Can't help but share this sad tale of prep school philanthropy gone terribly array.

Donation to Prep School Mired in Court Battle Over Ponzi Scheme

A quick shout out to two former U of U MBA students of mine John Malfatto and Jeff Harps who have invented a wild way to raise money for the Soldier Hollow Legacy Foundation and the Leukemia Society.

It is basically a 10 k mud obstacle course. We are talking "professionally built obstacles and multiple mud pits to run, crawl and jump through. Expect to get muddy (over and over again)!"

I love teaching the 'Consulting to Nonprofits ' course.  You never know what will come of it, and more than a few of my students have gone on to start nonprofits, serve on board etc. But this is truly a first.

You can sign up here: http://www.thedirtydash.com/default.aspx

The 2010 Social Innovation Challenge is designed to bring together promising Utah non-profits and business leaders to develop out-of-the-box entrepreneurial solutions to common issues faced by Utah's non-profits. The challenge is generously supported by Clearlink, Mountain American Credit Union, BlueLine and the University Impact Fund.

The Opportunity: An independent set of judges will select 3 non-profit organizations facing problems common to many organizations from a finalist pool of 15 applicants. While all 15 will receive critical feedback on their issue, the 3 selected will have the unique opportunity to work alongside a panel of 3-5 entrepreneurial business leaders selected for unique expertise and insight into scalable and sustainable solutions. Additional expertise will be available from specialists and service professions. In addition, each panel will receive up to $5,000 to effectively implement their solution and document their results so that they can be replicated by the non-profit community. The implementation will be completed over a 3 month period and presented at the Social Innovation Forum. (A final date will be announced this summer).

Why participate? The Social Innovation Challenge stimulates a new way of approaching public issues built on innovation, accountability and impact. In short, smart philanthropy.

• It creates a new model of corporate philanthropy in Utah – one that is driven by results and based in meaningful engagement.
• It supports nonprofits seeking to develop sound business practices and revenue generating activities, reducing their dependence on donations.
• It encourages a new generation of leaders to engage with organizations and people that strengthen our community.
• It provides a challenging and valuable activity to increase the skills and networks of employees in both the private and public sectors.
• It matches the current economic crisis with the optimism, energy and strong strategic minds of our state.
• It is a truly collaborative platform to focus the capacity of our citizens on the issues we face, together.

Give us a call at 559-3005 or email fraser@utahcf.org and get on board!

Harvard Business School  professor Alnoor Ebrahim has a new study about the need - or lack thereof - for non profit organizations to measure their social return. "There are two big conversations among nonprofit leaders. One is around accountability. The second focuses on performance, particularly impact."

If you feel pulled in all directions, you are right. Ebrahim  suggests that you prioritize who gets your attention - and it can't be everyone and certainly not your funders only. "Nonprofit leaders must prioritize among accountability demands—from foundations, government agencies, individual donors, and their own staff and clients—otherwise they'll be pulled in all directions," he says. "They cannot be accountable to everyone for everything. Rather than aiming simply to comply with the demands of the most powerful actors, nonprofit leaders need to focus their attention on accountabilities that really matter for achieving their missions."

The papers (there are two, but you can link to a summary here) suggest that organizations look to their theory of change to develop as simple an outcome statement as possible. Take a look and it might make make your next grant application easier. You can always bame Harvard!

Some advocacy groups are concerned that the House Campaign Finance reform bill will be a deterrent to their donors. According to an article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the legislation requires advocacy groups organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, to reveal  their donors. There is a catch - organizations with more than 500,000 members, are more than a decade old, have a presence in all states, and raise 15 percent or less of their funds from corporations or unions are exempt. Who is not? The ACLU thinks liberal, small. grassroots groups will be most impacted. In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union said that "by exempting larger mainstream organizations from certain disclosure requirements, the bill inequitably suppresses only the speech of smaller, more controversial organizations and compromises the anonymity of small donors."

 

Seems most nonprofits found that foundations were far less from responsive or helpful as the economy crashed. The report is only 4 pages long and every word is interesting.

Foundation Center reports that foundation giving in 2009 declined by an estimated 8.4 percent – the largest decline the organization has ever tracked. Despite foundation assets having shown modest growth since last year, giving is still not forecasted to pick up until 2011.

6,000 grantees of 37 foundations across the country reported:

• Funders did not communicate their responses to the economic downturn clearly, if at all
• Funders have offered them little useful help in responding to the challenges of the downturn.

We will share this wit the  Donors Forum and ask that these findings be come a part of a planned presentation to private foundations in September. And we will do our best to communicate.

Read this and weep!

Charitable giving fell to an estimated $303.75 billion in 2009, a drop of 3.6 percent from a revised total of $315.08 billion in 2008, a new report from the Giving USA Foundation finds. Because the overall economy experienced slight price deflation in 2009, the year-over-year inflation-adjusted decline was 3.2 percent.

