Blog Entries

BYU study on innovators

fraser@frasernelson.net — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:25:00 +0100

A group at BYU and Harvard just completed a study trying to get at the root of what makes people innovative. Reading the list of traits I kept thinking - this describes nonprofit leaders to a T!. And then I wondered - why do some think our sector is so staid and risk adverse?

Here is one quote "the most effective leaders "are much more likely to ask 'What if' questions, such as, 'What would happen if we do this?' They ask things like, 'What if we try doing things a new way, how will [...]

Ouch -- giving ponzi money back

fraser@frasernelson.net — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:33:12 +0100

About a dozen charities that received donations from a Florida foundation established by convicted ponzi schemer Arthur Nadel could be forced to surrender the money.

The return gifting would impact charities who received more than $20,000 from the Guy-Nadel Foundation. Ouch. The foundation was financed with $2.85 million the ponzi s scheme, donated millions of dollars to reputable charities. The Sarasota opera named its concert hall lobby after the foundation,

Comment from the Dioce [...]

Donkeys or domestic violence?

fraser@frasernelson.net — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:42:57 +0100

I have to pass on this blog by a British 'social investor'

I admit it, I'm guilty of wasting charitable funds

By Martin Brookes

I need to confess to a misallocation of charitable funds, as well as a flouting of my own personal rules. In short, I gave some money to an animal charity.

Recently, I wrote a blog post about why I don't give to animal charities. This argued, in essence, that giving money to (say) donkey sanctuaries rather than domestic violence charities re [...]

More proof advocacy works

fraser@frasernelson.net — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:49:51 +0100

The Utah Nonprofits Day on the Hill was last week, and 30 or so nonprofits hit the marble, needs and solutions in hand. This new study from LA proves once again that advocacy is where it is at. The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy found that between 2004 and 2008 the community benefits provided by LA County nonprofits engaged in advocacy and organizing included $2.6 billion in higher wages.... and that is just a start. Read the full results here - preferably while you are on a b [...]

Example of a 'breadwinning' social venture

fraser@frasernelson.net — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:12:41 +0100

Todd Manwaring from BYU, Steve Grizzel of Innoventures and Alex Lawrence at Funding Universe are planning a foru on the state of social entrepreneurship in Utah. Here is an example of the type of program the Community Foundation would love to see grow in Utah - The Bread Project, which trains low-income students, many struggling with the impacts of homelessness, criminal backgrounds, addiction and poverty to be successful bakers.

Read the story here.

Boomers are 'bummed out'

fraser@frasernelson.net — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:16:37 +0100

Passing along this news from the bummer blogosphere:

The Boomer Project recently compiled some studies on the attitudes and outlook of the Boomer generation . These are the people we have been lead to believe will fill foundation and nonprofit coffers. I guess people forgot that these were also the people who have lost their retirement in the Great Recession.

Well someone asked and it turns out - they are NOT HAPPY. What I love about the study is it used real adjectives like bummed, [...]

Skullcandy in Vogue

fraser@frasernelson.net — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:22:07 +0100

Here is a nice convergence of a certain executive director's interests- our partner Skullcandy featured in Vogue, with help from our pal Henry Eshelman at Platform Media Group. !

What happens after the recession?

fraser@frasernelson.net — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:54:44 +0100

Just read an interesting piece in a small newspaper in North Carolina. The Blue Ridge Times explored the impact of federal stimulus on local npos - and the hangover that is likely to result.

The Western Carolina Community Action, in just oen example, received about $3 million, for Head Start, health care, building greener communities through updating low income people's homes and updating their medical data software and - perhaps most important;y - not l;ayign off the teachers th [...]

Our latest study - giving down

fraser@frasernelson.net — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:39:44 +0100

This final dashboard of 2009 reports on year end giving, changes in revenue and the planning assumptions of Utah's nonprofits as they continue to meet the cultural, social and educational needs of our communities in 'the great recession'.

We are all familiar with the traditional year-end giving campaigns that nonprofits of all sizes and missions conduct after Thanksgiving. These donations can be crucial to an organization's annual budget. National philanthropy pundits predicted that American [...]

Faux letter to a foundation

fraser@frasernelson.net — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:25:40 +0100

A friend passed this on and it is too good not to share:

DEAR FOUNDATION PEOPLE:

We’ve been “friends” for a long time. We call. You return our call a few weeks later. We hang on to your every word. You seem to like us too, because you send us checks, though they’re always smaller than we’d hoped. We send thank-you notes, or give you a piece of Lucite at our next dinner.

