social Venture Partners and the creator of their Maximizing Social Impact podcast series–interviews with some of the leaders in the social innovation movement.   She asked to interview me about my thoughts on social innovation. So here is the podcast of that interview:

Maximizing Social Impact-Nell Edgington

Tags: capacity, Dallas Social Venture Partners, Nell Edgington, Philanthropy, Social Venture Partners, Stacy Caldwell

But Change We Must

The social sector, or perhaps more appropriately, those writing about the social sector, seem particularly analytical and reflective this past week. Perhaps its the looming end to a horrible year for the general economy, and nonprofits in particular.  Whatever the reason, the nonprofit sector and the philanthropy that funds it are at an important crossroads.

First, the picture for the current state of the social sector continues to be bleak. A recent Foundation Center advisory reports that foundation giving will decline 10% this year and more next year. And a new survey by Opportunity Knocks reports that more than half of nonprofit organizations froze the salaries of, or laid off employees this year. You begin to see a bad situation getting potentially worse.

But at the same time, there is the flip side of adversity: the opportunity. The nonprofit and philanthropic worlds, and the fundamental shifts occurring in both, are becoming a topic of broader discussion and understanding. First, the Wall Street Journal, in a great display of how the changing landscape of philanthropy has finally hit the consciousness of mainstream media, devoted an entire section this week to improving philanthropy, with the editor’s note: “If there ever was a time to get smarter about philanthropy, this is it. The question is: How?”  And the lead article “What’s Wrong With Charitable Giving and How to Fix It” is noteworthy in its examination of philanthropy, even if its proposed solutions are a bit weak.

And second, the James Irvine Foundation and the Fieldstone Alliance just released a report, “Convergence: How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector,” conducted by La Piana Consulting that details an emerging restructured nonprofit sector. They argue that the nonprofits that will succeed in this changing sector are those that:

• Share leadership across generations, cultural perspectives and styles
• Use technology strategically to engage wider audiences to advance their mission
• Understand and harness new networks, collaborations and partners, both individuals and organizations
• Become skilled at tapping into a larger pools of individuals who want to volunteer in meaningful, skill-specific and diverse ways
• Understand the convergence of the nonprofit and private sectors and embrace new opportunities there
  

The point of the report is that the status quo is no longer an option.  Those nonprofits that recognize and embrace change will survive and thrive: “In this changing environment, transformation is not optional. The future will demand a collective rethinking of what it means to be an organization, how individuals define their work and how best to both compete and partner across many permeable boundaries.”

This is akin to the “resetting” of the nonprofit sector discussed before.  This is not a blip; things are changing in very fundamental ways and the WSJ and others are recognizing that.  And nonprofits must recognize, understand, and embrace those changes.

I am glad that the WSJ thinks philanthropy such an important topic that they have devoted an entire section to analyzing what could make it better.  And I applaud the Convergence report for pointing out what’s changing and what it will take to survive amid these changes.

But I’d like to see this all go even further. Now is the time for nonprofit organizations to overcome their inherent risk aversion. Experiment with new funding models; try social media and other new technologies; analyze and refine your impact; get rid of low ROI fundraising activities; shake up your board; ask hard questions; encourage dissenting opinions and open discussion; let go of the status quo and embrace the opportunity of change.

And on the philanthropy side, I would like to see more risk taking, harder questions, more discussion.  Ask the nonprofits you fund what they really need to succeed; invest in organizations, not just programs; combine strategy and passion in your giving; make gifts based on results, not marketing; leverage your giving with other philanthropists; make investments, not just donations.

Fundamental shifts are occurring in how we approach social problems, how we communicate, how we build support, how we access resources. Those solutions that are bold, courageous and open to change will ultimately survive.

Tags: Fieldstone Alliance, Foundation Center, James Irvine Foundation, nonprofit, Opportunity Knocks, Philanthropy, social sector, Wall Street Journal

Why Do People Give?

There is a great discussion going on at the Tactical Philanthropy blog centered around the new book The Art of Giving: Where the Soul Meets a Business Plan by Charles Bronfman and Jeffrey Solomon who argue that philanthropists (big and small) should take a more strategic approach to giving.  The discussion that has followed the three posts so far gives fascinating insight into the reasons that people give.  Katya Andresen at Network for Good, nicely summarizes the two broad reasons that people give: 1) for personal return on investment (recognition, feels good, status, increase in network) and 2) social return in investment (make a difference, create impact, solve a problem, etc).

For me, there are three takeaways from this discussion.  First, anyone who raises money in the nonprofit sector should read the posts and the comments.  They provide fascinating insight into the various motivations for giving to nonprofits.  A reading of the discussion gets a nonprofit fundraiser out of the mentality of raising money around their organization’s needs and into the more lucrative mindset of what is compelling to potential donors.

Second, I think that there is an increasing focus by philanthropists on the second motivation (social ROI), as opposed to a past focus on individual ROI.   Because of the past philanthropic focus on individual gain, the resulting nonprofit fundraising activities have centered on activities that provided donors an individual ROI, for example capital campaigns that promise a new building with a donor’s name emblazoned on it, or events that provide networking and exclusive activities, or “thank you” gifts.  As social ROI becomes more of an interest to philanthropists, smart nonprofits will focus on creating their logic models and demonstrating impact.  And when they do this, I would argue that they will actually be more successful at raising money (see Kay Sprinkel Grace’s Beyond Fundraising).

