Today is Give Out Day, the first ever national day of giving to LGBTQ causes so I thought I’d share why and how I am using my treasure in support of LGBTQ organizations that empower and advocate for LGBTQ youth of color. Early in my career as a social change agent I managed a drop-in center at the Youth Health Empowerment Project (Y-HEP) in Philadelphia, PA where we sought to create a non-judgmental safe space for the city’s hardest-to-reach youth to access prevention services and support. During my time at Y-HEP many of the young people that came through my door were gay or transgender and victims of bullying or had been abandoned by their families. I carry the faces and stories of these young people with me every day as I pursue social justice through philanthropy. So it is only fitting that my personal giving reflects my values and commitment to the Y-HEP family as well gay and transgender youth of color across the country.

Today I am giving to the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) and The Gay Straight-Alliance Network (GSA). NBJC is a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black LGBT people and their mission is to eradicate racism and homophobia. One of their key priorities is addressing bullying in schools and advocating for federal protections for Black LGBT students. We know that Black LGBT students that are bullied in school are more likely to drop-out and find themselves in harmful situations, so NBJC’s work is critical to saving our young people. NBJC is headed by Sharon Lettman-Hicks, one of the fiercest women I have ever known. I met Sharon about five years ago when I first transitioned into philanthropy and I remember the excitement I had about being able to work with her. I was still pretty young and had never worked at an organization where a Black woman was in a position of leadership. In the short time we spent together, I watched her always speak truth to power and never compromise her values. I applaud Sharon’s leadership as Executive Director & CEO of NBJC and am thoroughly convinced that without them leading the fight for Black LGBT civil rights neither the Black community nor the LGBT community will be able to achieve full equality and justice.

The GSA Network is a national youth leadership organization that connects school-based GSAs to each other and community resources through peer support, leadership development, and training. I got to know the work of the GSA Network through their Senior Manager for Racial & Economic Justice Programs, Geoffrey Winder. Geoffrey and I met a few years ago and immediately hit it off. While waiting for our flights after a conference we talked about the lack of research on barriers to success for girls of color in schools and how the race and gender lens utilized by many in the education justice movement seemed to only capture boys of color. Our conversation revealed that we both wanted to raise awareness about the challenges cis and transgender girls of color face in schools and since then I have been thoroughly impressed with the work Geoffrey has done organizing LBT young women across the country. He and his colleagues at the GSA Network are building a national movement that brings to light the criminalization, harsh discipline and unsafe environments that young LBT women of color contend with. I recently asked him to present on the GSA Network’s work to a group of funders and he made a point of incorporating the voices of the young women he’s working with. Here’s a short video of one of those young women:

I am proud to support the National Black Justice Coalition and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network! I hope you’ll join me in supporting young people and communities of color today and every day.

Wit and  Wisdom is a blogging collaboration between EPIP and JAG. Featuring a monthly entry from individuals within our networks, it highlights thought leadership about philanthropy, racial/social equity, and multigenerational change. Its lightening-hot interviews, essays, and case studies aim to provoke insightful discussion.  We hope you will engage!  

On April 4-6, more than 250 early-career social sector professionals gathered in Chicago, IL to explore new paradigms of leadership at the Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) National Conference. La Piana Consulting was there to launch a joint project with EPIP aimed at examining what “doing good” means in the 21st Century and how the sector can adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing environment.

La Piana Consulting engaged EPIP members in exploring the trends shaping our new reality and how organizations, individuals, and networks can best equip themselves for success. The results of these conversations will be used to shape a broader dialogue across the social sector about how we can maximize our impact in addressing today’s biggest challenges.

Read a “pre-cap” of our developing conversations and learn more about this collaborative effort.  Let us know what you think, do you agree?  What did we miss?

@EPIPnational  @LaPianaConsult

http://www.lapiana.org/about/la-piana-blog/2013/05/doing-good-in-the-21st-century/ 

Doing Good in the 21st Century

By La Piana Consulting

May 7, 2013

Seismic shifts in the environment in which organizations, individuals, and networks interested in “doing good” advance their objectives have left many struggling to find a new path to success. Many factors are driving the need for change in the social sector. Economic scarcity and business model failure, policy change and sector blur, generational and other demographic shifts, changing concepts of leadership, and rapid technological advances are all putting pressure on “traditional” nonprofits and philanthropies to think differently and work differently. What are the practical approaches, tools, and resources the social sector will need to adapt to these changes and to succeed in meeting 21st Century challenges and opportunities?

