Nicholas Kristof gets an A in Philanthropy

This post was originally published on the the Great Nonprofits blog on July 23, 2012.

Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee

Nicholas Kristof gets an A for his picks of great charities! Despite the Three Cups of Tea controversy, he has chosen effective nonprofits according to reviews by volunteers, donors, and clients served. His final grade? A 91% success rate.

Kristof is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times. His writing focuses on the disenfranchised and abused, like victims of human trafficking, and what we can do to help them. He has traveled to 150 countries, often risking his life to report from dangerous places like Darfur.

We wanted to evaluate Kristof’s picks of nonprofits that readers should support. We took a look at some of Nick’s picks and compared them with reviewer’s ratings on GreatNonprofits.org. Kristof’s pick was judged as good if reviewers gave it an average rating of at least four stars out of five on our site — a requirement every nonprofit met except for the infamous Central Asia Institute. Kristof ended up with a 91% success rate. Congratulations to Mr. Kristof for all he has done to spread awareness and help people who need it most. We feel confident that most nonprofits Mr. Kristof recommends are outstanding organizations. Below are some choice reviews of Kristof’s picks from GreatNonprofits.org:

Acumen Fund

Nick says: “It invests money in for-profit businesses — like WaterHealth International, whose business model is to provide clean drinking water where none is available.”

GreatNonprofits users say: “I am an African that beleives in teaching people to fish not giving them fish. The investments Acumen make in entrepreneurs in developing countries encourages both a return on investment in cash terms and a huge return on investment in human terms” Read More

Afghan Institute of Learning

Nick says: “It is led by Sakena Yacoobi, a force of nature who was educated in the United States, and it now serves 350,000 Afghan women and children annually… Yacoobi runs education programs, training centers and clinics, emphasizing local buy-in and self-reliance.”

GreatNonprofits users say: “I was very impressed by their grassroots, community-based approach to providing education, training and health services to Afghans, particularly to women  and children. AIL actually listened to the Afghans they were working with and provided services that they requested and, in turn, asked for input from the people.” Read More

Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee  

Nick Says: “A Bangladeshi antipoverty organization… it emphasizes organizing village women and promoting education, health and microfinance.”

GreatNonprofits users say: “Seeing a woman proudly display the hair dryer for her salon business in Uganda that a BRAC loan enabled her to buy, watching families gather on poultry vaccination day in Liberia… seeing a women proudly showing her rice plot which demonstrated the in-line planting method for rice all gave me a clearer picture of the good work BRAC does. The scale and breadth of their programs is truly stunning. They start small, think big and scale up. They fix what doesn’t work and stop what can’t work.” Read More

Central Asia Institute

Nick says: “[Greg Mortenson’s] aid group, the Central Asia Institute, has 74 schools in operation. His focus is educating girls.”

GreatNonprofits users say: “As a co-founder of a non-profit that works with war-injured children, I’m appalled at the “salary” and perks that Greg Mortenson was taking from his “charity”. I think what the CAI does is wonderful, but without removing Mortenson from the Board, I can’t have much faith that the money is going where it should.” Read More

The Citizens Foundation USA

Nick says: “The Citizens Foundation was started by Pakistani businessmen concerned about their country, and it builds terrific schools for needy children there.”

GreatNonprofits users say: “Throughout my association with this wonderful organization, I have admired it for its acute attention to financial transparency, fiercely passionate and no-frills governance, and an unwavering commitment to the cause of education for the underprivileged.” Read More

The Fistula Foundation Average 5/5 stars based on 53 reviews

Nick says: “Dedicated to correcting a childbirth injury that is one of the worst things that can happen to a person: an obstetric fistula. This is an internal injury that leaves a girl or young woman incontinent, leaking wastes, scorned and ostracized.”

GreatNonprofits users say: “I am so pleased to contribute to the organization’s mission and always look forward to working with the extremely dedicated and enthusiastic staff at the Fistula Foundation. Though they are only a small group, they manage to create an incredible amount of support for some of the most marginalized women in the world. Their commitment to women’s dignity in the face of fistula is inspiring…” Read More

GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services)

Nick says: “A New York-based organization supporting American girls who have been trafficked, prostituted or otherwise sexually abused. It provides shelter and education for those rescued from pimps and provides some of the first nurturing many have received.”

