Caroline Ouwerkerk

Check out Coming Together, Not Apart, the latest report from the Council on Foundations exploring how philanthropy supports efforts that bridge divides and bring people together across lines of difference. The report also explores the challenges in funding this work amid toxic polarization and heightened divisions. 🔗 Download the full report for actionable insights and strategies: https://lnkd.in/dt9Pdj_p #Pluralism #Belonging #HumanConnection #Philanthropy #SocialImpact #EinhornCollaborative Jonathan Gruber

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📣 We need you! Take this survey and share your insights on the role of consultants and advisors in helping grantmakers advance their philanthropy. The National Network of Consultants to Grantmakers (NNCG) and 21/64 are partnering on this survey to assess the practice of philanthropy by understanding the behavior and attitudes of grantmakers and the consultants and advisors who serve them. 10 minutes tops! Start here>> https://lnkd.in/eh_iXfqF #philanthropy #consultants #BenchmarkSurvey #NNCG #NNCGisWE

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🚨 New Blog Alert! 🚨 As government leadership transitions, nonprofits have a unique opportunity to engage and make their voices heard. 🌟 Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement latest blog offers insights and strategies on how nonprofits can effectively connect with incoming officials, advocate for their communities, and ensure their missions remain a priority. 🤝 From building relationships to aligning your priorities with policy changes, we’ve got the tips you need to navigate this critical time. 👉 Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eiqzwGnv Let’s work together to amplify the role of nonprofits during government transitions and drive positive change for the communities we serve! 💼✨ #SupportDENonprofits #Advocacy #Transition2024

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Surgeon General Vivek Murthy talks about the need for a "whole-of-society approach" to advancing social connection. We've tried to heed that call in our work at Einhorn Collaborative, supporting a broader range of efforts that engage actors across sectors. That includes: Projects like Team Up to enlist large national civic organizations with a presence in local communities to help people build connection across difference through service. Research groups like Building H to measure the impact of products on consumers’ health and urge companies to do better to improve social connection and other health outcomes. Initiatives like Human Connections AI to bring together social connection experts with technologists to puzzle through how AI companions can be designed to enhance and not degrade human relationships. Another project that has helped us explore a facet of the whole-of-society approach is the Connective Tissue Framework, which puts forward a range of recommendations for how government – especially at the local level – can create the structural conditions and everyday opportunities for people to experience healthy connection. I've learned a lot from Sam Pressler, lead author of Connective Tissue. In this piece, I asked Sam to share more about the story behind the framework and a few highlights. https://lnkd.in/esayJU3b

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What do you call community engagement, and why? Public engagement, or co-production perhaps? Inclusive research, or participatory practice? What if I were to suggest it doesn't matter? We did research a couple of years back with The University of Manchester to help academics determine where they might start their own journey, examining the difference between different practices and how to evolve your approach. It turns out, far more important is how you're practising, and for who's benefit. We've shared some of learnings here... https://lnkd.in/ekSfzqMS

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Fundraising's Greatest Privilege and Reward It affords the most conscientious practitioners - both individuals and institutions - to engage with, reinforce and be reinforced by the most constructive, altruistic and generous (within their means) donors. Those who fundraise –including presidents and frontline fundraisers – must stand up to often unreasonable expectations and withstand occasional indignities, including being introduced as someone who “will get into your pocket” or receiving guffawingly bad fundraising advice from someone who has given little and raised less. However, if they remain true to what they know to be the most ethical and sustainable practices, the very best of human nature will be revealed to them again and again and again. The inverse is also true. Those who exploit the philanthropic spirit in others will never experience fundraising’s greatest reward and highest level of compensation. So, it is not the best donors who suffer the most at the hands of poor fundraising practice, nor the institutions that lose those donors, but the short-sighted practitioner who will never be afforded the experience that makes all the attendant frustrations, pressures and indignities more than tolerable and more than worthwhile.

