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E-News
July 2007
This edition of the Hauser Center E-News highlights activities and events from
May - June 2007.
Hauser Center Website Redesign, Your Input Needed
Hauser Center Website Redesign, Your Input Needed
The Hauser Center is redesigning its website to create a more
useful resource for nonprofit managers, trustees, donors, overseers, and
scholars. We hope the new site will help you access the latest research
in the field (whether originating at Harvard or elsewhere) and
contribute to the latest thinking. We also hope the new website will
connect leaders in the field with each other.
We are eager to get your ideas and suggestions for the look, feel, and
content of the new website, as well as your comments about what you like
and don't like about the current Hauser website. We've created an on-line
Hauser Center Website Forum
through which you can get us your comments and
contribute to our design discussion as much or as little as you'd like.
So please visit the Forum and help us in this effort. The Website Forum
will continue until the new site launches, but the sooner we get your
initial comments, the more easily we can integrate your ideas into the
new design. Thanks in advance for your help.
Capital Ideas Symposium
The
proceedings and executive summary of the
Capital Ideas: Moving From Short Term Engagement To Long Term
Sustainability Symposium have just been released. The symposium
examined and extended the role of funders in strengthening the nonprofit
sector and enhancing its impact with leaders from foundations,
intermediary and consulting organizations, nonprofits, academic or
research institutions, and government. The Symposium was co-convened by
Kathleen Buechel and
Elizabeth Keating of the Hauser Center and Clara Miller of the
Nonprofit Finance Fund. Participants at the conference agreed that
funding practices need to change, and have drafted funding principles -
based on insights from informant interviews, participant experience, a
survey of funders with pro-sustainability giving programs, and
discussions at the symposium - that cover both collective approaches
(rely on cooperative action among funders) and funder-based approaches
(individual funders can do them). Conference proceedings and an
executive summary are linked here. Additional
information can also be found on the
Capital Ideas website.
WIEGO
WIEGO Turns 10:
From May 22-27th,
WIEGO's Steering Committee and staff, as well as representatives of its
core donors, met at the Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference
Center in Bellagio, Italy to review and assess WIEGOs first decade and
to plan the next decade. Among the 25 participants were five
of the original founders: Ela Bhatt and Renana Jhabvala of
the Self-Employed Womens Association (SEWA) in India, Jacques Charmes
of the Institut de Recherch pour le Developpement (IRD) in France,
Marty Chen
of Harvard University in the USA, and William Steel of the University of
Ghana in Ghana. At the retreat, WIEGO reaffirmed its
original vision, assessed its progress over
the past decade, its inherent strengths and weaknesses, and the
opportunities and threats facing informal workers and their
organizations. For WIEGOs most recent e-news,
click here.
Membership-Based Organisations of the Poor Volume and Book Launches:
In
January 2005, WIEGO, together with the Self-Employed Womens Association
(SEWA) of India and Professor Ravi Kanbur of Cornell University,
organized a conference on Membership-Based Organizations of the Poor (MBOPs)
which brought together a group of development analysts and activists to
discuss the role of membership-based organizations of the poor in
achieving equitable growth and poverty reduction. Selected papers
from the conference were collected into a volume, edited by Marty Chen,
Renana Jhabvala, Ravi Kanbur, and Carol Richards, and published by
Routledge Press in May 2007. During June, launches of the book
were held in Hyderabad, India and Rome, Italy. For more
information on the book,
click here.
Strategic Frameworks for Nonprofit/Nongovernmental
Organizations
Christine Letts delivered a 10-week distance learning pilot program
(March-June 2007) to 20 leaders of nonprofits and NGOs in the developing
world. The program was made possible by a grant from Harvard
University. The expectation was that this pilot would serve as the
basis for a permanent on-line program and in fact, this program will be
offered again next spring for up to 50 participants as part of the
Executive Education
open enrollment programs.
The program was made up of 5 two-week modules with topics
including strategy frameworks, mission statements, portfolio management,
marketing and strategic positioning. Each module had four parts
including a set of readings consisting of a real-world case and
supplementary pieces; a short video of the case being taught to a degree
program class at the Kennedy School; a set of questions, based on the
readings which participants used as the focus of an electronic
discussion forum; a short workbook-style written assignment in which the
participants had the opportunity to apply the frameworks introduced in
each module to their own organizations and receive feedback from
Professor Letts. Each participant received a certificate of
completion. The group will participate in a follow-up web session
hosted by Christine Letts on August 15, 2007.
Marshall Ganz and Theda Skocpol were selected as
co-winners of the 2007 Oliver Cromwell Cox Award presented by the
Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities of the American Sociological
Association. This award honors the memory of Oliver Cromwell Cox
and recognizes sociologically related books or articles published within
the last two years that make a distinguished and significant
contribution to the eradication of racism. They were selected for
their book, What A Mighty Power we Can Be: African American Fraternal
Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality. This award will be
presented at the 2007 meeting of the American Sociological Association.
