Author Archive:
Chet Tchozewski
Council on Foundations conference 2014: will the Council come off the fence on climate change?
7 June, aboard United Airlines flight 484 from Denver to Washington DC: As the Council on Foundations annual meeting, entitled ‘Philanthropy Exchange’, takes place in Washington DC this week, many Council members are looking for …
Networks, money and meaning
Networks have been the buzzword of the last decade. But what do networks really mean for philanthropic work and what can philanthropists do for networks? Where does their promise lie? What sort of investment is …
Is philanthropy’s role ‘to be of use’ or not?
At the Money and Intuition gathering last weekend in New York organized by RSF Social Finance I was reminded that money, as a store of value, is merely a social construct – a narrative story …
Always make new mistakes
Lisa Jordan’s challenge to embrace risk in organized philanthropy reminded me of a quote from technology writer Esther Dyson (who used it as a tagline on her email) – ‘always make new mistakes’. Dyson, daughter …
Occupy Philanthropy
‘The arch of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ Martin Luther King In my last blog for Alliance I mentioned that organized philanthropy seldom effectively supports social movements because it doesn’t …
Funding unexpected political opportunity – Occupy Wall Street
The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement has captured the imagination of the world, or at least the part of the world that’s online or in lower Manhattan. As a social change movement OWS is as …
Mountains, controversy and philanthropy in Wyoming
The Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA) held its 24th annual fall retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA on 24-28 September in glorious autumn sunshine; I joined about 350 green philanthropists convened at Jackson Lake Lodge in …
Hybrid philanthropy – the broad spectrum between meaning and money
The spectrum of the value chain of the global economy is wide and long. The same is true for the social value chain of global philanthropy. The spectrum seems to be spreading at an …
The benefits of acting alone
The special issue of Alliance on donor collaboration (March 2011) was a bit of a shock. I expected the customary ‘happy-glad’ support for donor collaboration, but I was surprised – and pleased – by the …
Video grant proposals – you can’t be serious
Are written grant proposals a thing of the past? As I consider the rapid raise and ubiquitous influence of internet video, it seems possible. Social innovation accelerators such as TED (‘Ideas Worth Spreading’), the Unreasonable …