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Learn how open rates and click-through rates can help your nonprofit gauge donor interest and improve fundraising campaign performance. ⬇️

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Thrilled to join Jeremy C. Park of cityCURRENT to talk about the importance o data and impact work in nonprofit/social sector settings. Key points: 1) Use an expansive view of data, that includes not just quantitative but also qualitative and non-standard sources of evidence. 2) How to get clear on metrics, measure it, and report to show success. 3) How to start a conversation on impact with the question, "What do you want your participants to be able to do?" 4) How to use leadership strategies to create a culture of data at your organization, asking your staff "what do you think?" 5) How to use data to advocate for your mission and change harmful perceptions / narratives in the general public to be more favorable to your mission. 6) The importance of having "enough" data to make a decision - and not worry about having so much. 7) How building effective organizations can multiply impact. Thank you Jeremy and for all the work you do at cityCURRENT to share the work of people out in the community doing work to power the good! https://lnkd.in/gSMF6iQc

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New and Improved Fundraising Metrics The metrics that will actually lead to improved fundraising performance will not be about tasking fundraisers but about creating the conditions that allow fundraisers to be successful. The usual fundraising metrics have not: 🔹 Reversed the public's mistrust in institutions 🔹 Stemmed the loss of giving households 🔹 Slowed the rate of donor attrition 🔹 Helped donors better understand the impact of their giving 🔹 Substituted for the lack of major gift worthy content 🔹 Addressed donors' declining interest in subsidizing organizations Those metrics, therefore, are geared toward getting fundraisers to produce more without addressing the major obstacles in their way. The new metrics must be focused on creating the conditions that will increase the chances of fundraising success. They could include: 🔸 How many major gift concepts have been tested with current and prospective donors. How many have received a score of 4 or better (on a 1 to 5 scale)? 🔸 The results of a donor satisfaction survey or interviews of top donors to determine the baseline score in the current year, then a plan to address the issues that donors have identified as needing improvement, and how those scores compare year over year. 🔸 The results of service satisfaction surveys or service delivery assessments to quantify how well the organization is delivering on its mission promise for those it was established to serve 🔸 The results of needs assessment to determine if there is a rising or falling need for the service provided by the organization and, if rising, what additional programs and investments will be required to meet that need Without better organizational performance metrics, fundraising metrics are relatively meaningless and counterproductive. Fundraising metrics cannot compensate for organizations that don't sufficiently address what donors have every right to expect.

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Grantwriting takes a ton of energy and the award rates are pretty low -- only 10-30% get funded 😐 Here are 3 overlooked tips that can enhance your proposal ... happy #grantwriting!

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Always a learner, now with a consultant lens, I am delving into T. Rowe Price Foundation's report - https://lnkd.in/e2c64cdb - particularly the webinar series and am hooked! I had to laugh during the first episode, Fundraising and Finance: A Team Sport, as Steve Zimmerman was describing how he starts a training with this question, "Who joined their nonprofit because of the love of nonprofit accounting?" In every role I held over the past 20+ years, I have (dare I say) loved nonprofit accounting. I may not have known it at the time I began my career, but I really do. As fundraising professional with significant time spent in stewardship, I quickly gravitated toward the auditing side of things. I love auditing scholarship programs. I love digging thru restricted reports and endowment reports. I love data that connects it all. Here is why it has been fun: ❤️ When donors are upset when they have not heard from x org (it happens, leadership changes, culture disruptions, staff turnover, system breakdowns, etc.) we have been able to track and provide up-to-date and accurate information. This has turned hearts, with the power of rebuilding trust. 🗃 Who has started a role where things are absolutely unworkable, unfindable, and the sleeves have to come up and you dig, and you build? To not be integrated into the financials or if systems are not in place to readily access that information, or files for that matter, the rate of success significantly drops and it is exhausting. Burn out, anyone? That's not fun, but leaving that type of scenario 1,000% better than how I found it, that is satisfying. 🤝 One of the very first things I have focused on in previous roles was to have regular meetings with Finance, and Financial Aid, and Admissions, and Academic Services, and Faculty, and Support Staff, and, and...this creates magic. We have held workshops on how fundraising is integrated into everything *they* are doing-they are the experts that drive our work and we want to learn all about how their work happens. And, if what we are doing is no longer relevant to the programming, etc., we find a way to move forward, not dwell and let things sit. They start to see it too, begin to see the flow of those spreadsheets, perhaps not as red. Oh, that is so fun! *Building on the last point, I get significant joy from knowing that professionals after me can find everything I have found. They can continue to ensure supporters are partners, respond to the community they are serving, not spend their time digging and organizing like their predecessor. The joy comes from setting up someone else for success, creating a seamless experience for everyone involved, empowering that individual, that team, that is why I do what I do - all of it, the operations, the coaching, taking that auditing class when I was in the accounting department at the health dept. Yes, yes, yes to the Team Sport of Finance and Fundraising! Thank you, T. Rowe Price Foundation.

