January Giving Carnival

Step right up. Now showing for the first time, a rare glimpse into the future of foundations. The brightest minds in the blogosphere make their predictions on what foundations will look like 10, 25, or even 50 years from now. Use their uncanny predictions to boost your career, improve your grantmaking, or to win bar bets. No questions are left unanswered. Will the Foundation of the Future only fund programs that benefit puppies and children? Will it be run by people that have attained the elusive PhD in Philanthropy? Will the Foundation of the Future actually be the donor advised fund of the future, since foundations are outlawed by Congress in 2016? There is only one way to find out, read the predictions below:

Change Fan wrote Foundations of the Future: Payout, Pooling, Prizes and Proposals.

Arlene at the Grant Plant’s foundation of the future may have the best view from it’s space dock.

Phil Cubeta at Gift Hub sees a more engaged future for foundations.

Christopher Scott at Nonprofit Leadership, Innovation, and Change sees a more agile foundation in the future.

Jason at a Small Change predicts more online foundations in our future along with more multi-year giving.

Sean at Tactical Philanthropy expects that the "social stock exchange" will be where foundations look for grantees in the future.

Richard Marker at Wise Philanthropy sees increased collaboration and a decrease in grantmaking dollars.

Jake at Seliger and Associates thinks that foundations will remain stingy and self-interested.

I wrote about survival of the fittest for foundations of the future.

Do you think our crystal balls are foggy? What do you see for foundations of the future?

Survivor- Foundation Edition

January Giving Carnival Submission

The year is 2035, foundations have faced increased attention because of the extraordinary success of the Gates and Google Foundations in solving pressing social issues. The Federal government intervened and the following changes to the sector were implemented:

990 is used to apply for foundation funding. A combination of a backward looking 990 form and a strategic planning document for the next fiscal year is used by nonprofits to apply for foundation funding. This online document can be accessed by anyone and individuals and foundations choose to support projects and general operations of organizations that meet their interests. This system keeps a running total on how close a project is to full funding, it also gives donors access to clear outcomes for each organization and project. These systems are funded by the federal government because a 2015 study of the nonprofit sector by the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota found that investments in the infrastructure needs of the nonprofit sector had the best return on investment of any government subsidy. This was a surprise to government officials who thought that sports stadiums had the best return on investment.

Nonprofits are not granted 501(c)(3) status until they have proved the effectiveness of their service model. Nonprofits will begin their existence as a test project of local and national nonprofit incubators. These incubators will be funded jointly by the government and the foundation sectors to support emerging nonprofit organizations. Services of these incubators will include fiscal sponsorship, training, financial services, employee benefits, and administrative support. The role of incubators will be to help these fl edging organizations develop strong programming that will provide a benefit to the community. Ineffective programs will be scrapped or redesigned within two years. (See how this survival of the fittest model could apply to the world of M & M's). Programs that are effective may become a registered 501(c)(3) or more likely will become a program of an existing nonprofit. Matches with existing nonprofits will be made through the collaboration coordinator of the incubator. Nonprofits will be encouraged to take on successful program models because funding for nonprofits will be closely tied to universally accepted effectiveness ratings.

Minimum Foundation payout is not measured in dollars but by return on investment for the community. Once the Federal government understood how much effective nonprofits could save the local and federal government in future spending the 5% minimum payout was reconsidered. A new formula was developed that took into account the return on investment of foundation grants. Foundations that were supporting ineffective programming had an increased minimum payout (15-30%), so that they would spend themselves out of existence. Foundations that made effective grants were then subject to a 7% minimum payout. Foundations then had an increased self-interest in hiring the best training staff possible. Enrollment in philanthropy and public policy master’s degree programs increased exponentially, as did hiring from these programs. Creating a younger and more diverse foundation sector.

Giving Carnival Preview

I thought I would give you a sneak peek of the submissions for this month’s Giving Carnival, you still have till tomorrow to send me your submissions. On Monday you will see the full list of submissions here.

Change Fan wrote Foundations of the Future: Payout, Pooling, Prizes and Proposals

http://www.changefan.com/CFContent/Blog/cfb0003_foundation_of_the_future_011508.asp

Arlene at the Grant Plant’s foundation of the future may have the best view from it’s space dock http://thegrantplant.blogspot.com/2008/01/foundation-of-future.html


From Phil Cubeta at Gift Hub sees a more engaged future for foundations http://www.gifthub.org/2008/01/the-foundation.html

Send me your postings or make your own prediction below, the future of foundations depends on you.

Giving Carnival- The Foundation of the Future

Step right up. Now showing for the first time, a rare glimpse into the future of foundations. The brightest minds in the blogosphere will make their predictions on what foundations will look like 10, 25, or even 50 years from now. Use their uncanny predictions to boost your career, improve your grantmaking, or to win bar bets. No questions are left unanswered. Will the Foundation of the Future only fund programs that benefit puppies and children? Will it be run by people that have attained the elusive PhD in Philanthropy? Will the Foundation of the Future actually be the donor advised fund of the future, since foundations are outlawed by Congress in 2016? There is only one way to find out, come to the Giving Carnival on January 21st. New Voices of Philanthropy will be hosting this FutureFest.


If you would like to participate in this prediction extravaganza, post your predictions to your blog and send me a link at tristaharris[at]gmail[dot]com by January 18th, 2008. If you don’t have a blog, please add your predictions to the comment section below. All submissions will be featured in the January Giving Carnival round-up.

Fundraising 2017: You think fundraising is hard now…

I am participating on this month’s Giving Carnival hosted by Gayle Roberts. The topic this month is “Predicting the Future of Fundraising”. Not so long ago, I was a fundraiser for a nonprofit, so this topic is near and dear to my heart.

If current trends continue, by 2017:

1) The only role of an executive director will be to raise the money needed to keep the doors of their respective nonprofit open. Gone will be the days of executive director as the nonprofits’ strategic visionary. Exponential growth in the number of nonprofits and slow growth in foundation and individual giving makes fundraising an (even more) time consuming task.
2) The 990 will be the main analytical tool used to select a nonprofit to fund. Increased governmental oversight makes the 990 a cumbersome tool for nonprofits (especially small ones) but gives donors and foundations a “magic effectiveness” number made up of overhead rate calculations, program expenses, and the executive director’s salary. This number is manipulated by savvy nonprofits and misunderstood by smaller nonprofits. Instead of relying on their intuition and common sense, funding decisions are now made by cold hard calculations.
3) Each nonprofit will consist of a wide variety of short-term programs that are developed to meet donor specifications. Online marketing will allow nonprofits to create very specific fundraising pitches to donors but they will become the victim of their own success, as donors want nonprofit programming tailored to their specific interests.


It feels a little bit “Wonderful Life” but I will say it anyway, fundraisers this doesn’t have to be your future. Spend time learning how to communicate your organization’s specific value to the nonprofit marketplace. What do you do better than anyone else? If you can learn how to do this effectively then the money will follow. If this is an impossibly hard assignment, then maybe you work for an organization that isn’t adding a significant value to the sector and competition may cause you to close. Develop programs that meet community needs and put an internal evaluation system in place to make sure that they are effective. Donors want to fund high quality programs that meet community needs. By developing your own internal evaluation systems, you have the information that you need to make the case that you are an important part of the sector.

10 years is not so far away, so think about what you can be doing today to improve the future of nonprofits.