By Sindhu Knotz
Associate Partner
The Giving Practice

On Friday March 23rd, I attended the Philanthropy Northwest program: “Reflections on Philanthropy from Today’s Leaders-Widespread Empathy: 5 Steps to Achieving Greater Impact in Philanthropy” held at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Presenters Udaya Patnaik, founder and principal at Jump Associates, Paul Beaudet, associate director at the Wilburforce Foundation, and Heather Peeler, vice president of programs at Grantmakers for Effective Organizations provided some great examples of how foundations can build empathy into their work, and why it is important to do so.

According to a report by Jump Associates and GEO, below are the 5 Steps to achieving greater impact in philanthropy.

1) Make it about others, not about you
2) Get out of the office
3) Bring the outside in
4) Invest in what it takes
5) Lead from the top

Thank you to the session co-sponsors Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits & Philanthropy, Social Venture Partners, and Washington Women’s Foundation for a lively conversation.

Sofia Michelakis, Social Ventures Partners, shared some of her reflections with us:

“As I was sitting in the “Widespread Empathy” education session this morning listening to Paul Beaudet of Wilburforce talk about hiring staff who themselves had been grantseekers to help build empathy into their organization, I had a flashback to one of my first nonprofit jobs.”  Read more from Sofia…

Below are video clips of the presentation:
[We apologize that the audio is not well synched in these videos.]

Suzanne Walsh, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, introduces the concept of widespread empathy.

Udaya Patnaik from Jump Associates talks about how widespread empathy is a driver for growth and success in organizations.

Udaya Patnaik continues to talk about empathy in business – in this section, examples of how lack of empathy can get you into trouble.

Udaya Patnaik concludes his presentation with a discussion about how the lessons learned about empathy in the business world can be adapted to the foundation and nonprofit world.

Paul Beaudet, Wilburforce Foundation, describes how they implement the principles of empathy in their work with grantees.

View the presentations from this session from the 2011 Annual Conference.

 

Panelists include: Tom Gallagher, The Ford Family Foundation; Brian Myers, Empire Health Foundation; Ken Thompson, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and moderator Kathleen Enright, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO). 

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View the presentations from this session from the 2011 Annual Conference.

 

Panelists include, John Dedrick of the Kettering Foundation, Daniel Kemmis of the Kettering Foundation, Carol Lewis of Philanthropy Northwest, Bill Roper of the Orton Family Foundation and Intermountain West Funders Network and moderator Ted Lord of The Giving Practice.

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This recent Philanthropy Northwest member briefing, Making Change, presents and discusses several success stories of funders working with partners across multiple sectors to maximize their impact. The first segment includes the short presentations of each speaker. The second segment is the panel discussion, including questions from attendees.

Slides from Heather McLeod Grant’s presentation.
Slides from Fay Hanleybrown’s presentation.

Speakers:  Heather McLeod Grant is a senior consultant at Monitor Institute and focuses on network approaches to social change, scaling social innovations/impact, and transforming large organizations. Fay Hanleybrown is a managing director of FSG, leading the Seattle office and Collective Impact approach area. Paul Shoemaker (Moderator) is executive director of Social Venture Partners Seattle, a nonprofit organization advancing the common good by engaging and connecting a community of philanthropic leaders, strengthening local nonprofits, and catalyzing efforts to accelerate system change.  

This member briefing was sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Campion Foundation and Social Venture Partners.

Kelly Brown, Director of the D5 coalition, talks about the value of diversity, equity and inclusion in philanthropy as part of the Reflections on Philanthropy speaker series. D5 is a five-year coalition of 18 philanthropic infrastructure organizations, including Philanthropy Northwest, dedicated to growing philanthropy’s diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Thank you to our “Reflections on Philanthropy From Today’s Leaders” co-sponsors: Social Venture Partners, the UW Evans School’s Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and Washington Women’s Foundation.

By Sue Bennett
Learning Manager
Philanthropy Northwest

70 + 9 + 6 = a lot of learning. Last week, more than 70 people gathered in nine sites across six Northwest states to discuss nonprofit lifecycles – and how understanding the stages helps funders best support their grantees. Dr. Susan Kenny Stevens, author of the award winning book Nonprofit Lifecycles: Stage-Based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity, led the fast-paced and provocative discussion via video teleconference.

Using the metaphor of a table, Dr. Steven’s proposed that the four legs represent nonprofit management, governance, financial resources and administrative systems. They support the programs (table top) and mission (flowers on the table top). If any leg is missing, loose, or short, the programs and mission will not be well-supported. Rather than a one-size fits all approach to strengthening the four legs, investments appropriate to the nonprofit’s stage and maturity are essential.