GreatNonprofits users say: “Physical love is a precious thing, and it is being stolen from girls all around the world, and close to home, right now. GEMS is working to end that theft and return sexual ownership to all females. If that isn’t a cause worth fighting for, and celebrating, I don’t know what is! The GEMS organization deserves all the recognition and support that is available.” Read More

Nurse-Family Partnership

Nick says: “This organization sends nurses to visit poor, vulnerable women who are pregnant for the first time. The nurse warns against smoking and alcohol and drug abuse, and later encourages breast-feeding and good nutrition, while coaxing mothers to cuddle their children and read to them… At age 6, studies have found, these children are only one-third as likely to have behavioral or intellectual problems as others who weren’t enrolled. At age 15, the children are less than half as likely to have been arrested.”

GreatNonprofits users say: “I was so impressed by the impact that the Nurse-Family Partnership model has in improving young children’s health, early learning, and general well-being, in addition to parents’ economic development and sense of self-worth, that I am pursuing nursing school specifically in order to join this movement.” Read More

Partners in Health (PIH)

Nick says: “In Bobete, in rural Lesotho, we visited a clinic run by Partners in Health, the aid group founded by Dr. Paul Farmer of Harvard. The clinic tests virtually all pregnant women in the area for H.I.V., and those with the virus are given treatment so that they will not pass it along to their babies.”

GreatNonprofits users say:  “Importantly, PIH utilizes and supports local resources, recognizing the tremendous local talent at hand. PIH’s outlook is long term and strategic, and the organization strives to recognize the dignity of each patient.” Read More

Reading is FUNdamental (Pittsburgh)

Nick says: “An American program that promotes literacy in high-poverty communities in America… It provides new, free books to four million children across the United States, and encourages the kids to read.”

GreatNonprofits users say: “One of the greatest strengths of RIF Pittsburgh is the organization’s commitment to individualized service. The populations being served are taken into consideration, and teachers working with the students daily are asked for input on the types of books ordered and distributed.” Read More

Room to Read

Nick says: “I came here to Vietnam to see John Wood hand out his 10 millionth book at a library that his team founded in this village in the Mekong Delta — as hundreds of local children cheered and embraced the books he brought as if they were the rarest of treasures. Wood’s charity, Room to Read, has opened 12,000 of these libraries around the world, along with 1,500 schools.”

GreatNonprofits users say: “I went to Rajasthan in India and met the bright and hard working students being benefited by Room to Read. The light of knowledge and understanding is shining on them, giving them the tools to shape a better future. I was also very impressed by the commitment and professionalism displayed by Room to Read’s staff in India.” Read More

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Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2012.

How I’m Using Social Media to Support Black Men and Boys (and How You Can Too)

This is a guest post by Tracey Webb of BlackGivesBack.com.  It was originally published on the Leadership & Sustainability Institute for Black Male Achievement website on May 3, 2012.

This year, I celebrate the 5^th anniversary of my blog, BlackGivesBack.com(BGB), an online destination that highlights philanthropy in the African American community. I created the site in 2007 to showcase the rich, and often untold, stories of giving among African Americans. My goal with BGB is to inform, educate and spur people to action – and BGB has done just that. Readers have shared with me how they were inspired by the people and organizations featured to get involved in their own community and give back.

I receive pitches daily for articles to feature, and in November 2011, I was sent an email about the report, “Portrayal and Perception: Two Audits of News Media Reporting on African American Men and Boys.”  After reading the title, I knew what the report’s findings would be – that black men and boys are overrepresented in crime-related stories with little coverage on topics such as education, leadership, and business. The findings were even more prevalent among young black males aged 15-30. So I thought to myself, what can I do?  Among the report’s recommendations is to use the blogosphere as a vehicle to highlight positive stories. I decided to use BlackGivesBack as that vehicle – something that doesn’t require any money to do, just my time. BGB’s Black Men & Boys Series kicked off last month with a feature on Life Pieces to Masterpieces, a Washington, DC based organization that uses the arts to enrich the lives of young black males. Subsequent posts have featured Visible Men, a national success network for black boys and men, and Sherrie Deans, Executive Director of The Admiral Center, who shared how her organization is galvanizing celebrities, athletes and the business community in support of men of color. A profile on David McGhee, program director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Flint, was picked up by a national media outlet, MLive.com, which provided increased exposure for the series.

Future articles will spotlight young men who have participated in actor and comedian Steve Harvey’s annual Father’s Day Mentoring Weekend through a partnership with the Steve and Marjorie Harvey Foundation; profile black male business executives and CEOs; and showcase local stories of giving and inspiration by black males across the country. Not only has the report inspired me to support the cause online, but offline as well. I’m currently volunteering with Mentoring 2 Manhood (M2M), an organization that serves black boys in Prince George’s County, Maryland by joining their marketing and communication committee. I’m excited for the Leadership and Sustainability Institute (LSI) and their efforts to support organizations such as M2M. I look forward to using LSI to help me to identify organizations and individuals to feature.