We set out to explore this question in partnership with Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy  (EPIP), an organization dedicated to empowering new voices and advancing innovation in the sector. On April 4–6, we launched our joint exploration at the EPIP National Conference, hosting a workshop session to look more closely at some of the emerging trends the sector faces and to surface examples of individuals and groups that are proving their ability to succeed in the new reality. We also asked conference participants to share their views with us on video. Highlights from these activities are now being packaged to share with the sector as a “conversation  starter.” Response to this material will inform a developing research agenda around exploring these questions of how the new realities of today’s social sector environment will shape the successes of tomorrow.

New Realities

Business Model Failure – The public sector fiscal crisis and the fraying of the social contract herald a need for a more diversified and robust business model for nonprofit service providers.

Brand Erosion and Reputational Risk – Individual nonprofits and the sector as a whole need to reassert their missions and strengthen their brands.

Leader Shift – New leadership models are being developed and tested, but we have yet to see the future fully emerge as the highly diverse next generation of nonprofit leaders will themselves shape and define it.

Evolving Technological Landscape – Technology can be a game changer, but not all nonprofits have equal access to, or efficacy with, these tools.

Policy – Implementation of health care reform, changes in Social Security benefits, immigration reform, and any number of other major policy shifts will profoundly impact the social sector and those it serves.

Following are just a few of the emergent themes and observations from our April launch. We look forward to building on, refining, and adding to these over the coming months, so stay tuned!

Break Down the Barriers

The nonprofit sector is no longer the home for mission-related activity. The business sector is playing a larger role, with the rise of social enterprise and new corporate structures aiming for a triple bottom line. This has in turn drawn the attention of the public sector, which is attracted by new ways of thinking about responsible social investment. Individuals can now choose to work for change through any one of these sectors. Moreover, there is increasing recognition that significant change cannot be achieved by any one sector alone, but only through the efforts of all three working in concert.

Many EPIP session participants and interviewees spoke to us about the need to break down the barriers between the sectors. One called this: “collaboration across sectors in which every sector sees itself as part of the ‘social sector’.” Some participants voiced a desire to work with government in a way that leverages complementary strengths and capacities, such as government’s ability to effect policy or to scale solutions through public investment. Several others expressed eagerness to learn from corporate partners and to adopt more “business-like” approaches to marketing, human resources management, and sustainable business models.

Although the dialogue about cross-sector collaboration is hardly new, there are still biases and structural barriers that must be overcome for the sectors to work together effectively. Here, leadership can play a key role. EPIP members, who were spending much of the three-day conference sharing their ideas and experiences about leadership in the sector, spoke readily about the need for “translational” or “boundary-spanning” leadership to build bridges across sectors, noting the increasing propensity of young leaders to “zigzag” from sector to sector over the course of their careers, and in so doing, developing flexible language, lenses, and skills they can use to traverse and break down sector boundaries in service of common goals.

Internal Barriers

Alongside the call for more communication and partnering across sectors, we also heard an earnest interest in redefining the funder/grantee relationship that too often puts foundations and nonprofits on either side of a barrier within the social sector. EPIP has recently partnered with the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) to surface this inherent power dynamic and explore how it can be addressed in direct, healthy, and innovative ways. As a result, EPIP’s membership has a heightened awareness of the power differential between philanthropies and nonprofits, and many workshop participants and interviewees spoke about this need to address unequal power in foundation/grantee relationships, calling for greater transparency, more flexible funding, and creative approaches to gauging effectiveness.

This theme of transcending barriers and bridging worlds is also central to what session participants directly experience as the most diverse generation in our nation’s history: the need to embrace and promote diversity in social sector leadership and governance.

Nonprofit is a Tax Status, Not a Business Model

The Great Recession of 2008–2010 and its lingering aftermath has been a wake-up call across the social sector. With public funding uncertain, and in many places decreasing dramatically, nonprofits must rethink their balance sheets. What five or ten years ago had been a familiar admonition to nonprofits to “diversify your funding sources” has become an imperative to create new funding sources by seeking out revenue-generating opportunities. Many EPIP session attendees and interviewees expressed eagerness to see nonprofits explore and embrace social enterprise models, but also noted that public attitudes, and even attitudes and structures within the sector, make it difficult to accept (let alone support) nonprofits seeking to earn revenue. Listening in to one workshop table discussing this topic, we heard: “Building a business model around revenue is the last thing nonprofits think about. And foundations perpetuate that; we want organizations to be sustainable, but not make a profit. We need to continue to shine the light on this.”

A related thread we heard woven through these conversations was the need to address the varying perceptions of the sector, to more effectively use marketing and PR tools to tell a new story about nonprofits and help the public understand its unique strengths and contributions. We also heard a call for more concerted advocacy by and on behalf of the social sector, one participant noting: “If you aren’t at the table, you are on it; and right now we are on it.”

