Last week I was a panelist at the Net Impact Conference in Seattle on Rethinking Scale and Transformative Change. As I explored this abstract sounding topic with my fellow panelists, we started to ground it in practice – both individual and organizational. Particularly in the context of a conference bursting with a couple thousand aspiring do-gooders…
I appreciated Paul Shoemaker’s recent article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy entitled “How to Rebuild Philanthropy’s Ability to Change the World” so much that I stole one of the subtitles – Listen Much More Closely to Nonprofits. One of the first of many lessons I learned as a grant-maker from my Co-Executive Director, John, is…
For the past ten years, TWI has explored bringing people together in authentic, unconferencey ways. In early October, we are bringing together over one hundred partners for a weekend of “trust in practice.” As we turned our attention toward this convening, I reviewed the feedback and lessons learned from last time. I came across…
Recently I found myself around a table of philanthropic leaders in California, many seasoned funders who’ve funded social change and civil rights for years – if not decades. We were gathered around the compelling question of how to support the emerging and powerful movement(s) for racial equity that have gained so much prominence nationally. The…
[image artwork by Opal Tometi] I’ve been deeply moved by the stories and images from the Cleveland conference that brought together over 1500 leaders spearheading the movement for black lives. Like the catalysts for my musings on Feeding the Philanthropic Imagination, the inspirations from Cleveland provide a potent and timely example of rewriting narratives towards social…