Here’s how you can get involved to support this movement of uplifting our black males. If you’re on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, or another social media site, share positive stories of African American males and spread awareness of organizations doing great work in your community to support the next generation of black men. Also, let your local media know of events that they can cover and black males to highlight for feature stories. It’s up to us to make mainstream media aware of all the positive coverage they’re missing out on!  And I want to hear from you. Let me know how you like the series, and send me your story ideas! Tracey[at]blackgivesback[dot]com.

Tracey Webb is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of BlackGivesBack.com, and the Founder of The Black Benefactors, a giving circle based in Washington, DC that provides grants and support to organizations serving the African American community in the metropolitan Washington region. She has 20 years of career experience that includes positions in the nonprofit and grant making sectors. She has written for Huffington Post’s Black Voices and Black Enterprise.com, and has appeared in national media outlets including the NY Times, Ebony magazine, and MSNBC’s The Grio.com.

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Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2012.

22 High-Impact, Low Cost Social Media Opportunities for Nonprofits

This is a guest post by Brad Aronson of Brad Aronson’s Blog.  It was originally published on May 1, 2012.

Nonprofits have critically important missions that certainly don’t match their small operating budgets. That’s why they need to constantly innovate and make the most of the least. With that in mind, here are 22 high-impact, low-cost social media opportunities for nonprofits (adapted from a talk I gave at NPower PA‘s conference, Social Media for Nonprofits, and including some great insights from other speakers).

1)    Appreciate corporate sponsors. This is probably the easiest tip and the biggest missed opportunity. An example is Comcast’s blog a few days after Comcast Cares Day, a community service day for Comcast employees. The blog mentioned what employees did and where they volunteered. Not a single nonprofit that benefited from Comcast volunteers had posted a “thank you.”

Corporate sponsors love to be recognized for their contributions to the community, and they deserve this recognition. They make a huge difference in our programs and to the people we serve. Go to your sponsors’ blogs and Facebook pages and post thank you messages. Have your team, volunteers and the people you serve (if appropriate) do the same. Senior level people at corporations read their own blogs. And, let’s face it, there are many options sponsors have when choosing partner nonprofits. Let’s give them one more reason to choose you. (Also thank corporate partners on your own blog and Facebook page – most nonprofits do this part pretty well.)

2)    Wikipedia. Check out Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia comprised entirely of consumer generated and edited articles. As the 8^th highest trafficked site on the Internet, Wikipedia offers nonprofits a lot of visibility. If you don’t have a Wikipedia page for your nonprofit consider creating one. Here’s an example of a page for local Philadelphia nonprofit Project H.O.M.E.

If you’re part of a national organization coordinate with your national office, which may already have put this in place. A caveat is that since this is a consumer-edited encyclopedia, you’ll need to keep an eye on the page to ensure no one adds incorrect information.

3)    Reserve your name in all social media platforms. Just because you’re not yet using YouTube, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t own your YouTube Channel. Same for Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.

4)    Empower your supporters to fundraise online. You don’t even need your own social media presence for this. You can go to a third party like First Giving or Blackbaud and enable your supporters to fundraise online. Your supporters setup their own personal giving page (like this one), and then your supporters use their own social media networks to ask friends to donate. This is one of the few tactics that has actually generated significant money for nonprofits and where you can measure the positive ROI.

For this to work, it’s important to give your supporters specific suggestions. Tell them to include a personal story on their web page and provide them with an example of what that looks like. This increased results by about 50%. Also, remind supporters to share through email and social media.

Many nonprofits use this for events. You can also use it for non-event related peer-to-peer campaigns. For Spark the Wave, we do peer to peer asks once a year, and they’re not tied to an event. It works just as well and there are no event related expenses. (When friends contribute to each other’s nonprofits, they will probably donate whether or not there’s an event.)

5)    Focus on email. The drive to build an audience on Facebook, Twitter and social networks has often become the most important and visible “digital” ask by nonprofits. Don’t forget about email.

I’ve seen again and again that email gets a much higher response than Facebook or Twitter. Sending email to 100 constituents will get more people to read and respond to my content than posting my content in a Facebook or Twitter update that reaches the same 100 people. Facebook’s algorithm may decide my post isn’t important and push it down in the news feed. Or, if I post on a day when someone isn’t checking Facebook or Twitter my update could be buried underneath other updates by the time that person checks.

