Health care employers face a tremendous challenge: how to better find and retain skilled frontline workers while improving the quality of care—and quickly. Frontline workers are the more than five million health aides, medical assistants, laboratory technicians, and other workers who make it possible for the nation’s hospitals and clinics to operate. Solving this capacity puzzle is about to become vastly more acute, as 31 million new consumers are poised to join the system thanks to health care reform. Read the rest of this entry »

To Denver came Council on Foundations
To build better philanthropic relations
Bringing questions and reflections
On social intersections
Of justice and change and innovations.

These themes were explored and attacked
Through three days of provocative tracks
Social justice included
No opinions excluded
With much focused on greater impact. Read the rest of this entry »

I think there are two distinct skill sets that folks in philanthropy work on developing over the course of their careers:

The “Hard Skills”—due diligence, research, communications, metrics, etc., and the “Harder Skills”—honest listening, quiet leadership, good citizenship, and honest engagement. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, gotta confess—this is my first time blogging. Ever. As I shared my angst yesterday with socialtech-savvy Perla Ni, she advised me to just pretend the blog is an e-mail to a friend. So, here we go …

I attended an awesome town hall on public-private partnerships. It had smart and interesting speakers, vibrant audience participation, a dynamite moderator, and it was fast-moving and hard-hitting—really. Read the rest of this entry »

Reflecting on the past three days in Denver, a personal highlight was hearing from Helmo Hernandez, president of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba. As a Cuban-American, I was particularly interested to hear about the state of—and prospects for—philanthropy in Cuba. Toward the end of his remarks, Hernandez spoke of the need to explore “alternative legal spaces” for the promotion of a dialogue that can move beyond the historic avenues for bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States and bring about a change in the current state of affairs on the island. Read the rest of this entry »

Thoughts on Chip Heath, author of “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard” and “Made to Stick,” both best-sellers.

When I woke up this morning, I switched on a light. Did you? (Don’t worry, this isn’t a post on energy conservation—I’m not judging you.)

But when I switched on that light, the switch didn’t really happen in my brain. The room was lit, but I was not really awake. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, I participated in what can only be described as a thrill ride of ideas about how to help Americans get back to work and succeed in a post-recession economy. The session was titled, somewhat tamely, “Post-Recession Workforce Innovations: Smart Ideas for the Public, Private, and Philanthropic Sectors.” In reality, it was one of the most invigorating and interesting discussions I’ve had in a long time. Read the rest of this entry »

The Council on Foundations has done an admirable job of incorporating social media into the annual conference. From the official RE: Philanthropy blog of the Council, to its official Twitter handle, to its support for unofficial blog teams, the Council has fully embraced the important role of social media in philanthropy.

Now it’s time for the Council to blow up its traditional conference model and begin exploring new formats for the annual conference. Read the rest of this entry »

Did philanthropy do its part in response to the economic crisis?

The verdict is still out—the crisis is far from over.

But the Foundation Center reports that $443 million in grants and program-related investments directly related to the crisis have been tracked in the last two years. That’s not bad for a sector that has “not been built for speed,” according to panelists of Monday’s town hall session “Did Philanthropy Do Its Part in Response to the Economic Crisis?” On the other hand, 60 percent of foundations reduced their payouts. How can we defend that? Read the rest of this entry »

I applaud the Council on Foundations for having Al Gore speak on Monday.

The theme of this annual conference—Intersections: Social Change, Social Justice, Social Innovation—was a perfect match for the former vice president’s passionate words. Read the rest of this entry »

We wouldn’t be at this conference if we didn’t think foundations have value. I’m not talking about money (though, if you haven’t read it, Craig McGarvey’s 2001 Scrivner Award speech is a must-read on the topic). I’m talking about the roles foundations play in our communities across the country. And yet, when (and if) foundations talk about their work, the predominant frame they use is pretty dull. They talk about the transactional—X dollars to Y organization for Z issue. The image that comes to mind here is a cash machine. Read the rest of this entry »

Inspiring. That’s the word that I heard over and over again about Monday’s annual conference plenary sessions with former Vice President Al Gore and Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. They urged us to use philanthropy’s innovation to address climate change, re-integrating our military into their home communities, and building a new era of community service, respectively. They pointed to the ability of foundations to do their work over the long haul and yet be swift to respond to societal changes.

We’d love for you to share your ideas on how we might move forward individually or collectively to meet the challenges posed by our Monday plenary speakers. What can philanthropy do about these issues, together? What can a single foundation do? Within your own foundation, are there functions you are moved to do better, to do more, or to do over a longer term?

Please post your reactions, recommendations, and responses to our three impressive guests here. Don’t wait until you get home. Use a few minutes at upcoming conference breaks. Use your waiting time in the airport. Head to the Cyber Café before you leave the conference. Use your iPhones or laptops. Get the dialogue going. We want to hear from you!

