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This is a forum for discussion of all things related to our mission of investing in people, places and efforts that deliver significant social benefit to Oregon and southwest Washington.
A few years ago, community and social media leader Chris Brogan developed a meme to help him set goals for the new year:
"Over the last few years, I’ve practiced something I call 'my 3 words,' where I come up with three words that I use as guidance for how I should conduct my efforts in the year to come. I set goals around these three words. I build deadlines and projects around these words."
His 2010 words are Ecosystems, Owners and Kings. Read his post to learn what those words represent for him.
Among many others, the queen of nonprofit social media – Beth Kanter – has picked up on Chris's meme and picked Networked, Generosity, Full of Life as her 2010 Three Words.
Here's Chris's advice in choosing your words:
"Pick three words that help you the way a lighthouse helps a ship in a storm. Give yourself a word that guides you towards a powerful new opportunity, and that keeps you focused on what comes of this year. Use these words as starting points for tangible goals, SMART goals that can be measured and have dates to accomplish tasks by. These words sit above the actual goals, and set your guiding principles in place."
Could this be a useful exercise for your work? What are your three words for 2010? Please share with us below:
Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (1)The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University has just published a report in GivingUSA Spotlight analyzing its research on charitable giving after The Great Depression and more recent economic recessions, including the one nonprofit organizations are facing now.
The report concludes that "If the recovery of individual giving after the Depression and after the 1973-1975 recession is any indication of what to expect, it is likely that donations from households and individuals will not reach their 2007 levels until at least three years after the end of the current recession, when measured in inflation-adjusted dollars."
The report also makes recommendations to best prepare for post-recession fundraising:
What do you think about these findings and this advice? What is your organization's experience? Are you taking any of the recommended steps?
Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (3)We trust you had a delightful summer in this amazing corner of the world, despite the economic challenges we all face. Now that we're in back-at-it mode again, I want to provide another update as part of our commitment to keep you informed about our efforts and thinking in light of the economic downturn that continues to hit our region especially hard.
Here is a short summary of the specific steps we've taken so far:
--Our trustees decided to keep the amount we award at the same level it was last year even though it means we will exceed the 5% payout requirement. In addition, we cut about $1 million from our operating expenses to have more funds available for grants.
--In May and July, we awarded $584,000 through our Operating Support Fund and planning grants to NPOs to explore reducing operating costs and increasing community impact through sharing resources. Both these programs are new and specifically designed to respond to economic difficulties facing nonprofits. The second round of awards in the Operating Support Fund will be made in December.
--We've made more than $1 million so far in grants to help meet emergency needs for food, rent & utility costs, for foreclosure prevention and assistance, and to contribute to longer term hunger relief solutions. In addition, we have made more than our customary number of grants to support populations particularly vulnerable right now, e.g. seniors and low income families with children, providing core support and bridge funding to nonprofits in recognition of economic challenges.
--MMT has been very active in support of bringing our share of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funding to our area, both through participation in planning and strategy development the Oregon Department of Education's application for The Race to the Top funding and The Oregon Way and by supporting efforts from organizations competing for these federal funds.
--Many of our staff members have been actively tracking other activities and efforts and participating in these events when opportunities present, from the Rural Development Initiative's “Funding Good Work in Uncertain Times” to the joint Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington/Willamette Valley Development Officer event “We Are All in this Together.” We initiate and sponsor events when we can, including the upcoming "Managing the Bottom Line: Leverage Resources to Confront Increasing Needs" trainings in Medford and Portland in early November and Bend in Early December.
--As always, we hold ourselves to our commitment to communicate with you about what we learn and what we are thinking and doing, especially through this blog and our email alerts. We've also made special efforts to share this and additional information about nonprofit opportunities in ARRA, advice for nonprofits during economic downturns, and providing free and easy access to information about funding opportunities in connectipedia.
In addition to continuing to honor our commitments and reflecting on our work to look for ways to improve, here's what we see ahead for 2010:
--Consider additional funding strategies to respond to the economic challenges predicted to continue in our service area.
-- Continue to focus special attention on human service organizations responding to unprecedented needs while financial resources are reduced.
--Continue to award grants to NPOs in other fields (e.g., arts, environment, etc.) where proposals are strong. Amounts and duration of grants may be more modest than in the past.
--Explore new ways to use loan-related opportunities to assist nonprofits in this current economic environment.
--Continue to find ways for MMT to contribute to promoting access to ARRA funds within our region.
--Explore ways to strategically support nonprofits as the economy recovers, e.g., technical assistance opportunities to strengthen and stabilize organizational and financial management.
As we've challenged ourselves to find new and better ways to provide support that is needed during the last 12 months of economic turmoil though reflecting on our work and searching for continuous improvement, one thing has never been more clear to us:
All our efforts must be primarily aimed at doing what we can to help NPOs become as strong as they can be. It's not about us. It's about you and the important work you do for all of us.
We know for many organizations and communities, these are unprecedented times, and we recognize that our region may be slower to recover than other places. While we look to the future with hope and resist being discouraged, we know we need to keep challenging ourselves to find ever more ways to help those we support.
We invite your ideas, comments, suggestions, etc. in the comment section below. In large part, we rely on you to tell us what you need.
Doug
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Doug Stamm
CEO, Meyer Memorial Trust
Seth Godin -- well known in social media and marketing, often associated with the concept of "permission marketing" and well known author and speaker in those circles -- has set off a vigorous and sometimes heated discussion about how well (or not) nonprofits are doing in adapting to change.
His blog post begins by pointing out the problem with a field that identifies itself by what it doesn't do, something we discussed here a year and a half ago.
But Seth is decidedly not impressed with nonprofits embracing change and utilizing new ways of communicating, building relationships and fundraising.
Naturally, the nonprofit field has reacted quickly and pointedly. Maybe a good way to dive into the discussion would be to read Steve MacLaughlin's blog post "Seth Godin and the Problem with Non-Profits" because it includes links to many of the responses (in addition to the comments in Seth's blog).
As Steve points out, Seth got a conversation started. It will be interesting to see what comes of this buzz. We'd love to hear what you think below.
Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (0)My message this month continues our promise to keep you informed about MMT’s ongoing efforts to find strategic ways to help nonprofits in Oregon and southwest Washington navigate the economic recession that has affected our area so significantly.
First, in direct response to what we know to be profound needs in our communities, MMT has decided to “hold steady” and not reduce our grants budget during our current fiscal year, even though our corpus is still much lower than it was this time last year (most recently at $510 million compared with an all-time high of about $750 million in October 2007). Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Oregon recently reported that more than half of foundations in Oregon plan to reduce giving this year in response to their own diminishing economic fortunes.
In its recently published Smarter Grantmaking in Challenging Times: Insights for Foundation Leaders, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations outlines a number of actions grantmakers can take to provide the best support to nonprofits during these challenging economic times. MMT is holding itself accountable to the challenges set forth by this nationally acclaimed grantmaking group.
Last month we announced the results of our Shared Resources RFP, enabling more than 100 nonprofit organizations to reduce costs and operate more efficiently in eight projects across Oregon.
