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News for February 2007
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 23 February 2007 |
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| Effective Philanthropy: Organizational Success through Deep Diversity and Gender Equality |
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Mary Ellen S. Capek and Molly Mead have written one of those books that you hope will have an impact on its intended audience: Effective Philanthropy: Organizational Success through Deep Diversity and Gender Equality. Coming out of some multi-funder initiatives of the mid-nineties, the authors try to tackle the enormous problem of certain social norms and how they deter funding of programs and organizations that address race, class, and gender issues.
As it becomes increasingly clear that race, class, and gender are central, not peripheral issues, to a whole range of social change agendas, it's important that funders and other leaders develop a strong strategic framework from which to approach them. This book takes us several steps toward such a framework. First, the book develops the concept of "deep diversity". In my experience, shallow diversity results in efforts that feel tagged on, cause additional expense, and lack synergy with other central aspects of a project. Deeper approaches reveal rich strategic benefits. Second, the book describes case studies of successful foundations and programs. These descriptions are much more than mere anecdotes.
The more I learn about social change the more I come to share the perspective of the authors and the visionary funders who supported them. For example, it has become increasingly clear in the last few years that funding women's programs in the international arena is a key toward economic development and social justice. This book will help us take that insight and others and apply them in the years to come.
Posted: 2/23/07; 2:17:56 PM # |
| Taking Advice: How Leaders Get Good Counsel and Use It Wisely |
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Dan Ciampa's book Taking Advice: How Leaders Get Good Counsel and Use It Wisely is literally incomparable, in that there is nothing else like it. There are hundreds of books on the topic of giving advice, but the skills involved in taking advice, despite their impact on success, are profoundly neglected. This book goes a long way toward rectifying that neglect.
One of Ciampa's main contributions is a very useful taxonomy of types of advice: Strategic, Operational, Political, and Personal. He defines the typical content of each of these types, along with how the leader can benefit from it. Then he goes on to define four kinds of advisors: Expert, Experienced, Sounding-Board, and Partner. Together, these form a matrix from which he derives a number of useful scenarios and insights, especially as they relate to the attitudes and practical actions of great advice takers.
I was especially interested in his ideas for setting up advice networks. No doubt you'll see signs of these ideas in my own search for advice in the coming months. I hope you find this as useful as I have.
Posted: 2/23/07; 1:53:19 PM # |
| Gilbert Center Publication Catalog for Spring 2007 |
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We're a very Internet centered organization and one of the symptoms of this is that we rarely print things out. But every now and then it's really handy to be able to hand something tangible to a colleague, especially when you're making purchasing decisions. With that in mind, we are releasing the first of several free, print-oriented, PDF catalogs of products and services: the Gilbert Center Publication Catalog for Spring 2007. It's a handy 17 page document with all of our publications described within, as well as a printable order form. I hope some of you will find this useful!
Posted: 2/23/07; 12:23:26 PM # |
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22 February 2007 |
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| Michael Gilbert's Top Ten Books of 2006 |
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We're continuing our series of "top ten" lists as part of our celebration of the ten year anniversary of Nonprofit Online News. Today, we're publishing my personal ten favorites among the books I reviewed last year. Several of these are available for free online and none of them are very expensive. The selection leans toward those books that could have the largest impact on your strategic thinking, including such titles as Alliances, Coalitions and Partnerships; The Wealth of Networks; The Art of the Start; and Information Ecologies.
Posted: 2/22/07; 5:26:58 PM # |
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21 February 2007 |
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| On-Demand Seminar: Email Newsletter Marketing |
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For the last couple of years, we've offered an ever increasing array of live online seminars. Today, I'm very pleased to announce the first ON-DEMAND seminar on our single most popular topic: Email Newsletter Marketing. The seminar will be available starting the first Tuesday of March and we are currently offering an early sign-up promotion. You will get a free copy of "The Guide to Nonprofit Email" if you register between now and Feb. 28th.
As usual, the workshop covers: (1) developing a coherent, measurable, overall email strategy, (2) the common flaws with most programs and how to fix them, and (3) creating effective content for email newsletters. These three sections are further divided into smaller parts so you can study at your own pace. And, the basic price includes a thirty minute phone consultation with me. Of course, that part is still live.
Posted: 2/21/07; 7:03:40 PM # |
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20 February 2007 |
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| Meaningful Work has a Price |
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On January 31, 2007 we completed a survey of the readers of Nonprofit Online News (NON) and others on the topic of work life satisfaction. In the first of several reports based on that survey, we compare the results of our civil society respondents with the answers to the very same questions from society at large in a survey done by Pew Research. We discover that Meaningful Work has a Price.
Posted: 2/20/07; 6:35:08 PM # |
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18 February 2007 |
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| Nonprofits in a Time of War |
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Mark Rosenman, writing in the Chronicle of Philanthropy and Alternet, writes about Nonprofits in a Time of War. I ask you to read this and take it to heart. "Silence is an abdication in the face of an abomination", he says. And I agree.
Posted: 2/18/07; 10:57:18 PM # |
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17 February 2007 |
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| The Google Powered Office |
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A year or so ago, I explored the idea of researching and writing a guide to running all or most of the major functions of a nonprofit organization on free web applications. I would still love to see that, but I think it's a job for the Idealware folks. In the mean time, The Google Powered Office is a good start.
