Talking About It Can Help Break Bad Foundation Habits
Tip of the hat to James Irvine President James E. Canales for writing in an op-ed in this week’s Chronicle of Philanthropy that foundations should communicate more openly and engage more people in...
View ArticleWhat’s Ours Is Yours, Really!
Like the rest of society, the philanthropic sector is increasingly moving away from producing and distributing intellectual property the old-fashioned way, and is becoming ever more reliant on...
View ArticleWhat Did You Say?
Rather than give them short shrift by summarizing two items I had published elsewhere today, I’ll point you to to them so you can read them in full. One is an op-ed in the current Chronicle of...
View ArticleMaking the Case for Making the Case
I had the privilege last week of leading a session at the Council on Foundations annual conference on the topic When Program and Communications are Integrated, Good Things Happen for Foundations. It...
View ArticleWant to Make Sure Your Research Gets Used? Here Are Some Great Tips.
In a post a few weeks ago, I wrote how the nonprofit sector was increasingly relying on new forms of digital distribution to ”put valuable knowledge in the hands of more people who can learn from, act...
View ArticleSoon to Be Gone, But Not Forgotten
Not long ago I wondered out loud what it would be like to be the communications director for a foundation planning to spend down. I asked: What would your final annual report say? How would you...
View ArticleNothing to Hide: Irvine Shows How to Candidly Report Bad News
In 1999, the James Irvine Foundation launched Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL), a major initiative to improve education achievement in low-performing schools in five...
View ArticleCommunicating With the Public Is Key to Peterson Foundation
What do a foundation launch and Hollywood-style movie premiere have in common? For the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, quite a bit. The foundation, which only officially opened for business in mid-July,...
View ArticleFunders Not Only Ask Grantees, “How Are We Doing?” But Sharing What They...
When the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) began conducting surveys of grantees in 2003, foundations primarily used the findings to learn what their grant recipients liked about doing business...
View ArticleAsk First, Then Design
Throughout the 14 months it spent on the redesign, the team responsible for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s new Web site stayed singly focused on making sure the end product would meet the...
View ArticleOnline Conversations Help Promote “Information Marketplace” Idea
It’s a concern every foundation faces: How do we ensure that our report or study gets the attention it deserves, generates useful conversation, and helps advance the featured issue or cause? That was...
View ArticleTo Publish Or Not Publish Its Annual Report, Lumina Foundation Doesn’t Guess...
At the 2008 Fall Communications Network Annual conference, one of the most spirited discussions focused on the question about whether foundation annual reports are a thing of the past. While arguments...
View ArticleSomehow, It All Adds Up
Personally and professionally, I’m rarely at a loss for words. In fact, since becoming a regular user of Twitter, the 140-character limit on the size of a Tweet leaves me with lots of spare words at...
View ArticleWhen Democracy Gets Personal
Guest Post: Larry “Bud” Meyer, president of Meyer Communications LLC, chair, Communications Network If you’re a political junkie (like I am), you may be familiar with the annual PdF (Personal...
View ArticleHave Something to Say? Tweet About It
Guest Post: Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz, Communications Director, Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers Like many in the foundation world, we are constantly trying to ensure that we are up on the...
View ArticleHere’s a Question I Can’t Wait to Answer (Nor Should You)
A lot of the work we do in the Communications Network often involves talking with other communications professionals at foundations and nonprofits about how to use communications well. Every once in a...
View ArticleFoundations In Blogistan
Guest Post: Mitch Hurst, vice president, Interactive Solutions, Scofield Company, in Chicago, and board member, Communications Network. This post originally appeared on his blog, With or Without You....
View ArticleHooray for “Annals of Accountability”
Over at Philantopic, the Foundation Center’s Mitch Nauffts has begun a new series, Annals of Accountability. He looks for and cites examples of foundations and individual donors stepping up to the...
View ArticleWhen It Comes to Health Care, Commonwealth Fund Website Asks: Why Not the Best?
Web sites that provide easily accessible information about the best restaurants, stores or travel destinations also serve as an incentive to keep quality high in order to avoid bad ratings. Could such...
View ArticleLumina Knows Everyone Is Watching — That’s Part of the [Strategic] Plan
It’s probably not in the plans, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Lumina Foundation for Education renting a sign in New York City’s Times Square to call attention to its strategic plan – or at...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....