Is trailblazing just common sense on steroids?

One of my friends on Linked In sent me a great article about the former President of the Peninsula Community Foundation, which is now the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and run by another trailblazer Emmett Carson. Bill Somerville now runs the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation and uses a process called "paperless giving" to make his grant decisions. Paperless giving involves him spending time in the community, listening to people impacted by community issues, and finding people with innovative solutions. He then gives money in 48 hours or less to support projects that look like they have potential. "I'm trying to push the envelope of philanthropy - most foundations are paralyzed in bureaucracies of their own making," he said recently, over a meal of meat loaf, curry pilaf and steamed vegetables at the St. Anthony of Padua soup kitchen in Menlo Park.

I loved the article and I think Somerville has a great approach but it made me wonder, since when does common sense giving get you a full spread in the San Francisco Chronicle? I am hoping for a day when good decision-making and less bureaucracy by foundations is a non-story but until then, check out the article here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy a calorie-filled day with your loved ones and when you pull out the old family album remember that everyone looked crazy in the 70's.

Fellowship Toolkit for Funders

Trista and I are both alums from the Association of Black Foundation Executives' Connecting Leaders Fellowship program. The program provided not only the opportunity for us to meet and create the dynamic blogging duo, but also valuable mentorship and coaching experiences. Plus a network (read: support group) of other fellows who we can call upon whenever we need them. Other foundations offering fellowships include the San Francisco Foundation and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

But what if a young leader of a foundation wants to start a fellowship at his or her organization? The North Carolina Network of Grantmakers has released a guide to assist foundations interested in creating fellowships. The guide, Cultivating Young Philanthropic Leaders: How to Establish a Fellowship Program, provides tips and FAQs towards starting a fellowship program. The guide targets foundations in North Carolina but I read through it and I think it's appropriate for foundations located anywhere since the advice is universal.

This, along with EPIP's 2005 report Fellowships in Philanthropy, are potential tools on cultivating the next round of philanthropy leaders. They're the only publications I am aware of but if the New Voices audience knows of others then please post them in the comments section.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Book Review: CauseWired

This has been a busy month reviewing books but luckily both of them were fabulous. I just finished reading CausedWired by Tom Watson, the publisher of onPhilanthropy.com. Tom writes about how individuals and institutions are changing the face of philanthropy using new media tools. We are living through an exciting time where you don't have to be a socialite or a fortune 500 CEO to be a philanthropist. You can be a high school student with a facebook account or a young professional that connects using Twitter. The book is a great study on how Gen X and Y are being philanthropic and how nonprofits are changing how they interact with the public to be more accessible using these tools. This is one of the few books that I read that immediately caused me to do something I said I would never do. After reading the first two chapters I opened a Facebook account and connected with Headwaters donors and volunteers. I had been avoiding Facebook because I had been using LinkedIn (connect with me here) for social networking and I felt like it would be too much to have two social networks to keep up. CauseWired made me rethink that position. Multiple access points helps individuals get to know your cause and while we aren't using those tools as a fundraising method right now, being accessible better connects you to supporters and makes your work more transparent. I also started to Twitter (which I also said I would never do). CauseWired is a great study in how these web 2.0 tools are being used, who is using them effectively, and what the true potential is of these mediums.

CauseWired is available now at Amazon.com, this book is a must read if you are developing strategies for reaching new donors and supporters using web tools.

If you have examples of nonprofits that are using these tools effectively or ideas about what you would like to see me Twitter or include on my Facebook page, add your suggestions in the comments.

Book Review: Uncharitable

Dan Pallotta send me a copy of his new book Uncharitable to review and I LOVED IT! I am a big believer in the potential of the nonprofit sector and I also believe that there are many structural issues that impact how effective nonprofits can be at achieving their missions. Dan's premise is that human beings are innately charitable and that we have a desire to help our fellow man. Our current system of charity is the bureaucracy that we set up to fulfill that need to help one another. This system has remained unexamined because doing "good" is good enough. In this book Dan asks some key questions: Does this system work? Is it the best system we could have? What other systems are available? His vision is to set free charities and all of the people that work for them from a set of rules that were designed for another age and another purpose and begin to use the rules of free-market capitalism to supercharge the sector. Before you get all high and mighty and remind me that the free-market system is collapsing around us everyday and that opening up the nonprofit system to its corruption and volatility wold ruin the purity of the sector, I'd like to remind you that the sector is already influenced by the corruption of the for profit sector, as evidenced by many high profile scandals and the volatility for the free-market is what is shrinking my foundation's endowment. The nonprofit system has all of the pitfalls of a free-market system with none of the benefits (e.g tolerance for risk, investment in research and development, and competitive pay). This book is destined to start some great conversations, which are very overdue.

The book is available November 28th at Amazon, check it out here.