Independent Sector’s 2009 Conference: The Good, the Bad and the Big Blog Roundup

November 8, 2009 by · 4 Comments

This year, it was really hard for me to get to the Independent Sector Annual Conference. For free. A little wheedling did the trick, thanks to social media cheerleader Megan Hoot and my organization which footed the bill for my travel to the Motor City. So I know how impossible it was for a lot of young nonprofit leaders who would have liked to attend, but couldn’t due to cost. I’m giving you this roundup so you can get a sense of what happened there. Several bloggers as well as news organizations covered the events, so collectively we all provide a very good picture!

The Good:

  1. Location, location, location. Downtown Detroit was a great choice – it’s a diverse city with interesting economic and social change models happening right now. The conference site was close to entertainment, nightlife, and affordable restaurants near the hotel. I wish I could’ve stayed longer!
  2. Conference food = yummy. I am a picky eater, and there was something for everyone. We had hearty breakfasts, tasty lunches, and a nice wine and cheese break in between.
  3. One word: NGen. Conference organizers did a great job this year with planning more interactive and relevant sessions for nonprofit leaders under 40. It was a good educational and networking opportunity for all the younger folks to come together as an identified group and learn together.
  4. Exposure to the local Detroit nonprofit sector, all the way down to the youth jazz ensemble that performed for us. The conference program also offered opportunities for participants to go on site visits accompanied by local leaders.
  5. Major networking opportunities. There was a 30 minute break in between each session, which allowed for lots of “hallway” conversations. I was able to meet and get introduced to a ton of folks during the 3 days I was there. I gave out a lot of cards and learned a lot of “insider” information about new initiatives brewing or new projects to look out for. And, as always, there was the normal industry gossip. You have to know what’s going on in the field as a whole, outside of your organization. Independent Sector is known for being THE place where connections are made – especially with funders.
  6. New conference formats, especially the live, in-person FutureLabs that were just too cool. I blogged about my FutureLab experience here. I hope more conferences start to experiment with new models of delivering sessions with more interactivity!

The Bad:

  1. No wi-fi. Marriott is known for having shoddy internet access and conference organizers should have been aware of this. It was often difficult for folks to tweet and blog the happenings due to lack of internet connectivity. I thankfully had my trusty Verizon wireless PC card that worked like a charm.
  2. Too many Baby Boomer speakers. While there was a huge NGen contingent of young nonprofit leaders at the conference – 20% of attendees in fact – none of the plenary speakers for any of the large breakfast, lunch or dinner panels were under 40. I guess you can count Benjamin Jealous from the NAACP, but that was still not representative enough for a conference with 1,100 people and so many opportunities to hear the younger perspective on a host of issues. I feel that Independent Sector could have reached out to the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) and/or Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) to obtain a few speakers under 40.  For a conference with a future-looking theme, it should have been a priority to share the voices of future leaders.
  3. Diana Aviv made a patronizing joke about young people right before her keynote speech on Thursday. It went something like, “We’re in the home of Motown, home to artists such as Stevie Wonder, etc. I’m sure the NGeners know all about that.” Laughter from the audience. I know it was just a joke, but comments like these are why it’s so hard for Baby Boomers to take the next generation seriously and therefore invite us to speak on panels as mentioned in item #2 above. Some of us are the same age as your kids, but that doesn’t mean you get to patronize us. I’m sure no one would have appreciated any old people jokes from the younger folks.

The Big Blog Roundup:

Two Twitter Feeds:

News outlets Chronicle of Philanthropy, Nonprofit Times and Crain’s Detroit Business also provided coverage of the conference. See? It’s almost like you were there with us.

Please add any additional blog posts in the comments! I really want to hear what others thought of the conference this year.

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Creating the Future of the Nonprofit Sector Through 2020

November 8, 2009 by · 1 Comment

mindfulfuturelab

Adjacent to the requisite exhibitors hall at Independent Sector’s Annual Conference is a big room full of color and music. There is graffiti-like paint on the walls, ambient music blasting from a sound system, and a curious configuration of tables and chairs set up, well, like a human lab. This new discussion format is what Independent Sector calls a FutureLab, a concept designed by Architects of Group Genius and part of their Envisioning Our Future Initiative launched this year to engage the sector in an open and provocative conversation that will help us all shape a more desirable 2020 for our organizations and the communities we serve.

Back in September, Independent Sector launched FutureLab as an online platform to garner input from the wider nonprofit community about where the sector should be focusing through 2020. So far, there are conversations happening around leadership, diversity, technology, global engagement, impact, and civic engagement, among others.

