Northern California Grantmakers

In his recent Ted Talk activist and fundraiser Dan Pallotta “calls out the double standard that drives our broken relationship to charities. ”

“Too many nonprofits, he says, are rewarded for how little they spend — not for what they get done. Instead of equating frugality with morality, he asks us to start rewarding charities for their big goals and big accomplishments (even if that comes with big expenses). In this bold talk, he says: Let’s change the way we think about changing the world.

Everything the donating public has been taught about giving is dysfunctional, says AIDS Ride founder Dan Pallotta. He aims to transform the way society thinks about charity and giving and change.”

Watch the Ted Talk

Quotes from this Ted Talk

• “The next time you’re looking at a charity, don’t ask about the rate of their overhead. Ask about the scale of their dreams.”

• “Our generation does not want its epitaph to read, ‘We kept charity overhead low.’ We want it to read that we changed the world.”

• “Philanthropy is the market for love. It is the market for all those people for whom there is no other market coming.”

• “When you prohibit failure, you kill innovation. If you kill innovation in fundraising, you can’t raise more revenue. If you can’t raise more revenue, you can’t grow. And if you can’t grow, you can’t possibly solve large social problems.”

• “We have a visceral reaction to the idea that anyone would make very much money helping other people. Interesting that we don’t have a visceral reaction to the notion that people would make a lot of money NOT helping other people.”

The Social Impact Exchange, a community of funders, advisors, wealth managers, intermediaries, nonprofits and researchers interested in developing practices for funding and implementing large-scale expansions of top-performing nonprofit initiatives, has announced the launch of its 2012 Business Plan Competition.

About The Competition

The Competition identifies social sector scaling initiatives with demonstrated impact and readiness to scale, and supports the winners with financial and consulting awards.

U.S.-based nonprofit organizations with a focus in education, youth development, health, poverty alleviation and community economic development are eligible to enter.

The Competition accepts applications from nonprofits that are scaling an organization, program, collaborative, policy initiative, media and advocacy campaign, social movement or marketplace solution.

The Competition is sponsored by Growth Philanthropy Network, Duke University, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation.

The deadline for entry is December 9, 2011.

For further information visit the Social Impact Exchange website.

In a highly politicized climate where the 24 hour news cycle is eager for scandal and sound bytes, it’s imperative that an organization have a firm grasp on their public narrative.

Most likely you have seen or heard of the ACORN “sting” videos that purportedly show ACORN workers aiding a couple planning criminal activities. The aftermath of these videos led to a huge loss in private funding for ACORN, as well as an end to their government contract work for the U.S. Census and IRS.

When the California Attorney General compared the raw footage from the “sting” to the heavily edited videos that were released to the media in 2009, it became apparent that “the published videos had been heavily edited to misrepresent the [ACORN] workers and the situations.” According to Wikipedia:

“…independent investigations by the former Massachusetts Attorney General, the US Attorney of Brooklyn, and the US Government Accountability Office found no evidence that ACORN workers had misused government funds or participated in the criminal activities represented. But, ACORN was effectively destroyed by then.”

Minimizing Risk, Managing An Attack

If your nonprofit provides services that empower communities or encourages civic engagement, what can you do to minimize the risk that your organization will come under attack?

Alliance For Justice (AFJ) is hosting two discussions, one in Oakland and one in Los Angeles, to help organizations learn how minimize and manage abusive attacks.

“Successful navigation of a crisis demands prior preparation, good internal communication and thoughtful external communication. These discussions are designed to help health organizations and civic engagement organizations think through the process of crisis readiness and management before an attack happens.”

Interested in attending? Here are the details for each program:

September 13
10:00 am – 12 noon
California Endowment Conference Center
1111 Broadway, Oakland, CA

Panelists will include:
Dan Cohen, Founder, Full Court Press Communications
Maggie Crosby, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Northern California
Melissa Mikesell, Director, West Coast Office of Alliance for Justice
Mike Rice, President, VR Research
Lupe Rodriguez, Director of Public Affairs, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte

Register here >>

October 17
10:00 – 12 noon
The Center for Healthy Communities
1000 N. Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA

Panelists will include:
Marina Delgado, Operations Director, ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment)
Daren Garshelis, Counsel, Alliance for Justice
Madeline Janis, Executive Director, LAANE (Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy)

Register here >>