The Diversity Projekt
Empowerment for All People of Color
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Independent Sector – Closing Plenary Luncheon – “A New Look at Race and Gender in Americ”
Round-table Discussion: Beyond Election 2008: A New Look at Race and Gender in America
Moderator: Kalvin Taketa, IS Board Member and President/CEO, Hawai’i Community Foundation
Panelists:
Randall L. Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Harvard University
Sterling Speirn, President, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Luz Vega-Marquis, Secretary, Independent Sector and President/CEO Marguerite Casey Foundation
Maria Wilson, President/Founder, The White House ProjektWhile I had limited power, I was able to jot down some thoughts that jumped out at me:
Speirn: “While the glass ceiling was smashed, there are millions trapped in the basement.”
Kennedy: Why is there a “who’d have thunk it” idea that Obama could be elected, that people could have pulled the lever to vote for him.
We need soon however to be thinking about what next” and I hope that we are not so entranced by what happened last week, that we fumble an opportunity to push the agenda for social justice.
Wilson: Two conversations got invoked in this election:
1) race
2) gender
3) class – Obama class upwards and Clinton class downwardsThe changing of the conversation is a major milestone in this country.
“You can’t be what you can’t see.” – What happened all over America, is that there are children from all races and gender that they can be president of the United States.
I know that I cannot celebrate very long, but it is great!
Vega: “The real America showed up at the poles.” In response to the idea that Palin spoke for the “real America.”
The real America finally got included. The fact that she is proud that Latinos voted the right way in this election.
Taketa: Obama as a transcended of all aspects of our population. Is Obama unique?
Kennedy: Obama is an extraordinary politician. Yet, Obama had a hard fought campaign for the Democratic nominee on gender. Gender and racial lines are moving. They are still there but they are moving. Obama still had to overcome his race. There are a variety of politicians of a variety of racial politicians and women politicians. Obama is the person of the hour but he is the tip of the iceberg. In a way this is the most hopeful thing of the election. There is more coming.
Speirn: If the issues are not central nothing will change. Education system is bankrupting our nation. Health status and economic status which is linked to education. The social determinants of education far outweigh all other issues.
Vega: Expectations of Obama are high. He also talked to us about us and what responsibility we take as members of this society to take active part in our future. We need to be responsible for the kinds of things we want to see. We need to begin shaping agendas in our communities. We expect miracles, but we need to hope in what we really can change. It is the collection of our efforts to build a better society.
Wilson: Obama did something transcendent – The major ways AA leaders have made progress is through challenge. Some questioned that AA could not make progress without bargaining. Obama assumed good will which is the third way – not challenge or bargaining. No negative stories about the campaign staff – mission of being respectful and doing good.
Wilson: about Clinton’s campaign – when it comes to gender, gender will always trump gender. But if you only have one person who is different, you look at what they have different. Gender is central. It meant that Clinton had to walk all fine lines about being tough enough and maintain appeal. At end of campaign she felt she had nothing to lose, and she was more authentic.
Wilson: We learned about the continuing way gender continues to be reported in the media. There was an enormous amount of sexism in this election.
The movement – Civic engagement of young people, women and African Americans:
Kennedy: the horizons have been widened traumatically. The sense of possibility – young women, people of color – frankly regardless that everyone’s horizons were opened and that has something to do with extraordinary moment we are in. Even people who did not vote for Obama, even his rivals, many of them have been changed and moved to opening their horizons.
Wilson: inspiring but what do we do next? If they are not engaged – if it is just about their votes – we will lose them again. Obama has a plan, but we all need a plan too for the energy.
(ran out of battery)
This conversation derailed within the first five minutes of comments. The panelists began discussion the ways in which the 2008 Election redefined discussions of Race and Gender in America, particularly the ways in which these new discussions influence the non profit sector and the ways in which the non profit sector can contribute to these discussions. A great topic, particularly since a “what now?” theme ran through the entire conference. However, the conversation quickly jumped to the failures of the Clinton campaign, policy reform and eventually the prison system. Once again, a fruitful discussion on race and gender derailed! Is it that we don’t know how to have a meaningful discussion on race or that it’s just to complicated and uncomfortable?