Embrace Fast Failure

One of the most prevalent self-criticisms among this audience of emerging leaders in philanthropy was that the philanthropic sector is not nimble enough, nor is it very tolerant of risk- taking among nonprofit grantees. Overcoming risk aversion is important for the sector as it seeks to develop and test new approaches to persistent problems, as well as for individual organizations looking (and needing) to change. Increasingly, we hear entrepreneurs heralding the merit of “failing fast” and “failing forward” as a necessary part of innovation, but philanthropy is still limited by structural and cultural barriers. Session participants and interviewees acknowledged current efforts to foster more boldness in the social sector, including the Case Foundation’s “Be Fearless” campaign and others who have championed the idea of “fail fairs” and other constructive ways of learning from what doesn’t work.

Developing a new and more constructive approach to risk and failure may also involve a reinvention of how the sector develops metrics to measure impact. We need to become more adept at measuring both short- and long-term change, while at the same time being more open to the idea that not all change is easy to measure. This will require creativity, true partnership within and between sectors, and a willingness to “share credit” for both success and failure.

What’s Next

The above is just a sampling of the themes that rose to the surface as we spoke to some of philanthropy’s current and emerging leaders about how the sector might reinvent itself in the new reality moving forward. Although it is tempting to think about navigating this change as “weathering a storm,” we were also reminded that there is no going back, no return to the comfortable reality of the “known.” We’re all facing the uncertain future together, and the next chapter of the social sector is the one we will write.

In the coming months, EPIP and La Piana Consulting will create a more comprehensive report on our initial findings, and the implications of these conversations. We’ll share a publication and video clips to help inspire further dialogue as we seek to draw diverse perspectives and the best thinking from around the sector to inform the development of practical tools and resources to support success in the 21st Century. We look forward to continuing the conversation!

Twitter: @EPIPnational  @LaPianaConsult

All coaches are able to provide coaching sessions over the phone, and, in some cases, via video or in-person.

To get you started in thinking about the value of coaching, we have some resources for you, courtesy of Amina Dickerson:

• The Realities of Executive Coaching, HBR January 2009
• What Can Coaches Do For You? HBR, January 2009
• The Coaching Impact Study: Measuring the Value of Executive Coaching
• Top Ten Professional Life Coaching Myths

Rates for EPIP members:
$85: 50-minute appointment
$400: five 50-min appointments (save $25!)
$800: ten 50-min appointments (save $50!)

(Please make payment arrangements directly with your coach.)

Wishing you all great success!

After five years, Project Streamline – a field-wide effort led by the Grants Managers Network – has taken stock of how far streamlining has come.  In a just-released report, Practices That Matter, Project Streamline documents how a lack of feedback and a mismatch between foundation values and practices lead to persistent issues that waste grantseeker time and cause unnecessary aggravation.

The report doesn’t just point out problems – it also suggests streamlining steps that matter most. Find out how well you’re doing by taking the “How Do You Line Up” quiz, and get no-nonsense advice from Ask Dr. Streamline. 

Join us for our monthly webinar focused this month on Impact Investing. We’ll be talking with Catherine Covington of EPIP Bay Area and RSF Social Finance. RSF is a pioneering non-profit financial services organization dedicated to transforming the way the world works with money.

Register here.

Webinar Description:

Many of us have heard about “Impact Investing”, but what is the current state of this relatively young field and who is getting their hands dirty in it?  What would the philanthropic field look like if foundations’ grant dollars and endowment dollars were distributed and invested using a similar set of values and goals? Foundations have the opportunity to play a critical role in catalyzing the movement of more dollars into the field of impact investing by putting portions of their philanthropic capital, that is, their endowments, into mission-related investments, but this is easier said than done for most foundations.  This webinar is for anyone who is curious about the field of impact investing and will include examples of pioneers in the field that will hopefully spark conversations within your own organization!

Presenter Bio: 

Catherine Covington is a senior program associate in Philanthropic Services at RSF Social Finance in San Francisco, CA. Catherine has spent most of her career in philanthropy and has worked for both public charities and private foundations facilitating global and domestic grantmaking for a wide variety of clients. At RSF, Catherine manages grantmaking services and is a member of the business development team, helping attract new clients and spread the word about RSF’s innovative work.

