Check out the new site!

New Voices of Philanthropy has moved to its new site, look around, tell me what you like and what you don't like, and what you want to see more of. Leave your thoughts in the comments.Trista

P.S. If you subscribed to the RSS feed for New Voies of Philanthropy at the old site, please re-subscribe above

Bringing Foundations into the 21st Century

My former foundation is doing a survey on what web tools donors use when they give. I think it is wonderful that they are asking donors what they want instead of building a tool and then hoping that everyone will line up to use it. It's also great that the survey is a partnership between multiple community foundations. Please take a few minutes to fill it out. It is a great opportunity to help foundations begin to use cutting edge tools to connect with donors in new ways. From the Saint Paul and Minnesota Community Foundations: Social media and e-philanthropy are changing what donors want and expect from nonprofits. Minnesota Community Foundation and The Saint Paul Foundation are partnering with community foundations in Columbus and San Francisco to sponsor joint research to learn directly from donors about what web tools they may use for charitable purposes.

As part of this effort, they want to survey as many people as possible who are already givers to nonprofit organizations. I hope that you will take a few minutes to complete the survey attached below. They will not collect e-mails and all responses will be anonymous.

Thank you for your time to complete this!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=p8nhnNYPQtNjQNo_2fM395CA_3d_3d

Build Your Base

Paulette is a new voice in the field of philanthropy. She has contributed a great post to New Voices of philanthropy about how she built her base of knowledge in the field. From Paulette:

A colleague of mine sent me this link- http://www.mcf.org/mcf/resource/philanth.htm-to get my opinion. She was planning to use it for the philanthropy course she taught and she figured it was a great ice breaker for her students. As I watched it I had to chuckle at some of the responses given. Then I realized I was probably just as naive about the real meaning of philanthropy as they were when I embarked on this journey.

I didn’t have a clue as to where to begin. So, I began at the beginning. Believe my when I say that Google is your friend. Aside from information received from my various non-profit and philanthropy courses, I sought out other resources and tools I could use in my work. Below is a list of books, websites and other primers that remain a large part of my philanthropy library:

• • • “The Insider’s Guide to Grant Making” by Joel Orosz. This was a required text for my philanthropy course and is still my go-to guide. Orosz lays out the work and obligations of a program officer along with background and history of the field. A very enjoyable read.
    • “GrantCraft” This is produced by the Ford Foundation and offers a wealth of information on philanthropy, grant making, mission-related investments and anything else related to philanthropy. If you register on the site you can download virtually all of the guides for free or you can purchase a hard copy.
    • “The Complete Guide to Grant Making Basics” This was originally put out in two parts but the updated version combines both. It costs around $65 as an individual (cheaper if your foundation is a member) but well worth the cost for anyone who wants a grant making 101 course. It covers everything—from reading proposals, to how to conduct site visits and understanding non-profit finances (a personal thorn in my side).
    • Philanthropy and non-profit blogs. I can’t say enough about them. These offer a great perspective on the current trends in the field—Perspectives from the Pipeline; New Voices in Philanthropy (shameless plug but true-this blog was the one of the first I discovered while on my journey); and Tactical Philanthropy. Also, sign up to receive newsletters and blog information from the various foundations. This is a great resource for seeing what social issues other foundations find imperative and where they are putting their money.
    • Philanthropy magazines and periodicals.

• • Chronicle of Philanthropy, Stanford Social Innovation Review and Non-Profit Quarterly. Most of the articles are free but a subscription is required for some. I am partial to SSI Review due to its abundance of information on social issues that are of interest to me (particularly economic development and poverty).

While there is no dearth of information available and this doesn’t even cover issue- or policy-related blogs I subscribe to, the above list is the one I found most helpful to build my base of knowledge. I continue to use these sources as well as many others I have discovered. Books and blogs are important but networking is key. This avenue worked for me—after joining a local women’s philanthropy group, I met and now work with one of the program officers. The take-away: Stay hungry and never stop learning. I myself have just scratched the surface.

Paulette Pierre is a Program Officer intern at The Field Foundation of Illinois. She has a graduate certificate in Non-Profit Management and Philanthropy from Loyola University and is currently pursuing her MA in Interdisciplinary Studies at DePaul University.