In June, Nina Stack of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers wrote a blog post (“Supporting Innovation, Not Stagnation“) urging the philanthropic sector to understand the need and impact of general operating support, and to reconsider their project-only support.
Clearly, this topic struck a chord with many of our grantees, Twitter followers, Facebook friends and others who shared the blog post widely among their colleagues and left comments on the blog post too. So, we thought you might also like to read this article by David Bornstein of the New York Times‘ popular Fixes blog, which looks at solutions to social problems and why they work.
For Ambitious Nonprofits, Capital to Grow
An excerpt:
“What if great social organizations could grow the way companies do? Could we solve our social problems more effectively if we improved the way we finance them? There are actually many modest-sized organizations that get impressive results, doing things like boosting academic achievement, preparing unemployed clients for good jobs, getting homeless people into supportive housing. If they were businesses, they would attract investment. As nonprofits, however, they are like Ferraris on a dirt track. What if we could figure out how to help high-performing organizations get on the highway? Could success become more the rule and less the exception?”
Read the full article here.
Also, David Bornstein was recently one of the guests at the CNJG Spring Colloquium (From Schoolyard Bullying and Culture Wars to a Polarized Democracy…What Role Can Philanthropy Play in Restoring Civility to our Society?), which was a fascinating discussion. You can watch the videos of it here (opening performance, remarks and discussion), here (“A golden age of civility?) and here (“Measuring impact”).