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PEAK Grantmaking

Weekly Reader – April 10, 2017

What we’re reading and recommending this week. We add to this post throughout the week and look for your suggestions in the comments.

Monday, April 10

Why I wrote about “smart risks” in philanthropy and why I would frame it differently now (Jennifer Lentfer, How Matters) This coming Saturday on April 15, my first book, co-edited with Tanya Cothran, comes out. It is based on many of the things I’ve written about on how-matters.org over the years – funding for grassroots initiatives, the importance of listening and responding to needs on the ground, the implications of our obsession with “results,” cultural competency for all manner of do-gooders.

Tuesday, April 11

Why More And More Philanthropies Are Choosing To Put Themselves Out Of Business (Ben Paynter, Fast Company) The limited-life foundation–where big donors pledge to spend all their money in a certain short period of time–offers the potential for a bigger immediate impact at the expense of longevity.

Wednesday, April 12

Justice Gorsuch: The Immediate Impact on Nonprofit Organizations and Causes (Michael Wyland, Nonprofit Quarterly) On Monday, Judge Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, succeeding Justice Antonin Scalia, who passed away in February 2016. Now that the court is once again at its full strength of nine justices, how will Gorsuch’s addition affect the Supreme Court, and especially nonprofits and nonprofit causes, in the short term?

Thursday, April 13

A Multi-Pronged Approach to Impact Investing for Family Foundations (Sally Boulter, Philanthropy News Digest) One hundred percent of foundations and philanthropists have set up their portfolios for “impact.” But in the words of Heron Foundation CEO Clara Miller, “they just don’t know if their impact is positive or negative.”
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