The Rundown - December 23, 2021
The Latest News and Ideas from the Non-Profit and Philanthropic Sector
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
To our intrepid readers of The Rundown; there is no lump of coal in your stocking this Christmas! Instead, sit back, relax and enjoy your weekly fill of the latest news, trends and notes from the world of nonprofit leadership and philanthropy!
The Last Frontier Explores New Ways to Spur Philanthropy
One of the monikers for the great state of Alaska is “The Last Frontier”. Well, this week news dropped from that state that a pretty big business is doing some pretty neat things in the world of philanthropic giving. This report from the Anchorage Daily News discussed a new imitative undertaken by Hillcorp Energy, a oil and gas producer from Houston.
The company is giving each of it’s Alaska based employees $25,000. But there is the catch, the funds are in a special philanthropic account where they can only used by employees to give to their favorite charities. In total, this plan will pump about $16 million in to Alaska based nonprofits.
The cool part about the program is that this will undoubtedly help some of the smaller nonprofits that are working across the state. I’ll give credit to Hillcorp, they could have just cut 16 $1 million checks to large nonprofits across the state and patted themselves on the back. Through this effort, they are now going directly to those people that have a better feel for the needs of the nonprofit sector in their own community — people themselves.
I can imagine baseball leagues, food pantries, relief agencies will be getting a special $25,000 gift this year thanks to this innovative way to give. I hope this is a success and catches on, this is an idea that certainly has some legs.
Will “Lean Philanthropy” Catch on?
This article recently appeared on the MarketWatch website and discussed how Mackenzie Scott (we talked about her last week) and Jack Dorsey are upending the world of philanthropic giving. Basically, they are taking it upon themselves to find small, often forgotten, nonprofits and cutting them a check. The article argues that this new way of philanthropic giving is cutting through bureaucratic red tape to link funders directly with nonprofits and giving funders the chance to measure “Return on Impact”. Funders like Scott and Dorsey are brining a start-up/Silicon Valley mindset to philanthropy where they are looking to make a bigger impact than traditionally government funded programs.
My perspective is that funders like Scott and Dorsey are looking for not just bigger impacts, but they are also looking for immediate impacts and sometimes overly bureaucratic methods take away from the immediacy factor. If there is one thing that the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us, it’s that nonprofits can be nimble and when given dollars for new programs or new efforts, they can actually pivot quicker than the decision making processes to release the dollars they are asking for. Perhaps foundations should start seriously considering rolling applications and shorter processes for getting more dollars on the street to help an ever evolving and nimble nonprofit sector.
Random Factoids
A couple of blurbs came across my screen this week from the Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.
Preliminary numbers from Giving Tuesday saw that Americans donated $2.7 Billion, a 9% jump over last year.
In 2020, Americans donated $471 Billion, a jump of 5% in 2019. We are still in the middle of our 2021 giving season.
December 31st is one of the most popular giving days of the year!
Local Nonprofit News You Can Use
The Miami Valley Today reported on December 16th, that Deborah Miller has been appointed the new Executive Director of the Health Partners Free Clinic. Deb was recently the Executive Director of the Charitable Healthcare Network and she actually lead Health Partners for a few years as the founding Executive Director.
The Miami Valley Today also reported on December 16th, that Paul G. Duke Foundation is now taking rolling applications for funding starting in 2022.
The Miami Valley Today reported on December 14th, about Operation Miami County Cares which called on residents to donate items to hard-hit areas of the Mid-South after a recent tornado outbreak. Latest reports state that a few dozen pallets were packed up and recently sent south!
An Excerpt from the “Tools, Tips and Tricks” Newsletter
The Pinnacle Solutions, “Tips, Tools and Tricks” newsletter comes out every Tuesday and is available for a paid subscription for as little as $7/month. Here is an excerpt from our last version:
Sometimes in our work, we know what needs to be done, but sometimes we struggle with the order in what stuff needs done. We are pretty good in getting from A to Z, but it’s B through Y that gives us some headaches.
One of the tools that are out there is called an Activity Network Diagram; this can be a handy little tool to find both the most efficient path and the right way to schedule tasks. It can visually represent the sequence of tasks and what tasks to monitor.
If you are searching for good information that will help you manage and lead a non-profit agency, please subscribe to the “Tips, Tools and Tricks” newsletter! And of course, as a huge “thank you”, all of our paid subscribers will get a special gift.
What do you want to know?
One of the things I would like to add in these weekly emails is to take some time to answer YOUR questions about the non-profit world; fundraising, leadership, tools, whatever is on your mind, let me know. I’d love to dig into it! Send me an email to: pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com!
Other Ways to Connect
Our coaching practice has openings starting in 2021. If you are interested in working with me to get your nonprofit organization on a track to achieve the big missions you have for your organization, please reach out to me at pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com.
Check us out on our LinkedIn Page
and Check out the Celebrating Leadership Facebook Group for almost daily content and interaction with other leaders!
It’s the Season to Share!
Also, if you found value in this weekly newsletter, would you please take a moment and share it with your friends and colleagues? It would be very helpful to keep the energy behind this newsletter going!