What image pops into your head when you think of the future and innovation? Do you think of someone young and hip playing with the latest electronic gadget? I can’t help but wonder if in our fast paced drive to look and move into the future that we often discount the important role and function of older Americans as critical participants and creators of that hip future.
Age of Innovation
by Diane Wong
Lessons From Gen Y, Implications for Us All
by Melissa Mendes CamposThe nonprofit sector as a whole is underperforming in the area of talent management. Perhaps the greatest consequence of the chronic under-resourcing of organizational capacity is the failure to have more effectively developed our sector’s most valuable (and expensive) asset – our workforce. In a recent survey conducted by the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, 45% of nonprofit employees said they were considering jobs outside of the sector for their next positions.
“How diverse are we?” Nonprofit Diversity and a Call for Context
by Melissa Mendes CamposThis month, the Urban Institute released its benchmark study of racial and ethnic diversity in California’s nonprofit sector. The overall findings are all too familiar. People of color remain underrepresented in nonprofit leadership, comprising 57% of the state’s population but holding only 25% of the executive director or CEO positions. Most notably, the researchers found that Latinos are the least well represented, holding fewer than 10% of nonprofit leadership positions while making up more than one-third of California’s overall population.
New Podcast: Diversity and Inclusion in the Nonprofit Sector
by Alex HildebrandIn this podcast, Adrienne Mansanares (Program Officer at the Denver Foundation), Paul Schmitz (CEO of Public Allies), and Michael Watson (Senior VP of Human Resources for the Girl Scouts of the USA) discuss how issues of diversity and inclusion are playing out in the nonprofit sector, and how effective practices around diversity can help nonprofits position themselves for long-term success.
Listen to the Podcast with Adrienne Mansanares, Paul Schmitz, and Michael Watson and tell us what you think.
Leadership and innovation needed as we face the future
by Alex HildebrandAs the 2009 Independent Sector/Council of Michigan Foundations annual conference wound down today, I marveled at the thematic unity that emerged about the future of the nonprofit sector: leadership, innovation, and respectful dialogue are critical competencies in supporting what is increasingly understood to be a necessary re-conceptualization of how we approach our work – especially in relation to other organizations and sectors.
Big Problems, Big Solutions
by Heather GowdyGeoffrey Canada, president and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, spoke at Independent Sector last night. He was awarded the 2009 John W. Gardner Leadership Award “in recognition of his groundbreaking success in helping children and families in Central Harlem to break the cycle of generational poverty.” In a word, he is amazing. Visionary, inspirational, entertaining… a model for all of us. His work with the Harlem Children’s Zone exemplifies an approach that is receiving a lot of attention at this conference, and rightly so: we cannot work in silos, attacking a problem from one angle only. To be truly successful, we need to think much more holistically. It’s not just violence, or hunger, or education, or parenting skills… to address big problems, we need big solutions – solutions that address all elements of life in the community we’re trying to serve. One organization can try to do that alone, but it is in partnership with others that the true potential for greatness lies.
New Podcast: How Social Media Impacts the Social Sector
by La Piana ConsultingIn this podcast, we interview Beth Kanter, author of Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media, and Michael Hoffman, CEO of see3 Communications. Beth and Michael comment on the impact of web 2.0 on the social sector, including how nonprofits are increasingly using networks to get their work done and how smaller nonprofits can leverage technology to get their message out.
Download the Podcast with Beth Kanter and Michael Hoffman (.mp3, 4.5 mb) and tell us what you think.
Independent Sector conference kicks off with an eye towards the future
by Alex HildebrandIndependent Sector’s 2009 annual conference – “Challenging Times, New Opportunities” – kicked off today in Detroit, Michigan with a thought-provoking panel discussion examining the key trends and opportunities that will define the social sector for the next ten years. The panel was moderated – quite skillfully, given the scope of the topic and the diversity of voices on the panel – by James Canales, CEO of the James Irvine Foundation, with whom La Piana just published a report on the very same topic.
Growing Diversity
by La Piana ConsultingAre nonprofits engaging in the difficult and often uncomfortable conversations about diversity – within their organizations, their communities, and in the broader social justice context? How do you “move” organizations that aren’t?
Technological Advances
by La Piana ConsultingUsing social media and other new technologies strategically and effectively will require a significant cultural shift for many organizations.
What distinguishes nonprofits that do this well from nonprofits that don’t, and how can those on the front lines change the dynamic in more traditional and hierarchical environments?