LiveBlog – Independent Sector, NonProfit Warrior Renewal – Monday, November 10, 2008
Speaker: Stewart D. Friedman, practice professor of management and director, Wharton Work/Life Integration Project, Center for Human Resources, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Panelists:
Kathleen E. Christensen, Program Director, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Karen K. Narasaki, president and executive director, Asian American Justice Center
Rand Wentworth, president, Land Trust Alliance, LLC
Moderator: John Gompert, chief executive officer, Experience Corps; president Civic Ventures
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Comments from Dr. Friedman:
“Total Leadership” way you can integrate all aspects of ourselves to be high functioning human being – leadership from the position of the whole person in order to move from a position of balance to a position of integration.
How do we think about these various aspects of our lives and how do we see them as either enriching or depleting?
Work
Home
Community
Private Self – mind body spiritRate these aspects from 1-10 (1 being totally rotten to 10 totally awesome). Rate how other people would rate your meeting expectations in these categories.
What small steps can you take to better align your work with the rest of your life? How can you improve your overall aspect of your life?
We are breaking out into pairs to discuss these four aspects of our life, where we are and where we want to be, as well as what we can do to move in the direction.
Sidenote: over half of the people in attendance at this presentation are not on Facebook. What does this say about the demographics of this conference?
Observations from exercise:
- put a lot of time to work than to family or ourselves
- work and community are interconnected and there is little division (particularly in the nonprofit world)
- the interpretation of the categories and how they are important vary
- didn’t find any solutions but felt good to talk about the issues
Improvement performance is about being a better leader and the steps necess:
- being real
- telling critical story about what events shaped the person that you are
- telling a critical story of what you think will make you a better person in the world
- being hole, acting with integrity with the whole you
- what are your expectations of yourself in your various rolls and how does that reflection of yourself match up to how other people reflect your expectation
We often have higher expectations of ourselves and we perceive that others have higher expectations of us than is reflected in reality.E
Evaluation of these domains results in people refocusing time and attention so that alignment is more as you like or want it (actions and values shift away from work to other parts of life).
Aligning our actions with our values results in an increase in satisfaction throughout all aspects of our life. (common sense, no? even though we tend to overfocus on work to the point where work becomes the center of our life)
Panel Discussion:
Kathleen: Middle class privileged in the sense that they enjoyed their work. They also loved their families and the refuge. Yet there was not enough time to do everything. Until recently this was seen as a private problem needing a private solution. What was overlooked was the changing dynamics of the workforce – a lot of women and a lot of older people, as well as NGen populations.
Workplace structure not changing with the changing demographics of the workforce. People wanted flexibility not only with the hours that they worked, but where they worked and how they worked.
Effective implementation of flexible workforce practices: Increase retention. Enhance recruitment. Reduced absenteeism. Increased productivity.
Is flexibility an excuse to work all the time? How can we make flexibility a good convenient team for managing our complicated time, but actually also to get some balance in our life?
Kathleen: not a fan of balance since she is not sure if we can ever achieve it. Flexibility a dual edged sword. Flexibility should not be seen as just a change in schedule. It should be seen as a reexamination of work practices – creating boundaries between family and work. Creating a new work culture i.e. no email or travel on weekends. Time is not infinitely expanding and that boundaries need to be placed on time.
Rand Wentworth: Life as a constant practice in resurrection? Rising above the life burnout. How to we renew or restore ourselves? How do we make small choices throughout our lives to make healthier and better choices? How do we balance this in a suffering world?
Confession: early years I worked out 9-10 at night. Dinner was Doritos or pepperidge farm cookies. I get up early. I would get 5-6 hours of sleep. You can do this at 20 or something but not 50s. I wake up early and reserve the first 2 hours of my day for personal and family. The first thing I do in the morning is 20 min of yoga and contemplative practices. I then do something fun and exuberant – bike or swim to clear my head and give me energy. As long as I am at home, I have breakfast with my kids. I am rarely home for dinner, btu I always have breakfast with my kids. The three nights a week I am home we always sit down for dinner.
Remember to renew throughout the day and remember to breathe. Reschedule your life with YOU in mind.
The practice of rushing: If I am doing more faster I must be more efficient in practicing my mission.
Learn how to use technology not let the technology use you. Learning how to turn it off. He ever does email at home.
“No Screen Time” – During the weekend, creating a time where all screens are turned off. Honoring the personal sabbath!