People also grow tired of social networks. I’ve heard from more and more people that they’ve moved from Twitter to Facebook or vice versa. Most people continue to be engaged with their personal email addresses. And, you can still encourage social sharing when you email by including buttons and links for your readers to share the content on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Posting to social media is definitely effective and you should build your social media relationships. However, don’t let it take precedence over email collection, which I believe should be your priority.

One caveat is to make sure this works for your audience – I’m Board Chair of Spark the Wave, a nonprofit that serves high school kids. We’ve found that our high schoolers prefer text messaging and Facebook and rarely use email, so in that case email collection is much less valuable.

6)    Use social media internally. Social media is a great way to tap into internal expertise. This works especially well if you’re a nonprofit that’s part of a national network. Social media can be a way to share best practices, get advice, see who can help with various projects, and so on. You can use a closed group on LinkedIn a Facebook group or an internal social media platform like Yammer (which has a free version). The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has so many employees that they use a twitter account to keep everyone updated on what’s going on.

7)    Social media can provide volunteer support. I’ve noticed that users of the Big Brothers Big Sisters LinkedIn Group are often volunteers seeking advice related to their mentoring relationships. There’s a nice support system that has sprung up to address this. Volunteers provide each other with advice and our staff provides suggestions as well. Perhaps social media is a good way for you to support your volunteers, if they’d benefit from support.

8)    Avoid a ghost town. If there isn’t any engagement with your social media efforts, it generally keeps new visitors from engaging. How do you get engagement if that’s the case? You recruit a handful of very loyal supporters – staff and volunteers – and get them to commit to participating in your social media efforts. They have to be dedicated because it could require six months of them liking posts, making comments and participating in conversations before you see a response from others.

9)    Generate engagement on Facebook. A lot of nonprofits were concerned that their Facebook pages have little interaction. Here are some suggestions to spur engagement:

Highlight volunteers. Then they’ll share the content with their friends.

Ask questions. This gets high interaction rates.

A great suggestion from my friend, and fellow speaker George Ward: post things like, “If you love national mentoring month, click like”. These types of posts give people a reason to click “like” and have led to a lot of activity. (By the way, George is my go to guy when I have social media questions, and he’s been a huge help to Big Brothers Big Sisters. He freelances, so feel free to reach out to him, if you need a consultant.)

10) Listen. You may not be creating content for social networks, but you should at least be listening to what people are saying about you. That allows you to find advocates and respond to positive or negative comments. I’ve seen nonprofits find important supporters that they never knew about. I like to use Google Alerts. Every time Google indexes a new page with my search terms, I get an update. Social Mention is good for tracking mentions across social media. I also use HootSuite to manage my Twitter account and to track when organizations or people I’m following are mentioned. You can use this or many other Twitter tools.

11)  Pay attention. If you have time, look at the profiles of the folks connecting to you. You may not yet realize the excellent resources that you have right in front of you. Executives at a charter school once told me, “Oh my goodness, we just checked out one of our online fans, and he is a partner in a giant investment bank. He can be an amazing resource for us.”

12) Text to give. Anna Cramer from Alex’s Lemonade Stand had this great tip. Alex’s Lemonade Stand has found that offering a text to give option at events works well. Event participants often don’t have money with them or don’t want to take out their credit card, stand in line, etc. In those cases, they’ve generated a good return by promoting text to give. Of course, text to give campaigns tend to generate lower donation amounts, so don’t cannibalize something else you may be using, if it’s working at events (also, this advice is meant for activity based events, like a lemonade stand).

13) Extend your PR reach. If you have an event or news story, you can often get journalists and organizations to pay more attention when you contact them through Twitter or social media. At this point, it’s often less cluttered and given more attention than more traditional channels. Kay Keenan, President Growth Consulting Inc., added that you should also expand your PR list to include digital only publications.

14)  Tell stories. Nonprofits have a huge advantage in that we have great stories to tell. Emotional stories. Think about using video. Don’t expect the types of results of Invisible Children or Caine’s Arcade (a truly inspiring video that will make you tear up), but let these videos remind you that a great story makes a difference.

15) Linked In. Your development team and CEO can use LinkedIn to see which board members have connections at foundations you’re pitching for a grant. Board members get constant emails asking who we know at different organizations. Check and connect on LinkedIn first.

Also create a LinkedIn group for your nonprofit. This way, you’ll have a LinkedIn base that isn’t connected to an employee who might leave one day. Volunteers and supporters are proud of their nonprofits. They’ll join the group giving you another way to connect. Members of nonprofit LinkedIn groups generally don’t expect you to create content, so this doesn’t have to generate work for your team.