Introduction

Of all the questions of discrimination and prejudice that still exist in our society, the most perplexing one is the oldest, and in some ways today, the newest:  the problem of race.  Can we fulfill the promise of America by embracing all our citizens of all races.…  In short, can we become one America in the 21^st century?[i]

With these words, former President Bill Clinton announced his intention to lead the American people in “a great and unprecedented conversation about race.” His hope was to create One America in which every citizen, regardless of race, recognizes their shared dreams and has access to equal opportunity.  Shared dreams and equal opportunity are the avenues through which citizens become engaged in the civic life of their communities, allowing strangers to become neighbors, strengthening the social fabric of America’s civil society.  Without question, the most visible example of the nation’s progress on race relations is the two-term election of President Barack Obama.

Unfortunately, President Obama’s election did not usher in a new dialogue on race relations as many hoped.  Paradoxically, it reinforced the false ideas that racial equality in America has been achieved and a dialogue on race relations is unnecessary.  In this post-racial America it is presumed that an individual’s success is largely based on one’s own talents, aspirations and fate, and that a person’s race or ethnicity is largely irrelevant in determining his or her future socio-economic success.  Some proponents of this view go even further, suggesting that efforts to address disparities by focusing on a specific race amounts to reverse discrimination by giving a particular group an unfair advantage.

The widespread acceptance of a post-racial society is at odds with the divisive national debates that ensued along racial lines following the tragic shooting deaths of Trayvon Martin and Oscar Grant, among others.  These incidents show how questions of race, especially when it involves African American men, continue to divide America.  The belief in a post-racial society has had several unfortunate consequences, including preventing foundations from acting to research and document racial disparities, determine their cause, encourage dialogue around the findings and support solutions.

If we are living in a post-racial society, there is no better group to examine than African American men and boys–who without question have been subjected to harsh treatment throughout American history–to determine the veracity of the claim of a post-racial society.  In 2010, foundations contributed $29 million to programs exclusively focused on African American men and boys, a modest increase over previous years.[ii]  While this amount may appear significant, it is actually less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the $45.7 billion awarded by America’s 76,000 grantmaking institutions in 2010.[iii] Such a small amount is only justified if one believes that African American men and boys face no systemic issues of racial discrimination or that their dismal socio-economic status has not reached a level of dysfunction that affects the larger society.

This essay begins with a short primer on African American history.  Culture and history matter.  They provide the necessary context for understanding the how and why of where groups find themselves.  The next three sections provide rationales for why foundations should engage in specific programs aimed at supporting African American males:  the mythology of a post-racial society, saving an endangered species and ensuring global competitiveness.  While this essay focuses on African American males, it is important to note that these positions can form the philosophical basis for supporting programs directed to assist any segment of Americans; for example, Native Americans and whites in Appalachia and women.

Didn’t have a chance to make it to the conference? Don’t worry! Conference attendees will share their experiences with us in an open space for rich conversation and networking.

JOIN US:

Wednesday, May 15, 2013
5:30-7:30 p.m.

Press Club
20 Yerba Buena Lane
San Francisco, CA 94103
Ask the front desk/host for “EPIP” and they will direct you to our group

First glass of wine is on us, first come, first serve.

RSVP here today.
Hope you can join us!

An Intimate Conversation with LA Mayoral Candidates
Wendy Greuel & Eric Garcetti

presented by The Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce

 
When
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
7:00 p.m. Reception
7:30 p.m. Conversation

Where

THE CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT
Center for Healthy Communities
1000 North Alameda St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
http://www.calendow.org
 
CLICK HERE TO RSVP

Contact info@lajcc.org with questions.

This post originally appeared on the YNPN-Chicago Blog. 

On April 5^th and 6^th, I had the pleasure of attending the Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) National Conference here in Chicago.  The EPIP Executive Director, Rahsaan Harris, invited me to join as one of the Board Chairs of YNPN Chicago.  I was very excited about participating in this event because of the insights I would gain from future philanthropic leaders and the new information I could share with the YNPN member base to build our programming and partners.

For those of you not familiar with EPIP, they are a similar in purpose to YNPN although their programming is specific for up and coming leadership in the philanthropic sector.  Currently, there is not a chapter in Chicago but there was an announcement that they are going to explore that option this year.  Very exciting!

Here are three main take-a-ways/reflections as “The Mole” for the nonprofit sector:

1)     Philanthropic leaders desire to solve problems just as much as their nonprofit counterparts.  There was definitely quite a bit of passion, discussion, and ideas, shared during the conference.  As one of the leaders of a nonprofit organization, I know we catch ourselves thinking that foundations are always ‘thinking of themselves’ before the cause.  While this has to be true to a small extent, their goal really is to solve social issues where they focus their resources.  This basic concept lead me to think, “If foundation and nonprofit leaders are this passionate about fixing the SAME social issues then why are there still so many unsolved problems? Where is the disconnect in our system?”

