March 2023
Things We’re (Not) Loving This Month
🔥Burnout🔥
Burnout is something Purpose Possible’s leadership team has been talking a lot about lately—not only how to deal with our own but how to support our team members as we navigate exponential growth. A 2022 Chronicle survey of over 650 fundraisers found stress and burnout at the heart of our profession. Ninety-four percent said they strongly or somewhat agreed that there is tremendous pressure to succeed, and 82 percent said fundraising roles are under appreciated. While we don’t have all the answers, we are doing our best to check in with each other and keep work loads manageable. The next few articles are some of what I’ve shared with our team as we hold space for self care and self reflection.
How Leaders Can Help Fundraisers Avoid Burnout
“Fundraisers need opportunities to put their external personas aside and get real about the challenges they face and when they need support. It helps when they can vent with their peers… but they also need to feel that their manager understands the ins and outs of their work.” (Chronicle of Philanthropy)
How Fundraisers Can Get Off the Road to Exhaustion and Burnout
“There is no simple solution to a problem as endemic as burnout is to the nonprofit sector. But leaders, fundraisers, and experts say there is a common cause: exhaustion. Unfamiliarity with the physical signs of stress and burnout can prevent fundraisers from taking the breaks they need to recover. Deep personal ties to the mission and leaders who minimize the need for rest can push nonprofit professionals to work more than is healthy. And there are logistical roadblocks to rest, too. When the work is always urgent, how can employees take time off? It takes leadership and culture change to shield employees from burnout, but experts say the future of the nonprofit sector depends on it.” (Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Transforming Our Systems, Transforming Ourselves: The Pivotal Role of Healing in Social Change Work
A transcript of a talk by Prentis Hemphill, founder and director of The Embodiment Institute and The Black Embodiment Initiative, at the Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) 2022 National Conference, in Chicago, Illinois. (Non Profit Quarterly)
Reimagining holidays in Nonprofits
Rochalle Hazard relates how nonprofit organization Neighborhood House reevaluated their holiday structure to create a more equitable organizational culture. (Fakequity)
Re-evaluating the Great Resignation
To understand how resignation trends impacted nonprofits, sector leaders must look below the headline figures to understand employee motivations. (Blue Avocado)
Articles and News
With the pandemic-era emergency allotment of SNAP ending, food banks are bracing for an onslaught amidst reduced resources and high prices. (Business Insider)
After learning that the local foundation she leads (OSI-Baltimore) would close, a Baltimore leader sprang into action and secured $20 million from her parent organization, the Open Society Foundations, to seed a responsible wind-down effort. (Black Enterprise)
Ford Foundation Creates First-of-Its-Kind Fund to Tackle Disability Bias in Technology
The Disability x Tech Fund, which Ford launched with Borealis Philanthropy, will earmark $1 million for work to, among other things, research accessibility and inclusion, develop litigation strategies, and promote tech development with the help of people with disabilities. It will be housed at the Disability Inclusion Fund, which Borealis manages. (Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Why is there so much secrecy in philanthropy?
Whizy Kim in conversation with Benjamin Soskis, a historian and senior research associate at the Urban Institute’s Center for Nonprofits and Philanthropy, on how lists like the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Top 50 Donors will become increasingly obsolete as megadonors move toward nontraditional giving methods, such as philanthropic LLCs, that don’t require them to disclose the amount of their contributions or their grantees. (Vox) For more, read a review of the new book For-Profit Philanthropy: Elite Power and the Threat of Limited Liability Companies, Donor-Advised Funds, and Strategic Corporate Giving on Candid.
America’s Top Donors Are Helping to Shape the Future in an Old Fashioned Way
“‘The default setting for the biggest donors still seems to be to steer away from addressing some of the thorniest societal challenges related, for example, to inequity, racism, and the future of our planet,’ says Phil Buchanan, president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy.” (Chronicle of Philanthropy)
A look at the former president’s deep involvement with Habitat for Humanity. (Bloomberg)
Studies and Research
Speak Up, We Need You: Why charity CEOs need to be part of the national conversation
The UK’s Charity Reform Group (CRG), hosted by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation (SMK) released a short report focused on the question: why are charity CEOs relatively under-represented in the national conversation?
11 Trends in Philanthropy for 2023
The Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy’s annual publication this year highlights collaborative funding, rethinking capacity building, ESG backlash, and more.
Resources
Transforming Your Board from Difficult to Dynamic: A Step-by-Step Guide
Joan Garry shares tips for dealing with the dead weight found on every board. (Joan Garry)
Soil to Sky: Climate Solutions That Transform
An updated study that shows grassroots movements are best positioned to shift the global food and energy sectors from the dominant extractive models to regenerative ones. (CLIMA Fund)
Resources from Justice Funders
A round up of resources shared during Justice Funders’ State of the Movement presentation. (Justice Funders)
Reading List: Strengthening Democracy Through Social Innovation
Ahead of the 2023 Frontiers of Social Innovation conference, “The Role of Social Innovation in Democracy,” a collection of articles exploring ways philanthropy, nonprofits, and civic institutions can ensure a more just and democratic society. (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
For Funders
A call from Grantmakers for Southern Progress
GSP Director Tamieka Mosley appeals to the funding community from Jackson, Mississippi.
A New Playbook for Racial Equity—Inside and Out
W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Alandra Washington reflects on learnings from the Foundation’s commitment to anti-racism. (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
The Future of Results-Based Funding, Part One: Adapting to a New Normal
Dianne Calvi, Avnish Gungadurdoss, and Jeff McManus put forth recommendations on adapting results-based funding for crisis and uncertainty. These recommendations come down to a couple of basic principles: first, recognizing crisis is inherently risky, be sure to carefully balance risk and reward to service providers. Second, expect the unexpected by having emergency funding available and preparing to verify results remotely. (Center for Effective Philanthropy)
This Community Foundation Went All In on Trust-Based Philanthropy. Here’s What It Has Learned
In 2022, the San Antonio Area Foundation classified 94.2% of the $8 million in discretionary grants it disbursed to local nonprofits as general operating support. Patricia Mejia discusses their path toward a trust-based funding model and why it’s the right choice. (Inside Philanthropy)
Beyond Divestment: Decarbonizing our Investment Portfolio
Read about how the Rockefeller Foundation is reducing emissions from their investment portfolio to align with global climate goals long supported by their grantmaking programs. If they can do it, every foundation can. (Rockefeller Foundation)
In 2020, philanthropic institutions in the U.S contributed over 13 times the amount of money to extractive global stock markets as they did to all of their grantmaking focus areas (Source: Climate Justice Alliance). In response to this horrific imbalance of capital allocation in philanthropy, movement and philanthropic leaders came together to develop a Just Transition Investment Framework that offers a strategy for how philanthropies can shift capital and power to frontline BIPOC communities who are building local regenerative economies. (Justice Funders)