16) Create a social media advisory board. Include a lawyer and a social media practitioner. Even if you don’t use social media yet, you want to have your advisors in place in case you have to respond to something that happens in social media. With your board you should develop a policy and plan for managing social media. If there is a crisis, what is the chain of command?

If something goes wrong in social media, it will move quickly, and you won’t have time to figure out what to do. Also, you’ll have things pop up – for example, someone posts bad comments about your organization. When do you respond? What do you do? What if someone posts things you don’t like on your Facebook wall?

17) Post your policies. Another suggestion from George Ward. Post your policies on a tab on your Facebook page and include what types of posts are inappropriate. Then you can point to it when you have to remove posts.

18)  Know your digital influencers. Do you have celebrities or supporters with a big online following? If so, ask them to promote you. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) said that they get about 600 new followers every time supporter Ryan Seacrest mentions them in a tweet. This is an easy ask of your supporters.

19) Publicly thanking your supporters and mentioning your fundraising events reminds people that you’re a nonprofit that needs donations. These don’t even have to be requests for money – just updates. Try to keep your requests for money to 20% or fewer of your social media posts. Another idea provided by CHOP.

20) Don’t panic. You don’t have to do everything at once. Start with one opportunity or one social network and when it’s running well, decide if you should rollout to another. This isn’t a race.

21) Choose a social network and strategies and tactics that align with your goals. Too many nonprofits get caught up in the excitement of social media and don’t think about what will fit with their strategic goals. Where are your constituents online and what do they use? How will participating help you achieve your goals?

22) Have fun. Social media is an opportunity to connect with a community of people who appreciate what your nonprofit does. Enjoy it.

I’m an entrepreneur and angel investor. I don’t work in the nonprofit space, but I spend a lot of time volunteering with nonprofits. I think nonprofit leaders have to be as entrepreneurial as their for profit counterparts and under much more difficult constraints. That’s why I’m posting this advice for nonprofit executives in my blog for entrepreneurial leaders. Nonprofit leaders are entrepreneurial leaders and too frequently don’t get the credit for that.

My slides from the conference may be difficult to understand without the audio, which is why I wrote this article that contains the main points. If you are interested, here’s a link that will download the slides. I’m planning to post audio with the slides in the next few weeks. If you want to know when that happens, please check back or sign up for my email newsletter. Signup is at the top right of every page.

I think you’ll probably also like these blog posts:  7 Easy Ways You Can Be a Better Person (the second most popular post in this blog’s history), David Boone–Hardworking Teen Goes from Homeless to Harvard and Mission Statement for Life .

What would you add? Please share your ideas for nonprofits to successfully leverage social media below and let’s see if we can create a great resource to benefit nonprofits.

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Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2011.

Attracting the nonprofit sector’s next great leaders

This is a guest post by Rusty Stahl, Executive Director of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP).  It was originally published on April 28, 2012 on the EPIP website.

The EPIP national conference is over, and we’re making our transition into the Council on Foundations conference now. But the buzz and excitement about EPIP’s new Generating Change initiative is just beginning to get started!

During our conference, there were many discussions about the Nonprofit Talent and Leadership Development Pipeline — a key component of the Generating Change initiative and its online tool kit for funders.

Each pipeline component hosted a packed corresponding workshop at the EPIP conference, and opened the door to rich discussions. For example, the session on recruitment asked key questions about what foundations can and should be doing to help nonprofits attract new talent and future leaders into the sector.

Tim Ifill, founder and executive director of Philly Fellows, a summer internship program that places college students in area nonprofits, shared his not-so-distant memories of misperceptions and confusion about the availability and promise of nonprofit careers. Art McDermott, corporate and foundation development officer at The Point Foundation, explained how the internships his organization offers to LGBT students are often eye-opening experiences for young people who might otherwise never understand the power they could have to make social change as leaders in the nonprofit sector.

Recruiting talent into the sector is a worthwhile investment for foundations, said Libby Walsh, program associate at the Philadelphia Foundation, which has funded the work of Philly Fellows. She explained how funding recruitment falls directly in line with the Foundation’s focus on capacity building and organizational effectiveness.

Another example of high-impact investment in recruiting comes from the Cleveland Foundation, highlighted in a case study in the Generating Change online tool kit for funders. The Foundation recruits, screens and places 17 college students (from an applicant pool of approximately 300) in 12-week summer internships at 17 local nonprofit organizations. In addition to providing extra manpower and effectiveness for the nonprofits, the program has also opened the eyes of nearly 200 students over the years to opportunities in nonprofits in the Cleveland area — helping to combat “brain drain” from the area.

