Tonight I helped Intersections International to celebrate its 10th anniversary and honor a forerunner in the Christian LGBTQIA and social justice movements. Dr. Randall Miller, now at the Arcus Foundation and formerly of both the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and the Pacific School of Religion, grasped decades ago that religion can be a […]
Save the date: Give Out Day 2017
All day on Thursday, April 20, 2017, LGBTQIA organizations across the US will participate in an annual 24-hour philanthropy campaign called Give OUT Day. This giving event is hosted by the Horizons Foundation, and is now in its fourth year. It allows the nonprofits that are part of the LGBTQIA movement to showcase their work, […]
Power beyond the org chart
An organizational chart is somewhat like a designer’s blueprint: it tells you how leaders expect information, authority, and people to flow. It doesn’t tell you how information, authority, or people actually do move around the system. An organizational chart also focuses on the personnel who keep a system running day-to-day. It doesn’t include the people in […]
Investing in imagination
Whatever our philosophy on money, however much we give or save, and regardless of how we rationalize, we’re still left with some basic practical realities. No matter how lofty your spiritual ideals may be, no matter how many powerful affirmations you can speak by rote, you still have to pay your bills.” —Eric Butterworth, Spiritual Economics We still have […]
The gift of presence
This week, I’m in a class on philosophies of philanthropy and reading Eric Butterworth’s Spiritual Economics and Lynne Twist’s The Soul of Money. Butterworth’s book was first written the year I was born (some of the content shows that), but Twist’s book combines her reflections from a career in non-profit development, fundraising, and work on tough […]
Three ways to preserve the innocence of giving
Ever received a hand-made card from a child? The drawing might be bright and the handwriting might be inscrutable, but neither of those things are why we display children’s notes on our fridges or treasure the gifts they make. There’s an innocence in the act of open-hearted giving and receiving, and that innocence is worth […]
