Green Charities

The Chronicle of Philanthropy had an interesting online discussion about charities going green. The discussion was a follow up to a Chronicle article on the same topic. The discussion summary is below:

Many charities are getting serious about taking steps to become more environmentally friendly in their operations -- to both protect the planet and save money.

Some are taking steps to reduce waste in their operations and cut down on their energy use. Others are taking more aggressive steps by undertaking "green" building projects.

For many groups, such moves dovetail with their social agendas -- and have the added benefit of building good will with grant makers and other donors. What approaches can charities take to become more environmentally friendly? What are the costs of these efforts and how can your charity get access to funding? How should they publicize them to donors and the public? What should they consider before adopting "green" policies?

The Guests

Cynthia L. Bailie is the director of the Foundation Center's Cleveland office and of the organization's special online initiatives. Ms. Bailie has held leadership positions in libraries and nonprofit organizations since 1991 and serves on the boards of directors for Greater Cleveland Community Shares, the greater Cleveland chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and the Village Foundation, a community foundation in Bay Village, Ohio.

Sarah S. Brophy is a consultant who helps museums, historic houses, and other cultural institutions in New England and the Mid-Atlantic become environmentally and financially sustainable through grants and green performance. She is co-author of the book The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice.

Kimberly Austin is a program associate at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. As part of her role, Ms. Austin is involved in Grants to Green, a new program that provides environmentally focused knowledge and financing to nonprofit groups in metro Atlanta. The program is a collaboration between the Community Foundation, Southface, and Enterprise Community Partners.

What are some best practices that you have seen for charities going green? What role should foundations plan to encourage a more environmentally friendly social sector?

Real Economic Stimulus

In the next few days Americans will begin to receive economic stimulus checks that are intended to jump start the U.S. economy. Home Depot and Walmart have been salivating at the thought of you plunking down your whole check for a new flat screen TV or a nice shiny stainless steel refrigerator. Some stores are even offering bonuses if you convert your entire check into a store gift certificate. My personal belief is that overspending got our country into this mess and overspending is not going to get us out but the checks are coming so it's time to do some real thinking about how to have the greatest impact with this windfall.

Jaclyn Schroeder is a community minded person that I work with that decided that the greatest way to improve the economy would be to donate her stimulus check to job training nonprofits. I heard this idea and realized that not enough people have been talking about how this stimulus check can be invested in our local communities to have the greatest bang for the buck. Nonprofits are really an economic engine and they have a long term positive impact on our community. Donating to nonprofits that you care about is one way to improve the economy but you could also purchase goods and services from nonprofits to stimulate the economy as well. We have some home remodeling to do and I am planning on purchasing some of the supplies from the Habitat for Humanity surplus store and the ReUse Center, which are both great nonprofits that employ hard to place community members like ex-felons and people with no job history. They also keep excess building supplies out of the waste stream.

Think about if you have the capacity to donate a portion of your economic stimulus check to nonprofits that you are passionate about or if there is a great nonprofit in your area where you can spend some of your stimulus check. Then think about how you can spread this message in your circles of influence. Our foundation's communication's director has been working on developing key messages and getting this idea out to media outlets but I think there is a lot of power in ideas that are spread from friend to friend and from colleague to colleague. I talked to my extended family about this idea recently and I shared the idea with CNN when they asked readers how they were going to spend their stimulus check. The idea will probably have more traction with my family because they (sometimes) trust my judgment and CNN readers don't know me from Eve. So if this is an idea that you can get behind, think about who you can bring along with you. Our communities will be much stronger for it.

The Story of Stuff

I have been doing research on good models of presentations, so that I can stop complaining about the abundance of boring nonprofit presentations and actually do something about the issue. During my research I found this great presentation on the story of stuff by Annie Leonard. Here is a description of this 20 minute presentation:

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. The video can be found here.

What I love about this presentation is that it uses engaging visuals and a very conversational speaking style to bring an important message to the masses.

Visionary Leadership with Bill Strickland

" The only problem with poor people is that they are poor."
-Bill Strickland

I was excited, but not surprised when I saw one of my favorite people in the world as a featured speaker on TED Talks. Bill Strickland is the kind of visionary leader that I think all of us strive to be but the amazing thing about him is that his vision is so basic that it makes it seem downright crazy. Bill believes that by treating people with respect and kindness anyone can achieve great things. This means that by filling your community center with fresh flowers and gourmet food you will be able to teach an illiterate single mother how to be a pharmacy technician. It sounds crazy but he has done this and so much more for many, many years. I had the great privilege of visiting the Manchester Craftsman Guild (his nonprofit) during a Council on Foundations conference in Pittsburgh. I believe that visiting his center has changed the way that I approach program officer work and has made me encourage my grantees to reach so much higher than I ever would have in the past. Please take a half an hour to view his TED Talk, I promise it will be the most useful half an hour that you spend all week.

The Business of Doing Good

Rusty Stahl, director of my favorite organization for young people in philanthropy, EPIP, has recently written a response to Dahna Goldstein's essay, titled Foundations Should be More Like Public Companies, which she posted on Sean Stannard-Stockton's Tactical Philanthropy blog as part of his "One Post Challenge". Let me diverge for a moment and say how much I enjoy that the One Post Challenge in particular and philanthropy blogs in general have created such a rich conversation about how to make the work of philanthropy more effective. It wasn't so long ago when those conversations were few and far between because foundation's good intentions are seen as good enough. I'm glad to see that we are at a point as a society that we realize the stakes are too high to just settle for good intentions, it's time to expect results. Check out Rusty's response here.

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