Thanks to my consulting work for the National Center for Family Philanthropy and Ekstrom Alley Clontz & Associates, I’ve been spending more time tuned into the field of community foundations. I still hear variations on the phrase “we want to be the community’s foundation.” This core value of democratized, accessible, community-owned, philanthropy dates to the [...]
Category: foundations
Revealing Risk in Philanthropy – part 3
In two previous posts, I wrote that I’d been researching the topic of risk in philanthropy. I tested some ideas about the topic at a conference session, co-designed with folks from the Quixote Foundation, Open Road Alliance, and Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. Based on my research and feedback from others, I developed this framework [...]
Revealing Risk in Philanthropy – part 2
Last fall, I started researching the topic of risk in philanthropy for a conference session. I wrote a post soliciting feedback on the topic and cited a couple of the resources I’d found useful. Some of the best thinking I’ve found comes from the team at the Open Road Alliance. Philanthropist and psychologist Laurie Michaels, [...]
Is the Value of Place Declining in Philanthropy?
All of us walk around with default lenses through which we view the world. The lenses are created through our experiences and relationships, the communities and cultures in which we’re raised, and more. When we’re at our best, we’re able to separate when those default lenses provide helpful perspectives and when they limit our thinking. One of my [...]
