Several years ago, The Chronicle on Philanthropy published an op-ed that was, shall we say, a bit inappropriate. In it, the author made all sorts of claims about his philanthropy advisory services – that he was the “first” and “only” one doing what he was going to do. It incurred a lot of anger from many in the field – correctly rebutting the author’s claim of originality or uniqueness. [In fairness to the Chronicle, there was an acknowledgment that this one slipped through the cracks.] At the time, my first reaction was exactly that as well. But after I thought about it, I remembered somethin ..read more

By now, most of you have heard the caveat “culture eats strategy for lunch” [attributed to many]. As one who has made “culture” the centerpiece of strategy thinking and planning for many years, I have come to believe that the statement is wrong: without culture, there is no strategy. Many of you, I know, have seen my webinars or participated in seminars or courses where I have played this concept out in depth. [For those who haven’t and would be interested, I’d be happy to offer it again.] In this brief overview, I will lay out a big picture outline of how this works. My focus, of course, is h ..read more

Thanks to our colleagues at CEP, the question of endowments is now in the public philanthropy space. Since the question is on the table, it seems a good time to share some thoughts on what ends up being a not so simple question. [The CEP study focused only on Private Foundation giving for endowments. These thought are not restricted to that.] It is far from a new question. If one looks at the way in which Andrew Carnegie and Julius Rosenwald did their philanthropy, one sees a very different approach to the question. Both great philanthropists with lasting impact, one endowed many projects, inc ..read more

The philanthropy eco-system evolves amoeba-like. That is certainly what I have seen over the past 3 decades in the field. While some organizations seem to be mainstays, it is fair to say that even the legacy ones have morphed, adapted, and adopted over time. And that doesn’t even begin to note the many comings and goings. The constantly evolving organizational makeup in the field becomes evident every time I teach philanthropists or am asked to speak to one audience or another about “trends.” A recent international conference and a forthcoming invitational presentation have brought me back to ..read more

This is the third of several postings addressing very specific, practical, and hopefully useful suggestions for ways of improving our interlocking sectors. None of this material is new or cutting edge, and in fact, I have written, taught, or spoken of much of this in the past. But on the chance you haven’t see any of it before, or need a reminder, here goes… …. An oft told anecdote in Mirele’s family is about their butcher when they lived in the Boston area. One day, the butcher was in a notably cranky mood and was complaining about his business. When asked what the problem was his response “I ..read more

This is the second of several postings addressing very specific, practical, and hopefully useful suggestions for ways of improving our interlocking sectors. None of this material is new or cutting edge, and in fact, I have written, taught, or spoken of much of this in the past. But on the chance you haven’t seen any of it before, or need a reminder, here goes… … The most long-lasting takeaway from my management training was organizational cultural coherence and consistency: the lessons of how to read the internal culture, develop and apply an organizational design, how to honor and incorporate ..read more

This is the first of 3 postings addressing very specific, practical, and hopefully useful suggestions for ways of improving our interlocking sectors. None of this material is new or necessarily cutting edge, and in fact, I have written, taught, or spoken of much of this in the past. But on the chance you haven’t seen any of it before, or need a reminder, here goes…\ …… Over the years, there have been many studies showing that successor generations abandon the professional advisors that were used by the parent generations. It is not a new story and has been well documented. Before relating this ..read more

The only thing more predictable at the beginning of each year than “trends” is “resolutions.” And we all know how those resolutions turn out. The last year was in many ways the first full post-pandemic, in person one. It was terrific to stretch my vision beyond a screen and be with real people. It meant attending a diverse variety of meetings and conferences in multiple countries and States. Interestingly, for me, it put many of the reported “trends” in perspective. Let me say at the outset that, going back to the time when I was more visible on the speaker circuit at philanthropy conferences ..read more

In the December issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, our long-time colleague Craig Kennedy wrote a forceful and important argument in support of greater transparency in our field, “Congressional Interest in Donor Transparency is Good for Nonprofits.” It is a few weeks since it has been published but deserves support nonetheless. Reflecting the all-too-common silo-ization in our field, I have met Mr. Kennedy only a few times over our long overlapping careers. Even though I have spoken and written similar thoughts over the years, I very much doubt that he would have been aware of them. His ed ..read more

NB: Since this is not about philanthropy, it is not being circulated beyond those who have subscribed to the website. As with all posts, any reader may choose to disseminate it if you wish. I confess, I really didn’t think it could happen here – at least in my lifetime. And, indeed, it has taken me several weeks to be sure I was prepared to actually publish these thoughts. The overriding message in this is about the surge of antisemitism in the USA and elsewhere, and some of the moral, ethical, real-politique, and historic implications of what I am seeing. Sure, antisemitism never really went ..read more