The future of education is now—and not a moment too soon. The Denver School of Science & Technology admits all applicants based on a lottery—65 percent minority, 50 percent low-income, 50 percent first-generation college—and sends 100 percent of them on to four-year colleges and universities.  Read the rest of this entry »

America’s active interest in community service has skyrocketed in a time of great need, in part thanks to the Kennedy Serve America Act enacted just one year ago. Patrick Corvington, newly minted CEO of the Corporation for National Service, shared with foundation leaders attending the Council on Foundations’ annual conference in Denver that 1.5 million more people are volunteering today than they were at the end of 2008. That is great news, but the corporation’s future goals are loftier still: moving the needle from 75,000 to 250,000 Americorps volunteers by 2017!  Read the rest of this entry »

A year ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Mitsubishi Electric corporate headquarters in Tokyo, where I learned about our overall company Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. It was a real education, as I learned that CSR goes far beyond being a good corporate citizen through philanthropic giving. Good CSR includes developing high-quality products, implementing sustainable production processes, operating with integrity, and being a company where people want to work. Read the rest of this entry »

A session titled “Navigating the Crossroads of Global Social Justice Issues” that included the likes of Van Jones, Eboo Patel, Deepak Bhargava, Kumi Naidoo, Constance Rice, Avila Kilmurray, and Ana Paula Hernandez delivered on its promise. It was a powerful exchange of enlightening and inspiring messages that left me needing more. Read the rest of this entry »

“The intersection of change is present right now.”

The role for philanthropy in addressing climate change is one for which we all struggle. And it is particularly relevant for this conference’s theme of intersections. There is no other issue that embodies this concept of intersections more aptly than climate change. Read the rest of this entry »

Sunday’s mini-plenary session “Social Justice—From Here to 2030” of the first-ever Council on Foundations annual conference Social Justice track was a breath of fresh air for many folks who have long wanted to make social justice a more explicit part of our collegial conversation. Read the rest of this entry »

“What were you thinking? Were you watching ‘Dancing With the Stars’?”

Is that the question our grandchildren will be asking us in 30 or 40 years—after climate change has continued to wreak havoc across the planet? Or will they be thanking us for our foresight and commitment to long-term thinking and vision? So asked former Vice President Al Gore in his keynote address to Council on Foundations annual conference attendees on Monday morning. Read the rest of this entry »

The Council on Foundations annual conference session on Sunday, “Federal Policy and Advocacy: Fixing NCLB and What Foundations Can Do About It,” focused on federal education policies and offered a host of insights into how education philanthropy is making investments that support effective policy change. For those who couldn’t join us, I offer a quick recap of the discussion and insights. Read the rest of this entry »

What data does a foundation board member need to gauge foundation effectiveness? That was the question we grappled with at a trustee-CEO summit session Saturday at the Council on Foundations annual conference in Denver. Our session received invaluable help from the CEO and a trustee of a foundation that has pushed more than most: the Stuart Foundation in California. Read the rest of this entry »

As much as I was hoping for a silver bullet to improve the health status of Americans, not surprisingly there weren’t any earth shattering strategies presented for how we can get America healthy at today’s Council on Foundations Annual Conference session on health care.  As we all know, there is a complex web of factors that need to be addressed in order for us to achieve the health outcomes we seek.  However, the distinguished panel listed below did touch upon a few key themes. Read the rest of this entry »

Social innovation: it’s not about the idea or the “aha” moment.  It’s about creating a critical mass of stakeholder champions. Surprised? So was I, but UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship chair Andy Hargadon and Rockefeller President Judith Rodin presented compelling arguments and multiple examples to make the case at the Council on Foundation’s Annual Conference in Denver.

According to the discussion during the conference session, “Social Innovation: What it is and what it means for Philanthropy,” it turns out that after 4000-plus mousetrap patents, the most effective and bestselling mousetrap is one of the first traps designed, thereby destroying the adage that if you build a better mousetrap people will beat a path to your door! Read the rest of this entry »

So what choices will foundations make at this intersection where the federal government has extended an invitation to partner in new ways?

At today’s opening session, Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement, reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to this powerful equation for change.

Read the rest of this entry »

Each year at our annual conference, the Council on Foundations honors outstanding leaders and philanthropic organizations for their innovative and inspiring contributions. Each is a trailblazer, finding new solutions to address some of today’s toughest challenges and serving as a model for improving people’s lives.

Take Robert Eckardt, for example. He is the 2010 recipient of the Distinguished Grantmaker Award. For more than 25 years, he has overseen grantmaking at the Cleveland Foundation and is a highly respected leader in his community and throughout the country. He has a rare gift of inspiring those around him and for uniting his team’s focus on leveraging the foundation’s resources to more effectively help individuals and families in need.

Read the rest of this entry »