New Group Works to Sort Out the Growing Field of Philanthropy Consultants
IN THE TRENCHES Just about anyone can call him or herself a consultant. And, as many nonprofit veterans can attest, just about anyone does. Ask Joanne B. Scanlan, who served for 22 years as an officer at the Council on Foundations, in Washington — where she was often required her to pass on advice…
By Darlene M. Siska
Contributor
Company Experiments With Tying Employee Pay to Grantees’ Feedback
It was an innovative, even shocking, idea: Use the feedback from grantees to help determine the year-end ALSO SEE:STATISTICAL DATA: Charitable Giving at Major Corporations bonuses earned by employees of a corporation’s grant-making department. But one California company gave it a try for three…
By Darlene M. Siska
Contributor
An organization seeks to improve leadership prospects for women at Jewish charitiesCindy Greenberg was 21 when she started working for charities that serve Jewish people and causes. Now 32 and director of the Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at New York University, she says she has…
By Darlene M. Siska
Contributor
Family funds face hurdles as trustees move away Last year, Amy Bishop, 22, joined the board of the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation, part of the fourth generation of her family to help guide the institution. But as the foundation — started by her great-great-uncle, a state Supreme Court…
By Darlene M. Siska
Contributor
Learning the Business of Philanthropy
Program in South Carolina teaches high-school students how to make money and give it awaySamuel Irvin (Chip) Baxter Jr., 17, wants to follow in his father’s footsteps into the word of banking and finance. ALSO SEE:Charity’s Youth MovementHigh-School Senior and Peers Are a Growing Force for…
By Darlene M. Siska
Contributor
Foundation leaders spin tales from their families’ lives as a way to share values and traditionsAs a boy, William C. Graustein heard plenty of family stories -- up-by-your-bootstrap, ALSO SEE:A Tale With Many Meanings American success tales about his father, aunts, and uncles. Children of a German…
By Darlene M. Siska
Contributor
Partnerships for Better Programs
Charity spreads its innovative approach via mentor systemAs societal problems ravaged their city’s neighborhoods, pastors and members of the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America were frustrated. When the problems reached fever pitch four years ago, “the group felt…
By Darlene M. Siska
Contributor
Trustees of a Minnesota Foundation Find an Innovative Way to Evaluate Their Own Performance
BRAINSTORMS By Darlene M. Siska When Jim Hoolihan was the mayor of Grand Rapids, Minn., in the early 1990s, he kept his office door open. Citizens could come to City Hall to offer comments or even complain about the job he was doing. But in 1992, when he began his service on the board of the…
By Darlene M. Siska
Contributor
Staff members at PeninsulaWorks-Daly City, a nonprofit organization in Northern California that provides services to the unemployed, understand that their clients often face multiple challenges. So the group provides any assistance it can to help clients become self-sufficient -- whether it’s…
By Darlene M. Siska
Contributor
Family foundations devise ways to prepare heirs for board serviceOwen Knott grew up expecting to serve as a trustee of his family’s foundation -- an obligation for those who, like him, are descended from grant makers. But around the time Mr. Knott reached adulthood, that seat became not a…
By Darlene M. Siska
Contributor