This month we awarded the first grants under MMT’s 2009 Operating Fund that recently invited proposals for up to $50,000 for core support from small- and mid-sized organizations that play a critical role in their communities, whose stability is seriously jeopardized due to current economic conditions, and for whom a modest cash infusion will be critical to weathering the next 12 months. We set up an internal process to provide quick, collective and thoughtful review of requests.
We received 53 requests to the Operating Fund from eligible organizations across the state, spanning human services, housing, arts, and the environment. At the June program meeting, MMT’s trustees awarded funding to nine of the applicants:
The stories we heard and fiscal conditions described were nearly uniformly compelling. We wish we could fund all needs. But since we can’t, we are sharing what we learned from our applicants. Not only do we hope these findings will help potential applicants in our next round of Operating Funds awards (those turned down in the first round are eligible to reapply), we hope sharing them might be useful to other nonprofits and foundations as they encounter and respond to the negative effects of the recession.
Doug
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Doug Stamm, CEO
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Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (4)There's an innovative use of social media happening this week that Portland nonprofits might find especially interesting.
Nonprofit social media leader Beth Kanter, who was the featured presenter at one of MMT's New Media workshops in 2007, has been using social media to raise money to support a Cambodian woman's college education for a number of years. (Leng is an orphan who was in the same orphanage as Beth's daughter.) Lately, Beth has been thinking about how to cover the costs of Leng's upcoming senior year.
"I was delighted," Beth recently wrote, "that Mark Grimes, from NedSpace, who has been a repeat donor to my Cambodian campaigns made me an offer I could not refuse."
If Mark can rent out the remaining spaces by 5PM PT Monday June 1, 2009 at his co-working NedSpace, he'll not only send Leng Sopharath to college, but to other Cambodians through the Sharing Foundation's college education program. And he will donate $5,000 to Epic Change.
NedSpace is a 7,500 square foot co-working space for startups, innovative tech companies, artists, nonprofits and social entrepreneurs located in the heart of downtown Portland (at 920 SW Third--between Taylor & Salmon). You can request a NedSpace tour via twitter @neddotcom or phone 503.502.0185
Mark says "I really want to make sure NedSpace gets a great mix of small nonprofits, artist groups and social entrepreneurs in the remaining seats. And as luck would have it, they are the least expensive of all (at $175 per person per month). We're really looking for social innovation related organizations that would benefit from being around serial entrepreneurs and working in a hectic, creative, dynamic startup environment."
Mark and Beth are using social media networks to make this happen. You can learn a lot more about Cause Marketing on Beth's Blog and elsewhere on the web. We'll continue to track this story and let you know how it turns out...
Are there ways your organization is using or can use social media to raise funds. Please share your experiences with us below...
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Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (2)As we begin a new fiscal year at Meyer Memorial Trust, we want to give you another update on our foundation's response to continued economic challenges. As promised, we're continuing to look for ways to provide useful support to the nonprofit organizations we serve during a time of continuing economic difficulties. At this point, we want to provide you with additional information about how we will approach two important areas of grantmaking -- Core Support (general operating support) and Capacity Building -- over the coming year.
The following information is intended to provide guidance to prospective applicants and respond to questions and feedback we have been receiving from the nonprofit community over the past few months. We hope you’ll find it helpful.
We understand the value of core support. In fact, we know that -- now more than ever -- many organizations are financially challenged to maintain their core work. It’s true that many foundations historically preferred to fund new projects rather than core operations, and we continue to invite proposals that are project-based. But we also recognize that given the current economic climate, this may not be the time to launch new programs.
While our recently announced 2009 Operating Fund program has received enthusiastic interest, it is intended for a specific and limited group of nonprofits. We know it does not meet the broader needs of the nonprofit community. In fact, when launching that program in March 2009, we indicated that nonprofits not meeting the Fund’s eligibility criteria could apply for core support through MMT’s Responsive Grants and Grassroots Grants programs. We have heard a lot of questions about this and want to offer some guidance.
Over the next year, organizations displaying the following characteristics will likely be best positioned for core support through our Responsive and Grassroots Grants programs.
The organization is:
We should also note that we anticipate receiving many more requests for core support through these programs than we can fund. Additional guidance on how to apply for Core Support can be found here and here.
MMT remains fully committed to building the capacity of nonprofits in our region and we recognize the importance of continuing this work in this economy. Because nonprofit organizations' ability to create and sustain new development programs will be limited and MMT grant awards need to be more limited in size and duration, we will be taking a more targeted approach to capacity building over the coming year.
While we will continue to consider traditional capacity building requests (e.g. multi-year projects that include hiring new development staff), we anticipate that most MMT capacity building grants will be awarded for more modest, yet meaningful, projects to strengthen nonprofits and lay the groundwork for further work when the economy recovers. We have identified some example projects here. Projects that strengthen boards will be a priority.
In assessing requests, MMT will consider questions such as the following:
We will also continue to look at the concrete outcomes and deliverables (i.e, “before and after” scenarios) expected from the project. Additional information on what we look for can be found here.
We don't pretend to be able to be all things to all nonprofit organizations. During a time of economic challenge that is unprecedented for many of us, MMT's resources are too limited to solve the many fiscal difficulties all our communities are facing. But we plan to keep challenging ourselves to find ways to do more. So while we won't be able to provide grant support to all organizations that need it, we continue to look for ways to help where we can and to be more clear about what we aim to do and how we do it.
Please continue to let us know what you think -- that's the only way we can make certain our Responsive Grants program is indeed responsive. We welcome your comments below.
Doug
---Doug Stamm
CEO, Meyer Memorial Trust Please note: The comment period on this entry has expired Go to this entryGrantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington recently conducted a survey of foundations in our region to determine how the economic downturn has affected them and how, in turn, they expect it to affect their grantmaking this year.
The results are in. GOSW is generously sharing those results with us all... You can read a summary of findings, watch a slide show, and even listen to an audio report. It's all here!
As always, we invite you to let us know what you think, ask questions, and so forth...
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Go to this entrySince I shared our initial response to the changing economic landscape with you in early October, the economy has continued to deteriorate, affecting us all. A recent Chronicle of Philanthropy survey found that many foundations lost nearly one-third of their assets due to the steep decline in the stock market over the past year. Meyer Memorial Trust experienced a 23% decline in the value of assets during this period, leaving a balance on December 31, 2008 of $530 million.
(MMT asset graph reflects investment performance, grants and loans paid out, administrative and investment expenses, etc.)
As a result, we anticipate having less money to distribute over the next few years than we have had in the recent past. At the same time, we are well aware of the double challenges confronting the nonprofit sector –- organizations are faced with responding to increasing demand for critical human services at the same time they are coping with declining revenues from individual and corporate donors, reduced public funding and declining foundation funding.
