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Peer learning
GSBI Accelerator program: Learning to love ‘the McDonald’s of diabetes’
Even the most experienced Silicon Valley mentors have something to learn from social entrepreneurs building businesses in remote parts of the world. I think that’s why we keep coming back. The 2013 GSBI® Accelerator …
Sharing is the most important attitude to data
Do we expect too much from data? This was one of the questions at the recent Alliance Breakfast Club which sparked much discussion around the topic of the recent special feature on philanthropy and data …
Collaboration is key to addressing innovation needs in global philanthropy
An extra day making a longer February sounds especially good and prosperous in the Year of the Dragon. I’ve learned a lot during the 2012 Family Philanthropy Conference, organized by the Council of Foundations that …
Sharing beyond doubt
A year ago, the prospect of a ‘knowledge-sharing website’ for funders was met with some scepticism. Do we really need another website? Sure, funders talk about learning and sharing with their peers, but do they …
Food (and drink) for thought (and action) at Environmental Funders Network retreat
An Englishman, a Frenchman, and an American woman went into a bar. Now, this may sound like the start of a terrible British joke, but it instead it begins the inspiring tale of the many …
Is it possible to shift philanthropy practice from the middle?
Last month I attended the International Human Rights Funders Group conference in San Francisco, which began with a day-long institute on cultural competency in grantmaking titled ‘What’s Power Got To Do With It?’. The training …
Markets are emerging … why not philanthropy?
This question captures the ethos of the late visionary Olga Alexeeva who saw emerging markets as an opportunity to cultivate new donors. Starting in her native country of Russia, she had just begun to expand …
Cardinal knowledge: creating a philanthropy bridge
Whether or not you believe in using cardinal points to describe developed and emerging countries, whether here in London we are in the North or the West, whether India is the South or the East, …
Social-profit enterprises: stop debating and get them going
The wall between non-profit and for-profit organizations is crumbling in the US legal structure with the recent creations of B-Corps, L3Cs, and now FlexC’s. In actual practice, the social sector moved beyond the value of …
Failing forward
Thomas Edison is supposed to have said ‘I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 things that don’t work’. Failure of this form is a popular topic of conversation among philanthropists these days. It fits in with their interests …
