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These are some of the people and resources that have taught us the most about philanthropy’s new potential—and how to cultivate the change necessary to seize it.
“The Anxiety of Learning," by Diane L. Coutu, in Harvard Business Review, March 2002. An interview with psychologist Edgar H. Schein that captures a lifetime of understanding about why transformational learning is so hard. Anyone interested in organizational change should read and reflect on this analysis.
Community Change Makers: The Leadership Roles of Community Foundations, by Ralph Hamilton, Julia Parzen, and Prue Brown, Chapin Hall Center for Children, 2004. One of the few resources we’ve found that begins to explain in a deep way the facilitative leadership role we call “brokering." In this case, the subject is community foundations, and therefore this essay also illuminates the way in which these institutions have become part of the enabling infrastructure of philanthropy.
Creating Philanthropic Capital Markets: The Deliberate Evolution, by Lucy Bernholz, John Wiley & Sons, 2004. Scholar and consultant Lucy Bernholz knows as much and thinks as well about the structure and future of philanthropy as anyone we know. This book shares much of her recent thinking, and it closely tracks many of the same conclusions we have drawn from our own inquiry. Many other insightful essays and reports can be found at www.blueprintrd.com.
The Evolution of Cooperation, by Robert Axelrod, Basic Books, 1984. This accessible classic is still indispensable for anyone who wants to think through why people, organizations, or nations choose to cooperate—or not.
Funding Infrastructure: An Investment in the Nonprofit Sector’s Future, a special issue of The Nonprofit Quarterly, 2004. This is a passionate, provocative and valuable set of articles that takes the abstraction of “infrastructure" and brings it to life. As this paper makes clear, we agree with the central role that infrastructure will play in any better future for the nonprofit sector. The philanthropic infrastructure is a subset of the whole covered in this special issue, and will need to be designed to connect to this whole in ways we could not fully cover in this working paper.
“Grantmakers in a New Landscape," by Marcia Sharp, in Foundations News & Commentary, March/April, 2002. This article summarizes the work of the 14 grantmakers of the Marco Polo Inquiry Group as they examined the implications of the networked, knowledge age for the work of philanthropy. A good look at the ways old norms, behaviors and practices will need to shift in order to accelerate adaptation.
Just Money: A Critique of Contemporary American Philanthropy, edited by H. Peter Karoff, TPI Editions, 2004. A valuable recent collection of reflections by leading practitioners on what it would take to create a golden age for philanthropy. Karoff himself contributes a beautiful essay on the meaning of philanthropy that is a good antidote to the rational and instrumental approach we have taken here.
Listening to Grantees: What Nonprofits Value in their Foundation Funders, The Center for Effective Philanthropy, April 2000. The Center is focused on creating a performance culture in institutional philanthropy, and does so by creating ideas and tools, including their grantee perception reporting service, the findings of which are summarized in this report. If better data can help improve philanthropy, the Center will figure out how.
Moving Ideas and Money: Issues and Opportunities in Funder Funding Collaboration, by Ralph Hamilton for the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, 2002. This overview is the single best piece on collaboration and cooperation among funders. If you want to learn from those who have already been experimenting, read this essay before you look at anything else.
On Being Nonprofit: A Conceptual and Policy Primer, by Peter Frumkin, Harvard University Press, 2002. The first chapter of this book provides an essential framework for understanding the complexity of the contemporary nonprofit sector in the U.S.
“Places to Intervene in a System," by Donella Meadows, Whole Earth Review, Winter 1997. This is a seminal piece on systems thinking and creating lasting change that provokes better strategic thinking by anyone who reads it. When thinking about change, we always start here.
Slot Machines, Boat-Building, and the Future of Philanthropy, a speech by Edward Skloot, 2001. Skloot, the executive director of the Surdna Foundation, is one of philanthropy’s most eloquent and thoughtful practitioners. This is our favorite of his many lovely speeches, which are catalogued on the Surdna website, www.surdna.org/speeches.html.
The Slow Pace of Fast Change: Bringing Innovations to Market in a Connected World, by Bhaskar Chakravorti, Harvard Business School Press, 2003. In recent years, a number of writers have explored game theory and network effects. Here, our Monitor colleague takes the literature one step further, presenting provocative ideas about how to think about the diffusion of innovation in our increasingly interconnected world.
State of Philanthropy 2004, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. This publication is a good introduction to the priorities and thinking of NCRP, an organization that offers a consistent, provocative critique of philanthropy—mostly from what we have labeled here the “social justice" map.
Transformational Philanthropy: An Exploration, by Duane Elgin and Elizabeth Share, 2002. A very helpful look at the unrealized potential of philanthropy, with suggestions about what a meaningful infrastructure of support could look like for those who share their views.
Trouble in Foundationland: Looking Back, Looking Ahead, by Peter Frumkin for the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal, 2004. Frumkin, a scholar based at Harvard, consistently produces some of the most informed and penetrating analyses of contemporary philanthropy and the broader nonprofit sector. This essay captures some of his recent thoughts on the looming crisis in American philanthropy.
The 21st Century Foundation: Building Upon the Past, Creating for the Future, by Jed Emerson, 2004. Emerson, an early practitioner of approaches that were later labeled “venture philanthropy" has in recent years been rethinking many other aspects of philanthropy from a perch as a fellow at the Hewlett Foundation. This essay is a helpful distillation of some of Emerson’s key ideas about how to improve philanthropy. You’ll find it at the larger website that documents his provocative theories, www.blendedvalue.org.
Waldemar A. Nielsen Issues in Philanthropy Seminar Series speeches, 2001-2003. Nielsen was one of philanthropy’s great, constructive critics during much of the late twentieth century. This lecture series honors him by carrying on his work; the speeches catalogue a number of thought-provoking perspectives hard to find in one place.
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