The Cupcake-baking Philanthropists

Excellent example of the inter-generational differences between ‘traditional’ philanthropists and the new, younger generation emerging today…talk of earned revenue financing micro-loans for those in need certainly is a different dialogue from what traditional philanthropy has been about in the past.

Giving Well

Last week I was sitting in Manhattan with four extraordinary women.  Down the table from me was Jennifer Buffet, President and Co-chair of the NoVo Foundation; Chair and CEO of the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation, Catherine B. Reynolds; Josefina Vázquez, Executive Director of the Boston Women’s Fund; and Karen Osborne, President of The Osborne Group.  We were panelists charged with discussing “the changing face of philanthropy” for the Sixteenth Annual Philanthropic Round Table on Women and Philanthropy convened by Miss Hall’s School and faced with an knowledgeable and engaged audience.

Those of us tagged as “experts” charged forth into discussion about the impact of the economic downturn on philanthropists, we called for private funders to consider untraditional partners such as government or business, we challenged the funding community to take more risks and be more transparent about our failures.  We discussed philanthropy’s role in economic development, the effect of violence against…

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New Problems Require Entrepreneurial Thinking

For the past few years, California Community Colleges (and public higher education in general) have been through the budgetary wringer. Year after year, budget cuts continually compromise both the quality of the education and the quantity of classes provided and students served. It’s no wonder, then, that colleges are becoming more innovative in their approach to conducting the business of educating students.

For a number of community colleges in California, thinking and acting entrepreneurially is becoming an act of necessity. Most colleges or districts have their own independent foundations (with a total of 92 independent community college/district foundations in California at last count), which serve to augment public dollars with privately raised funds.