During the conference, several in-person FutureLabs were set up for attendees to share their ideas and feedback about specific topics. The one I attended was called, “By 2020, Nonprofits Facilitate Broad Civic Engagement that Fuels Our Democracy.” I’ve become more and more personally curious about how nonprofits can engage our communities to participate in the change we seek. Maurizio Travaglini, a tall, lean man reminiscent of a ballet dancer greets us with a strong Italian accent. He is the designer behind this super cool “lab” and encourages us to enjoy what he calls a “social experiment.”

We have a few introductory speakers. Miles Rapoport, President of Demos poses an intriguing question. How can we create an upward spiral of the democratic spirit? Kirk Clay, Director of Civic Engagement at the NAACP offers his take. He says that once we elected President Obama, we  thought our work was over. But, he warned, “the trip isn’t over until we unpack the car.” Kirk envisions a shift from single-issue campaigns to multi-issue alliances, giving the example of the NAACP’s census project which needed to be connected to redistricting campaigns  and others to work effectively. Chris Gates from Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) reminds us of a teeny little issue with all this talk about nonprofits using social media. “If we’re going to take advantage of new social media tools, we have to be comfortable with transparency and democracy. If we take advantage of this moment, we could end up with new civic activists and volunteers.” A woman named Martha (whose affiliation I cannot now recall) stands to give us a final word.

The future is not something that’s just out there. The future is something for us to create.

And create we do, in small groups of five, talking through different ideas for civic engagement in our communities. My group ends up focusing in on place-based community engagement across seemingly disparate issues that actually affect everyone. We imagine a centrally located community space where people can meet, talk, and share information. Kind of like a renewal of the “public square.” We discuss testing out small campaigns block by block, earning small wins on local issues and involving relevant nonprofits to support what residents really care about. Someone mentions the successful efforts of Crossroads Charlotte as a model. Other groups come up with “Take Your Kid to Vote Day” and a national call to civic action, much like President Obama’s National Call to Service.

There are a lot of ideas and a lot of talk about increased collaboration in our respective communities. The music gets blasting again as everyone leaves, energized and thinking about the future.

Want to add your voice? Check out FutureLab’s online component where you can add your own ideas and rank the ones that have already been posted.

Filed Under: Independent Sector 2009, Leadership · Tagged With: , , , , ,

Gates Foundation CEO Jeff Raikes on Values, Impact and Accountability

November 5, 2009 by · Leave a Comment

This morning, the only thing standing between participants and a lively session with the CEO of the largest foundation in the world is a big, wonderful breakfast buffet. So it’s no wonder folks are shuffling in during opening remarks by Kelvin Taketa of the Hawaii Community Foundation. I admit to being one of the latecomers, sneaking into the back row with my plate of bacon and scrambled eggs. Today’s first morning session is a conversation with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation CEO  Jeff Raikes. Jeff is a former Microsoft employee, and was chosen to lead the Gates Foundation about a year ago. He and his wife even met at Microsoft. Jeff jokingly says that he and his wife were the first Microsoft couple. Jeff was raised on a farm in Nebraska and ended up going to  Stanford for engineering school, which set him up for his big role in developing Microsoft Office. It was interesting to hear that Jeff’s philanthropic commitment extends beyond his work with Gates. Especially in light of the recent media firestorm over Jeff’s salary of almost a million dollars that has troubled many in the nonprofit world. His net worth is estimated at about $500 million and he also has his own foundation, the Raikes Foundation that he founded with his wife Tricia. Another random factoid: He also owns part of the Seattle Mariners. Yes, the baseball team.

Values

Jeff seems quite intentional in his leadership and tells us that he knows full well he won the “ovarian lottery” by being born a white male to a good family. He tells stories about his experience growing up on a farm to set the tone for the kind of values he wants to shape the culture of the organization. Jeff feels that values are a strong element of leadership. When asked about the next generation of leadership, he says we needs high horsepower, high energy, and people who can get things done. Yes, yes, and oh yes.

At Gates, Jeff senses that employees that may feel overwhelmed in trying to do everything. But he encourages them to use their good judgement to set the right priorities and make the right trade-offs for themselves. He encourages employees and gives them license to focus on the right things, otherwise they don’t end up doing anything particularly well.

