Josh Birkholz
Posting on analytics, technology, visualizations, fundraising, and other unrelated things I find interesting like Doctor Who, sci fi wierdness, crazy new ideas, and interesting people.
Author of Fundraising Analytics
Principal at Bentz Whaley Flessner
Founder of the analytics group donorcast
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HAS EVERYONE SEEN THIS
NO
WELL THEN WATCH IT
#amymeetsabed -
This GameFly Commercial is too HILARIOUS!
A MUST WATCH!
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Game Of Thrones
i like games like this
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Excellent post by Justin Ware of BWF Social.
A relatively new iPhone application is building a somewhat cultish following of amateur photographers. It’s called “Instagram” and the number of dedicated users who have downloaded the app are growing at a rapid pace – the one-year-old Instagram now has more than 12 million users worldwide.
Instagram is as simple as an application gets. To use it, you create a profile, choose pictures to upload, add a filter (filters allow the user to easily adjust color settings, make a picture look like it’s 30 years old and other cool stuff), post a short caption and then share it with all your followers. It might sound like Facebook minus everything else Facebook does, but the growth suggests Instagram is on to something. (I count myself as one of those who’s joined the cult)
So the next question is, how can nonprofits get involved? It’s new, so this does represent a rare opportunity to lead in an uncluttered space …for now. Of course, there are a few early adopters in the Philanthropy world who’ve already jumped on board. Posted here you see a few examples of nonprofit organizations and how they’re using Instagram. The Philippine Improvement Group is using the photo network as both an awareness raising and a fundraising tool, while the Salvation Army is recognizing volunteers.
Justin Ware, my colleague with mad social and video skills will be speaking. I will be listening.
Bloomberg Markets Magazine ran a great article about the ever-increasing challenge of major donor intents and organizational priorities. I’ve often thought of donors as a nonprofit’s “shareholders.” They are often a good check for organizational initiatives. But sometimes, as this article lays out, there are challenges with the impact of outliers. Here is an excerpt:
Schools Find Ayn Rand Can’t Be Shrugged as Donors Build Courses
By
John Allison, former chairman of bank holding company BB&T Corp. (BBT), admires author Ayn Rand so much that he devised a strategy to spread her laissez-faire principles on U.S. campuses. Allison, working through the BB&T Charitable Foundation, gives schools grants of as much as $2 million if they agree to create a course on capitalism and make Rand’s masterwork, “Atlas Shrugged,” required reading
Allison’s crusade to counter what he considers the anti- capitalist orthodoxy at universities has produced results — and controversy. Some 60 schools, including at least four campuses of the University of North Carolina, began teaching Rand’s book after getting the foundation money. Faculty at several schools that have accepted Allison’s terms are protesting, saying donors shouldn’t have the power to set the curriculum to pursue their political agendas, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its June issue.
“We have sought out professors who wanted to teach these ideas,” says Allison, now a professor at Wake Forest University’s business school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “It’s really a battle of ideas. If the ideas that made America great aren’t heard, then their influence will be destroyed.”
Allison, 62, is one of a number of wealthy philanthropists who are making bold demands on schools as a condition of giving, says Jack Siegel, a lawyer whose Chicago-based Charity Governance Consulting LLC works with colleges and nonprofit groups.
Seeking to leave their imprint on everything from the direction of scientific research to the performance of sports teams, these benefactors are stirring conflicts when their causes don’t fit with the priorities of administrators and faculty.
