Great Next Generation Training Opportunity

Emerging Practicioners in Philanthropy is one of my favorite groups and one of my frustrations with the Next Gen track at the Council on Foundations conference last year was that too many of the Next Gen sessions were at the same time, so you couldn't attend the full track. This year EPIP is addressing that concern by hosting an amazing pre-conference for the next geners. From EPIP:

INNOVATION & LEGACY:

The Place of the Next Generation in Philanthropy

A High-Value, Low-Cost Training for the Next Generation of Foundation Leaders

Preceding the Council on Foundations 60th Annual Conference

In these economic times, investing in the next generation of foundation talent remains a critical strategy for sustaining the legacy and innovation of our field. Yet, for understandable reasons, professional development budgets are being slashed. In response, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) is pleased to provide a new type of training that is highly affordable and offers a unique value proposition for foundation professionals and trustees in the under-40 demographic. This two day pre-conference offers in-depth skill-building workshops from some of the premiere educators in our field such as GrantCraft; semi-structured intergenerational learning featuring esteemed foundation CEOs and leaders; and personalized career services from Idealist.org. This pre-conference is being held in partnership with the Council on Foundations, Resource Generation, and 21/64.

Separate registration is highly affordable at $200 per person, with a $150 discount rate for dues-paying EPIP members. Scholarships will be available for dues-paying EPIP members, including from the Professional Development Fund, which supports conference travel for young foundation professionals of color. Email precon@epip.org to request scholarship information. Under-employed foundation professionals, as well as those from public foundations, are encouraged to apply for scholarships. With a start-time after lunch Saturday and adjournment Sunday afternoon, participants need not miss work days and will only need one hotel night. Participants are strongly encouraged to attend the Council on Foundations 60th Annual Conference. Atlanta-based colleagues are strongly encouraged to attend. Information and registration is available on the EPIP.org website here. Online registration is reached directly here.

Paul Brest and I agree about a lot of things but this is NOT one of them

Paul Brest, effectiveness guru and President of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, has a pretty scathing critique of the new NCRP criteria that I just endorsed. I think Rosetta Thurman described this issue best on her twitter feed

"Paul Brest disagrees with NCRP's new criteria for philanthropy. @TristaHarris disagrees with Paul Brest."

Check out the article and my response here and let me know what you think.

Piles of Files

I pride myself on my organizational skills and ability to bring order to chaos. Those traits saw me through undergrad while working full-time and now grad school with a similar schedule— all while trying to maintain some semblance of work-life balance. When confronted by an overwhelming array of tasks I tend to fall back on that old adage: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” This serves as a catalyst to focus my energy in the most efficient manner. But adding the cyclical duties of a program officer and all this entails (professional development workshops and industry functions) as yet another line item on my to-do list was daunting even to me. In my humble opinion, two skills are paramount to success in program work and in life—organization and time management. True, these are qualities one can learn but honestly, do you really want to add those to your to-do list as well? With each grant cycle my proposals are always in various stages of completion. Now in my third cycle, I think I have hit on a system which works well for me:

Sort: When given a proposal packet I sort through all documents to be sure the organization has included everything we require—particularly the financials. I focus on those first because I find they can give me a good overview of the organization’s fiscal health. Also, if the numbers raise a red flag I can jot down any questions I may have and ask them at my site visit.

Schedule: I now move to contacting the organization to set up a visit. I try to get on their schedule as soon as possible—spacing the visits out to maybe two to three a week— until I have gone through my entire docket. In this time frame, I always have to allow for a game of phone tag before I can pin them down to a date.

Prep: We use templates and worksheets which does make the write-ups easier. I attack the financial worksheet first as this can be the most tedious. While reading through the proposal I highlight and note anything on which I my need further clarification. Finally I found writing up a list of questions beforehand to ask during my visit allows the meeting to run smoothly.

Regroup: When I get back to the office after the site visit, I immediately note not only facts about the organization but also my thoughts and impressions. This is the basis of my recommendation or decline at the next staff meeting.

Write-ups: If the proposal has met staff approval, I can begin my final write-ups. I find it much easier to make a dent in these as soon as possible. If I still have some left after all the visits are done I can set aside a day or two later in the cycle to devote solely to this duty.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Believe me it took trial and error before I became comfortable with this routine. Other program officers may have their own system for attacking the mountain of files on their desk and some may actually thrive on the chaos and pressure of waiting until the deadlines. But as I watch the piles of files that inhabit my desk slowly dwindle I know another grant cycle is slowly coming to a close.

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

A Great Foundation

A legend at my foundation passed last week.  I'm not sure how well Terrence Keenan is known outside of the health foundation world, but his amazing work in philanthropy became the basis of an award created in his name at Grantmakers in Health.  He worked in philanthropy for 40 years and though his focus and committment was to the health and health care of Americans, his leadership in philanthropy spans all areas in the field.  Last week I wrote about what makes a perfect 21st Century foundation.  Here are Mr. Keenan's thoughts on what makes a great foundation altogether:  

 A great foundation is informed and animated by moral purpose.

 A great foundation accepts responsibility and stewardship for pursuing these purposes.

 A great foundation walks humbly with its grantees—it acknowledges that their success is the instrument of its own success.

 A great foundation is deliberate. It is guided by judgment. It acts where there is a need to act. It takes necessary risks—and proceeds in the face of great odds.

 A great foundation is a resource for both discovery and change. It invests not only in the identification of answers, but also in the pursuit of solutions.

 A great foundation is accountable. It functions as a public trust—and places its learning and experience in the public domain.

 Finally, a great foundation is self-renewing. It adheres to a constant process of self-reflection and self-assessment. It knows when it needs to change and to adopt measures to improve its performance.

More about Mr. Keenan's philosophy on health philanthropy can be found at: http://www.rwjf.org/files/publications/other/ThePromiseAtHandByTerranceKeenan.pdf