These are just a few of the ways that foundations are investing in recruitment of future leaders for the nonprofit sector. Learn more about recruitment and other aspects of nonprofit talent and leadership development on our Generating Change page.

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Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2012.

Time to start Generating Change!

This is a guest post by Rusty Stahl, Executive Director of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP).  It was originally published on April 26, 2012 on the EPIP website.

Today marks an important moment in EPIP’s history — the launch of our Generating Change initiative. There are lots of bells, whistles and fanfare at our national conference as we celebrate this launch, but what does it really mean for funders?

Simply put, it’s a chance to make your grantmaking more effective than ever.

Here’s why:

Foundations are only as effective as the nonprofits they fund. Those nonprofits, in turn, are only as effective as their leaders. Therefore, it stands to reason that when foundations make smart, strategic investments in nonprofit talent and leadership development, they are also investing in their own grantmaking effectiveness.

How do you make those smart, strategic investments? That’s where Generating Change comes in.

Generating Change is designed to:

• Create deep discussion about the challenges and opportunities for nonprofit talent and leadership development;
• Illuminate new ways funders can address this critical need at all levels; and
• Increase investment in talent and leadership development at the individual, organization, movement and sector levels.

For years, we’ve heard the predictions that nonprofit leadership was on the brink of a crisis, as departing baby boomers left a rash of hard-to-fill leadership vacancies. Our research found that although the crisis isn’t quite as threatening as originally predicted, developing nonprofit talent and leadership is a real challenge. But luckily, the answer to sustaining nonprofit leadership lies within the sector itself.

Generating Change aims to supply what funders need to learn more and get involved in investing in nonprofit talent and leadership development. Check out the case studies, videos and resources in our Generating Change online tool kit for funders. Learn more about nonprofit talent and leadership development in our initiative framing paper.

Help us celebrate by learning why and how you can get involved in Generating Change!

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Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2012.

Infusing “Social” into Social Justice Organizations

This is a guest post by Daniel Jae-Won Lee, Executive Director of the Levi Strauss Foundation.  It was originally published on January 31, 2012 on “Beth’s Blog”.

Time Magazine provocatively named “The Protester” as its 2011 “Person of the Year” for its riveting influence on last year’s social and political events. As courageous citizens connected with each other to express dissent and organize public actions, social media tools spurred activism and social change in unprecedented ways.

Chalk up my vote for 2011’s “Best Debut Artist” and “Best Supporting Actor.”

But for legal and advocacy organizations that defend civil liberties in the United States, forays into the social marketplace come with a unique set of challenges – and, no doubt, risks:

•  In the decentralized (indeed, some might say cacophonous) field of social media, engaging in two-way conversations means surrendering “message control” and the traditional calculus of “message discipline.”
•  In this sound bite culture, social justice organizations must carve out nuanced positions on complex social issues, from racial and gender equity to immigration reform. What this often means is that their messages might not garner the media attention or viral traction they deserve.
• While emotive storytelling is crux to engaging the hearts and minds of social media consumers, advocates are ethically bound to preserve the privacy of vulnerable clients.
• Finally, substantiating impact and success to risk-averse board members may be vexing.

The Levi Strauss Foundation launched the “Pioneers in Justice” initiative to tackle the “social media for social change” zeitgeist head-on. Through this initiative, we are supporting a group of dynamic, next-generation leaders in the social justice field in the San Francisco Bay Area as they retool their organizations for greater impact. The Bay Area, after all, is renowned as a cradle of innovation – both for technology and social movements.

“Pioneers in Justice” operates as a forum to explore social media tools that may power their local advocacy work and explore “networked” ways of collaboration within the social justice sector – and equally important, a space to address any concerns that may surface along the way. The Pioneers’ approach is flexible yet focused:

• We encourage these organizations to take sensible, measured steps to integrate social media into their organizational and social change trajectories. As Beth Kanter invokes: Crawl, Walk, Run and Fly.
• We also aim to help them measure incremental progress against their goals of engaging younger and more diverse constituencies, driving successful campaigns, and building a moral and political consensus around their change agendas.

MiACLU is a one-of-a-kind project born from this framework.

MiACLU.org is an online, Spanish-language platform created by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, an organization well-known for its spirited defense of civil liberties (advocating free speech, marriage equality and immigrants’ rights, among other issues). As rapid demographic shifts powerfully reshape the cultural and political landscape of California, they also give rise to anxieties that may render immigrants vulnerable. Latinos, who comprise the bulk of California’s immigrant population, tend to be younger and less affluent than the state population as a whole.

