Turning Diversity Data into Knowledge

Guest post by Wendy C. Wehr, Vice President of Communications and Information Services, Minnesota Council on Foundations

These days, the subjects of diversity, inclusion and equity are top of mind among grantmakers and others in philanthropy. Sector conversations swirl around setting goals for grantmaking into diverse communities, building capacity among minority-led nonprofits, changing the composition of foundation boards, and much more.

At the recent annual conference of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers, a panel discussion homed in on the topic of diversity data – specifically, how to more effectively gather data about the demographics of foundation staff and boards. Joining me on the panel were: Lawrence T. McGill, PhD, Senior Vice President for Research, Foundation Center; Marissa Manlove, President & CEO, Indiana Grantmakers Alliance; and moderator Valerie Lies, President & CEO, Donors Forum.

Thanks to Council on Foundations surveys since the mid-1980s, we’ve been able to track and see positive trend lines for increasing diversity of foundation program officers. Yet, more and better data are needed to monitor progress on a full array of individual characteristics – gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability status and more.

This Year’s Best Reads

Guest Post by Lindsey Linzer, Program and Information Officer, Gateway Center for Giving

At our recent Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers conference in Pittsburgh, all of the Associations went around and shared their “best reads” of the past year. The final list is so good that we couldn’t resist sharing it with you. We are excited to get around to reading some of the great articles, blogs, and books mentioned below!

Creating Big Impact in Small Cities by Stephen Pratt (shared by Associated Grant Makers)

Collective Impact by John Kania and Mark Kramer (shared by Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers)

Disruptive Forces: Driving a Human Services Revolution by Alliance for Children and Families (shared by Connecticut Council for Philanthropy)

Navigating the New Social Economy by Lucy Bernholz (shared by Council on Michigan Foundations)

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael M. Lewis (shared by Council of New Jersey Grantmakers)

Hope within the Shit Hole by Peter Karoff (shared by Delaware Valley Grantmakers)

DRIVE by Daniel Pink (shared by Donor’s Forum of Wisconsin)

The Networked Nonprofit by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine (shared by Florida Philanthropic Network)

Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity by Mario Morino (shared by Florida Philanthropic Network)

Blue Avocado by Jan Masaoka (shared by Grantmakers Forum of New York)

Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value: A Practioners Guide to Leading Corporate Philanthropy by Council on Foundations (shared by Grantmakers of Oregon & Southwest Washington)

Republic Lost by Lawrence Lessig (shared by Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania)

Do More Than Give by Leslie Crutchfield, Mark Kramer, and John Kanie (shared by Indiana Grantmakers Alliance)

To Lead is to Serve by Shar McBee (shared by Iowa Council on Foundations)

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (shared by Minnesota Council on Foundations)

Philanthropy Road Map by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (shared by Northern California Grantmakers)

VelvetChainSaw Blog by Jeff Hurt (shared by Ohio Grantmakers Forum)

IBM v Carnegie Corporation: The Centenarians Square Up by The Economist (shared by Philanthropy New York)

Staff, Retreat! by Vu Lee (shared by Philanthropy Northwest)

I Don’t Understand What Anyone is Saying Anymore by Dan Pallota (shared by San Diego Grantmakers)

Grassroots Philanthropy: Field Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker by Bill Somerville (shared by Southeastern Council of Foundations)

Philanthropy and Social Investing Blueprint 2012 by Lucy Bernholz (shared by Southern California Grantmakers)

The Power of the Positive Deviance by Pascale, Sternin, and Sternin (shared by Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers)

Searching for the Uncommon Ground by Blackwell, Kwoh, and Pastor (shared by Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers)

Annual Conference Preview!

Are you getting excited for next week’s Annual Conference? We’re packing our bags and heading to Pittsburgh for the yearly member meetup. The Planning Committee has put together great sessions and allowed plenty of time for network with peers.

I was curious about what big topics would be emerging at this year’s conference, so I ran our agenda through a word cloud program and came up with the graphic above. Some of our favorite themes are there, of course: Regional Associations, network, colleagues, conversation, members,  etc. The two areas that jump out at me as receiving new emphasis are data and information and a focus on new ideas and creativity. I’m looking forward to see what our presenters have planned.

View the full agenda for this year’s conference along with all the details you need at www.givingforum.org/12conference.

 

Thank You to Our Conference Sponsors

We would like to recognize the sponsors of the Forum’s Annual Conference next week. We greatly appreciate their support of the Forum network and encourage you to learn more about them below:

Foundation Source runs more than 1,000 private foundations nationwide, ranging from $250,000 to $250 million in assets. Now in our second decade, we are the largest foundation management and advisory firm in the U.S.

Established in 1945, The Pittsburgh Foundation is one of the nation’s oldest community foundations and is the 14th largest of more than 700 community foundations across the United States. The Foundation has strengthened its focus on community and the positive impact it strives to achieve through its grantmaking, the engagement of its donors in critical regional issues and its activities around convening and leadership, in collaboration with funding and civic partners.

Easy Office is a social venture that provides outsourced accounting and bookkeeping services to nonprofits nationwide. Working solely with nonprofits, Easy Office seeks to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the nonprofit sector overall.

The Heinz Endowments is based in Pittsburgh, where we use our region as a laboratory for the development of solutions to challenges that are national in scope. The mission is to help our region thrive as a whole community, economically, ecologically, educationally and culturally, while advancing the state of knowledge and practice in the fields in which we work.

ParenteBeard is ranked among the top 25 accounting firms in the U.S. A leader in providing CPA and business advisory services to small businesses, middle market companies, nonprofits and SEC registrants, ParenteBeard has 1,100 professionals located throughout the Mid Atlantic region.