Nick Hernandez's Blog

GiveList

Nick Hernandez — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:27:12 GMT

Hats off to Allison Fine and Marnie Webb for rapidly building GiveList - a place to share ideas about how to give in these tough times.

Predictions, past, present and future

Nick Hernandez — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:27:12 GMT

My thoughts, and those of others', on the impact of the economy on philanthropy are also in the December issue of Alliance.

Did you know Paul Light has predicted a 10% "death rate" for nonprofits in 2009,
and that others are saying that decline prediction is too small by half?

My interview on 2008 buzzwords and a few thoughts on 2009 will air on Marketplace on December 9, 2008.

My 2009 philanthropy predictions are coming soon - feel free to help me out here.

Prediction review

Nick Hernandez — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:27:12 GMT

Alliance Magazine's December issue has several articles worth reading. The issue of the issue is "how far will they go" and it includes discussions and examples of foundations going "all out" to achieve their goals. Some of you will, no doubt, say "not far enough."

Since it is December and time to check in on trends, buzzwords, and predictions, this issue of Alliance also includes my review of my 2008 predictions. You can subscribe to Alliance to get that article and all the rest of the best stuff. My piece "Back to the Future" will be available ASAP (free) on the home and publications pages of Blueprint Research & Design's website.

Just as a teaser, the first item in the 2007 predictions line (written on December 5, 2007) reads as follows:

"Almost all economic predictions for 2008 point to much slower growth, and even recession, in the US economy, which would matter domestically and globally.

Today's headlines read, "Its official: U.S. in recession all of 2008"

Not all of of my predictions were as on target - check them out here. And since I believe crowds are far wiser than I am, and with all due respect for Black Swans, let us bring your brain into this discussion - what do you predict for philanthropy 2009? Comment below and I will compile, edit, and post. Comment today and I'll email you a free copy of the Alliance review of my 2008 list. The price to play? You have to be willing to review your predictions, publicly, one year from now.

And the list goes on.....

Nick Hernandez — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:39:00 GMT

Two more organizations to add to the list:

The Microfinance Rating and Assessment Initiative by M-CRIL, MicroFinanza Rating, MicroRate, and Planet Rating
Razoo

And here's the rest of the list, so far:

FasterCures Philanthropy Advisory Service (I'm an advisor to this effort)
SocialCapital Index (Managers are email colleagues of mine)
Alliance for Social Investing (I attended first meeting)
Discussion groups at GivingMarketplaces
BridgeSpan Group learning center

New Philanthropy Capital,
GiveWell
MissionMarkets,
Venture Philanthropy Partners,
Midot
Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
Guidestar
Charity Navigator
SocialSolutions
Nonprofit Finance Fund
REDF,
Center for What Works,
Keystone,
Great Nonprofits
Connectipedia
SocialMarkets
Xigi.net Social Capital Index
Keystone's "Impact" sessions
RootCause
Urban Institute Outcome Indicators
Acumen Fund/Google/Salesforce's Portfolio Data Management
From Fragmentation to Function: Critical Concepts and Writings on Social Capital Market’s Structure
Performance data commons
UPenn's Center on High Impact Philanthropy
Social Venture Technology Group
HIP Investor
Fast Company's Social Capitalist Awards
IssueLab
The Nonprofit Reporter
SmartLink
Think Social Impact

It is definitely time to try to wrap some categories and distinctions around these organizations. I'll port this list over to Think Social Impact, where we had a mapping effort underway some months ago (in the old google group). Maybe we can all chip in and make some collective sense of what we have, what is under development, who uses what, what we might still need, etc.

Give fast

Nick Hernandez — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:39:00 GMT

Epic Change raised over $10,000 in 48 hours to build a classroom in Tanzania.

Beth Kanter raised more than $2500 in 90 minutes for an organization for which she has long volunteered.

