An Intellectual Experience in New York

Jay Love — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:24:00 GMT

Last Thursday and Friday brought together several educational and networking opportunities for many of us involved with the Giving USA Foundation and the Giving Institute. Early December is always the time for winter board meetings for these two pillar organizations of the nonprofit world as well as the scheduled date for the Gurin Forum.

This year’s event was held in Manhattan at the Yale Club. I arrived early on Thursday morning, and after the typical crazy cab ride from LaGuardia Airport, found myself in the wonderfully historic lobby of the club. I quickly noticed numerous folks using cell phones, which was a departure from the rules prohibiting cell phones a few years back at the Harvard Club... Could it be the Yale grads communicate more?

Based upon seeing the phones in use, I decided to use my Blackberry to catch up on the never ending email stream. One of the emails had a larger attachment I wanted to see so it was time to find a huge comfy chair and fire up my trusty Dell laptop. I was enjoying the early morning email when a tap on my shoulder from a large man dressed in black informed me there were to be no computers in use in the lobby. Of course I asked why when folks were doing the same thing on Treos, iPhones and Blackberries. He assured me I was still in the wrong and asked me to close up the laptop. Being ever so inquisitive since I was about 2 years old, I asked if electronic books such as the new Amazon Kindle were acceptable. This caused him to ask if I was a member and it was my cue to head up to the 18th floor for the meetings. Yes, it was time for one of my favorite pastimes, "networking".

Any Giving Institute event is a superb chance to catch up with virtually all of the leading nonprofit consulting firms in one place. It was great to hear that even in a tough economy most fundraising campaigns were going well and many were raising the campaign goals to higher levels. I am always gratified to see how resilient our beloved sector is.

The first education session revolved around a Thought Leadership panel discussing “Youth in Philanthropy”. It was moderated well by Jeffrey Byrne and featured Laura Spitzer, ED of the New York Jewish Leadership Forum, Tara Ruotolo, DD for the Buckley School and Patrick Rooney, ED of the IU Center on Philanthropy. They covered the subject nicely with so many uplifting stories of how the youth of our country is truly engaged in philanthropy. The subject was then debated with the entire audience on how even more could be done. Finally, Dr. Rooney shared current statistics on the subject. With his permission, I have linked to the slide deck. I think you will enjoy the data points.

The big event of the day was The Gurin Forum in the afternoon. This is an annual event in honor of one of the early pillars of the nonprofit sector, Maurice Gilbert Gurin. The subject this year was a topic sure to bring about some healthy debate from the prominent panelists on "Are Charitable Dollars Really Getting Where They’re Needed Most?" The panelists included:

Melissa A. Berman, CEO Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc.
Pablo Eisenberg, Senior Fellow Georgetown Public Policy Institute
Peter Goldberg, CEO Alliance for Children and Families
Dr. Susan Raymond, EVP Research at Changing Our World
William A. Schambra, Director Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Senior Fellow Hudson Institute

They did not let down the large audience packed into the room. Viewpoints and justifications were from all sides of the issue. Needless to say, the thought processes of many on this subject were stimulated.

I personally applaud the Giving USA Foundation/Institute for bringing such high quality events together. I am proud to be a part of the group and to have taken part in the many follow-up discussions. Perhaps the technology that Blackbaud/eTapestry provides to so many groups in this sector will play an even bigger part in seeing that charitable dollars do go where they are needed most in the future.

The Jay Love Blog : networking, Giving Institute

An Intellectual Experience in New York