Guest post by Peter Drury, development director, Splash

Is "impact" simply quantifying your efforts to report to donors -- or is impact something far more? This is the question posed in the Impact Master Class session, fielded by Ellen Alberding, president of The Joyce Foundation, Jeff Edmondson, managing director of the Strive Network, John Van Camp, president of Southwest Solutions, and John Bridgeland, president and CEO of Civic Enterprises.

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Guest post by Malik S. Nevels, J.D., Executive Director, Illinois African American Coalition for Prevention

Are you changing the game? How do you balance organizational legacy with the need to grow, adapt, and transform? What organizations are effectively tackling issues big enough to matter yet small enough to change? When is it ok to fail? 

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Guest post by Mark Turner, Director of Public Policy, Colorado Nonprofit Association

Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation at the White House, started off the session by expressing his appreciation for presenting at the IS Public Policy Action Institute immediately following the election. He said that his office wants to be a partner with the social sector.  

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Guest post by Phil Buchanan, president of The Center for Effective Philanthropy

This is the final installment in a series of six blog posts, which were originally featured on the CEP Blog.

Why are we, in the nonprofit sector, putting corporations on a pedestal? The recent damage caused by the unethical, if not illegal, practices of many of this country’s largest financial institutions needs no recounting. Nor does the environmental destruction wrought by a wide range of companies over the decades.

Yet, as I have discussed on this blog over the past six weeks, many continue to hype boundary-blurring, beat up on the label “nonprofit,” advocate the adoption of “business thinking,” and promote corporations as the solvers of our toughest social problems. All this without sufficient acknowledgment of the vital role of nonprofits – organizations that do not have to answer to investors pushing for a financial return.

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Guest post by Phil Buchanan, president of The Center for Effective Philanthropy

This is the fifth in a series of six blog posts, which were originally featured on the CEP Blog.

In my last several posts, I have described what I regard as worrisome trends: the way many (inside and outside the nonprofit sector) push for a “blurring of boundaries” between sectors, disparage the term “nonprofit,” and equate “business thinking” with “effectiveness.”

But, many go further still, arguing – or at least strongly implying – not just that nonprofits could benefit from an infusion of “business thinking” but that, in fact, nonprofits are increasingly irrelevant because it is companies that will solve our most vexing social problems. To this growing chorus, the private sector is now where the action is.

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