In the midst of the constant bombardment of bad news, however, I want to offer some reassurance. While the Trust’s payout will be less this year than in the recent past ($32 million in FY '07, $37 million in FY ’08 and approximately $29 million anticipated for FY ’09), we are open for business and we plan to continue to make new awards throughout the balance of this calendar year. We of course plan to honor all grant and loan commitments already awarded.
Despite these challenging times, we find much to feel positive and hopeful about. We have developed a number of targeted ways to respond to current economic conditions that we hope will give nonprofit organizations reason to feel positive and hopeful as well.
MMT is launching an Operating Funds grant program to help small- and mid-sized organizations that have been hit particularly hard by the economic crisis. This opportunity will provide grants of up to $50,000 to key organizations that have received a Responsive or General Purpose Grant from MMT within the past five years and for whom a cash infusion will be critical to weathering the economic storm. This program is now open, with more information posted here and here.
Other types of operating requests should continue to be made through the Trust’s Responsive and Grassroots Grant programs as usual.
As we recently announced, MMT is soliciting proposals for planning grants to allow nonprofits to explore shared space and services opportunities in order to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. Details of this opportunity are available here.
MMT is focusing the lens through which we review funding requests. Over the balance of 2009, the following considerations will guide our work:
>> Proposals to expand or maintain critical human services in response to demonstrated needs will be our highest priority. While we will continue to consider requests from nonprofits working in other areas of social services, the arts, education, and the environment –- and anticipate making grants in some or all of these areas over the coming year –- critical human services will be prioritized.
In all areas, expansion of existing programs to serve increased demand created by the challenging economy will generally be preferred over development of new programs. Opportunities that are time-sensitive or have strong potential to leverage other funds will be favored over those that could reasonably be postponed until the economic outlook is brighter.
>> Capital projects will only have limited funds available. We will look most favorably on modest requests for capital projects for which most funds (~80%) have been raised or for which MMT funds would be paid out in future fiscal years.
>> Capacity building investments will be modest. As always, capacity building projects based on solid planning and reflecting credible projections will receive best consideration.
>> Multi-year awards will generally be modest and limited. Modest multi-year funding requests are preferred given the uncertainty about when the economy will stabilize.
>> Requests to enhance efficiencies and effectiveness are encouraged. We also encourage well-planned proposals designed to gain efficiencies or increase effectiveness in the delivery of program services. For example, transfer of services between organizations, mergers, co-locating, sharing of back office functions, etc.
Finally, we encourage current Meyer Trust grantees to contact their program officers if there is concern about the ability to effectively carry out work funded by our grants.
We are also reducing MMT administrative expenses. Consistent with prudent business practices we have and will continue to take steps to reduce our operating costs in order to maximize the level of funding available to nonprofits across the region.
We know that –- in great part due to the good work of local nonprofit communities in our region –- we will get through these uncertain and challenging times. Thank you for your creative and passionate work that informs our efforts to continue delivering significant social benefit to Oregon and southwest Washington communities.
We will keep providing you with updates as we continue our way through uncharted waters. We also pledge to challenge ourselves to look for more and new ways to provide support to our nonprofit partners. We welcome your suggestions and wisdom.
Doug Stamm
CEO, Meyer Memorial Trust
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Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (5)Yes we can, say Robert J. Shapiro and Aparna Mathur, in a newly published study: The Social and Economic Value of Private and Community Foundations. (Shapiro is the head of Sonecon and author of the new book >)
The study was sponsored by The Philanthropic Collaborative, "a new coalition of charities, foundations and elected officials dedicated to educating policy makers regarding the economic value of foundations and the work they do to improve America's communities."
According to the authors, this is the first such broad analysis of foundation grantmaking ever conducted in the U.S. In general, the study found an estimated average return of $8.58 in direct economic benefits for every grant dollar invested in 2007. "As a result," the authors report, "the $42.9 billion in grants and other support provided by private and community foundations in 2007 produced some $367.9 billion in direct, social and economic benefits." The report points out that this benefit greatly outweighs the estimated $8-$13 billion lost to taxes by the tax exemptions granted to charities and foundations.
In addition to the direct benefit, the study also found that foundation expenditures in 2007 helped generate nearly $512 billion in additional household income through some 900,00 nonprofit jobs and some $145 billion in additional government revenues.
The authors studied categories of grantmaking, and sample findings included:
>> Every grant $1 invested in human services generates nearly $11 in economic benefit.
>> Every grant $1 to arts and cultural organizations generates close to $10 in economic benefit.
>> Every grant $1 invested in health produces about $7.60 in economic benefit.
These examples are, of course, only the tip of the iceberg. You can download the 42-page report here.
We'd love to hear what you think. What should the nonprofit world do with this information? Who needs to know this?
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Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (1)
In this season for gift giving, are you aware of the good gifting options now available? Lucy Bernholz's recent blog post about good gifting had a number of great ideas.
Things like:
>>> the Give List where lots of folks are sharing GREAT ideas about giving in these tough times. Love those ideas!
>>> Charitable Gift Cards where you are the donor and the recipient chooses the charity.
If you have a Capital One credit card, you can redeem No Hassle Rewards for charity. If you use your card for a donation, Capital One will cover the transaction fees.
I've also heard you can put a charity on your Amazon wish list, but I confess I couldn't figure out how to do it. If someone can, please post instructions here...
And please add your own ideas and recommendations...
(Image from flickr By Manassas Cakery)
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Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (3)There's a lot of talk going around these days about foundation accountability. (See this summary article on the Chronicle of Philanthropy website.) The call for more scrutiny might intensify given the fact that the current economic crisis is being blamed at least partly on loose regulation and lax oversight.
One of the voices for reform is the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, which "promotes philanthropy that serves the public good, is responsive to people and communities with the least wealth and opportunity, and is held accountable to the highest standards of integrity and openness."
According to NCRP, only one-third of giving by large foundations benefits “marginalized communities,” (impoverished people, racial minorities, disabled people, and women) while too much charitable money goes to “patronage giving” that only serves the elite of society by supporting arts institutions and universities.
As we hope you know, MMT is committed to transparency and accountability, so we took this opportunity to take a look at ourselves. We compiled lists of the organizations that had received the largest amounts in grants from us, and compared our past and more recent recipients.
We think there are some clear and compelling differences between top recipients over the first 20 years and the past six years. Rather than point them out, we'd like to ask you to look over the two lists and comment on what strikes you. What do you observe about "marginalized communities" vs. "patronage giving"?
A few months ago, legislation was proposed in California that would have required foundations to track and make public the racial and ethnic composition of their board and staff members and beneficiaries of their grantmaking. Some have suggested this should be a federal requirement.
What's your take? Should all foundations be required to direct funds to "marginalized communities"? Should they continue to be able to fund any group they choose, even if it only benefits "elite audiences"? Should foundations be required to disclose racial and ethnic composition?
And how do you think we're doing?
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Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (7)In case you haven't been following it, there's something really exciting happening on the Internet that I believe deserves the rapt attention all nonprofit organizations, foundations and donors these days.
It's important on a number of levels. It's an amazingly fascinating story. It provides insight into financial challenges facing nonprofits right now. It illustrates the power of collaboration. It reveals how donors think and behave. And it provides a model for radical transparency in communication.
