Weekly Reads – November 13, 2019

A roundup of timely insight from the grantmaking community and beyond.

“A lot of people today talk about how philanthropy needs to be more business-like, about how we need to incorporate principles from the for-profit business sector into the nonprofit and traditional grantmaking sector. I think that is a big mistake, and I urge you to take care before doing it.”  [more]
—Larry Kramer, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, on CEP blog

“Foundation leaders who want to make sure that they’re simultaneously thinking about the strategic “what” and the practical “how” should realize they have expertise to draw upon within their own teams.”  [more]
—Ruth Levine, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, on CEP blog

“Companies that measure the business value of community investments attain higher levels of total giving and volunteer participation rates.”  [more]
—CECP, Giving in Numbers 2019

“American philanthropies now have an opportunity to protect and strengthen U.S. democracy by providing badly needed investments in the country’s voting infrastructure, paying attention to these issues beyond election time, and joining with others to support litigation against illegal voting barriers.”   [more]
—Carnegie Corporation of New York