Here are a list of reflections about how to do this - most cites lead to blogs. There is a lot being written and posted on Facebook as well.

http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/11/twitter-for-dummies-nominate-a-charity-to-receive-proceeds-i-nominated-one-of-the-first-charities-to.html

http://www.miss604.com/2008/11/happy-thanksgiving-and-tweetsgiving-2008.html

http://blog.socialactions.com/profiles/blogs/the-lend4health-journey-2

http://lend4health.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/notes.php?id=638880510

http://www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/story/story.bsp?var=story&sid=94532

http://philanthropy.com/giveandtake/index.php?id=687

What is my take on all this? I see it AT LEAST as one more example of something that might seem marginal moving into the middle. Think about the expectations that this kind of fundraising raises -

Video, blogging, twitter, online payments, viral marketing, instant thank yous, etc as the minimal expected organization infrastructure;
Community building (you can identify other donors, everyone blogs about it), instant infrastructure (giving managed by chip-in, Paypal enables the back office);
Quick commitment - set a goal, reach it, move on;
Little gifts - and lots of them - are the holy grail;
Creativity matters - next year you'll need a new twist;
Anyone at an organization might be the leader of your next campaign;

And then some other questions that just pop to mind?

How do we understand this kind of giving in relationship to discussions about metrics and leverage and impact?
What about privacy concerns - are there any?
Is there any tracking of giving campaigns? Are data available from Twitter? Chipin? Paypal? And are these the new data sources for tracking giving?
Do these kinds of campaigns signal anything to larger donors, the way GoogleFlu may signal pandemic outbreaks? Do they highlight new organizations to consider? New kinds of organizational capacity metrics to care about (how many twitter donors do you have? what kind of micro-philanthropy programs do you run?) Are they useful sources of news - beyond what they've already been shown to do in tragedies?

New magazine on nonprofits and IT

Nick Hernandez — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 03:54:50 GMT

Civil Society IT - dedicated to the effective use of IT in all kinds of not-for-profit organisations.

Social Capital index

Nick Hernandez — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:49:32 GMT

I just got updated news that xigi.net and GoodCapital, the two social capital organizations that gave us SoCap08 have moved the Social Capital Index to its own site with its own team. You can find it here. As the site managers point out:

"Another constant theme [of SoCap08] was the need for more tracking of the space, its funds and enterprises, and their social impact and blended returns. In short, the need for the Social Capital Index was quite clear, and we were very pleased by how our initiative was received."

The index joins my growing list of enterprises/products/services that track/measure/quantify/index social value. The blog post on Information Markets is generating some good discussion, part of which I'll post below so you can jump in with your perspective.

Before I do that, however, let me paste in the list with some important additions. Here's the latest list, now numbering over 30 efforts (please add in those I'm missing):

Newest additions:

FasterCures Philanthropy Advisory Service (I'm an advisor to this effort)
SocialCapital Index (Managers are email colleagues of mine)
Alliance for Social Investing (I attended first meeting)
Discussion groups at GivingMarketplaces
BridgeSpan Group learning center

New Philanthropy Capital,
GiveWell,*
MissionMarkets,
Venture Philanthropy Partners,
Midot
Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
Guidestar
Charity Navigator
SocialSolutions
Nonprofit Finance Fund
REDF,
Center for What Works,
Keystone,
Great Nonprofits
Connectipedia
SocialMarkets
Xigi.net Social Capital Index
Keystone's "Impact" sessions
RootCause
Urban Institute Outcome Indicators
Acumen Fund/Google/Salesforce's Portfolio Data Management
From Fragmentation to Function: Critical Concepts and Writings on Social Capital Market’s Structure
Performance data commons
UPenn's Center on High Impact Philanthropy
Social Venture Technology Group
HIP Investor
Fast Company's Social Capitalist Awards
IssueLab
The Nonprofit Reporter
SmartLink
Think Social Impact

And here are some points pulled out from the comments section on the original post:

"...I agree when you wrote that there isn't shortage of metrics, but there is a lack of comprehensive ones; it seems as though many non-profits are not seeing the value in long-term measurement of effectiveness. How do you suggest a standard of consistency is made in metrics among non-profits? Your list is up to 31 players now, how does a regular donor weigh importance of the information they are provided (good v. bad non-profit based on the evaluator’s definition of effectiveness) among all these groups without spending hours searching on each page?"

"...This is a helpful chronicle of what is out there. It is still pretty messy and will be until someone--or a group of institutions and individuals--hit on a sit of metrics that helps inform real decision making, whether that it is allocation of capital within an organization or funding across organizations. ...I personally don't lament the duplication, redundancy, divergence, etc as I think that is the sign of a healthy and creative time during which new ideas will hopefully improve on their predecessors."

