News Roundup
The Googlization of Philanthropy: Sean Stannard-Stockton from Tactical Philanthropy writes, "Googlization of philanthropy is about organizing knowledge to allow for smarter giving by more people. Most important, the Googlization of philanthropy means that organizing the information will not be done by the information creators, but by third parties and — excitingly — the people who want to consume that information." For social finance in Canada, we're seeing a number of conversations around mapping both the demand (investment opportunities) and supply side (investors), and the importance of intermediaries (who are not funders) to connect demand and supply. If you're interested in learning more, get in touch with me.
UnLtd to prepare social enterprises for funding: UnLtd, a UK-based charity that helps social entrepreneurs grow new businesses, is the focus of a £250,000 investment to build capacity for social ventures. This directly addresses the demand side - that is, credible investment opportunities for capital - since there are not enough investment-ready charities and social businesses to take advantage of increased investment funds into the social finance sector. We're facing the some of the same concerns around the absorptive capacity of social enterprises. nonprofits and charities in Canada, and there's a definite need to support the development of intermediary organizations (such as Enterprising Non-Profits) focused on building capacity.
Leadership deficit in the nonprofit sector: Despite tightening budgets, nonprofits foresee a need to fill 24,000 vacant or new roles in 2009, according to the Bridgespan Group report, “Finding Leaders for America’s Nonprofits.” Over 400 U.S. leaders of nonprofits with $1 million or more in revenues were interviewed for the report, which offers perspective on organizations’ hiring needs and plans, what they find most valuable in candidates for senior leadership positions, and more. Lynne Toupin and Betty Plewes explain why this is also a looming trend in Canada.
The Socially Responsible Intern Surplus: Cheri Voisine writes a timely post at NextBillion.net on securing a summer internship with a social venture. Even though it is increasingly tougher to find jobs in this economy, there are ways you can gain some valuable experience with a group like Better the World, who are looking for several interns.
Grantmaking Trends in 2009: Based on a recent survey of more than 1,200 U.S. foundations by the Foundation Center titled Foundations Address the Impact of the Economic Crisis, more than half of respondents are reacting to the economic crisis by engaging in more non-grantmaking activities, with two-thirds of those foundations planning to pursue collaborations and partnerships in 2009 and about a third indicating that they will initiate more convenings. In Canada, the Ontario Trillium Foundation recently published a report on Challenges and Opportunities in the Economic Crisis.
Obama and Social Innovation - Yes We Are! A couple of notable developments from the Obama administration, which are good to see despite everything else they have on their plate. Sonal Shah, formerly of Google.org, has been appointed to lead the Office of Social Innovation. And the president recently committed to a USD 100 million microfinance fund for Latin America and the Carribean that will provide medium and long-term financing to MFIs and microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) to help rebuild their capacity to lend. Maybe you didn't know about Barack Obama’s personal roots in microfinance?
Holding Canadian extractive companies accountable: SHARE has a recent post on the federal government's action plan for improving the accountability of Canadian extractive companies. SHARE notes that the government report and action plan takes Canada three steps forward; and three steps back: it provides long-awaited endorsements of key international corporate responsibility initiatives, but fails to adequately fill a long-standing corporate accountability vacuum in Canada. Unfortunately, there is a similar story around non-financial reporting guidelines for mining companies based on the Global Reporting Initiative.