Against this backdrop, the ACLU-NC is seeking a crucial opportunity to grow its impact. This year, MiACLU seeks to engage 10,000 monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speaking Californians. MiACLU is a new entry point – amplified by ethnic media and personalized through community outreach—to engage this population on the key issues that affect them.

MiACLU isn’t just a cookie-cutter to an English website—it’s an independent portal for original content in Spanish, with its unique set of tools. Facebook, Twitter and text messaging are also in the pipeline. It’s the first web-based space to promote the understanding and protection of constitutional rights among Spanish speakers by the ACLU affiliates in California. Check out this manual with vital nuggets of information about knowing your rights in the wake of natural disasters, or this article explaining how immigrants who are victims of crime may apply for a U.S. visa.

In time, it may become a platform for immigrant communities to help ACLU-NC drive momentous legal and policy victories. For example, ACLU-NC is working to keep local police and sheriffs out of immigration enforcement; Latinos account for 40% of all Californians and many experience racial profiling that is exacerbated when local law enforcement gets pulled into immigration enforcement.

So, that’s the spirit of “Pioneers in Justice”: taking leaps of faith (big and small) with social media to drive engagement and action among new and unexpected audiences. Can justice roll down like waters, propelled by viral?

Heroes with A Heart Grant Recognizes Unsung Nonprofit Heroes

If you’re like most people, you get most of your inspiration from people who are quietly changing the world each and every day. They’re not on the front page of the newspaper, and they’re not mingling with the Gates and Buffets of the world. They’re everyday people like you and me who have shown extraordinary commitment to making this world better than when they found it.

The CTK Foundation “Heroes with a Heart” Grant Award asks YOU to nominate a “Hero with a Heart,” and give them a chance to win $5,000 – a simple thanks for the hard work that they do.

What are the details of the “Heroes with a Heart” Grant?

Here’s an overview of awards the CTK Foundation will offer and details on how you can nominate your Hero:

• $15,000 for Three Heroes One Hero with a Heart from each of the three categories of Health and Human Social Service, Animal Rights and Environmental Protection and Arts and Literacy will be awarded $5,000 USD and a professionally produced video about their affiliated nonprofit for use in public awareness or education.
• $1,500 for One Hero The CTK Foundation will also be offering a $1,500 (USD) President’s Choice Award (the Susan Lee Winter Grant Award) for an individual working to provide creative and innovative approaches to HIV/AIDS education or prevention.
• Blogger’s Choice Award Lastly, there will be a Blogger’s Choice Award of $1,000 (USD). The CTK Foundation will choose a blogger (hopefully me) who will hand-pick one winner from any category.

Applications for all Heroes with a Heart grant awards open on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 and close Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 at midnight.

Finalists will appear on the CTK Facebook page for public voting during April and winners will be announced on May 1, 2012. This award is open to registered nonprofits or charities of all types and sizes, worldwide.

Go to http://www.communitytech.net/foundation to nominate your Hero with a Heart today!

For regular updates on the Heroes with a Heart Grant, check out the CTK Facebook Page.

Good luck, Heroes!

5 Cool Things in Philanthropy this Month

From time to time, Philanthropy411 is asked to highlight or blog about events going on in the world of philanthropy.  We are going to look back, and ahead, and share some of these great stories with you!

What Will Your Good Deed Be This September 11th?
This September 11th marks the 10 year anniversary of the tragic events of 9/11. In honor of those who lost their lives, survived the attacks, helped in rescue efforts or were personally affected – MyGoodDeed (www.911day.org), a leading 9/11 nonprofit organization, and HandsOn Network, the volunteer activation division of Points of Light Institute – have just launched an inspiring national PSA campaign themed “I Will.”

The goal is ONE MILLION GOOD DEED TRIBUTES before September 11, 2011.  To post a personal “I will” tribute, go to the 9/11 Day Observance Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/911day.  Please click through and post your good deed!

PUMA’s Project Pink
PUMA is leaving the decision of Project Pink’s ultimate beneficiary up to young soccer fans, gathering nominations for deserving charitable organizations at www.puma.com/projectpink between July 17 and September 22; voting opens on September 26 and runs through October 7. The group with the most votes will receive 100% of profits from the sale of PUMA Project Pink merchandise, as well as additional funds raised via initiatives throughout the season, at the culmination of the program in October.

Toyota 100 Cars for Good
Toyota recently announced the final 25 winners in the Toyota 100 Cars for Good program, which awarded 100 vehicles over the course of 100 days to 100 deserving nonprofit organizations based on votes from the public.  The final set of winners spanned several categories including human services, child advocacy, health & safety and animal welfare.  Click here to see the entire list!

