Items matching this category:
Does the Size of Your Communications Department Matter?
Guest Post: Minna Jung, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and Vice Chair, Communications Network
Over the past decade and a half, I’ve worked at three foundations: the first, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, had a communications team of three people (and I was very fortunate to work for the amazing Joanne Edgar there, one of the founders of this Network). The second, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has a communications department that averaged about 40 people during my time there, and is well-known in the philanthropic sector because of how Frank Karel, the former vice president of communications at RWJF, built a communications department which was fully integrated with program and evaluation and other organizational functions. The third, my current job, is at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, where I work on a team of four people. Including me.
Putting the Social in Social Networking
(The following is adapted from a post that recently appeared on Transparency Talk, the Foundation Center’s Glass Pockets blog.)
Guest Post: Erin Kelly, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
A recent article in Forbes, “The Promise of Social Media” offers a bold prediction that “social media is likely to be one of the most significant forces reshaping management and business over the next decade and more.”
Based our experiences at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, I don’t believe that’s an overerstatement. In fact, I believe the networked age offers those of us working in philanthropy unprecedented opportunities to reach our collective goals.
Social Tools For Better Storytelling–More Insights from SXSW Interactive
Guest Post, Katherine Miller, Hattaway Communications
As Susan Herr pointed out in her recent post, at this year’s South By Southwest Interactive (SXSW), there was no shortage of ideas about how to make online experiences better and more engaging or how to make the world a more “social place.” As I observed from searching among the thousands of panels, hundreds of side sessions and dozens of plenaries, many of the presentations and conversations at SWSX also offer important guidance to non-profits and foundations about how to effectively use social media to have the greatest impact.
Making a Retreat From the Philanthropy Beat
Guest Post, Mitch Hurst
In a recent opinion piece in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Pablo Eisenberg lamented the decision by The New York Times to eliminate its philanthropy/nonprofit beat:
What is surprising about this turn of events is that it comes at a time when nonprofits have been heralded as an increasingly important force that can offset the negative impact of dwindling government funds, both federal and state. The number of nonprofit organizations has grown enormously in the past two decades, as has the number of foundations, which now tops 76,000. With its workers representing 11 percent of the work force and 5.4 percent of the economy, it seems like nonprofits warrant additional journalistic attention, not less.
Communications Took Main Stage at SXSW
Guest Post: Susan Herr, PhilanthroMedia
Study the hundreds of panels convened this year at SXSW Interactive – the world’s largest annual gathering of tech enthusiasts — and you won’t find many specifically focused upon nonprofits and philanthropy. But what you will find — from the manna that the more than 20,000 geeks who came to Austin to collectively nosh on — are communications trends worth noting because they are likely to eventually trickle down to foundations.
Subscribe via RSS