Gabriele Bammer was co-lead author of two chapters of the National
Cancer Institute's Greater Than the Sum: Systems Thinking in Tobacco
Control (Tobacco Control Monograph No. 18. Bethesda, MD: U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health,
National Cancer Institute. NIH Pub. No. 06-6085, April 2007,
http://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/tcrb/monographs/18/index.html).
Liz Keating completed her study for the Hewlett Foundation on
overhead. She finds that overhead restrictions are often
counterproductive and prevent nonprofits from having sufficient
organizational stability and financial health to effectively and
efficiently deliver services. In addition, the grant funded the
development of the Grant Budgeting Tool software. It should be available
in the fall. If you are interested in a copy of the report or software,
you can e-mail her at keatinea@bc.edu
Marshall Ganz and the Sierra Club Leadership Development Project
committee concluded their series of Sierra Club workshops in May and
June. The team facilitated four workshops, located in Seattle, San
Francisco, Orlando, and Santa Fe, designed to connect together all of
the structures, skills, and practices that had been introduced over the
year-long project. These were the final four workshops in a series of
sixteen.
On May 2nd the Hauser Center was a sponsor of a presentation on "Peace
Building and Early Childhood Education: A Critical Alliance"
by Zulfu Livaneli and Ayla Gocer, organized by the Kokkalis Program. Zulfu Livaneli
is an
internationally acclaimed artist, peace activist, film producer and
author, and Ayla Gocer
is
CEO of ACEV, one of Turkeys most
active NGOs which is focused on improving literacy and educational
standards for socio-economically underprivileged females in the country.
The Hauser Center and the John F. Kennedy School of
Government's Carr Center for Human Rights cosponsored a panel on May 4th
on "How Civil Society Organizations Affect Governmental Action to
Prevent or Halt Genocide." The panel was part of the annual Kennedy
School Dean's Conference, entitled "The Looming Crisis: Can We Act in
Time?" Professor Sarah Sewell, Lecturer at the Kennedy School and
Interim Director of the Carr Center moderated the panel. Panelists
included Rebecca Hamilton, co-founder of the Harvard Darfur Action Group
and representative of the Genocide Intervention Network; Prof. Samantha
Power, Anna Lindh Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public
Policy at the Kennedy School and recipient of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize;
and Jim Skillen, President of The Center for Public Justice.
On May 6th, Bill Ryan joined several other governance experts
invited to advise the Smithsonian Institutions Governance Committee on
possible responses to its recent governance failures, which had provoked
intense media and Congressional criticism of lax oversight of management
at the federally-chartered complex of museums and research institutes.
Ryan was also invited to share his analysis with the full Board of
Regents as they took up the governance problems. Link to the full
Committee
report here.
Kathleen Buechel delivered a presentation at the Hauser Center on
May 7th on "Changing Corporate Philanthropy - Moving From Charity, to
Citizenship and Sustainability - One Funder's View." For 16
years, Buechel, former president of Alcoa Foundation, was involved in
shaping the community investment of Alcoa Foundation, for many years the
largest asset based corporate foundation in America.
On May 11th, Marshall Ganz spoke with the Jewish Organizing
Initiative (JOI) fellows, young adults who spend a year organizing for
justice and community in Boston, about effective action in organizing.
On May 14th, Ganz spoke on models of effective organizing and the role of
storytelling in organizing to Oxfam Outreach and Organizing staff from
around the country at their week-long training in Boston entitled "From
Strength to Strength."
Dave Brown and Alnoor Ebrahim
designed and delivered a workshop on "Civil Society Domain Legitimacy
and Accountability" at the CIVICUS World Assembly held in Glasgow,
Scotland May 23-27th. The overall theme of the Assembly was the
challenges of accountability, and two overview papers on that theme were
distributed to Assembly participants, one by Dave Brown and
Jagadananda and another by David Bonbright and Srilatha Batliwala.
Marshall Ganz ran an Organizing Institute on June 4th at the
Sojourners/Call to Renewal Annual Pentecost Conference. This conference
convened over 500 church leaders, service providers, anti-poverty
advocates and youth from across the country to mobilize the church to
move an anti-poverty platform onto the national agenda.
The fifth annual International Advocacy NGOs Workshop was held June
4-6th in Geneva, Switzerland, hosted by World Vision International.
Dave Brown and Srilatha Batliwala facilitated the meeting in
cooperation with Kumi Naidoo and Diana Eltahawy from CIVICUS.
