Oct25
We saw terrific enthusiasm among the participants at our Annual Conference in Atlanta. We would love to take advantage of the great energy there, as we plan for next year’s program in Chicago.
Please use the comment box below to submit your program ideas:
- What topics should we discuss at our next conference?
- What questions would you like the nonprofit and philanthropic community to debate?
- What session ideas might you feel most compelled to attend?
We’d love your input and we encourage you to mark your calendar for Chicago, October 30 through November 1. Thanks for your insights.
Oct 26, 2010 at6:50 PM As I reflected on the conference in Atlanta, I realized that there was a lot of talk about "funders" but it was always about corporations or foundations and never about individual donors -- at least not at the high end. Individuals were only mentioned as donors via social media. But, as we know, most philanthropic support in the US comes from individual donors and I would assume that many IS members rely on the support of major donors. For Chicago next year, I would recommend a panel of donors of multimillion-dollar gifts talking about why they give, or a conversation with nonprofit CEOs who have been successful with high-level individual fundraising.
Oct 28, 2010 at2:15 PM How will NGen be involved next year? Will there be a similar pre-conference?
Nov 3, 2010 at4:18 PM NGen will see you in Chicago next year! We will likely have similar pre-conference programming as well as specific NGen programming throughout the main conference program. We have already started to ramp up our 2011 planning and we would love your input. Add your comments here for ideas or topics you’d like us to explore, and stay connected to NGen through our facebook page or twitter feed @ISNGen to be the first to know when registration goes live for next year!
Nov 11, 2010 at4:44 AM What impact will the midterm elections have on our sector?
Nov 12, 2010 at11:35 AM This article details young leaders who have led their organizations to successful outcomes (particularly in fundraising) through the use of social media. As social media is becoming a key tool in advocacy efforts, I wonder if hearing from some of these young social media leaders could help others dynamically increase their social media strategy. What are your thoughts/reactions? How could we structure this conversation to be most constructive/fruitful? Perhaps combining it with the down side of costs?
http://philanthropy.com/article/The-Faces-Behind-the-Twitter/125230/
http://philanthropy.com/blogs/philanthropytoday/costs-put-text-campaigns-out-of-reach-for-most-charities/28362
Nov 12, 2010 at11:39 AM Would you be interested in a session about how winning a prestigious award or fellowship has changed a nonprofit's trajectory? Perhaps winners from this year's Purpose Prize:
http://philanthropy.com/article/Charity-Leaders-Win-100000/125317/
Or Echoing Green Fellows? MacArthur Genius Grant recipients? Is this a session you would attend?
Nov 23, 2010 at12:11 PM Pat Libby from the University of San Diego is publishing a book called “The Lobbying Strategy Handbook: 10 Steps to Advancing Any Cause Effectively.” This might be a good topic/speaker for a joint PPAI/ NGen session next year?
Dec 3, 2010 at2:43 PM From Transactional to Transformational: Making the Business Case for Investment in your Social Profit Agency.
Dec 7, 2010 at5:09 PM Around the holidays, new articles and reports are published by the dozen for how donors can give to charity in impactful ways. This blog post by Philanthropy 411 gives a good summary of options for our sector:
http://philanthropy411.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/gift-guide/
Would you be interested in learning more about avenues for giving at the IS Conference?
Dec 7, 2010 at5:26 PM Strong, focused organizational branding that drives deeper impact can be key to engaging constituents, advancing mission, and attracting new donors, but creating this type of branding can be difficult. New resources have emerged, such as the book, "Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding" by Carol Cone and Jocelyne Daw have begun to examine successful nonprofit branding efforts and give insight into practices nonprofits and foundations alike can adopt.
Is this an issue your organization struggles with? And would it make an interesting session at the IS Conference in Chicago? Voice your thoughts here.
Dec 9, 2010 at1:29 PM I read this article the other day on Tactical Philanthropy by fundraiser Tom Ralser about using less emotional appeals and making the appeal for investment...that would definitely be an interesting topic.
http://www.tacticalphilanthropy.com/2010/12/impact-focused-fundraising#comments
Feb 17, 2011 at11:10 AM Earlier this month in the Atlantic, Joshua Green claims, "We Are All Budget Hypocrites." Does "all" apply to our sector too?
