SOMETIMES THE CAUSE FINDS YOU RATHER THAN THE OTHER WAY ROUND
For many people, the intensity of need or the pain of injustice means that the cause chooses you because you can’t walk away or ignore it. That’s how it was for Dr. Astrid Heger. It may seem unthinkable today, but in 1983, when Heger, a pediatrician, volunteered to work at Los Angeles County Hospital + […]
JUST AROUND THE CORNER
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports that total worldwide military expenditures in 2009 were estimated at a mind-boggling $1531 billion, up nearly 6% from ’08. That was despite the financial credit crisis and global recession. Questions raised by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILF) should make all of us sit up […]
WHAT MILLENNIALS ARE MADE OF
I’ve been thinking about the future and present of Millennials all week — all year, actually – but lately spurred by news of a just-published business book. This book seeks to advise employers of all stripes about the seven trends “essential for understanding and managing the Millennials” in the workplace. The trends are: “the role […]
LEGACY, LEADERSHIP AND GROWING UP THE FAMILY FOUNDATION
In honor of the Hill-Snowdon family foundation’s 50th anniversary since being established and the 10th since launching its strategic grantmaking program, the National Center for Family Philanthropy has collaborated with Ashley Snowdon Blanchard, foundation president, to produce a history of the family’s turns and transformations. When I talked to Ashley some time ago, her view […]
IF YOU HAD A $1 MILLION TO GIVE AWAY, WHERE SHOULD IT GO?
Trying to choose your cause is not particularly well served by hunting for that supremely special, really deserving organization. In truth, there are thousands of them. Or, put the other way round, no totally perfect group exists. The most honorable, effective, dedicated, and ethical organizations also make some mistakes and suffer glitches. How could they […]
KICKING ASS AND GIRL-ING OUT
In the “We’ve Come a Long Way” department, Prudential has recently released its latest women and money research, a 10th anniversary edition. Results? It would seem, dear ones, that we the American women are simultaneously kicking ass and girl-ing out. Take a cruise of the findings from the “Financial Experience & Behaviors among Women, 2010−2011 […]
WHY THE PROFIT MOTIVE WILL PUSH MULTINATIONALS TO ENFORCE HIGHER SOCIAL AND ETHICAL STANDARDS
As we all know, growing profits at a company boils down to a simple equation. Boost sales while holding prices and cutting costs and the profit margin widens. For multinational companies, a preferred route to doing just that is to rely on volumes of scale. If you make and sell more products more cheaply and […]
WHY FOR-PROFIT COMPANIES WILL DO THE RIGHT THING
Several years ago, Socially Responsible Investing maven Peter D. Kinder, then president at KLD Research & Analytics (KLD) in Boston, and currently Strategic Advisor to ESG Analytics, wrote a white paper called “Values and Money.” His stated goal was to trace the history of SRI and to provide some real definitions, context and metrics about […]
THE ELEPHANT IN THE NONPROFIT CONFERENCE ROOM
Amid all the current third sector challenges, including how to fundraise in this climate, how to sustain programs, how to maintain the endowment, staff shortages, how to measure and demonstrate impact, how to advance diversity, how to grow the mission, and so on—amid all these concerns and more—I foresee a much bigger crisis coming down […]
WHY FUNDING PUBLIC SCHOOLS WITH PRIVATE MONEY IS A SCARY IDEA
I’m feeling an ominous wind about the proliferating for-profit intrusions into public education. With schools hurting bad across the country and state revenues dropping like stones, the supposed heroes riding into the arena are private-sector companies and ideologues with agendas. Actually, I agree with some of those ideologues – like Bill and Melinda Gates. But […]