ColdAvenger Donates Cold Weather Gear to Clothes4Souls Nonprofit
Talus Outdoor Tech is donating more than 1,000 lung-and-airway-protection masks to Clothes4Souls. Clothes4Souls coordinates worldwide donations of new and gently used clothing items to those who need them most.  Read more about providing hope through the gift of clothing here.

IBM’s Smarter Planet Grants
“Non profit and education organizations are the lifeblood of local communities, and we want to help them by offering support to build a smarter planet,” said Stanley S. Litow, vice president of corporate citizenship and corporate affairs at IBM. “In conjunction with our employees making their skills available through massive volunteer efforts, IBM’s Centennial grants will help non profits and educational organizations meet their key goals.”  Read more about building a smarter planet here.

Philanthropy411 does not endorse theses companies, and is not paid to share these stories.

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Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2011.

Social Pioneers? We Think So, Too.

This is a guest post by Daniel Lee, Executive Director of the Levi Strauss Foundation.  This post was originally published on the blog “LS&Co. Unzipped” on July 13, 2011.  It is re-posted here with Mr. Lee’s permission.

When you’re in this line of work, pushing for equality for all, you know a pioneer when you see one.

The Levi Strauss Foundation started its Pioneers in Justice initiative last year, setting out to support five of the most dynamic, next-generation leaders in the social justice field — a field advocating for equal rights and opportunities for women, immigrants and other marginalized groups in the United States.

Now, the largest newspaper in Northern California, the San Francisco Chronicle, has featured three of our Pioneers as leaders who are taking on “some of the most challenging issues facing our society” today. The newspaper named Abdi Soltani, Arcelia Hurtado and Vincent Pan among its Changemaker class of 2011.

We applaud our hometown paper for shining the spotlight on the committed and courageous work of Abdi, Arcelia and Vincent and the organizations they lead: American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, Equal Rights Advocates and Chinese for Affirmative Action, respectively.

Check out what the Chronicle has to say about them here, or take a moment to see them in action below.

To learn more about how Pioneers in Justice supports these leaders as they retool social justice movements and use the power of networks and social media to advance justice click here.

It’s your loyalty to the Levi’s®, Dockers®, and Denizen™ brands that allows the Levi Strauss Foundation to support pioneering leaders who take on the issues and events of our time and foster access to justice for all. For that, we thank you.

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It’s The Relationship, Stupid!

This is a guest post by Richard Woo of the Russell Family Foundation.

Framing is powerful. Consider this.

The Russell Family Foundation (TRFF) mission is to “invest resources and relationships in grassroots leaders, environmental sustainability and global peace.” Nowhere is there any mention of “grants, programs or initiatives.” Grants, programs and initiatives are the shorthand we use to label the products and activities of our foundation’s work.

Grants, programs and initiatives define the source (TRFF) and the boundaries (our stuff) of what the foundation offers the communities we serve. In other words, we develop grants, programs and initiatives and deliver them to the community. That’s why philanthropy as a transaction is called the “giving profession.” Embedded in these gifts are the “resources and relationships” mentioned in our mission statement.

This is noble. It is also seductive. Operating from inside the foundation, it is easy to begin believing our own public relations. Therein lies the true occupational hazard of this profession. The best antidote to a swelled head is checking our egos at the door. If only it were so easy. If we aren’t careful, we may begin to believe the world revolves around our grants, programs & initiatives. That frame of mind is sometimes reinforced subtly with words like “ mission, focus or strategic.” From there it is but a few short steps to assuming undue ownership, feeling territorial or neglecting to build more expansive community connections.

An important element of making grants, programs and initiatives for community consumption is the relevance of those offerings and the nature of our relationship with the community. What if we offered a grant and no one wanted it?

It is important to set the right frame on the foundation’s community engagement. We must emphasize our relationships even as we deliver grants, programs and initiatives. When we pay as much attention to authentic relationship development as we do to program development—there is a greater chance of becoming relevant. Relationships are boundless, programs are finite.

Imagine if I changed my title to “Chief Relationship Officer” or CRO. Increasingly my attention is spent on relations with the board, staff, peers and the community / field-at-large. The other day I asked one of our foundation colleagues: “What if your title was changed to Relationship Manager?” That leads to other questions:

• How might these shifts in language and perspective transform our approach to the work?

• How would we reallocate our time, budgets or skills development to build stronger relationships?

• What’s the difference between managing “people & relationships” versus “programs & things”?

As often as not, the best grants, programs and projects are born from deep relationships with our communities and partners.

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