Impact

As for Gates’ limited grantmaking areas? Jeff is comfortable that they’ve picked certain areas to focus on and do them well and contribute to the opportunity for educational reform in this country. Gates can enable all people to have healthy and productive lives. What are the big inequities in the world and where can our dollars have a high impact? Well, we can use medicine from the developed world to help people in the developing world. Jeff sounds quite proud when talking about Gate’s role in helping to create the GAVI alliance, a global health partnership whose members work together to save lives by increasing access to vaccines in 70 of the poorest countries around the world.

Accountability

But what about accountability? Who does the biggest foundation in the world really have to answer to?

The unspoken answer is: no one. But Jeff assures the audience that Gates is very serious about the work of evaluating its grant programs and making sure they make a difference. He said they pay good attention to measuring the learning from their philanthropy.  To achieve Gates’ high expectations, they get input from people they work with and for. They have advisory panels with strong voices that tell them what they’re doing well and not so well. As for grants, they enlist feedback from external participants to see if they’re on the right track. Using grantee surveys to get feedback for how they are performing as a partner.

Jeff concludes by talking about what motivates him in doing the work at Gates: constantly learning new things from new people. “I love my second career,” he said.

Photo credit: Seattle Times

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We Have to Drop Our Gang Colors: Ten Leaders Envision the Future of the Nonprofit Sector

November 4, 2009 by · 3 Comments

The opening plenary for Independent Sector’s 2009 Annual Conference begins with the lovely sounds of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s youth jazz ensemble. The unique location for this gathering is underscored by the woman who steps up to the microphone to welcome us: Debbie Dingell, Vice Chair of the General Motors Foundation. Only in Detroit. And, a brief welcome message from newly re-elected Detroit Mayor Dave Bing. He takes a moment to recognize the Knight Foundation’s recent $5 million investment in the city’s economic development.

Melody Barnes from the White House Domestic Policy Council reinforced the White House’s commitment to social innovation. The new White House Office of Social Innovation is under her purview and is looking for ways to invest in “what works,” focusing on several areas. According to the official press release, it will:

  • Catalyze partnerships between the government and nonprofits, businesses and philanthropists in order to make progress on the President’s policy agenda
  • Identify and support the rigorous evaluation and scaling of innovative, promising ideas that are transforming communities like, for example, Harlem Children’s Zone, YouthVillages, Nurse-Family Partnership, and Citizen Schools.
  • Support greater civic participation through new media tools
  • Promote national service.

Melody said that “somewhere out there, we believe there is the next Teach for America, the next Harlem Children’s Zone.”  She emphasized the fact that government can’t do it all alone. For the most part, Melody reiterated the messages that have already been shared with the nonprofit community around the country by Sonal Shah, Jackie Norris, and Joshua DuBois. Collaboration, partnerships, innovation, leverage what’s already working. Joshua DuBois shared a special email address nonprofits should use to contact the White House to engage them in partnerships: whpartnerships@who.eop.gov. He said that they would also be launching a brand new website next week to make this process easier: www.whitehouse.gov/partnerships

Jim Canales, President of James Irvine Foundation moderates a discussion on envisioning the future of the nonprofit sector. He announces a new report from his foundation called Convergence: How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector

Gail McGovern, American Red Cross: We’re going to have to evolve into a partnership with government. We need to coordinate better as a sector. We have to be really careful to be coordinated on the ground so as not to waste resources. It’s not relevant to talk about whether we should partner with goverment, but how we should partner with government.

Michelle Nunn, Points of Light Institute: $50 million is a relatively small amount for the Social Innovation Fund. But how can it inform policy and how to influence government on the ways to provide social services? How can it ensure that innovation is scaled to truly solve social problems?

Aaron Dworkin, CEO of Sphinx Organization: Innovation does not happen in a void. It must be a part of an everyday process. There also shouldn’t be this idea that it’s less to work in our sector. In ten years, our organizations could be in different situations. Are our future leaders being provided the skill sets to take over? That’s our responsibility to prepare for 10-20 years from now.

Janet Murguia, President of National Council of La Raza: How do we take the same type of energy from the 2008 election of Obama and transform it into moving agendas forward for our communities? Important to build and invest in advocacy for social movements. I’d like foundations to look at what can be scalable. There are always common goals. For instance, we joined efforts for both the Black and Latino demographic to move the healthcare debate forward. We have to work on a collective spectrum to get our voices heard and see change happen in an impactful way. We have to make it so that people can raise a family and still work in the nonprofit sector.