Sundays in the Wentworth household – visiting with friends, sharing meals, reading, going for walks, and spending time with each other., Nervous system is profoundly relaxed.
Talk Daily
Talk Weekly
Annual basis – honorable birthright as servant leaders to do some kind of retreat for yourself. Yoga or nature retreat. Some time when you deeply relax and reflect on how your life is going and how you want your life.
The culture of his organization: All administrative staff are eligible for 3 month sabbatical after 7 years of work. Adopted practicing no scheduled meetings on Fridays and no sending of emails to subordinates on weekends.
Karen: “Hi I am Karen and I am a workaholic.”
Working for clients whose lives are more desperate than ours. Nevertheless, you are only as good as the energy that you can bring to your job.
As we look as diversity – thank god there are a lot of minorities being leaders – we need to make sure that we do not take on the responsibility of representing our communities to the point of burnout.
The power of no!
Disciplined about number of boards you choose to be on and the amount of projects you choose to engage in. Creating an ebb and flow and accept that imperfection is perfect.
Importance of coaching – even though we know the things we need to do, to create balance sometimes we don’t know how to achieve balance.
- Need to write down boundaries.
- Need to vocalize goals to be accountable
Sabbaticals allowed us to strengthen the cohesiveness of the organization. Allows for a strong foundation for the organization and group relationships. Better delegation and group effectiveness.
Question and Answer
Suggestions for Millennials, young leaders who are trying to prove themselves to their organization and maintain balance
Opportunity to teach elders to live right and alter the culture of our organizations. Allowing space for people who are productive in their work space yet allow us to have a personal life.
Agreement with staff about production schedules that are reasonable and checking in to evaluate realistic parameters.
Importance of policing our performance expectations of ourselves and other people – the differential between our perception and reality.
Kathleen: The current environment there will be more fear and anxiety and more sense insecurity and power will be shifting to feeling less empowered. Anything that we say will be set in that context. Within the next 1-2 yrs people will be feeling the sand shift underneath their feed.
Ending questions and comments:
How do you reconcile pressures of the job and the desire to have a life?
Flextime – option of a three day weekend every other week.
No meetings on Mondays or Fridays
Do people really change? Do you see a true transformative sense in your life?
When you are trying to make the changes how do you deal with pressure from people around you to revert to old behaviors and attitudes?
Kathleen – Issues about employers to motivate to adopt 80/20 work weeks. People have a hard time to imagine beyond “what is”. Encouraging organizations to put boundaries around projects and time in order to create more manageability.
Rand – yes, there is hope. Addiction of overworking isn’t true to who we really are. Any addiction requires new habits of being that claim each day. Each day needs to be started anew. Structured approach of setting goals is necessary for change.
Karen -not knowing if she was truly able to change, but had staff around her who were committed to helping her change. Also, accepting the idea that change is gradual. Having expectations of overnight change is unrealistic. You tend to make more mistakes when burned out. Change requires commitment.
Stew – Be a better leader and have a richer life. Putting on a lens that puts your life together that is mutually enriching and is valuable to key people in your life. Take small steps – YES WE CAN! Create sustainable change not just for you but for the people around you. What do the people around you really need and what can you do to achieve balance for the two.
LiveBlog – Independent Sector, Yours for the Asking: Capturing Wealth – Monday, November 10, 2008
I will clean this up later on tonight. I look forward to your comments!
Ronald Levy – Fundraising
Board of Directors
- raise its size
- raise expectations
- raise involvement
Opening Comments about the Sector
1) trustees want to leave an impression. they do not want to be letterhead board members. chief exec job that board members are fully engaged.
2) pick up the pace and multiply the asks. numbers matter – fundraising is not a college exam. fundraising is a rule of averages
Fundraising is baseball
3) dont just ask often but ask well.”please join me” are the most magical words.
4) convince the right donor who enjoys a strong relationship with the new potential donor. Ask for a specific sum and have the ask come from another done with another relationship.