But the truth is, we don’t really talk. We in the not-for-profit world depend on you, yo [...]

Are NPOS less 'competent'?

fraser@frasernelson.net — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:05:23 +0100

A new study from the University of Chicago mirrors some of the findings from our entrepreneur focus groups. While people think non profits are warm and fuzzy - they do not trust them with their purchases!

"Across three experiments, we found that consumers hold stereotypes, or shorthand, blanket impressions about non-profit and for-profit organizations and that these stereotypes predict crucial marketplace behaviors, such as the likelihood of visiting of a website and willingness to bu [...]

A new way to connect with us

fraser@frasernelson.net — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:06:24 +0100

Thanks to our whiz web master and supporter Troy Mumm at Third Sun Productions we now have a feed for all our updates! Simply click on the orange box under 'connecti with us' and you'll receive the latest innovation in philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, nonprofit management and community foundation work!

Dream on...

fraser@frasernelson.net — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:13:46 +0100

The Marion Community Foundation in Ohio received a $16 million dollar bequest virtually out of the blue from Dorothy Wopat yesterday. I bet there are plenty of agencies out there that dream of such a thing in their own organization's histories. What an incredible legacy! read about it here.

Report on recession from Illinois

fraser@frasernelson.net — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:10:49 +0100

This from the Donors Forum survey of Nonprofits and grantmakers in Illinois. Sound familiar?

Based on a November survey of nonprofits and grantmakers in the state:

71 percent of respondents had cut their budgets during 2009,
66 percent reported a reduction in operating reserves,
63 percent saying they had three months or fewer of reserves

only 11 percent reporting more than twelve months of reserves.

On the grantmaker side:

37 percent of respondents said th [...]

Largest donors funding is changing. Get ready!

fraser@frasernelson.net — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:52:39 +0100

From Chronicle of Philanthropy and Slate on line: More major donors are "funneling money into ambitious projects designed to address global and societal challenges instead of simply choosing to support nonprofit entities such as hospitals, museums, and colleges."

According to the latest edition of the annual Slate 60 list:

in 2009, the $4.1 billion given to nonprofit and charitable causes by the top fifty philanthropists was barely more than a quarter of the $15.5 billion given [...]

Threats to the nonprofit sector

fraser@frasernelson.net — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:11:43 +0100

Proacative blog from Lucy Bernholz (if you don't read her - you shoudl)

She sees these threats to the special tax privieldges of sector as a whole:

New corporate forms that recognize social businesses - like the L3C we have in Utah
Tax credits for social businesses;
Foundations' increasing interest in "sector agnostic" approaches to solving social problems;
Regulatory concern about good governance, and payout rates from big foundations
Investment in financial/social hybri [...]

Transparency! Hurrah!

fraser@frasernelson.net — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:53:46 +0100

The Foundation Center has announced the launch of Glasspockets.org, a Web site designed to promote and facilitate greater openness and transparency among private foundations.

They have some pretty powerful partners -- the Center for Effective Philanthropy, the Communications Network, the Global Philanthropy Forum, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, and the One World Trust in London.

The idea is for foundations to actually report to the public abou thte things that heppen when y [...]

Should we do this?

fraser@frasernelson.net — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:45:32 +0100

Click here to see who won this facebook based funding competition - no Utah organizations ... this uyear. The foundation is noodling over how we can do something similar as a follow up to the enlightened entrepreneurs event. We're thinking of an Innovation Challenge with deep mentoring - and then assisting the agencies to develop their own on line fundraisign competition. Share your thoughts!

Here is nres from the relaease to get you thinking:

Launched on November 16, the crow [...]

Small nonprofits matter - especially when they are gone

fraser@frasernelson.net — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:52:32 +0100

Some of our economic studies(get ready - another on the way) have shown that smaller nonprofits, especially those in rural areas, have been the hardest hit by the recession. This new article from a hometown newspaper in Woodstock Illinois stresses the importance of these organizations to their communities. Here is the story of one such demise, a small agency serving a growing Hispanic and Latino population outside of Chicago.

When a program closes

fraser@frasernelson.net — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:40:33 +0100

This morning readers of the Salt Lake Tribune learned that a home for pregnant teen women is closing after almost 30 years of serving our community. In this story from New jersey , the fall out from closing a program for addicted women and their children shows how difficult these decisions are -- and who really pays the price. It is essentially a bureaucratic fight -- featuring a state contractor, the service provider, a reduction in reimbursement rates and the fall out of the economy. New [...]