2012 Nonprofits Celebrate the Honor

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

What does it mean to be “one of the best” small nonprofits in Greater Washington? The 2012-13 class of Catalogue nonprofits got their first taste of that honor at the Catalogue’s Best Practices Workshop and Celebration last Wednesday. The workshop marked the beginning of the Catalogue’s 10th Anniversary celebration this fall. Over 140 representatives from 83 different nonprofits joined together to congratulate each other and learn more about how to make the most of the Catalogue honor.

The evening was marked by many highlights, starting with a spirited introduction by Catalogue Board Chair Don Neal. As Community Partnerships Coordinator for the Catalogue, I had the privilege of co-hosting a portion of the workshop with Catalogue President and Editor Barbara Harman. Together, we introduced the new Nonprofit Portal website — the home base for all Catalogue nonprofits online.

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Roundtable Summit

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Yesterday morning, the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington celebrated its tenth anniversary with a touching look back and a pressing call to action for the future. As a young nonprofit professional, the messages I heard were both disheartening and inspiring. According to Mario Morino, Co-Founder and Chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners, the nonprofit sector faces quite a few challenges in the years ahead. Even with potential economic upturns (which are by no means guaranteed yet), the changing economic and employment landscape in the US will have a profound effect on the demand for social sector services. Effectively funding those services will require a dramatic re-think of current funding mechanisms, and above all the willpower from funders, investors, government, and social service providers/nonprofits alike to meet the needs that our country, regions, and cities will face.

Benjamin Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP, passionately spoke of the civil rights crisis facing America today — what he called the “most massive and simultaneous attack on rights happening in recent history.” Women, immigrants, and the LGBT and black communities are on the front lines of this battle — one primarily fought within state boundaries, not on the federal level. Such a multifaceted problem requires intense collaboration and coordination to solve it — and an acknowledgement of the political and systemic barriers that contribute to (and often cause) the larger problems nonprofits work to address.
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Measuring Economic Achievement

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Within the nonprofit community, there’s a movement towards data-driven, quantitative measurement and analysis of impact. These conversations lead to the bigger question of how “impact” and nonprofit “success” are measured, particularly for those providing services that might not lend themselves to a numerical calculation. This week, that conversation reached a broader level, in terms of the way that we measure our economic success on a national scale. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke remarked that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — a fairly straight-forward measure of income and expenses — might not be the best and only way to measure economic well-being, suggesting that there are “better and more direct measures” to gauge how economic policies impact individuals.

Several alternative measures to GDP-based economic analysis have been offered in the past, such as the Genuine Progress Indicator, and more recently, the OECD and the Gross National Happiness index, pioneered by Bhutan. As Nonprofit Quarterly mentions, “the suggestion that there might be a better way to measure a nation’s wellbeing is nothing new to many in the nonprofit sector whose work and worth is often not measured in dollars and cents.”

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Impact Investing

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

This week, the Nonprofit Quarterly published an article about the Council on Foundations’ new CEO, Vikki Spruill, and her official introduction to the organization. NPQ’s Rick Cohen discusses a few key points of Spruill’s statement, including her “upbeat perspective on the societal significance of philanthropic innovation” and the need for philanthropy to assess its own value in the large society. However, Cohen also points out that “she and her colleagues have to remember that the vehicle for the delivery of philanthropy’s collective value is the nonprofit sector.”

How do the philanthropy and nonprofit sectors work collaboratively to achieve the goals mentioned by Spruill, and act as “investors, innovators, leaders, and partners” in society? As a bridge between these communities, the Catalogue for Philanthropy aims to increase the connections between (primarily) individual philanthropists in the Washington area and the regional nonprofits that most need their support. We use the moniker Catalogue for Philanthropy, but our main ‘clients’ are nonprofits. We recognize that small nonprofits in the area often do the most innovative, important, and thankless work, and yet also have a difficult time connecting with individuals who share their vision.

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Teaming Up: Black Benefactors & the Catalogue (Part II)

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Spur Local

By Tracey Webb, Founder, The Black Benefactors

In January, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation published the report, “Cultures of Giving: Energizing and Expanding Philanthropy by and for Communities of Color,” which confirmed something that I already knew: African Americans are more inclined to give than other races. I know this because philanthropy and charitable giving have been mainstays of the African American community for centuries.

In my previous GoodWorks post, I shared how my giving circle, The Black Benefactors, used the Catalogue to identify a grantee for our Black History Month grant awards. In doing so, I learned that we were in the minority. Although many of the nonprofits featured in the Catalogue serve low-income and under-represented communities — often which include African Americans — the majority of donors who use the Catalogue to identify nonprofits to support in the DC region are white. With the help of The Black Benefactors, I hope this will change.