Here's the backstory:
FORGE, a rather new and small nonprofit organization that helps refugees in Africa rebuild their communities changed its approach and found itself about $100,000 short of operating funds for the rest of the year (its annual operating budget is about $400,000).
Executive Director Kjerstin Erickson decided to use her blog on the Skoll Foundation's Social Edge website to be completely upfront about the challenge FORGE was facing, even though by doing so she faced the possibility that donor confidence in the organization might be eroded.
The story is playing out live on her blog as we speak. You can pick up the story where it is now and work backward, or begin with the entry on 10-17-08 titled "We're in trouble..." and read upward through "How we got into this crunch" and "Tough decisions in a time of crisis" and so on. (To get maximum insight, start reading her blog at the beginning).
Others from the nonprofit and foundation world responded, and on her blog Kjerstin honestly and openly answers their questions and explains the organization's approach and strategy. There is an unusual -- and maybe even unprecedented -- level of candor visible in this conversation among those needing money and those donating money. For sure, these conversations take place. But not in public, with anyone and everyone able to listen in.
Sean Stannard-Stockton of Tactical Philanthropy took an interest and pulled in a number of resources to help FORGE as it goes forward. With one condition: FORGE had to agree to let the entire story be told in public.
As Curtis Chang, one of the consultants Sean recruited put it, "We agreed but I stipulated that the normal client expectations of confidentiality would then not apply. For instance, if I discovered that FORGE really didn’t have a prayer, well, then I would blog about that. If you’re going to survive by the sword of transparency, you’ve got to be ready to die by it. Kjerstin agreed without hesitation."
I think it's so instructive for all of us. And we're still in the middle of it... I encourage everyone to catch up now and follow the story as it moves forward.
You can track it from several different perspectives: on Kjerstin's blog, at Tactical Philanthropy, and Consulting within Reach.
Readers are invited to add their suggestions and comments. As Sean puts it, "All of this is going to play out live. If you don’t like where things are headed, speak up and you might just change the outcome."
And we at MMT would love to see a discussion on our own blog about this... how do you feel about this kind of "radical" transparency? Is this an activity your organization would be willing to participate in? What do you think we have to gain or lose by this? We'd love to know what you think...
I must say, this is way better than any reality tv...
Marie
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Marie Deatherage
Director, Communication & Learning
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Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (6)We just got an email that made our day, from Lisa Arkin at Oregon Toxics Alliance:
I wanted to share a very fun thing with you! I was reading the Meyer Memorial Trust blog and saw an entry by Bob Reeves, the Executive Director of the Eugene Science Factory. He mentioned his willingness to share the museum’s space with other non-profits for an event.
When I read his blog post, it sparked an idea that I had been mulling about – holding an event where parents could bring newly purchased holiday toys for testing to make sure they are toxics-free! So, I called the Science Factory and suggested we do this – they were thrilled and supportive. We have already chosen a date and working on the details together.
Not only would this bring two non-profits together for an unusual collaboration, it would also provide a community service. In addition, it helps bring potential new members (and more kids) to the Science Factory.
Also, this project furthers our on-going work in Toxics Use Reduction for which MMT funded us way back in 2001 and 2003! Currently, OTA is helping build public support for a legislative proposal to ban certain toxic chemicals in toys and establish a protocol for reducing toxic chemicals in children’s products. This work is part of our partnership in the Oregon Chemical Policy Workgroup with Oregon Environmental Council, Oregon Center for Environmental Health and Physicians for Social Responsibility.
The company who manufactures the testing equipment has agreed to provide the equipment and the operator for FREE for an entire weekend! I am also thinking of holding a similar event at a children’s museum in Portland the next day.
So, I guess this is a fine example of the good things that come out of the MMT blog!
Why, yes, it is! This letter made our day! We love the idea that our blog might be facilitating connections and fostering collaboration in ways we don't even know!
What about you? Do you have examples of ways that any of MMT's communications efforts have been put to good use for your organization? We'd love to know if so.... so go ahead, you too can make our day...
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Go to this entryAs you know, the last two weeks have been full of headlines and conversations that have economic implications for all of us. Foundations are not immune to the financial challenges so many nonprofit organizations are facing these days. We thought this would be a good time to address some of the questions that are on all our minds.
First, in light of the need for nonprofit organizations to find ways to operate as efficiently as possible and reduce costs, MMT will soon announce a Request for Proposals for planning grants of up to $25,000 for nonprofits to explore shared space opportunities. You may recall we raised this issue in our blog last year, to which so many of you posted insightful comments. We have been exploring ways to respond to your interest ever since. In conjunction with the RFP, MMT will offer an educational event with national experts to help groups consider, evaluate the pros and cons, and -- where appropriate -- plan colocation projects. Please watch this space for additional announcements in coming weeks.
Since MMT began operating in 1982, our trustees have been careful to diversify our foundation assets. While our corpus is affected when the U.S. and global stock markets decline, we have assets in a wide range of other asset classes that buffer some of the stock market losses. As a result, while our corpus dropped 6.6% during September 2008, the S & P 500 declined by 9% over the same period. Accordingly, while we are not pleased with the decline in our corpus, we have and will continue to take steps to preserve the corpus to the best of our ability.
MMT is, of course, honoring all grant and loan commitments it has already made as scheduled. At this time we still expect our payout for the current fiscal year to exceed $30 million.
Our commitment to open communications means we will keep you apprised of any further developments. We are all in this together, and together we will work our way to a better and brighter future.
We really appreciate your use of our blog to speak to your needs, share useful ideas and information with us and one another, and contribute to a spirit of community that is so important for all of us, especially when times are tough. We hope you will do so now by posting comments below.
Thanks on behalf of MMT,
Doug Stamm
CEO
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Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (15)Wednesday, Sept. 17, was Mission Day at MMT. The brainchild of staff members Sayer Jones and Aaron Nelson, MMT staff members left the office for a day in teams to volunteer at a local nonprofit organization. Our most reliable and best personal blogger on staff – Grant Kruger – reported on the experience on his blog.
Greetings of the summer!
I had intended to write much sooner, but we have so many projects going on it can be hard to carve out time to sit down and talk about them in a reflective way. But that’s what I intend to do here today… forgive the length, but our list is long.
Let’s start with the numbers that show up in the rear view mirror. Fiscal year 2007-08 (which ended March 31, 2008) was a milestone year for us in a number of ways:
A graph of awards we've made since our 2000-01 fiscal year illustrates these trends: the growth in total amount awarded, directly related to a rapid increase in our PRI program, while the dollar amount in grant awards has leveled off in the last three years.
My last message focused on our recent efforts in Mission Investing. (Mission-Related Investing is defined as financial investments made with the intention of furthering a foundation’s mission while recovering the principal invested or earning financial return), so I’ll begin with an update on that effort. You may recall that MMT engaged representatives of Equilibrium Capital LLC, a private equity investor located in Portland, to assess the state of the MRI market and develop a practical MRI implementation strategy for institutional investors. This unconventional partnership reflects an emerging willingness among financial services professionals and institutional investors to forge new relationships and collaborate as the financial services industry looks to innovate through MRI.
