Archive for the 'Program Recaps' Category

Reimagining Service: Helping Grantees Increase Volunteer Capacity to Maximize Program Impact

Published February 14, 2012 Program Recaps 2 Comments
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By Gail Gershon, Senior Director, Gap Inc.

Every foundation wants its grantees to fully utilize the resources available to them. As funding from all sources becomes increasingly scarce, more foundations are thinking creatively about how to leverage their dollars to increase impact. They are building into their RFPs and grantmaking processes specifics about communication, advocacy, and other activities that used to be an afterthought.

At Philanthropy New York’s January 10th program “Reimagining Service and Cities of Service: A Funder’s Guide to Driving Change through Volunteerism,” the program’s panel argued that foundations should incorporate into their grantmaking specific strategies to help nonprofits more effectively engage volunteers and made a strong case for the return on philanthropic investments in volunteers.
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Capacity Building Across Borders: Philanthropy New York’s International Grantmakers Network

Published February 7, 2012 Program Recaps 1 Comment
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By James O’Sullivan
Director, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

On January 25th, the experiences of funders and grantees in Africa were used as a lens on funding organizational capacity as part of the first session of our International Grantmakers Network program series. Nearly 30 Philanthropy New York members participated in this opportunity to focus on how we define and approach “capacity building” in an international context, including program staff, philanthropic advisors, and grants managers. The session was organized by International Grantmakers Network Steering Committee members Bonnie Potter (The Lester Fund) and Donzie Barroso (Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors).

Recognizing that capacity is a buzzword with different meanings for different groups, Philanthropy New York members volunteered their organizations’ reasons for supporting capacity building. These included helping organizations become more effective, helping grantees be more competitive when responding to Requests for Proposals, trying to provide societal benefits through a stronger nonprofit sector, and helping to create stronger non-governmental organizations (NGOs) so that funders’ legacies are as robust as possible.
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Partner & Prepare: How to Fund Advocacy During Polarized Political Times

Published February 6, 2012 Program Recaps 2 Comments
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By Beth Herz, Senior Associate for Programs and Strategy,
Surdna Foundation

Leading the charge on an issue can bring an organization’s work into the spotlight—and sometimes also under a microscope. Madeline Janis, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), learned this when her own organization’s work came under scrutiny for less-than-benevolent reasons. While under her leadership, LAANE learned that an unnamed political ops firm was conducting a careful investigation of all of its records, apparently intending to find fodder for a smear campaign.

On November 29th, Philanthropy New York hosted a funders briefing to discuss the rise of this type of political attack on advocacy work and the roles foundations can play in responding. The briefing’s two panels included Madeline Janis’s story and a case study from Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood. Several experts provided a background on trends in the field and recommendations for preparedness and Pablo Farías, a Vice President at the Ford Foundation, brought a funder’s perspective. (The event was co-sponsored by the Ford Foundation, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the New World Foundation, the Ottinger Foundation, Public Interest Projects, the Surdna Foundation, and the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock.)
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Beyond the IRS: Communicating Your Foundation’s 990-PF

Published December 21, 2011 Program Recaps , Thought Leaders 1 Comment
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By Gail Fuller, Director of Communications, Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Long ago, foundations were in what I call “The Lone Ranger” mode: they hid behind masks, addressed societal needs, and for the most part never revealed who they were or told their stories or that of their grantees. By the 1980s, that began to change. The late Frank Karel, who created what is today considered foundation communications, concluded that a sound communications strategy is guided by the relentless pursuit of answers to three deceptively simple questions: 1) What do you want to accomplish?, 2) Who has to think or act differently for that to happen?, and 3) What would prompt them to do it?

Those are the same questions that also drive good grantmaking. And with that simple way of thinking, foundations began to be strategic about their communications and tell their stories, both externally with annual reports (and eventually websites), and with internal communications to trustees and staff.
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Engagement Snapshot: A Strategic Approach

Published November 28, 2011 Commentaries , Program Recaps Leave a Comment
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By Beeta Jahedi, Assistant Manager, Professional Education, Philanthropy New York and Robert Hyfler, EngAGEment Initiative Program Consultant, Philanthropy New York

(This post originally appeared on the Forum’s Forum, the blog of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers, on November 21, 2011 and is reprinted with permission.)