Posted: 2/17/07; 6:51:24 PM # |
| Getting Things Done When You're Only a Grunt |
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In many of my workshops, I offer practices that are best implemented in the context of a supportive environment, or at least with a little help from a team. But that isn't the way things are for many of the folks I'm teaching. Generally, I suggest creating islands of improvement in a sea of indifference. In Getting Things Done When You're Only a Grunt, Joel Spolsky describes six strategies that take this idea much further: (1) Just Do It. (2) Harness the Power of Viral Marketing. (3) Create a Pocket of Excellence. (4) Neutralize The Bozos. (5) Get Away From Interruptions. (6) Become Invaluable. Don't be put off that his examples are related to software development. These are universal strategies.
Posted: 2/17/07; 6:42:57 PM # |
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13 February 2007 |
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8 February 2007 |
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| With, a new blog by Michael Gilbert |
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After blogging for ten years here at Nonprofit Online News, I have finally decided to launch a professional weblog of my own, free from the useful but narrow focus of this site or of my book blog. The blog is entitled With and you can read more about why I chose that title, and why I chose that name at the site itself. My hope for the site is that it will enable me to participate more actively in the conversations of our day.
Posted: 2/8/07; 7:30:16 PM # |
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6 February 2007 |
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| More New Content, More New Voices |
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Leading up to the tenth anniversary of Nonprofit Online News, we'll be announcing ten improvements we're making for our readers. Not long after Nonprofit Online News saw its first surge in popularity back in 1997, I was briefly tempted to move to a more traditional, pseudo-objective editorial tone and content. Readers protested and rightly so. They didn't want another dry headline service. They wanted unique content and a unique voice. For ten years, we have stuck to that model and now, we are scaling it up.
I'm very please to announce #10 in the countdown toward a new Nonprofit Online News: More Unique Content, More Unique Voices. We are delivering that in four ways: more feature articles, revised selection of news items and resources, inside perspectives on and involvement in our work, and the new Gilbert Author's Network
Posted: 2/6/07; 7:16:54 PM # |
| Send us your Top Ten List for Civil Society |
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Send us your own top ten list on any topic relating to civil society. Help us celebrate the ten year anniversary of Nonprofit Online News, and get a free publication! Over the course of the next couple of weeks, we are inviting the submission of original top ten lists from our readers. We will select and publish the top ten of those top ten lists, with a short bio of the author and a link back to the their web site. We'll send the top ten entries a free publication from our catalog as thanks.
A few guidelines: Any topic relating to civil society is fine, but read our archives for inspiration. Top ten lists are typically a reflection of their author's taste, so please communicate in your own, idiosyncratic voice. We request that you have at least a short paragraph of explanation for each item of your list, as well as a compelling opening and closing paragraph.
Submit your list in plain text format through our regular Contact Form. Entries received within the next ten days will receive preferential treatment. Please feel free to forward this announcement to colleagues.
Posted: 2/6/07; 7:09:56 PM # |
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5 February 2007 |
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| Candor in Donor Communication |
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I have been getting some nice email about a recent little post at The Authentic Organization on the topic of Candor in Donor Communication. If you have examples of how being candid with your stakeholders has simplified and deepened relationships, I would love to read them!
Posted: 2/5/07; 11:22:09 AM # |
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4 February 2007 |
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| Mosaic of Innovative Solutions: Entrepreneuring Peace |
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Ashoka's Changemakers Project has published a matrix of innovative on-the-ground conflict management projects called Entrepreneuring Peace. With twenty examples in all, the matrix emerges from the intersection of four barriers to peace -- lack of empathy, a culture of violence, group-based inequities, and corrupt public systems -- with five principles -- humanizing the "other", creating alternative systems, exploring original wounds, creating communities of peace builders, and building nonviolent paths.
Posted: 2/4/07; 11:06:14 PM # |
| Social Learning |
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The recent SANGONeT newsletter (to which you should subscribe) recently led me to Learning for Sustainability and their page on Social Learning. It's an accessible introduction to an assortment of papers and international examples about collaborative learning environments.
Posted: 2/4/07; 10:55:08 PM # |
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1 February 2007 |
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| Gavin's Digital Diner |
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Gavin Clabaugh was one of the very first people I talked to about the idea of a network of authors. He wasn't blogging at the time and he flattered me when he expressed interest. A variety of inevitable delays followed and Gavin briefly started his blog elsewhere, but today I am very proud to announce the latest addition to our blog network: Gavin's Digital Diner.
Gavin is a futurist, a philanthropist, a technologist, and a charming and insightful writer. (He's written a great bio on his site.) I've had the privilege of working with Gavin on the board of N-TEN and more recently on the Steering Committee of Grantsfire. Serving now as a reader and promoter of his writing is an honor.
There are already a number of great pieces at Digital Diner. To start with, I would recommend the following: In Email Heresy, he challenges the notion that massive, computer generated email campaigns to congress actually increase the voice of the people. In Return to Beneath the Valley of the Metadata, he takes some of the air out of the folksonomy hype and starts a great online conversation (across several blogs) on finding a balance between bottom up and top down classification. And there are posts about wine and books and gadgets and all kind of practical technology advice as well.
Posted: 2/1/07; 8:05:55 PM # |
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