Today we are sharing the outcome of Equilibrium Capital's work with you. Mission Related Investing: Building a Portfolio explores current obstacles to MRI development and sets forth an implementation plan. While originally intended as an internal document, we decided to share it with others because we find it to be a remarkable summary of the state of the field that also provides a map for actions MMT and other foundations can take next. This work also inspires the Meyer Memorial Trust’s deep dedication to the issues of sustainability.
Traditionally, investors work with consultants or so-called “gatekeepers” to identify investment products. The study found that these “gatekeepers” are not aware of the many products and MRI opportunities being developed in the marketplace and therefore institutional investors have become the market drivers for MRI opportunities. That puts them at the forefront of influencing the development of MRI and sustainability domain expertise across the traditional investment value chain. The report suggests a four-step implementation process: 1) objectives setting; 2) investment; 3) evaluation; and 4) integration. The fourth step achieves mission implementation across all organization tools, programs and assets.
MMT was an integral part of the effort to convince Cambridge Associates to develop a MRI research initiative. Cambridge's focus on MRI brings credibility to the movement, given the firm's large market share. This project could have tremendous effect on increasing MRI.
Cambridge intends to expand its knowledge of key players in MRI and build a manager database. The firm will produce annual performance reports for each type of MRI strategy, such as Sudan-free and clean technology. It will define best practices for institutions regarding the establishment and implementation of an MRI program.
As we announced earlier, MMT is partnering with Annie E. Casey and F. B. Heron foundations to issue a challenge to foundations to increase mission related investments to 2% of all U.S. foundation assets over the next five years. Our MRI approach was featured in a recent article in Alliance Magazine, "news and analysis of the latest developments in philanthropy and social investment worldwide."
At this point, MMT has $40 million in investments aligned to its mission, largely in local venture capital, clean tech and buyout funds. We expect that amount to increase significantly in the future.
The past six months has been devoted to intensive learning about the people, organizations and issues already involved in restoring the health of the Willamette and to designing a fund that will respond directly to recognized needs while catalyzing a new level of commitment to the river. We have held or attended dozens of meetings (and paddled, hiked along and flown over the river) and are working closely with public agencies, local watershed groups, other nonprofits and scientists to ensure that our Willamette restoration strategies address critical needs and priorities.
Over the summer, we will begin implementing two major strategies in support of this goal:
In both cases, MMT funds will be targeted to project areas in the middle and upper sections of the basin (above Willamette Falls).
We are still working out the final details of these and other strategies and will announce our decisions soon. Over the next several months we will also continue our efforts to engage other funders in the Willamette so that private and public commitments at least triple MMT’s average annual investment in improving the health of the river. Watch our website to learn more about this initiative, including funding opportunities within and outside the geographic target areas described above.
In March we announced the first prong of MMT’s affordable housing initiative, a $5.225 million investment. It included disbursing $4.66 million to support the Housing Acquisition Fund, administered by the Network for Oregon Affordable Housing. The Fund will make loans to finance purchase of buildings and bare land to be used for rental and homeownership projects and will support site acquisition for preservation and new construction efforts. MMT is working with project partners to grow the fund to $50 million. The Fund will begin financing site acquisition this summer. In the current credit environment, as competition for affordable apartments grows and access to permanent-financing decreases, the fund’s buy-hold capacity is more crucial than ever.
This month, MMT’s trustees approved the second prong of the Housing Initiative at $2.42 million, intended to increase affordable housing access in rural Oregon by strengthening providers. MMT has elicited input from 25 experts from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors to help shape this multi-year strategy. The strategy will:
In the third prong, MMT will work with others to promote financially sustainable delivery of tenant support services. MMT has funded the Bridges to Housing project, the Washington Families Fund, and a Neighborhood Partnership Fund resident services project, all of which seek to demonstrate the utility and cost-effectiveness of financing delivery of tenant support services. MMT’s nonprofit partners intend to use outcome data from these efforts to catalyze long-term realignment of public and private resources to fund tenant services. In December 2008, MMT will consider potential follow-on funding for these projects. MMT may also support one additional demonstration project.
This is the fifth year of the Chalkboard Project, a program of Foundations for a Better Oregon. MMT has awarded $2.78 million (including inkind support) to the project since it began in 2004.
Chalkboard’s major accomplishments over the past year include:
Chalkboard measures its progress by the relationships it builds with the public, policymakers and education stakeholders through:
Chalkboard’s priorities over the next year include:
In this education reform project, MMT joined the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to create new, innovative high school models that improve graduation rates, close the achievement gap and help prepare more students to be successful in college and the workplace. The Oregon Small Schools Initiative (OSSI) serves nearly 12,000 Oregon high school students; about 45% are economically disadvantaged and almost 40% represent minorities. At this point, MMT has allocated more than $15 million to the project since 2003.
E3: Employers for Education Excellence is implementing OSSI. The original project plan called for converting 18-20 existing large high schools into multiple small schools within the same building, and creating 10-12 new small schools. Currently, the initiative has helped transform nine large comprehensive high schools into 32 small high schools and helped start six new small high schools, for a total of 38 schools. OSSI discontinued partnerships with two comprehensive high schools and two new-start small schools that did not make adequate progress.
The schools are not just smaller; many are built around themes like science, art, health, technology and leadership and entrepreneurship. Each school is putting in place personalized programs for students and a challenging college preparatory curriculum, including first time Advance Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate and Dual Credit courses. As a result, there has been an 80% increase in the number of students taking AP courses, and the number of students taking AP tests has doubled.
After only one or two years, a number of small schools are already showing improvements in key academic areas. For example, RIT scores (measurements of individual student growth on state assessments) are up in many small schools in Portland; seven small high schools in Portland were the only high schools in the district to show an average RIT gain in math from 8th to 10th grade in 2007. Many students in small schools report a much greater sense of belonging and teachers report improvements in student attitude and behavior. Small schools, on average, are showing increases in enrollment and schools open the longest are showing increases in attendance and declines in the percentage of students disciplined.
In recent weeks, the Oregon Small Schools Initiative has been the focus of quite a lot of media attention, some admittedly negative. The transition to small schools has not been easy for many and they are still at a fragile stage of development. Some of the key challenges they have faced include adopting and implementing new instructional practices, developing and retaining strong principals and teachers, and creating a new culture of learning in an education system that is slow to change. MMT engaged in this strategy to reduce the achievement gap to attempt to address a long standing problem resistant to solution. A number of approaches had already failed. We don't choose to tackle challenging problems because we are guaranteed success, we choose them because they are too important not to try to solve. We expect to learn from our attempts and adjust our strategy as we move forward, with the additional wisdom we gain as we go. We also know we need to be patient, because if it were easy, it would have already happened. To demonstrate our continued commitment, MMT recently made a $3 million award to extend the OSSI project by two years.
