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The 10 Most Underreported Humanitarian Crises of 2006

Doctors Without Borders has prepared an in-depth report on the Ten Most Underreported Humanitarian Crises of 2006. The headlines that we should have seen more of are: (1) Somalis Trapped by War and Disaster, (2) Fleeing Violence in the Central African Republic, (3) Increasing Human Toll Taken by Tuberculosis, (4) Consequences of Bitter Conflict in Chechnya, (5) Civilians Under Fire in Sri Lanka While Assistance is Limited, (6) Effective Strategies for Treating Malnutrition Not Implemented, (7) Congolese Endure Extreme Deprivation and Violence, (8) Living in Fear in Colombia, (9) Violence Rages in Haiti's Volatile Capital, and (10) Clashes in Central India. Posted: 1/22/07; 5:41:05 PM #

Storytelling: Branding in Practice

Back when I was a lobbyist for environmental and consumer organizations in the mid Eighties, I came to the conclusion that our cause had a secret weapon. We didn't have the advantage of good ol' boy webs of relationships with legislators. We certainly didn't have the cash that built and sustained those relationships. But when the system worked and the fourth estate was functioning properly, we sometimes, just sometimes, had an amazing power on our side: the power of the true story. I won't dwell on the many ways in which telling true stories (or threatening to) worked for us or how I came to believe that legislators are motivated primarily by fear of embarrassment. Rather, I want to use this as an opportunity to recommend the book Storytelling: Branding in Practice, by Klaus Fog, Christian Budtz, and Baris Yakaboylu. Although its examples are drawn primarily from the commercial world, the strengths of this approach to building trust with our stakeholders is even more useful in civil society, where we don't have to concoct passionate reasons for our work. The book applies storytelling to both management and marketing. It has an excellent introduction to the important structural elements of story telling, which is especially useful if you're one of those people who knows a good story but doesn't usually step back far enough to see the patterns that make it work. I encourage you to read this book from cover to cover. You won't regret it. Posted: 1/22/07; 5:13:36 PM #

Outrageous Behavior by The Gates Foundation

I mistakenly ended a previous post about the investment policies of the Gates Foundation on the marginally optimistic note that there would be a review. Evidently, the Gates Foundation thinks it's naive to believe that investment can change the world. How they reconcile that with clear statements to the contrary is beyond me. For more on this, I recommend Allison Fine's coverage of the Outrageous Behavior by The Gates Foundation. Posted: 1/22/07; 4:35:44 PM #

Integration Proclamation

The challenge of integration of nonprofit information and communication tools has not gone away in the years since it was a favorite topic of mine. The latest effort to try to build some momentum toward interoperability is called the Integration Proclamation and if you believe in an open ecosystem as the best vision for an effective civil society infrastructure, then this is probably worth signing. My question is: Where are Convio and Blackbaud? Where are Guidestar and VolunteerMatch? Where are the funders? Posted: 1/22/07; 4:25:56 PM #

Why Do Good? Brain Study Offers Clues
	I'm generally fairly skeptical of attempts to explain specific social phenomena in narrow biological and evolutionary terms -- I believe we evolved most of all to be creatures that learn -- but I am nevertheless fascinated by brain research. A recent study by Scott Huettel and Dharol Tankersley explores the deep structures of altruism and empathy. Posted: 1/22/07; 4:01:27 PM #