Other highlights:

• individual giving was flat in 2009 when adjusted for inflation
• bequests fell 23.9 percent
• corporate giving rose 5.5 percent (ot in Utah!)
• private, community, and operating foundation giving fell 8.9 percent

Biggest declines in types of recipients were capital campaigns, endowment gifts, and donations of art and property.

Giving to foundations and education, arts and culture, and public-society benefit organizations, for instance, declined while Health, human services, international aid, and environment/animal-related organizations saw increases. This is also true in Utah

And as always, giving to religion comprised the largest share of all contributions, coming in at an estimated $100.95 billion, or 33 percent of total giving, a year-over-year decline of 0.7 percent.

The Community Foundation of Utah is introducing, as an exciting element of our Enlightened Entrepreneurs initiative, a celebration of entrepreneurs and companies who are engaging their giving minds. This program is modeled on the highly successful V100, which I created while at vSpring Capital.

We need your help! The Enlightened Fifty or E-5-O provides for the recognition of community-nominated and peer-selected entrepreneurs who are a driving force in improving Utah's future. The criteria for nomination includes:

• Pioneer innovative and sustainable approaches to the critical issues facing our state and its residents.

• Demonstrate a consistent commitment to community engagement.
• Are most likely to make a profound mark on Utah's quality of life.
•  Value collaboration, entrepreneurship and creativity in giving back to Utah.

Your role in the E-5-0 project is fun, easy and crucial. Simply share the names and corresponding email addresses of all the entrepreneurial individuals you know who fit this description, and their affiliations if any. Please send us your list nominees by two weeks from today, Friday, June 18. There is no need to write an essay in support of your nominations; just let us know who they are! You can e mail your nomineees to fraser@utahcf.org.

Next, we will ask all those nominated to select from among the nominees the five they think best exemplify an 'enlightened entrepreneur'. The 50 who receive the most peer votes –

the E-5-O – will be recognized publicly and invited to celebrate with those like-minded. We will make sure to send you the results directly as well. We will continue to strengthen and support this network of innovators committed to the common good each year.

Thank you for participating and for your support of the Community Foundation of Utah.

Warm regards,

Greg Warnock

Here is something you do not see every day ... but some think should: a foundation shutting its  The foundation started by Oprah Winfrey, The Angel Network, will shut its doors when she goes off the air.

I never watched Oprah often - sick days on the couch like most working women I imagine - but I have (again, like most women) admired her. And to this latest move I say Hurrah!

And it has been quite a ride ... she has raised more than $80 million from 150,000 donors, helped rebuilding efforts post Katrina and building fifty-five rural schools in a dozen countries.

For those of you about to grab a pen: the final grantees have been chosen, and the charity is no longer accepting grant requests or donations. Unless, of course, you are writing to say thanks. Oh and a mention that the CF is One Of Your Favorite Things wouldn't hurt.

doors.

Pasing along this article... what happens when your donor has, shll we say, a BIG image problem?

When corporations give money to charitable causes they typically enjoy the spotlight their gifts provide. Similarly, the recipient organizations get spillover benefits from being singled out for support by well-known companies and brands. But what happens when a major corporate benefactor gets into trouble?

That question is hardly academic for the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calf., which is holding a preview for the press on Thursday of its new Sea Otter Habitat, which was underwritten by a $1 million donation from the oil giant BP. Surprisingly it's not the aquarium worried about getting tarred from its association with BP, which is now facing a public relations and environmental nightmare because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rather, to avoid calling more attention to the company BP officials themselves told the aquarium they might skip the event. Jerry Schubel, aquarium president, said BP told him "they did not want to hurt the reputation of the institution" and even asked 'Would you prefer that we not be there?' I said 'No. Without your support we could not have done this.'"

This is hardly the first time—nor likely the last—that accepting a donation from a corporate sponsor could turn out to be bad business, especially for the recipient organizations. There are no set rules or guidance on what recipient organizations should do when their corporate benefactors get into trouble. According to one expert, it often comes down to whether a company's troubles conflicts with the mission of the organization.

Paul Dunn, says BP's support for an organization that promotes sound environmental practices could cause the aquarium some discomfort. Says Dunn, "People can see a direct link there. Aquatic animals are being harmed by the disaster. Any organization that has BP's name on it throughout the world should be saying, "We have a potential issue here." Read Dunn's article "When a Donor Becomes Tainted" on our website.

Despite those worries, the aquarium has no desire to put distance between itself and BP. The aquarium's president told the LA Times he won't close the door on future partnerships with the oil company. Clearly, this is a slippery slope.—Bruce Trachtenberg