Now that we know African Americans are more likely to give, there are two issues that are essential: ensuring that our giving is strategic to achieve maximum impact, and making sure that we’re represented as volunteers and board members with nonprofits that serve communities of color. It’s important that the clientele served by nonprofits see staff, volunteers, and board members who look like them. The Catalogue is an ideal vehicle to address these issues.

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New Ownership

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Julia Cain

Last week, we linked to several lessons on philanthropic work offered up by Katie Couric of ABC News and Ann Friedman of the SEED Foundation (among other women leaders) in The Atlantic. This week, MSNBC reports that “Women exert new influence on philanthropy:”

“Women are taking ownership,” said Andrea Pactor, associate director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University, which has found that female-headed households are more likely to give to charity than male-headed households; and that in nearly all income groups women give more than men.

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The Importance of a Story

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Sometimes, words on a page just aren’t enough. The Catalogue for Philanthropy exists to make connections between caring citizens and worthy community causes, and generally relies on the words and images of our print catalogue and website to accomplish that mission. However, sometimes even the most moving words and images don’t make the same impact as a face-to-face interaction. Yesterday, the staff of Catalogue’s Corporate Portal Partner Anybill had the opportunity to meet with a Catalogue nonprofit leader from the Dance Institute of Washington and hear about the organization’s work in person.

As the Catalogue continues to roll out the Corporate Portal (a work-place giving tool featuring the Catalogue’s community of “One of the Best” nonprofits), we’re planning speaking events with our nonprofits leaders to build excitement and energy around giving through the Portal. Anybill employees participated in our first Brown Bag Lunch event, which featured the Dance Institute’s Founder and Artistic Director Fabian Barnes. Hearing Fabian’s words about the impact of dance on his own life, as well as the lives of his students, made an impression on the staff of Anybill. Fabian’s own journey — “I went from being at-risk to being on the great stages of the world” — shows the positive impact that engagement in the arts can have on youth, and the importance of continuing to support arts programs for students.

The Corporate Portal and associated programming allows both companies and nonprofits to create more meaningful connections, benefiting both sides. Companies can identify a common cause around which to unite and support — increasing employee engagement and satisfaction. Nonprofits benefit from that support and the opportunity to develop a wider network of supporters — volunteers, board members or donors. We look forward to seeing the partnership between Anybill and DIW grow during the coming months!

The Catalogue encourages all nonprofits to take note of the impact of personal interactions with donors and other stakeholders — seek out those opportunities and take advantage of them to the max, reflecting about the best way to share your organization’s story and establish an emotional connection with your audience, whether one person or a hundred people.

Communities of Excellence

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Last Thursday night, I sat in the back of a packed room at the Washington Post and listened to five nonprofits tell stories — stories about their successes, their challenges, but mostly their creativity in the field of nonprofit management. Last Thursday, May 24, one of those nonprofits received the Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management, but it felt to me like all five had accomplished a great deal and were ‘winners’ for their constituencies.

The is a program of the , and selects one leader in the field every year to be recognized for their exemplary management. This year’s finalists represented a range of nonprofit work in DC — from Bread for the City and Community of Hope, who offer a variety of services to thousands of low-income clients, to Young Playwrights? Theatre and Imagination Stage, who teach life lessons through creativity for young artists, and Byte Back, who provides crucial computer and job training.

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Philanthropy in the Classroom

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Did you think about studying philanthropy in college? Take any classes on nonprofit management? Would you have taken those courses if you had the chance? I didn’t and yet my career has mostly stayed within the bounds of the nonprofit and philanthropy sectors. However, for a small group of graduating undergraduates at Indiana University, philanthropy has been both an in- and out-of-classroom pursuit during their college years.

The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University has long been an academic leader in philanthropic studies, but only recently started offering degree programs in the field. In 2008, the first Doctorate in Philanthropic Studies was awarded by the university, and this year marks the first class of graduating undergraduates, earning Bachelors’ in Philanthropic Studies. (Note: when I say the “first,” I mean the first degrees ever issued in this area — not just from Indiana University.)

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Catalogue Blog

Tag Archives: Nonprofit Sector

2012 Nonprofits Celebrate the Honor

Measuring Economic Achievement

Impact Investing

Teaming Up: Black Benefactors & the Catalogue (Part II)

New Ownership

The Importance of a Story

Communities of Excellence

Philanthropy in the Classroom