Liz Keating presented her "Reshaping the Overhead Debate"
report at the Building Value Together Committee of Independent Sector on
June 6th. For a copy of the report, please contact her at
keatinea@bc.edu
Marshall Ganz and a team of facilitators led a seminar on Public
Narrative in Chicago, June 11-12th during the annual Green Group CEO
Retreat. The CEOs participated in workshops on developing an integrated
personal story, organizational story, and strategic narrative for the
environmental movement. The Green Group is an informal council of the
leadership for the environmental movement consisting of 33 national
environmental organizations.
On June 14th, Marshall Ganz spoke at the Galbraith Scholars
Program on organizing, social movements, and public policy. The
Galbraith Scholars Program selects 14 participants each year who show a
strong interest and background in inequality and social policy concerns
and are thinking about academic, public service or policy-oriented
careers.
Gabriele Bammer spent May and June as a Visiting Scholar at the
Competence Centre Environment and Sustainability, ETH-Zurich (Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology Zurich). She undertook a range of
activities associated with the integration of discipline and
practice-based knowledge and its implementation in improved decision
support and action. She presented a seminar on "Integration and
Implementation Sciences: new methodology for tackling complex problems"
on May 15th at the NSSI (Natural and Social Science Interface) Factory,
and a seminar and workshop on "Research Integration and Dissemination
for Complex Environmental Problems" on June 26th.
Liz Keating left the Hauser Center in June to be an Associate
Scholar with the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban
Institute and to be a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Carroll School
of Management at Boston College. She will be undertaking a major study
for The Boston Foundation on the state of employee benefits in the
nonprofit sector in Massachusetts and is examining the financial
stability of these MA nonprofits.
Marais Canali left her position as Network Manager of WIEGO to
serve as the Project Manager for Centennial Planning at the Harvard
Business School (HBS). She worked with WIEGO from late 2001 to
mid-2007, most recently managing WIEGOs website, e-newsletter, and
communication with the members. In her new position, she will be
working with the HBS team that is organizing events in celebration of
the Business School's 100th anniversary.
Tiziana Dearings Op-Ed What's Next? Women's Ongoing Ascent
to Leadership Positions is featured in the June 2nd
Philanthropy News Digest. Link to the
article here.
Research on federated organizations being conducted by Peter Dobkin
Hall and Marion Fremont-Smith was featured in the posting
"Harvard researchers: Back to bigness" on the blog Where Most Needed:
The Charity Industry Observer Probing the Deeper Links and Linkages.
Link to the
posting here.
The May 27th
Boston Globe included two articles by Peggy Levitt.
The first in the Ideas section was "Life, liberty, and the folks
back home" and can be
accessed here; the second in the
Magazine section was "The Global in the Local" and can be
accessed here.
Peggy Levitt was a guest on Tom Ashbrook's "On Point" radio show on
May 23rd discussing issues of immigration for the topic
"Immigration in America, Now." Link to the
show information here.
Peggy Levitt's guest column in the May 14th Seattle Post Intelligencer, "'Us vs. them' mentality
holds us back," discusses recent immigration legislation. Link to
the
article here.
The book Transnational Civil Society: An Introduction, edited by
Srilatha Batliwala
and Dave Brown was included in the "In Print, Publications by
the Experts" section of the Kennedy School Bulletin, Spring 2007.
The Hauser Center Vol. 1 Research Review was also cited in the
"Newsmakers" section of the Bulletin as "A Hit."
A Letter to the Editor by Peggy Levitt appeared in the May 6th New York Times Magazine section in response to the article "A
good provider is one who leaves" about migration to the United States.
Link to the
letter here.
Work-in-Progress Seminars, Spring 2007 in Review
The
February 2: Saida Hodzic, UCSF/UCB Joint Medical Anthropology Program,
on "Women's NGOs, Donors, and the Postcolonial Ghanaian State."
March 5:
Rachael McCleary, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (Harvard
University), on "Private and Voluntary Organizations in U.S.
International Relief and Development: 1939-1004."
March 19: Jo Ann Schneider, George Washington University, on
"Social Capital, Cultural Capital, and the Dynamic Among Faith
Communities, Nonprofits, and Government."
April 2: Emily Barman, Boston University Department of Sociology, on
"Historical-Comparative Study of Measurement/Quantification in the U.S.
and U.K. Nonprofit Sectors."
April 16: Alnoor Ebrahim, Hauser Center, on "Nonprofit Reporting in
Action: Practitioners and Researches Assess the Challenges of Linking
Accountability to Organizational Learning."
April 30: Thomasina Borkman, George Mason University Department of
Sociology and Anthropology, on "Alcoholics Anonymous and the Sober House
Movement."
May 14: Dave Brown, Hauser Center, on "Architecture and Governance in
International Advocacy NGOs and Networks: Links to Advocacy,
Performance, and Accountability."
This edition of the Hauser Center E-News highlights activities and events from May - June 2007.
The Hauser Center E-News provides bi-monthly
updates of
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