2)     High-level conversations at these types of conferences feel the same.  The large group discussion, much like those I have experienced in the past, reminded me that blame seems to always be spread 51/49 to the “opposing side.”  Philanthropic leaders tend to say that nonprofits are not keeping up with the trends and are not innovating.  Nonprofit leaders tend to say that foundations are not funding them enough to keep up and make the impact they need to make.  I think what we really need to discuss in these conversations is the real issue at hand: Leadership.

3)     Changes are coming.  What do I mean by this is this?  Foundations and the philanthropic sector as a whole are historically stereotyped as inflexible and incommunicative.  The attendees at the EPIP Conference seemed to understand that issues are not being solved in this “old-fashioned” hierarchical structure.  Philanthropy needs nonprofits and nonprofits need philanthropy.  Our generation is slowing taking over the leadership roles and I hope that the idea of collective leadership continues to grow as a solution to solve these social issues.

Did you attend the EPIP Conference or have any interactions with the leaders of our philanthropic sector lately? Do you have any thoughts on the relationship between nonprofit and philanthropic leadership? Comment and let us know below!

About the Author: Steve Strang is Co-Chair of the YNPN Chicago Executive Board and a consultant with Spectrum Nonprofit Services focusing on revenue, strategy and sustainable structure.

This post is authored by Paul Bachleitner, the Joint Affinity Group Project Director, as a part of the EPIP-JAG blogging partnership “Wit and Wisdom.”

It’s dreadfully easy to get lost beneath the big tent of the Council’s annual conference. This is one reason why the JAG partners and other affinity groups like EPIP hold their conferences before, during, and afterwards. We help you recharge your racial and social justice mojo.

But if you don’t have a stout boat to navigate the flood of activities, they can soak you like a philanthropalooza tsunami. How do you ride the wave?

It’s exciting to be sure. But staying on top of the constant stream of activities and multiple locations can be challenging.

Consider how JAG rode the wave:

Our ride began on an early-morning flight to Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, April 3, the day Native Americans in Philanthropy kicked off its conference at the Tulsa Hard Rock Café. NAP honored JAG with an award for partner of the year and would later showcase its brand-spanking-new website and its new report Native Voices Rising, a research and re-granting project that focuses on the need for deeper, sustained funding for Indian country.

A quick Friday evening flight to Chicago brought us to the Palmer House Hilton, ground zero for philanthropalooza activities. The Association of Black Foundation Executives’ annual conference had been underway since Thursday with deep dives into topics ranging from Black men and boys issues to strengthening Black trustees. The distinguished James A. Joseph Lecture was delivered by Dr. Robert Ross, the executive director of The California Endowment.

An early wakeup call Sunday morning rewarded us with a savory dim sum buffet at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders’ annual breakfast meeting, where bright-eyed and bushy tailed we gave a standing ovation for AAPIP’s Banyan Tree honorees for democratic philanthropy, Thomas C. Layton, President, and Stacie Ma’a, Vice President, of The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation.

Afterwards, we ran down Michigan Avenue to make it to the opening round of the Council’s annual conference—and then sprinted back again later that evening for Hispanics in Philanthropy’s annual members reception, where Board Chair Luz Vega-Marquise and Executive Director Diana Campoamor spoke to rousing applause about HIP’s new push to build more funds for Latino communities to commemorate its thirtieth anniversary this year.

Once Council activities ended on Monday, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy hosted its 2013 Impact Awards followed by an intimate cocktail reception hosted by Funders for LGBTQ Issues to honor its new president, Ben Maulbeck. Even later that night, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy threw its Philanthropy Without Borders party at Buddy Guy’s.

Hours after the Council concluded its conference the next day, the D5 Coalition launched a leadership team retreat to gauge the impact of its work to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in philanthropy. The retreat spanned Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, which overlapped with the Women’s Funding Network’s conference in Detroit.

Just writing about all of this is breathless. What if we decided to link philanthropalooza activities into one big summit?

JAG is considering the idea for 2014. There could be joint plenary and breakout sessions, on- and off-site activities, speakers, receptions. You name it. You wouldn’t have as much trouble reaching activities and could participate in so many more. If we do it, we want it to have outsized impact and reach far outside the box. An un-conference.

• What should it include or not include?
• Would you want come?
• Would you volunteer?

Post a comment or e-mail me with your thoughts.

Wit and  Wisdom is a blogging collaboration between EPIP and JAG. Featuring a monthly entry from individuals within our networks, it highlights thought leadership about philanthropy, racial/social equity, and multigenerational change. Its lightening-hot interviews, essays, and case studies aim to provoke insightful discussion.  We hope you will engage!