Leadership and Innovation in the New Civil Rights Movement: Impact Investing as a Main Cornerstone

by Michael J. Isimbabi, Ph.D.

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At the 1969 UNESCO Conference on the Environment, a peace activist named John McConnell proposed the idea of an international Earth Day to foster appreciation of the earth and to remind people around the world of their common need to preserve its delicate ecosystems. Around that same time, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin announced the idea for a national environmental teach-in because he wanted to force environmental issues onto the national political agenda...

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This April, EPIP is highlighting the Measuring a Leader Innovation and Problem Solving Skills.

Social change leaders:

• Think unconventionally while inspiring others to as well
• Solicit diverse perspectives to aid problem solving
• Analyze problems, create solutions and solve problems quickly
• Integrate new technology and data analysis into problem solving 

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  Sophia Guevara is a Social Media Fellow with EPIP.  In this essay, she provides readers with some of the lessons she has learned about being creative with what you have to make change. Seeing a man curled up asleep by the lights of a pharmacy one night while in Washington, D.C., I reached into my pocket and knew that the change I had wasn’t enough to make a difference.  Walking away, I felt ashamed I couldn’t help him but was inspired to start thinking what I could do on a larger scale to help those like him.  I didn’t have grant money to give but I did hold leadership positions within a council and several associations.  By being creative with what I had, I came up with the idea to partner with others to host service projects at annual conferences.   Here are four lessons I learned from those experiences: Lesson learned: Prepare your case, but be patient and flexible. Not every proposal I prepared was accepted readily by potential partners at first glance. I found it important to be patient with those who expressed doubt and flexible enough to negotiate changes when necessary.  I had to be humble enough to realize that the criticism received in the early stages often offered valuable insight.  Instead of being stopped in my tracks by it, I decided to use the input to mold the plan into something that would gain additional support in later stages. Lesson learned: Professional conferences are a great opportunity to reach many professionals. As […] Read more

This guest post was authored by Joy Stephan. It’s understood that with money, comes power.  But funders don’t always think about how power influences our funding relationships.  As funders, we have the power to amplify the influence of money, or conscientiously diminish its influence.  It’s in our best interest to neutralize the influence money brings.  Here’s why: YOU ONLY GET SO FAR WITH A SUGAR DADDY While NGO’s may fantasize about ‘benevolent funders’, there are limitations to no-strings-attached funds.  Funding without commitment is tenuous; there isn’t a foundation for trust to develop.   Further, partners are quick to blame or resent rather than focus on learning and course correction when organizations fall short of projected outcomes. Ultimately, funders who don’t trust and don’t share a commitment to the partnership cannot have a transformative impact on society. Funding relationships are ultimately human relationships- they grow through mutual understanding, learning and appreciation.  Positive emotions like these build strong, trusting bonds.  These relationships, while more complex, are also more satisfying – to funders, service providers, and the community at large. THE BIRDS AND THE BEES OF DIALOGUE Biology plays a role – dialogue triggers neurochemical and behavioral outcomes that can expand or limit relationships.  Dopamine is released in the brain when people talk to others they trust.  This hormone stimulates the prefrontal cortex, the area of our brain that generates new ideas, empathy, creative thinking and good judgment.  In contrast, conversations between people with low trust levels release cortisol and catecholamine, chemicals that shut […] Read more

This guest post was authored by Ryan Ginard. Ryan works for The San Diego Foundation, where he builds capacity for the Malin Burnham San Diego Center for Civic Engagement through the Civic Leadership Fund, and supports the development and implementation of the Legacy League and Nonprofit Planned Giving Partnership program. Ryan is also a Steering Committee member of the San Diego Chapter of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy.  What are the best ways to increase the capacity of our nonprofits? Is it targeted funding to areas of need or is it competitive grant making to enable innovative approaches to traditional societal issues? Now take money off the table as an option. How does that change your approach? As we celebrate 100 years of community foundations (one of the real bastions of philanthropic engagement), we need to realize that giving has changed from that of a purely financial nature to a hybrid of time, ideas and charitable gifts. The sooner this is realized, the sooner a modernized approach to engaging with the next generation of philanthropists can occur. Why is this new narrative important? Ultimately it’s because we are failing to connect with this important demographic at a time that we should be grooming them to be the leaders of tomorrow. You know the type, extremely active in their community throughout the early stages of their career, going through a number of leadership development programs and then all of a sudden being found in a state of career flux by the age of 30. Family […] Read more

In this interview, Beth Kanter provides readers with an opportunity to gain leadership lessons from a career that she has been passionate about for twenty years.  Helping nonprofits make effective use of technology, Beth also shares best practices for nonprofits to consider. 1.  Could you provide a brief professional description of who you are and what you do? You can find that here: http://www.bethkanter.org/about-beth/ My work is as a trainer – for the past 20 years that has been around working with nonprofits to build capacity in using the Internet and Web and social media for their missions and communications strategies and for building staff knowledge and capacity. 2. What drew you to your current work and how did you get your start? It’s a long story and I’ve written about my career path here: http://www.bethkanter.org/whats-your-calling/ To sum it up, I’ve always had a desire for life long learning – that’s my passion.    So, if you can follow your passion, curiosity, and keep learning – AND get paid for your work – you’ve hit the sweet spot. 2a. What skills have been most useful to you in your work with nonprofits? As a trainer, I work constantly at improving my skills in instructional design and delivery.  I think having good facilitation skills so you can help groups of people to learn and gain insights.      Also,  I do a lot of coaching, so listening skills are important.    And, for developing curriculum and training materials, understanding content curation, attention training (being able […] Read more

We interviewed Bob Pullin, Chief of Digital Engagement with the Ford Foundation, to learn more about their new, innovative Un-Survey and the thinking and technology behind it. 1. Please provide a brief professional description of yourself. I’m responsible for digital engagement for the Ford Foundation, focused on using technology to help build relationships with our core audiences mostly through the web site and social media. Prior to coming to Ford I worked on technology strategy, design management and information architecture at a small design and technology company called Corsair. At Corsair we worked with a few philanthropy clients including Rockefeller Foundation and the Gates Foundation. 2. On the Ford Foundation website, there is something called the Un-Survey. What is it about? The Un-Survey is one part of the research for our website redesign. It is intended to help us continue to build empathy with our audiences and give us a better understanding of kinds of information they want from us. The Un-Survey is giving ideas for content and functionality to offer in the next version of the website that we wouldn’t have thought of without it. 3. What kind of thinking went behind the development of the Un-Survey? The Un-Survey was conceived as an experiment to see if we could turn the traditional survey model on its head in a productive way. Instead of us asking our Web visitors questions, we’re inviting them to ask us questions. Our hope was that this will unearth what’s most important to our partners, peers and others—without our preconceived ideas leading the way. […]

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May 21, 2014

EPIP Webinar: Strengthening Nonprofit-Funder Partnerships 

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May 29, 2014 | 6-7:30 pm | Sign up now!

The U.S. philanthropic sector pays out about $47 billion per year in grants (Foundation Center Data, 2011). Most foundations are only granting 5% of their total assets. What about the remaining 95%? Foundations invest 19 times more dollars in investments than in grants. This begs the question: how are foundations investing? Do foundation investments reflect their mission and values?

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