"... I agree with your point about duplication, in fact I'd go beyond not lamenting it to modify it as follows - in any industry, in any product, in any field the "... duplication, redundancy, divergence, etc..." is [a] sign of a healthy and creative time during which new ideas will hopefully improve on their predecessors."

There is, however, the difference between serving the needs of individual organizations that make funding decisions and serving the needs of donors and others trying to make funding decisions. In philanthropy - where sharing ideas about what works is crucial to 1) influencing where dollars go and 2) addressing any of the social concerns we care about on a scale that can be meaningful, the investments in measures/data/indices etc are almost the "backbone" of a more informed and effective capital system.

What I think is possible here is something between independent "creativity and exploration" and "top down" directives - but that will allow for multiple meaningful measures to be developed AND for the world of potential users of those metrics to see that menu as it develops, choose from among its many items, and in fact, inform the development and application of new measures/metrics/data systems/indices. Getting the "crowd" involved is critical - as informants, decision makers, users. And right now, the only systems we have that reach any kind of crowd are Guidestar and Charity Navigator, both of which have proven there are millions of people who want better information and will use it, and neither of which have yet been able to offer the first slice of such information. So we have better information, being developed and tested in small batches (effectively in secret from the market of potential users) and delivery systems that do reach the broader market but are not yet delivering the best possible thinking on the subject of measuring social impact. What an incredible opportunity for the field!"

Thanks for reading. Please jump into the comment thread here or on this post, help us build a comprehensive list, join the discussion on the Information Markets paper. And take a minute to give thanks for something. (if you want to be socially media thankful, check out tweetsgiving - it may not be the most strategic giving, but it might make you smile.) Happy Thanksgiving.

Events of interest

Nick Hernandez — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:49:32 GMT

Here are "items of interest" to me, and, perhaps, to you:

A discussion on activism and momentum
December 2, 12:30 - 2:00 pm EST
Turning Voters into Activists

Experts and activists chosen as Prime Mover fellows of the Hunt Alternatives Fund will offer ideas for how citizens, grassroots activists, funders, and the media can capitalize on the momentum of voter participation in the 2008 campaign and election to reinvigorate Americans’ engagement in civic life.

The discussion will be facilitated by Ambassador Swanee Hunt, chair of Hunt Alternatives, and Jim Wallis, executive director of Sojourners and a leader of the progressive evangelical movement. They will be joined by Majora Carter, Jennifer Chrisler, Giovanna Negretti, Paul Rieckhoff, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, and nine others.

To join via Web conference, register at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/427541224.

A book on sustainable capitalism
December 2, 12:00 pm
The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability
Discussion with author Gus Speth, 220 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor New York New York. RSVP here.

An ongoing discussion on social finance
Jump into the Capital Ideas conversation about social finance and social enterprise at SocialEdge. Anytime, anywhere.

Lisa Goldberg Fellowships at NYU

Nick Hernandez — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:26:57 GMT

Two fellowships at The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service have been established to honor Lisa Goldberg. These are graduate level fellowships for leaders in philanthropy or Jewish leadership. Application info is here.

$10,000, 48 Hours, One Classroom - ready, set, tweet

Nick Hernandez — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:26:57 GMT

Tweetsgiving - a 48 hour attempt to raise $10,000 to build a classroom in Tanzania - is off and running - they've raised $3300 in first 8.5 hours, been covered by Tom Watson, and are filling up my twitter feed. Great day to launch - following the Chronicle of Philanthropy's live discussion of the power of these tools - online here.

And, since Tweetsgiving encroaches on my favorite subject of buzzword creation, I'll just segue over there for a minute. I learned a new buzzword today - cyberchondria - which may take a prize for "best-built buzzword" - onomatopoeic, self-evident, and fun to say!

I'll use this transition to ask which do you prefer - "good gifting" or "thriftanthropy" for the buzzword which has caught a lot of buzz - thanks to everyone who've read it, passed it on, and kept the Huffington Post blog about "good gifting" riding high on the living/giving page for two days in a row.