This May I attended a GEO conference in Seattle, Washington with a singular focus on the role of learning in philanthropy. Things kicked off with a call to honor the land where we were gathered and acknowledge that its indigenous people (the Suquamish, Duwamish, and many others) were harshly treated and marginalized by Seattle’s white … Continued
On a chilly November afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending Arc Tank 2.0 at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum on UMASS’s Boston campus. This is the second year of the event, hosted by Northeast Arc (NeArc)¹, and loosely based on the tv show Shark Tank. Organizations that serve people with intellectual disabilities or … Continued
PART 2 [This second (and final) installment takes a look at recent Tower grants and their impact on the target population, grantee organization, and the field at large.] Once again, we wanted to take a look at the somewhat broader impact of our grantmaking. On our lessons learned forms, we also scored grants for impact … Continued
PART 1 [This installment of a two-part series looks at the performance of Tower grants when measured against specific project goals; Part 2 will look at the broader impact of the same grants.] Every 18 months or so, we take a look at the latest cluster of closed grants and assess their aggregate effectiveness and … Continued
I couple of years ago I got in the habit of blogging about each conference I attended. It imposed some healthy discipline, forcing me to go over notes and reflect a bit on what I learned at plenary sessions, what I picked up at break-out sessions, and maybe what live music venue I found nearby. … Continued
Just a few days ago, Chuck and I stopped off for a celebration at a downtown Buffalo restaurant. The celebration toasted almost two years of hard work from a coalition of Erie County-based behavioral health providers, agencies, and funders. The group had come together to respond to the negative perceptions that so many continue to … Continued
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence. – David Hume, Scottish Historian and Empiricist On September 16, 2014, I completed the last phone survey of an evaluation of a five-year grant initiative at the Tower Foundation. If I haven’t lost you already, I’d like to take this blog space to summarize what we … Continued
It is hard to beat a site visit for connecting with the vital work that our grantees do. But they are not always as fun as the one I made to the Cradle Beach respite weekend on a chilly Saturday morning this March. Cradle Beach is best known for its inclusive summer camp sessions, but … Continued