In the coming year, the project’s highest priority will continue to be a focus on improving teaching in the classroom. Teachers will continue to implement innovative instructional practices such as project-based learning and arts integration, and use unique approaches to teaching math and literacy. We understand that significant high school reform does not happen overnight, and that not all schools will be successful in making this transformation. That said, we are confident that many of these small schools will become exemplary high school models where all students are graduating with the skills they need to succeed in college and work.
It’s important to point out that –- despite our new initiatives and attention to MRI -- the bulk of what MMT does is still responsive grantmaking. Refocusing our grantmaking was a criticial part of our strategic planning work, which resulted in:
In the coming months, look for us to:
As you can see, we have a full agenda these days. (We have a number of other projects underway that I haven’t mentioned, but will feature in future messages.) Sometimes it might appear we are trying to do too much too fast. But these are urgent times. We don’t have the luxury of waiting to address the critical issues we face in our special corner of the world. Every day we hear from you about how important it is to support your work, and it requires us to bring a sense of urgency with us to the office every day. We have no time to lose.
Have a great summer,
Doug
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Today I met with a Portland visionary and got VERY excited about what a project she has been working on could mean for nonprofit organizations. I can’t stand not sharing it with you this minute…
Here’s the scoop I got from Ellen Bergstone Beer, Executive Director of Film Action Oregon:
Film Action Oregon and Box Office Tickets have teamed up to create the PDX Ticket Network, a new community ticketing and CRM (constituent management relationship) solution for Portland area organizations that’s FREE. Seriously. You sell a $10 ticket, you get $10. Who pays the cost of the service? The ticket buyer pays $1 per ticket plus 5% of the face value. So the service fee for the $10 ticket is $1.50. Compare that with the fees commercial ticketing companies charge!
I know there are alternative ticketing options available like Tickets Oregon and Brown Paper Tickets but PDX Ticket Network goes way above and beyond ticketing.
This program also provides nonprofit organizations with the ticket buyer’s contact information and preferences. It enables:
• Donation database tracking and management
• Membership/subscriptions
• Email/mailing lists
• eMarketing
It’s a 100% web based service that works on all computer operating systems. And it’s all integrated!
This project allows members and organizations to network and work together in ways that haven’t been possible before. Over the next couple of months, it will produce an online community calendar of events, something that everyone I know has needed and wanted forever or longer. A dream come true, you could say.
I love seeing solutions like this emerge from the community! My hat is off to Ellen and project partner George Domurot (President/CEO of Box Office Tickets). And I bet they aren’t done yet… if I were you, I would keep my eye on this website.
Marie Deatherage, Director of Learning & Communication
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Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (1)Below is a script from the connectipedia launch event on June 10, 2008. While we have made available a video of the entire event, we realize that not every has broadband Internet access, which makes it difficult to view lengthy videos. This script provides the narrative of the event, with links to much shorter video presentations of individual speakers. (The entire video is available here: Part 1 & Part 2)
During our time together here today, I’m going to tell you the story of connectipedia, weaving in the participation of all the key players. Understanding how it came about the way it did and why will help make its intent more clear, I think.
Once upon a time, two to three years ago, the largest private foundation in Oregon had 100% turnover in its full time program officer staff within a year’s time. If anybody ever had a wake up call about capturing and storing institutional memory, it was us. Recognizing that need, building a system to capture and share information became an important element of Meyer Memorial Trust's 2005 Business Plan.
Probably mostly because I was still left and had a reputation for never meeting a technology I wasn’t willing to at least date, I was assigned the task of developing a system that could serve as an archive of knowledge that would remain behind when key staff members left. A way to share what we know and build a kind of collective wisdom. What the field calls a “knowledge management” system.
While it was a fairly new trend in the foundation world, I learned knowledge management had been around in the corporate world for quite some time, so I studied what businesses had done. What had worked, what hadn’t worked. How much it cost. And so forth. I also looked at what other foundations were doing.
I attended the Knowledge Management conference in Boston put on by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations and talked to people at other foundations about their experiences. Some of what I heard was pretty scary: hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on a system that no one really used or found useful.
Our knowledge management system had consisted primarily of popping up over the cubicle wall and saying, “Hey, Charline.” (Charline McDonald, who had been a program officer at MMT almost as long as MMT had existed, was known as the “queen of grantmaking” within our ranks until her retirement in 2005.)
So I thought a lot about our knowledge access and storage needs, and realized that what I needed from Charline was not: tell me everything you know about food banks, if perchance, I was investing a proposal from a food bank. First of all, she didn’t have time to sit down and tell me what she knew every time I looked at a new proposal about a new topic. And if she hadn’t reviewed a food bank proposal for several years, her knowledge might very well be out of date.
What I needed from Charline was a connection to people, organizations and resources who knew the food bank scene. Not information exactly, but connections to information resources.
Very often, those connections were with nonprofits doing the real work. And researchers. Community members. People who really cared. And so forth.
So why, I wondered, would a foundation go to the trouble to build such a useful tool for just ourselves, especially since much of the time the resources we need to access live outside our walls? It really made no sense… Why couldn’t we design and build it so anyone and everyone working for the common good could participate, both using and contributing.
After all, that’s one of MMT’s values… reflecting our founder Fred Meyer’s commitment to truly serve the communities that made his success possible, his desire to innovate. Many times working at MMT I wonder, if FM could be here today, what would he think? Would he like what he sees?
Actually, it seems Mr. Meyer foresaw connectipedia…I found this Fred Meyer quote on wikipedia (of course):
"Use your brain for thinking, not as a storehouse. First, write things down so you don't have to remember them.
Second, learn where to find information so you don't have to remember it." - Fred G. Meyer
Another connection Fred Meyer has to connectipedia is that it is a kind of one stop shopping place for people working for the common good, much like Fred Meyer One-Stop Shopping Centers. We hope and think that would make him proud.
If you want to find knowledge, why don’t you just Google it? you might ask. Well, of course we already Googled everything. But Google often gives us too much information. A search of K-12 education Oregon yields 225,000 results, for example. It just takes too long to wade through results like that. And their awesome algorithm sometimes disadvantages more local sources. It would be much more efficient if we had a way to better target the results we got.
And the targeted results system we needed should have a way to include the knowledge of people working for the common good and allow them to input information about themselves and their connections. It needed to be constantly updatable. An always-on tool for mass collaboration.
Clearly we needed to use a new technology tool: a wiki. The best known one is wikipedia. Wiki is a software that enables mass collaboration. Anyone with an Internet connection can create, read, update and delete). It’s agile and fast. Changes constantly. Updates continuously. Continual path of growth and improvement. Never need go out of date.
