For those who like me are concerned that too frequently funders, nonprofits and social innovators are not adequately communicating with one another as they partner to address serious social problems, may be missing important questions and/or addressing the wrong ones and therefore are not coming up with solutions that lead to meaningful change – take heart and read “Think Like a Designer for Greater Impact in Philanthropy,” by Nadia Roumani of Stanford’s Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS).  She suggests that grantmakers use design thinking – an intense, iterative methodology that reframes, focuses and most importantly, engages all beneficiaries and stakeholders in identifying problems and creating and prototyping solutions – to become more effective and impactful.

MASTER THE BASICS

WHAT IS COACHING ?

The CAP Project* defines coaching as a process that supports individuals to make more conscious decisions and take more effective action. In a coaching relationship an individual with leadership and coaching experience (the coach) provides customized support to one or more nonprofit leaders (coachees) for a limited period of time.  In contrast to some other forms of leadership development support, which often provide general guidance applicable across a range of situations and organizational contexts, coaching is tailored to the coachees. The content of coaching is based on coachees’ experiences and their reflections on their strengths and weaknesses, the specific contexts in which they are working, and their hopes and aspirations for themselves and their organizations. Read more ›

The “kids” — Gen X and Y — want to do it differently. Their elders want to insure continuity. Are these desires mutually exclusive?

According to the Next Gen Donors: Respecting Legacy, Revolutionizing Philanthropy report sponsored by the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and 21/64, “. . parents and grandparents have been more influential in teaching the why of philanthropy more than the how, transferring values more than strategy.” The three-hundred and ten 21–40 year-old respondents to the Next Gen Donors research largely attribute their values and commitment to philanthropy to their families. At the same time, they clearly and consciously want to evolve, innovate and “seek to meet that commitment in somewhat different, maybe even revolutionary ways in the future.” Read more ›