Happy New Year! Last week, we highlighted seven critical trends that marked the civil sector in the US in 2018. But what will 2019 bring? Or, more importantly, what will you bring to it?
foundation grantmaking
Multiyear and Unrestricted: The Grants of Nonprofit Dreams Come to Life
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Put simply, the philanthropic norm is a “short leash,” involving one-year grants monitored for the proportion they comprise of the overall budget, and often provided for relatively restricted purposes. The alternative depends upon multiyear, relatively unrestricted grants of sufficient size to allow grantees to holistically and nimbly develop and improve the quality, and sometimes the reach, of their work.
Leadership
Obama Foundation Program Focuses on Emerging Asian-Pacific Leaders
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Barack Obama rolls out another global program with the goal of engaging up to 200 civic leaders in the Asia-Pacific region.
Philanthropy
Warhol Foundation Ends Its Funding Ban of Smithsonian
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A funding ban can be implemented meaningfully, as the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual arts proves in the way it handled its ban on funding the Smithsonian.
Philanthropy
The Philanthropy We Need: Ford Foundation President Calls for Transformation
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As Darren Walker writes, what’s necessary today is “meaningful resources in the hands of those closest to the problems, backing their visionary efforts over time, listening and learning at every step of the journey.”
Social Enterprise
How Nonprofits Solve Social Enterprise’s Three Big Problems: Money, Trust, and Information
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For-profit social enterprise often describes itself as addressing problems that neither nonprofits nor government are equipped to solve. But, as this article contends, “scratching below the surface of social enterprise businesses reveals that they depend significantly on the nonprofit sector for their effectiveness and survival.”
mega-donors
What 2018’s Drop Means to the Dynamics of Mega-gifts
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Looking at mega-gifts in isolation from their sources and the dynamics they set up makes little societal sense.
funder relationships
Trust-Based Philanthropy: Alvin Ailey and Prudential’s Decades-Long Partnership
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What in the world would sustain a funder-grantee partnership over decades and through multiple transitions on both sides?
urban issues
Nonprofit and Philanthropic Leaders Highlight Hopeful Trends in Cities
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A survey of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders finds that despite myriad challenges there are a number of areas where equity is being advanced in urban communities.
foundation grantmaking
Nonprofit Media Insiders See Promise for 2019
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Harvard’s Nieman Lab asked “the smartest people in journalism and digital media” for predictions for the coming year. A central theme: the rise of multi-party collaborations.
historically black colleges and universities
An Inflection Point Comes for Historically Black Colleges: Will Funders Step Up?
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An equity lens demands that we do more to sustain historically black colleges and universities as critical American institutions and acknowledge their powerful place in our past and in our future.