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Current News

Deeper Capacity Building For Greater Impact

Paul Connolly's recent briefing paper on the lessons of the Flint Funding Collaborative is entitled Deeper Capacity Building For Greater Impact (28 page PDF) and is a great addition to this field of philanthropic practice. Drawing from the critical study of real world lessons, the paper lays out this nine step process for pursuing a long term capacity building initiative: (1) Set Goals, (2) Establish the Duration, (3) Ascertain Your Resources, (4) Clarify Your Role, (5) Decide if You Will Work Alone , (6) Determine the Selection Process, (7) Choose the Assistance Types, (8) Decide How to Evaluate, and (9) Figure Out What Will Happen Afterwards. Posted: 7/23/07; 10:54:59 PM #

How to Cost and Fund ICT

Marc Osten and Beth Kanter have recently completed a step by step guide on How to Cost and Fund ICT (76 page PDF). It's written for a Britsh audience, but that makes very little difference as far as its utility goes to voluntary organizations outside of Britain. In essence, the guide uses a series of worksheets to help lead an organization through some basic logic model development in order to connect impacts with an ICT initiative. Although I think it would still be easy to end up with a technology driven project, this goes a long way toward helping an organization tie their ICT to their program objectives. It's as good a self-guided process for a challenge of this scope as I have ever seen and I hope it gets very wide circulation. Posted: 7/23/07; 10:40:56 PM #

Robin Hood Nest Egg Draws Scrutiny From Congress

The Robin Hood Foundation has gotten a lot of attention over the last few years, some of it well-deserved and some of it fawning. Now they are getting a new form of attention as congress takes a look at how they've been reinvesting their assets in hedge funds run by their board members and from which rather hefty fees are drawn. It's sadly consistent with the lies of our times that an organization that named itself after a mythical redistributor of wealth should be under scrutiny for self dealing. Posted: 7/23/07; 9:57:30 PM #