And Oregon is a hotbed of wiki talent. Did you know that the man who invented wikis lives and works here. And he’s here with us today. Meet Ward Cunningham. He’s going to introduce us to wikis and the wiki way…
Ward Cunningham is the computer programmer who developed the world's first wiki. He now serves as Chief Technology Officer of AboutUs.org, a growth company hosting the communities formed by organizations and the people they touch. Ward co-founded the consultancy, Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc., has served as a Director of the Eclipse Foundation, an Architect in Microsoft's Patterns & Practices Group, the Director of R&D at Wyatt Software and as Principal Engineer in the Tektronix Computer Research Laboratory. Ward is well known for his contributions to the developing practice of object-oriented programming, the variation called Extreme Programming, and the communities supported by his WikiWikiWeb. Ward hosts the Agile Manifesto. He is a founder of the Hillside Group and there created the Pattern Languages of Programs (PLoP) conferences which continue to be held all over the world. He has co-authored a book about wikis, titled The Wiki Way, and also invented Framework for Integrated Tests.
Watch Video of Ward Cunningham's presentation.
And yes, it’s true that Ward really did say that WagN is “the first fresh contribution to wiki since he created it 13 years ago.”
But I kept thinking… I see how wikis work, and they are awesome repositories of knowledge that results from mass collaboration. But what about extracting the information in the most useful way? Sometimes what we need to be able to do is combine information and organize it like a database does. Is a wiki enough?
This is a story about connections. My favorite part is the pink hair connection. At meeting I attended of people working on advancing Open Source in Oregon, a young man came over to me afterward and said, “I see you have a pink streak in your hair, and you see I have one in mine, I think we need to talk.” So before long Brandon Sanders became a friend and one of my scouts, one of the incredibly brilliant people I check in with now and then to just see what’s going on in his head and what next new thing I need to know about. So I kept him posted on my thinking about this whole knowledge management thing…
Then he introduced me to two utterly brilliant geeks with Grass Commonshttp://grasscommons.org/, a nonprofit organization in Eugene: Ethan McCutchen and Lewis Hoffman. They were developing something they called WagN, a wiki tool that had hard core tagging capabilities that gave the contents of the wiki the ability to act like a database. Or as they put it: "It's a wiki you query, an on-the-fly community database, a templating system, an application platform, and a playground .... all in one." Eureka!
So we brought them on the team: They’re going to tell us about WagN and how they wrote connectipedia… and what’s different about connectipedia from other wikis…
Ethan McCutchen co-founded Grass Commons to cultivate the Network of Integrated Consumer Knowledge (NICK), a fusion of his interests in sustainability and software. Having majored in music composition, taught English in Russia and Japan, studied cognitive neuroscience in Scotland, researched primates in Thailand, volunteered in several Latin American countries, and backpacked wherever else he could, Ethan now does most of his exploration online. He’s into system architecture, sustainability indicators, human and computer languages, collaboration, community music, voting systems, and incessant bad jokes.
Lewis Hoffman heads all of Grass Commons’ software development. Previously with Two Radical Technologies (1998-2004) he led development on a powerful, modular, integrated suite of web applications called Advocacy Central. During that time he also completed his master’s in Computer Sciences from George Mason University, focusing on artificial intelligence. He’s also received degrees from Davidson College in German and Physics. An avid outdoor enthusiast and student of sustainability thinking, Lewis was drawn to the NICK project by both its technical challenges and its social and environmental importance. His current software interests include information retrieval and extraction, data integration, and the semantic web.
Watch the Video of Ethan and Lew’s presentation.
While connectipedia was being developed, I was warned we would run into resistance… just like all wikis do, from those who are not accustomed to mass collaboration and the new tools that make shared learning possible on a scale never before seen. So I figured we better put some content in there to have something to show people what the potential was.
Enter Amy Sample Ward. We contracted with her to start working on content. In the true spirit of the Internet, she went to Spain to do her work.
When she came back, there was way more than enough work to go around, so we brought her on to devote most of her time to getting connectipedia ready to launch from inside. She has been the key to us being here today. She has the right combination of skills and knowledge, determination and energy, dedication and commitment to bring us to the finish line, which is really the starting line, isn’t it.
So now, without further ado, Amy is going to show you connectipedia…
Watch Amy’s demo of connectipedia.
In the course of this project, I learned there is no “best” way to organize information. I highly recommend that everybody interested in information and knowledge read Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger. I was fascinated to learn how other ways of organizing information we all take for granted came about, like alphabetization, the Dewey Decimal System. They all have uses, but they all have limited usefulness.
But we had to start somewhere with connectipedia, so began by using taxonomy of the Foundation Center. As time goes on, we know the system will become more refined, reflecting actual knowledge and use. For example, we have partnered with Northwest Health Foundation on the health section of connectipedia. Its staff immediately recognized it needed to be reorganized to reflect reality and needs of the field, which NWHF staff members have now completed. Next they will will begin populating the health section with content, as they have as good an understanding of that field as anyone.
Thanks NWHF!
I went to the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco a few weeks ago and probably the most repeated refrain was: it’s all about data. “The network is the computer and data is the currency.” Often what our foundation needs in its work is data. So we’ve given a fair amount of attention to data in developing connectipedia.
Since we are not in the data business, we asked people whose job it is to know and study data to help us identify the best sources for a variety of information categories. Much thanks to Arlene Wallace and George Hough at Portland State Univrsity’s Population Research Center, Oregon’s State Data Center for providing us with a list of best sources of data for a number of indices.
In addition, we want to rely on primary sources whenever possible, and be careful to use public and non-proprietary data so our users are free to use it for their needs.
First, we learned that there are nearly as many opinions about data as there are sources of data. Arguments can be, and are, made in support of using a number of different sources. We came to the conclusion that determining the very best source each category of data was a fool’s errand, because it usually comes down to individual preference and need. And frankly, the differences in numbers between different sources were almost never great.
Rather, we decided to try to identify sources for data that we could offer up to the community for common use. While individual numbers for a particular index might be debatable, can we agree among ourselves on a common data source for the connectipedia community?
And now for another connection anecdote.
When I was at the Knowledge Management conference, at the first morning networking breakfast, I sat next to the Chief Information Officer for the Council on Foundations and told him about my knowledge management assignment, what I was thinking about doing, and asked him who I most needed to meet and connect with. At that very moment, Troy Anderson walked through the door and he motioned him over. "Here’s your guy," he said. "He’s the technology guru of the foundation world."
Turns out, he’s from Oregon!! But of course! Where else would he be from?? Troy is a member of the Coquille Indian Tribe of southwest Oregon. He developed Knowledgeplex, at that time a knowledge management project of the Fannie Mae Foundation. He was in the midst of developing Dataplace.
It quickly became clear that Dataplace was the missing data link in connectipedia. Dataplace developed an API (automated programming interface) so we could integrate it, so when you look for data here, it comes from there. We have only just begun the full integration, so that will get better and better in the weeks to come.
Troy’s going to show what Dataplace can do…
Troy Anderson has been at the forefront of Web technology innovations and media, and entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship for more than fifteen years. A former management strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, Anderson is the current President & CEO of KnowledgePlex, Inc. – a spin-off from the Fannie Mae Foundation – that democratizes information for the affordable housing community on www.knowledgeplex.org and for data on www.dataplace.org.