It was with great enthusiasm that Philanthropy New York signed on to the EngAGEment initiative and the funding partnership with Grantmakers In Aging. Philanthropy New York and our local co-funders, the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, and FJC – A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds, quickly developed a senior staff working group to develop our local approach to the challenge of increasing foundation funding in age-related issues. A three-pronged strategy emerged: Continue reading…

Commentary: Understanding Muslim America

Published August 11, 2011 Commentaries , Program Recaps 1 Comment
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By Michael Seltzer, Trustee, EMpower-The Emerging Markets Foundation, and past President, Philanthropy New York

Editor’s note: All of us at Philanthropy New York are deeply indebted to Michael Seltzer not only for his in-depth planning and assistance for our February 14th program, but also that he did so while he was in the hospital undergoing a bone marrow transplant. We are also happy to report that he is now cancer-free. Thank you again, Michael!

When I was a teenager, my Russian-born father recounted how he had experienced prejudice in his youth in his new country. In 1917, he attended Dewitt Clinton High School, then located in the aptly named Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Each day, he feared for his safety en-route to school. As he would recount more than 40 years later, Irish gangs would be ready to pounce on Jewish Russian immigrants like him when they stepped on their turf.

Perhaps it was such recollections that fueled my passion for organizing the Philanthropy New York members briefing Understanding Muslim America. The flame was ignited last August when the brouhaha over the location of a Muslim cultural and spiritual center in Lower Manhattan erupted.
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Philanthropy New York’s Adventure Series: Version Red Hook

Published July 28, 2011 Program Recaps Leave a Comment
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By Daniel Lilienthal, Associate for Social and Emotional Learning,
NoVo Foundation

On June 21st, Red Hook, Brooklyn, home of one of the largest public housing communities in the city, was host to a number of funders from New York’s philanthropic community. Beginning at the Brooklyn Community Foundation (BCF), in Dumbo, representatives of the Liz Claiborne Foundation, the NoVo Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and others got an inside look at one of New York’s secret treasures, as well as an on-the-ground look at some of the projects supported by BCF.
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The Business of Philanthropy: “Exit Interviews” with Former and Departing Foundation CEOs

Published June 30, 2011 Program Recaps , Thought Leaders Leave a Comment
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By Richard Smith, President, The Pinkerton Foundation

How has the increasing influence of the tools and techniques of business affected the world of philanthropy? That was just one of the themes of a panel I had the privilege of moderating recently at Philanthropy New York. Entitled “Exit Interviews,” the panel included three genuine leaders in the field: Susan Berresford, the former head of the Ford Foundation, and two current CEOs, Lance Lindblom of the Nathan Cummings Foundation and Chris DeVita of The Wallace Foundation, both of whom have announced plans to step down later in the year. As a recent migrant from the land of commerce myself, I’ve been especially curious about the similarities—and differences—between business and philanthropy. The panel helped clarify the picture—although I hasten to add that the views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect a consensus of all the panelists.
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Reflections from Foundations on the Hill

Published March 24, 2011 Program Recaps Leave a Comment
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By Nur Ibrahim
Executive Coordinator, Philanthropy New York

Philanthropy New York recently went to Washington, D.C. with a delegation of members to participate in Foundations on the Hill. This annual event, co-sponsored by the Council on Foundations and the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers, is an opportunity for foundations to inform Congressional offices of the impact and concerns of the philanthropic sector. In addition to several specific legislative issues on the Council’s agenda, we focused on enhancing Congress’ awareness of the economic and social benefits foundations provide. There were 3 kinds of activities that will enhance our sector’s ability to effectively inform members of Congress in the future:
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“The City Where America Is Going to Find Herself Again”: A Funders Conversation with Mayor Mitch Landrieu

Published January 12, 2011 Program Recaps 1 Comment
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By James O’Sullivan
Director, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

On November 16th, 55 Philanthropy New York members participated in a members briefing featuring a keynote address by the Honorable Mitch Landrieu, Mayor of New Orleans. In his remarks, the mayor outlined the role he sees cities taking on in the current political situation: as laboratories for innovation. He also reviewed his goals for New Orleans and connected some of the innovations and citizens’ participation in his city to philanthropy’s efforts and support.
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