5) in fundraising shoe leather trumps the keyboard almost always
6) do your homework on potential donors
7) early money is the best kind. EMILY “early money is like yeast”
fundraising is a deeply psychological process9) pick soon and low hanging fruit friends of the organization and enlarge base
10) ask the already committed for leads advice and guidance and help with solicitation
11) remember that the overall obj is to diversity funding sources and funding methods. aim to develop diverse portfolio of institutional, trustee, individual and governmental
12) methods of raising funds should be diverse – biz sponsorship, special events, major gifts membership programs bequests mail order and corporate giving.
Message to Solicitor
1) fundraising is a branch of salesmanship
2) calling
3) understand never ever a bad season of the year or time of day or econ climate
4) everyone as a potential donor
5) giving as act of patriotic citizenship
6) “No is a delicious beginning to a great conversation!”
Message to Donors
1) give generously and as flexibly as possible
2) offer general operating support not restictive
3) challenge grant offers
4) interest friends and collegues
5) multiyear pledge as symbol of confidence
6) no recession period in which philanthropy has droppe more than 3-4%. even in rough times generous donations are there. $306 billion raised in 2007 is the begiining and is determined by attitude and resourcefullness and purposefullness of those who solicit
Question and Answer
Q – Alternative to large boards and how do you balance too big, great for fundraising and complicated for government?
Fundraising inexpensible to chief executive position. Complex and active committee structure and informal structure that allows for social engagement, ad hoc problem solving and crosssection and passion and need of institution will allow the chief executive to tap into the wealth of knowledge of the board.
If you want to govern your organization, a dozen directors will be sufficient. Do not look to governance inteh corporate model for governance in the non profit model. Board in non prfit is center of web of influence and advocacy and center of resoucce and consciousness raising for non profit.
For new organizations it takes time to evolve. Gather the resources of your friends. Create artistic advisory board who can and will give generously.
Transitions – pain of transition within the board. Objectify the need. If you have a board that agrees there is a distance bw the promise and the mission, question is over time how to alter the board to make contribution to resources needed. Grandfather all board members and create new expectation for new cohort of board members. All must adhere to new higher standard. The resident board members – inherited – will do one of two things 1) leave without being asked and 2) increase their own giving.
Q – How do you engage new weath that may not be engraned in philanthropy from their families?
Worst way is talking about the act of philanthropy.
The best way is demonstrating what private resources can do. Taking donors to see refugees or to see service to parents in need or children with learning disabilities. Taking parents to see what happens at lincoln center as a vehicle for transformation.
Do so in the company of peers i.e. peers who also recently came upon wealth who “GOT” the message and understand and who want others to join them.
Experiental exposure.
Q - Approach of making the ask.
Critical rule – ask comes from prospect in versus institution out.
Make donors aware of the prospect and overall condition to the issue. Lastly reduce it to the program itself.
Q – How do you take message of continuing to be optimistic and respond to the reduction of assets during this economic time?
“When your community needs you most keep spending.”
Fundraising only for people who are optimistic regardless of environment. Optimism for small donors and charity. Foundations and corporations should focus on newer and younger orgs of great promise that have less absortive capacity than more established orgs who should turn to 80% of philanthropy (individuals).
Q – Narcisistic aspect of Venture Philanthropy who are more interested in programs of own invention, how do you engage them?
Must get out the mind of a venture capitlist that many orgs arent venturing a lot of the time. Be able to talk the language of the venture capitalists to overcome the barrier.
Donor Tet
1) how did we do this year versus last – method and sector
2) how how are we doign this yr based on what we budgeted
3) how are we doing this year compared toour most admired ananlogs
4) who do we admire most that relates to large foundations and major gifts and who do we admire most who is engaged in email philanthropy and how do we compare and how can we do better
5) are we bridging the gap bw the promise of the org and the performance
Complacency and inertia are the most toxic diseases for non profit organizations and they bust me combated.
1) rigerous measurement
2) publicity even when they are critical
3) broad and diverse donor base – listen to donors and non verbal reactions to prospects
4) large and diverse board of directors
Mechanisms to keep org and yourself alive and curious and eager for the next step and growth and development
Q – Potential wealth is it more individuals or corporate giving in relation to prospects in this economy?
Corporate giving requires patience as corporate giving is 20% of the sector. Looking to the 80% of the giving sector – individual donors – is more efficient and effective in our current economic environment. They use emotional intelligence much more easily. They can be arbitrary. They do not have to answer to a board. Individual donors are the easiest charter route.
Ask – Stare – Wait
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