August 20, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Lucy Bernholz, a nonprofit consultant, is defending an opinion article she wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle that pushed community foundations in the Bay Area to be more creative with their programs.
For example she suggested they invest in clean technology and other socially beneficial for-profit efforts and do more to bring together corporations, local governments, and nonprofit groups to fight social and environmental problems.
On her blog, Philanthropy 2173, Ms. Bernholz writes that at least one local community foundation official took umbrage with her article and called her to say that funds already do some of what she suggested.
“My phone caller’s concerns were legitimate,” she writes. “But I wasn’t writing a critique of community foundations, I was writing a ‘call to community.’ If the piece were successful, it wasn’t going to make my phone ring, it would ring the phones of community foundations.”
The goal of her article was to inform the public about role community foundations, she writes. “I want cab drivers to sing the praises of community foundations. Or at least know they exist.”
What do you think? Should community foundations do more to inform the public about their work? What do you think of Ms. Bernholz’s ideas? Click on the comments link below this post to share your thoughts.