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/02/we-are-all-budget-hypocrites/71038/
Mar 15, 2011 at11:42 AM Twitter's Biz Stone Joins AOL, HuffPo as Advisor on Charity Efforts
What about his participation in AC? Speaker, panel?
Mar 22, 2011 at11:11 AM Percolating insights and know-how across any organization is critical to improving its efficiency and performance. How can such improvement translate into deeper understanding of the nonprofit field and more effective service delivery (i.e. more homes for the homeless, more disadvantaged youth given job training, or more impoverished communities gaining access to health care)? It would be interesting to participate in a discussion at the next annual conference that would spark dialogue on the link between creating a learning organization and expanding impact in the field through knowledge sharing. Participants could work on identifying common barriers to organizational learning and strategies for overcoming them through examining and sharing real examples of organizations who have overcome learning gaps that might include input from the people responsible for the technical side of facilitating knowledge sharing.
Mar 30, 2011 at11:07 AM I would love to see a session/conversation at the NGEN conference about providing supports for next generation nonprofit leaders. I oversee a nonprofit emerging leaders program that offers a number of capacity-building/leadership development opportunities for upcoming leaders in the sector to help prepare them to drive our nonprofits into the future. I'd love an opportunity to hear/learn from/share ideas about this type of capacity-building happening around the country.
Mar 30, 2011 at2:08 PM There is a fair amount of discussion these days about coordinating services across different agencies (e.g. Promise Neighborhoods, Strive in Cincinnati), but not much discussion about coordinating services within an organization. Many organizations offer a broad set of services in hopes of serving their clients “holistically” or providing them with a “continuum of care”. However, in practice, I have found that most multi-service organizations deliver services in a one-off, uncoordinated manner, and that few clients receive more than one service. I would love to have a session at the conference where I can hear from other organizations what their experience has been in trying to help serve clients in a more integrated way. I could also share my research on the barriers that appear to be holding most organizations back, and also share examples of how a few organizations have overcome these barriers.
Apr 1, 2011 at9:30 PM The pressure on our sector to demonstrate and quantify its impact continues to come from all directions. I know that I and others are excited that this drumbeat for results is driving us all to recommit to our missions and re-examine our assumptions about what does and doesn’t work. But it’s hard work and it seems we could be helping each other more with our efforts to raise the bar across the board. I find this is particularly true in my conversations with nonprofit networks, which account for a sizable portion of our sector and 9 of the 10 largest charities in America. I would love to be part of a discussion focused on how these networks in particular can accelerate their move towards being more outcomes-oriented. It certainly seems that having many sites delivering the same/similar programs working on these issues could speed up these networks’ ability to collectively improve, but it’s not clear if that’s actually true – or if the size and complexity of a network actually slows down the process of improvement. I’ve done some research on a promising emerging approach to how networks can pursue this kind of collective improvement, which could potentially be a good input into the conversation.
Apr 8, 2011 at3:44 PM Pressure is mounting on nonprofit organizations to demonstrate compelling results. Funders increasingly are encouraging it – even demanding it – as evidenced by the grantmaking approaches of new government initiatives (such as the Social Innovation Fund) and a growing number of private foundations. Just how should nonprofit leaders respond? The question of how best to approach performance measurement and build evidence of results weighs heavily on the minds of many of the leaders with whom I speak. They know the stakes are high: performance measurement potentially opens access to funding and also can be a powerful tool to increase the impact of an organization’s programs. But it’s often costly, complicated, and time-intensive. At this pivotal time in the evolution of nonprofit performance measurement practices, I would love to be part of a discussion about how nonprofit leaders can best focus their organizations’ efforts. As an input into the discussion, I could share experience from my consulting work with numerous nonprofit organizations that have confronted this very challenge and also draw upon insights from recent research that highlighted demonstrating results as a key driver of growth for nonprofits.
Jun 14, 2011 at3:21 PM Causecast would love to suggest some of the topics below that we can address at the conference:
· The rise of cause integration and how it positively impacts the nonprofit sector
· How nonprofits can benefit from recent trends in cause marketing
· Employee volunteering: how nonprofits can leverage employees from large and small business in your area
· Learn how to gain more visibility online and potentially increase your donations
. Tips on how to engage prospective corporate sponsors and provide measurable impact partnering with your nonprofit
. The benefits of a volunteer rewards program for your organization and corporate partners