Finally, we will never get to a place where all individual giving is social ROI focused. As the authors of the new book point out, philanthropy is very much an individual sport that is focused on the individual’s values and what they want to accomplish (whether that be personal or societal gain, or a combination of both):

When you give, you get, and we believe you need to focus on what it is that you are getting for what you give. We argue that what you get in philanthropy is nourishment for that portion of the body that is so sacred it cannot be found in any book of anatomy: the soul, where all that is best in us resides. It is simultaneously the innermost self and the one so external it seems somehow eternal—which makes it the natural connection point for our philanthropy, for we give to improve the world in a lasting way and to leave it with our stamp.

Which then begs the question, will we ever get to a place where social problems are solved through capital raised from individual philanthropists?  Charitable contributions to the nonprofit sector make up 12% of the sector’s money.  Roughly 80% of that comes from individuals. Government money has been declining and so nonprofits have increasingly focused on dollars from individuals to make up the difference.  If individual philanthropy will always have an individual return motivation, is that ultimately a problem for a sector that is trying to provide social goods?

I don’t know, but the discussion and questions that these authors have raised will no doubt help propel philanthropy forward.

Tags: Beyond Fundraising, Charles Bronfman, Jeffrey Solomon, Katya Andresen, Kay Sprinkel Grace, Network for Good, nonprofit, Philanthropy, social return on investment, Tactical Philanthropy, The Art of Giving

Philanthropy Drives Arts Education Forward in Austin

The kick-off of Austin’s MindPop collaboration was this morning.  MindPop, which I’ve written about before, is a collaboration of a handful of leading Austin philanthropists hoping to improve access to arts education for all Austin children.  They want to understand what is holding our kids back from learning about and experiencing the arts and what needs to change in the infrastructure of the city in order to fill those gaps.

The project has 3 phases:

1. Gap Analysis to determine what is missing in the arts education ecosystem in Austin
2. Creation of 4 bold goals to solve those gaps
3. Distribution of close to $180,000 in grants to fund capacity building of the overall system and of individual nonprofit arts organizations

So today was the launch of the project with about 75 of the who’s who in Austin’s philanthropic, education, and arts worlds in attendance.  The keynote speaker was our new Austin Independent School District superintendent, Meria Carstarphen, who obviously has tremendous passion for the importance of arts education.  Her recent arrival in Austin is itself a real opportunity for change to the system.

As inspiration for Austin’s foray into building this collaboration, Gigi Antoni, CEO of Dallas’ Big Thought, was there to explain how her organization led Dallas from a community that dismissed most of their art and music teachers in the 1970s, to a comprehensive, fully funded in- and out-of-school arts learning environment.  Over the course of the last 12 years, Big Thought has brought together philanthropists, educators, arts organizations, schools, parents, and community leaders to create an ecosystem for arts education that ensures that all Dallas children have a rich art-centered learning environment both in school (90 minutes of arts instruction for every student every week) and in their communities (music camps, rehearsals, rec center activities, etc).  For Gigi, the big transformation was that Dallas went from a bunch of individual solutions and organizations that were providing “random acts of change” to a “completely changed environment that works as a SYSTEM” to create arts education for every child in Dallas.

I have to admit that I am a bit skeptical about whether what worked in Dallas will work in Austin.  We have a tendency in this city that I love to talk and plan and envision a future, but sometimes find it difficult to move towards action, perhaps part of that stems from a lack of infrastructure and capacity.  So what I am really excited about with MindPop is not the gap analysis and the creation of 4 ideas for solutions.  I have no doubt that the gap analysis will be thorough and the ideas for solutions creative and exciting.  I am most interested that a group of five very influential philanthropists (family foundations, a corporate foundation, and the Austin Community Foundation) is pooling their resources and efforts toward a common goal, and more importantly, toward building infrastructure and an ecosystem for the arts education sector.  Often it is the infrastructure that is missing in true solutions.  Ideas are great, and so many fabulous ones exist.  But the real hurdle is taking a great idea and building the infrastructure, support, ecosystem behind it to create results.

The other exciting thing about this project is that it could become a model for funder collaboration and ecosystem creation that could be replicated in other nonprofit issue areas.  What if all of the education, or healthcare, or youth development, or environmental funders in town got together and decided that they wanted to create an ecosystem of money, expertise, organizations, solutions that could work together towards system-level, not individual program level, change?  That would be pretty interesting.

I’m thrilled that these philanthropists are working so closely together, putting money and resources behind this collaboration, and being very public and transparent about the process.  I would love to see more philanthropists putting their resources behind big picture, infrastructure-building solutions.

I plan to keep my eye on this project, and I’ll keep you posted.

Tags: AISD, Austin, Austin Community Foundation, Big Thought, Capacity Building, Dallas, Gigi Antoni, Meria Carstarphen, MindPop, philanthropists