The Philanthropy Network Blog

For those of us working for organizations with July-June fiscal year calendars, mid-May through June 30 can be one of the most misunderstood times of the year. One the one hand its time to confirm participatory gifts and remind our most generous donors of their outstanding fiscal year pledges, but its also one of the best times to conduct thoughtful, personalized stewardship, and remind those existing donors - you know, those who give during the other 46 weeks of the year - how important they are to your organization's success. I imagine that a fundraiser who's giving 110% to secure fiscal year end gifts finds significantly decreased marginal production for each additional 1% beyond (say) 85% effort. Reallocating some fraction of the day (perhaps as much as 20%) to pure stewardship, calling existing donors to say thank you for making the fiscal year a success, and engaging them in conversations about their next gift, the year ahead for the organization, summer events, etc.,...

Today, Facebook goes public. And the impact of its meteoric rise, and the enormous wealth it will (and already has) created, will become more apparent after the share lock-up period expires later this year, the social media juggernaut will profoundly impact the charitable landscape. Let's just start with the first employees and founders of Facebook. At 11am today Mark Zuckerberg will become one of the richest people in the world. Zuckerberg is introverted, focused, data driven and judgmental, and is known to have a high need for control. The causes and that he ultimately embraces and the organizations that he decides to charitably support, will need to adapt to Mr. Zuckerberg's view of how the world should work, rather than how it actually does work. This could be a good thing. He has paradigm shifting resources, has already influenced (for the worse, in this author's mind) the evolutionary trajectory of mankind (more on that later), and he could do the same for phil...

If you follow Dallas Maverick's owner Marc Cuban's blog, you probably know that he is something of a near futurist, but he's rarely off the mark analytically, and his latest entry on The Coming Meltdown in Higher Education is precision laser guided ( Check out the article here . Easy credit in the student loan markets has artificially subsidized the four-year degree granting market for three decades, and for many students college has become a four-year reality detour before embarking on the real work of real life. Student loan indebtedness exceeds consumer debt, and with an exceedingly competitive global marketplace where the best career options require more technical and intensive training and work ethic, those who are left behind (or who fail to prepare) will face a mountain too steep to climb. And fundamentally, the underwriting assumptions of student loans are similar to those of subprime mortgages, and the collapse of the market will put student borrowers onto unstabl...

I read a Forbes article recently about the demise of the Venture Capital Industry, which as you know has invested in, incubated and launched some of the most valuable products, businesses and services we enjoy and take very much for granted today.   What was most shocking about the article is that the prime reason cited for the demise of Venture capital is that the industry has become too good at raising money, and they are having problems putting $30B to productive use each year. Yes, too much money is a problem for the venture capital industry. As a non-profit professional I could not imagine a better problem to have.  The magnitude of the assets at their disposal is just short of overwhelming. $30B dollars is 10% of the entire Charitable Giving industry. Its equivalent to 90 American Cancer Societies; 50 Nature Conservancies; or 300 ACLUs. But the industry chases investment returns, different than the aims of most charitable organizations. However there may be a...

To celebrate the 8,000th member of The Philanthropy Network on LinkedIn, it seemed only appropriate to create an open forum for long-form opinions and analysis about the future of Philanthropy, trends in the non-profit sector, and ground shaking ideas designed to transform the way societal services are delivered. The foundational belief of the Philanthropy Network blog (and this blogger) is that altruism is an underrated and under-publicized virtue, and that today's non-profit leaders have the potential to be transformative forces for good in the world. So, welcome to the Philanthropy Network Blog, I hope this becomes a valuable content destination for you, as well as a forum within which you can share your best ideas about the future of our industry. Sincerely yours, Brad Smith Founder, Philanthropy Network