Dr. Stevens identifies seven stages in the nonprofit lifecycle: Idea, Start-Up, Growth, Maturity, Decline, Turnaround and Terminal. Not all agencies go through all stages, nor are their four legs always in the same stage. Identifying the stage and appropriate expectations and support is critical for both the nonprofit and their funders.

As Dr. Stevens presented the seven stages, she asked the audience to list any organizations that sprang to mind for that particular stage. After learning about each stage, participants shared examples with their table-mates. (DO try this at home!)

At the end of the presentation, participants shared their key observations and Dr. Stevens answered their burning questions. We hope you will share you observations and burning questions in the comments – if you ask a question, we will be happy to ask Dr. Stevens to reply with an answer.

View the presentation slides here.

Introduction and Stages 1-2: Idea and Start-Up (21:23)

Stage 3: Growth (6:46)

Stage 4: Maturity (6:47)

Stages 5-7: Decline, Turnaround and Terminal (14:03)

Thank you to our site hosts and coordinators: The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, Empire Health Foundation, First Interstate Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, KeyBank, and Sherwood Trust.

Brought to you by the Philanthropy Northwest Capacity Building Learning Circle, sponsored by the Campion Foundation, Empire Health Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Social Venture Partners, and United Way of King County. Contact Sue Bennett if you would like to be added to the Capacity Building Funders listserv.

By Sue Bennett
Learning Manager
Philanthropy Northwest

At last week’s “Reflections on Philanthropy from Today’s Leaders” event with Diana Scearce, more than sixty attendees considered new ways to build networks for social change – picture foundation and nonprofit leaders earnestly drawing maps with colored pencils to illustrate linkages, nodes and relationships in their own networks. Social networks are not new, as anyone who is a neighbor, parent, member of a faith community, volunteer organization or school knows well. What is new is the ways in which we can use technology to communicate and build networks intentionally.

Networking can be as simple as increasing awareness or as complex as building a collaborative movement toward a shared goal. Diana discussed how to assess the health of your network and ways to develop and strengthen it. Five important principles to consider: weaving community, accessing diverse perspectives, building and sharing knowledge, mobilizing people and coordinating resources and action.

Many thanks to speaker Diana Scearce, senior consultant for the Monitor Institute, for generously sharing her materials and insights. Also, check out Diana’s article, “Working Wikily” (Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2010) for more in-depth information about working wikily.

Thank you to our series co-sponsors: Social Venture Partners, the UW Evans School’s Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and Washington Women’s Foundation.

By Sue Bennett
Learning Manager
Philanthropy Northwest

On June 11, the Philanthropy Northwest Capacity Building Learning Circle convened for the third time this year. Our first two meetings focused on defining capacity building and looking at frameworks for cataloging investments and understanding strengths and gaps in communities. This session moves from the theoretical to the practical as we listen to two different case studies, presented by both the funder and grantee.

Case Study 1: Social Venture Partners and Explorations in Math

Lynn Coriano and Stephanie Cherrington tell the story of how they worked together to build the organization and what they learned in the process.

Case Study 2: Red Lodge Area Community Foundation and Boys and Girls Club of Carbon County

Joan Hughes and  Jody Ackerman discuss developing a custom, six-session training for nonprofits in collaboration with Montana State University, as well as a current effort to gather nonprofits planning capital campaigns together. Moderated by Paul Shoemaker, Social Venture Partners.

Note: This case study was presented via videoconference, so the film and sound quality is not as clear as the first presentation.

Next up for the Learning Circle: planning capacity building sessions at the Philanthropy Northwest 2010 Annual Conference. Stay tuned for session descriptions – we hope you will join us at Semiahmoo!

At this year’s Family Philanthropy Day event, Bill Gates Sr., co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Ginny Esposito, president of the National Center for Family Philanthropy, discussed issues related to legacy in family philanthropy.

The speakers shared their thoughts on involving the next generation, giving globally vs. locally, board composition, perpetuity, family values, and much more in an informal interview with Mary Pembroke Perlin, a board member of NCFP and past board chair of Philanthropy Northwest.

Ed: Due to a glitch in venue equipment, the audio quality in this video was compromised. The sound cuts out at one point early in the video, although the remainder of the discussion is audible. Our apologies!

Philanthropy Northwest CEO Carol Lewis gave the first public presentation of the new Trends in Northwest Giving report last week, at a Reflections on Philanthropy from Today’s Leaders event.

(Click here to view Carol’s presentation slides. Skip to the second video for the main presentation of the data.)

Introduction to Philanthropy Northwest and the Trends in Northwest Giving report:

Presentation of Trends data:

Q&A:

Thank you to our series co-sponsors: Social Venture Partners, the UW Evans School’s Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and Washington Women’s Foundation.