Recently I found myself chatting with someone with roots in philanthropy about my current effort to lead my organization in a process of re-imagining our future to increase our social impact. That person provided her insights and support; she recognized that my “big idea” for my organization sounded like it built on our organization’s history and strengths. She also understood that I was doing this as a process of co-creation involving all our stakeholders.
Blog
February 26, 2013
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February 8, 2013
Erin Scott, Associate Director of the Family Violence Law Center, participates in the Blue Shield of California Strong Field Project Leadership Development Program. CompassPoint delivers this customized program for leaders from California domestic violence organizations.
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January 28, 2013
Sometimes leadership roadblocks are created by your own hands, I know this firsthand. For 15 years I have been unaware I was climbing a ladder and building a glass ceiling over myself in my off hours as a social justice activist.
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January 22, 2013
This became a refrain while in the midst of analyzing the data for our newly released report: UnderDeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising (a joint project of CompassPoint and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund). But this is not a report about recruiting and retaining development staff. At least not entirely. This is about a much deeper problem, what we describe as a vicious cycle that many organizations are caught in.
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December 9, 2012
Two weeks ago, I had the privilege to attend Building Movement 2012 (#buildingmovement), a two-day convening put on by Move to End Violence (MEV), a program of the NoVo Foundation. Every two years, MEV selects a group of individuals – Movement Makers – to participate in an intensive experience to grow their leadership and collaboration and develop bold strategies.
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November 14, 2012
Vulnerability – eek! I know I try to hide mine.
If I’m hurt that a friend cancels on me at the last minute, I might smile and say, “Oh, it’s no big deal, I have a lot of other things I need to do tonight too.” If I’m worried that a colleague may not deliver the materials I need on time, I may send an email saying, “You MUST submit your materials by noon on Friday.” Whether I’m hiding my hurt feelings or my inability to control other people’s actions, I’m doing it to protect myself.
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October 11, 2012
In our second case study about 501c3s and election engagement, CompassPoint interviewed Le Tim Ly, Program Director at Chinese Progressive Association (CPA). Chinese Progressive Association educates, organizes and empowers the low income and working class immigrant Chinese community in San Francisco to build collective power with other communities and ensure we can all have better living and working conditions. This year, they are working with a community coalition to pass Proposition 30: the Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act.
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October 9, 2012
In co-designing our joint conference, Generations of Change: A Multigenerational Leadership Conference, YNPN and CompassPoint were committed to moving the generational differences conversation forward to how the generations can and are working together for progressive social change. One of our panelists was especially provocative on the topic.
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October 2, 2012
The Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) and CompassPoint share a deep commitment to nurturing a powerful and diverse leadership pipeline for the nonprofit sector. In our own ways, we have helped to shape the dialogue about who "next generation" leaders are; about what it takes to develop and sustain leaders in social equity work especially; and about what healthy leadership transitions entail as veteran leaders move from executive director seats into other sector leadership capacities.
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September 18, 2012
Just last month I had the opportunity to travel back to 2002. While I was there, not only did I find myself 15 pounds lighter and my hairline fuller, I also met a board member who had never heard of interim executive directors! “Why would we want to hire an interim ED?” he asked. “We’d just have to train two new people instead of one. Let’s just get the new person in here as soon as possible and not waste any time!”
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