Previously, Anderson was SVP, Interactive & IT of Standard Media International (SMI), publisher of The Industry Standard and TheStandard.com, the leading publication covering Web 1.0 innovations. Prior to The Standard, Anderson was VP Online Products at Red Herring magazine, another leading publication covering state-of-the-art technologies out of Silicon Valley and beyond. Anderson joined Red Herring from StockMaster.com, the pioneer in online stock quotes and charts, where he was the President & COO.
Anderson has consulted to companies like Caterpillar, US&G, and Amoco; helped set up his tribe’s (Coquille Indian Tribe) economic development corporation; worked at Inside Sports magazine; and was a professional Go apprentice at the Japanese Professional Go Organization – the Nihon Ki-In – in Japan and later the author of the Way of Go, published by Simon & Schuster, on how the game of Go can inform strategic thinking.
Anderson holds a bachelor's and a master's degree from the Stanford University, where he wrote a dictionary of the Coquille language Milluk. He also holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University near Chicago.
Watch the Video of Troy Anderson's presentation.
View Troy’s presentation as a Powerpoint file or a PDF file.
Connectipedia has links to other data for special uses as well (like Oregon Benchmarks), but we believe Dataplace offers us the consensus data we can agree on… and please, let us know what you think, what you find useful, what else would be helpful. We don’t include all the data in the world, of course, but started with the data we find ourselves using most often.
We’re going to hear from one more person today. Another of Oregon’s amazing geeky wiki resources is Mark Dilley, who is on a mission to index all the world’s wikis. That means he is in a position to assess WagN and connectipedia, so we can better understand the value of what we are creating here. Mark is going to give us some perspective on wikis and talk about how wikis can help build communities.
Mark Dilley is well known for being a labor relations specialist, community builder, creative problem solver and wiki enthusiast. Now has the job of wiki builder at AboutUs.org, and is creating WikiIndex, a wiki of wikis. Bascially, Mark is out to harness the powers of wiki for good.
Watch the video of Mark Dilley's presentation.
There are a number of things connectipedia will make possible that are now out of our reach that will lead to increasing and improving our knowledge. For example, we will have the ability to track indicators down to census tracks. If we make an affordable housing investment in a location, for example, we can watch what happens to indicators of housing in that locale, including income, education, crime, etc.
We can look at the grants we award and have new ways of measuring whether our resources are being equitably distributed according to demographic, economic, and social indicators.
The tool is ready to be put to work (and for us to learn how we can keep making it better). We’ve created the platform for building something powerful together. Our biggest challenge today is nudging our culture along to catch up with our technology.
The way we think about knowledge is changing. It’s not just a change in technology. It’s a cultural shift. Together we need to create a culture of learning and sharing what we learn. The view that knowledge isn’t owned. That information is not to be hoarded, but shared. To trust one another with knowledge. Believing that together everyone is smarter.
So now you know the connectipedia story. Now it’s in your hands. It’s future depends on all of us together. We can’t wait to see where you take it. So let’s get busy make it happen…
I just have one more thing to say, Is this an exciting time to be alive, or what?
Thanks to those of you who attended the connectipedia launch yesterday! And to the wonderful geeks who helped introduce this new tool to you....
We are so excited to have this project off the ground so everyone can become part of it... because that's what will determine whether or not it achieves what we set out to do in bringing it this far.
The "finish line" we reached yesterday is, of course, only the starting line. We are looking to all of us to take it from here, and invite you to join in now.
Anyone can search, browse and read connectipedia. To edit or contribute content, you need to join (click on the "join" or "request an invitation" link and follow instructions.)
We highly recommend you start with the User Guide, which is a pdf file (it can be downloaded and printed if that is more convenient.)
connectipedia uses open web standards so is optimized for Firefox browser, but it should work fine with other web browsers.
If you weren't able to attend the launch or watch the webcast, you can watch a video of it here:
Download the video to watch later. PLEASE NOTE: This is a 145 MB file, so it could take a while to download. If you are behind a firewall, you might have issues and should talk it over with your friendly IT person.
And as usual, we would love to hear what you think...
Go to this entryLike many foundations, MMT has been building a "knowledge management" system to archive information in an accessible way to help us be the best grantmakers we can be. But we've been approaching this task with a bigger end in mind.
Why, we asked ourselves, would we set up a system that only MMT could use when the need for good information is shared by other foundations... and nonprofit organizations and public agencies and official decision makers and citizen volunteers and... in fact, everyone working for the common good?? Wouldn't that be a smarter investment for us to make?
What if there was a place where we could all exchange what we learn as we go about our daily business? What if nonprofits could see the data and information that foundations use in their due diligence process? What if organizations and people could easily determine which foundations' interests match their project goals? What if foundations could quickly see what groups are working on an issue they are investigating? And so on...
Well, we are building such a place. A place where people and organizations can connect about subjects and places. A place called connectipedia...
Want to know more? Want to see connectipedia in action? Want to find out how you can be part of all this? Attend the public launch event at:
2 - 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 10
Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center
aka Ecotrust (second floor conference center)
721 NW Ninth Ave.
Portland OR 97209
We would love you to be part of this event and celebration. Several renowned geeks will be there! We're not requiring folks to register, but if you plan to attend, please send a quick rsvp email.
If you can't make it to Ecotrust, you can still witness the launch. We will be webcasting the event.
After June 10th, connectipedia will be open for business!
Go to this entry | Comment on this entry (5)The Internal Revenue Service has unveiled draft instructions for its updated Form 990 that will be used by nonprofit organizations beginning in tax year 2008. The differences between the existing and new form are significant and include changes in format, organization, and additional disclosure.
MMT Program Officer Paul Reich weighs in and wants to know what you think:
You will rarely find me advocating for increased government regulation and for some questions, the new form causes me to ask, "Why do you need this information?"
Nonetheless, I think the new 990 is a good idea, particularly regarding governance and increased transparency regarding financial transactions that nonprofits should avoid. In particular, its sections on "Statement of Program Accomplishments," "Governance, Management and Disclosure," and "Compensation Information" are noteworthy. Having been in a leadership position in a number of capacities, I can even see this form being used as a tool by nonprofit executives to improve an organization.
What do you think? Please add your comments below...
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In addition, the IRS is accepting comments through June 1, 2008.
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Is it just me, or does anyone else have a problem with calling the world in which we operate "nonprofit" or "not-for-profit?" Should a name really highlight what we don't have? Do we want to be known by something we lack?
Of course we all know that not making a profit is just shorthand for the legal requirements we all must meet to be entitled to our defined tax status with the IRS. But I'm one of those who thinks words matter. And that we can surely do better than nonprofit.
Around the world these organizations are called NGOs (non-governmental organizations). But again, being defined by what we aren't...
Tom Suddes has written about this and suggests we change "non profit" to "for impact." I've heard others refer to "the voluntary sector" or "the independent sector" or "the third sector." Maybe there are other nominations?
What do you think? Does "nonprofit" suit you? Are there other words you prefer? What name do you think could stick? Am I just being weird again?
We would love you to weigh in on this...
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