Jim Wallis, Jr. President of Sojourners: People voted for change they could believe in. But Washington, DC is wired to block real change from happening. Philanthropy has to be rewired with a focus on not only supporting programs and advocacy, but also social movements. We have think movement in creative ways cross-sectors. We may have strange bedfellows based on moral imperatives. Don’t go left, don’t go right, go deeper. Religion does not have a monopoly on morality. We’ve got to put the things that block partnerships on the table. We have to talk to people who don’t agree with us. The nonprofit and foundation world has often behaved like rival gangs Crips and Bloods. We have to drop our gang colors.

Brian Gallagher, President of United Way Worldwide: We need to commit to a collective goal, and put that objective above our institutional ones. We have to look at what we’ve done historically and how to do it better? How do we move away from UW’s role in workplace giving to helping to mobilize people for social change? I am fearful that we’re going to go from institutional silos to collaborative silos. Until we really start to pool resources – talent and money – we won’t succeed. Are we going to start sharing volunteers or start hoarding them?

Margaret McKenna, President of Wal-Mart Foundation: I’m not committed to any organizations, but to social change. I don’t think it’s bad that organizations change and go away. I’m astounded by the number of people who don’t know who else is working in the same space. We’ve given grants for collaborative work to four organizations, then after we leave, they just split up the money. We have to train volunteers. We put the least paid people in the most challenging jobs. We’re not using the most talented people in the most challenging places.

Benjamin Jealous, President of NAACP: Hopes are higher, but difficulty of solving problems is higher. This president doesn’t get us to where we want to go unless we’re out in front. The only way the President gets to be “progressive” is if we’re out there fighting with folks with whom we might be “friends.” Allow yourself to be outraged by the issues.

All in all, this conversation about the need for more collaboration and advocacy is great, but here’s my nagging question. Are nonprofits really ready to do this? Short of facing closure, what is going to finally motivate more nonprofits to work together more deeply?

Filed Under: Independent Sector 2009, Leadership · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Questions for Emerging Leaders: After Moving Up, What’s Next?

November 4, 2009 by · 1 Comment

This year’s Independent Sector Annual Conference is being held in Detroit, the Motor City where you can cross the border into Canada in only a few short minutes. My first impressions: friendly people, good food, a fantastic view of Canada from my hotel room window. And over 200 emerging nonprofit leaders under 40 to learn with over the next few days during the special NGen conference track : Moving Leaders from Next to Now. Last night’s speed networking event brought lots of hugs, laughs, catching up with old friends and making plenty of new ones. One thing is clear: for this dynamic group of young nonprofit leaders, we are not just “next,” we are NOW.

Neel Hajra from NEW (Nonprofit Enterprise at Work)  moderated this morning’s first session with two very experienced panelists in the career development field.

David Simms, Managing Partner from Bridgestar, the Bridgespan Group

David gave great insights for those that want to not only move up in their careers, but continue to develop their leadership skills. He offered eight questions to ask ourselves that can help in this process:

  1. What are you really passionate about? What gets you fired up?
  2. What are you really good at? I mean, really good at? And what activities bring you joy?
  3. Are you getting candid feedback on things you do well and need to improve? How often?
  4. What are you doing to develop yourself? What books on leadership have you read recently? What conferences are you attending?
  5. When during your career have you had a significant jump in your leadership capabilities?
  6. Who are your mentors? What are you learning from them?
  7. What are your true strengths? How do you use them everyday?
  8. Who is at the organization because of you?

Our ability to develop ourselves and others is critical in order to obtain leadership positions. You have to model the behavior you want to see. We have to encourage others to grow in their careers, even if they end up leaving the organization. It’s an integrity issue. We have to give people the space to spread their wings and fly.

Michael Watson, Senior VP of Human Resources Girl Scouts of the USA

Michael provided candid insight into the importance of “Do-it-Yourself Professional Development”:

  • Time matters. Every year that goes by puts you closer to where you want to go or it doesn’t. If you casually take that for granted and say, “Oh, I have time.” You could end up missing opportunities. How do you plan to get to where you want to go?
  • Think about your relationships and how can they get better. Many times peple don’t get promoted because they are known for not having good relationships with their peers or their boss. This is a small nonprofit world and word gets around.
  • What are your unique accomplishments thaat distinguish you from other leaders?
  • Managing talent – employees are more disengaged with their work now more than ever b/c of economic pressures, less raises. Important to improve the way you work with others – people should feel good about working with you.
  • If can’t develop yourself in your current organization, figure out where else you can get those skills. You are responsible for your career management plan. Build your own team of advisors!
Filed Under: Independent Sector 2009, Next Generation Leadership · Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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