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Nice reframing for respectful storytelling in this article.

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“Equity-centered design is the practice of involving diverse communities throughout planning and implementation, to allow their voices to impact solutions to the inequity at hand”. Too many leaders build programs without the input or perspectives of those for whom they are designing for. That’s okay if you want to build a stand alone program full of inequity, but when designing programs to advance equity, it requires that you build with people and not for people. Let’s normalize including employee voices, perspectives and ideas of all backgrounds, experiences, and levels at the “table”. It is a part of my practice and should be a part of yours too! https://lnkd.in/ehB7Dem5 #edi #programdesign #equity #equitydesign #inclusivedesign

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This one's for my non-profit and mission-driven biz friends. 🌟 Ready to shake up your strategic planning? 🌟 Jen Self, phd licsw, Queer JEDI, Desiree’ Wilkins Finch, MA are launching our equity-centerd, cohort-based strategic planning program this fall. Strategic planning is often unwieldy, overwhelming, and frankly...not that fun. Our cohort-based model is designed for up to 10 organizations to embark on this journey together. Led by our expert team, you’ll create your organization’s equity-centered strategic plan in parallel with your peers in the cohort, with lots of community-based learning and support along the way. We have a few spots left, and we're wrapping up enrollment in the next week, so if you're interested...let's talk! I'll drop a link to more info in the comments; DM me if you want to chat!

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🌟 Why Donors Should Prioritize Racial Justice & Gender Equity This Year 🌟 As we approach the end of 2024 and enter the holiday giving season, it's essential to reflect on where our charitable contributions can make the most significant impact. With a plethora of nonprofit appeals flooding our inboxes and social media feeds, it can be challenging to determine where to focus our generosity. Robin Whitney, Vice President of Advancement at YW Boston, highlights a crucial point: supporting organizations committed to racial justice and gender equity is more important now than ever. These issues require sustained investment and commitment, not just a reaction to current events. As Robin emphasizes, “The work doesn’t stop just because the headlines do.” The need for ongoing support remains vital, especially as nonprofits face potential funding challenges due to shifts in federal policies and political climates. Individual donors play a pivotal role in ensuring that organizations like YW Boston can continue their important work. Your contributions can help create lasting change and support the fight for equality and justice, regardless of what’s trending in the news. 💡 Want to learn more? Read Robin’s full insights on why prioritizing racial justice and gender equity in your giving this year is crucial: Read more (https://buff.ly/4fWLfIV) Let’s make a meaningful impact together!

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🌍 Community Capacity Building 🌍 At The Collective Shift Co. we supported a backbone organization in leading community capacity-building initiatives, enabling broader systems change. Through targeted cohort programs and equitable access training, the team empowered community partners with the adaptive leadership skills needed for systems change. Approach: 🔹 Cohort-based learning for community leaders 🔹 Results Count methodology for impactful change 🔹 Accessibility and equity in training design Empowering local partners in systems change creates stronger, more resilient communities. Interested? Let's chat!! (Yes I do my best work in Tevas!) #CommunityLeadership #SystemsChange #CapacityBuilding #EquityInAction #CollectiveImpact

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✨ Discover the Power of Storytelling for Innovation! ✨ On the first day of the Virginia Housing Alliance’s (Brian Koziol, Arley Bell) inaugural BIPOC Leadership Institute (BLI) cohort,  where I’m a co-facilitator along with Ebony Walden, we had the privilege of walking the historic streets of Jackson Ward in Richmond, VA, with a remarkable group of housing leaders (Justin Ferguson), as Gary Flowers a fifth-generation Jackson Ward resident shared powerful stories of this community, known as one of the Black Wall Streets of the South, and highlighted stories of vision, determination and resilience from leaders such as: 🌟 Maggie L. Walker: The first African American woman to charter a bank, breaking barriers and inspiring us to think beyond limitations. 🌟 William "Bojangles" Robinson: A philanthropist and entertainer who invested in the safety, education, and future of Black children, teaching us persistence in the face of challenges. 🌟 John Mitchell Jr.: The iconic editor of the Richmond Planet, using his words to inspire and influence the community towards advocacy and change. Their stories inspire and remind us of storytelling's profound impact on innovation. How can we use storytelling to inspire new ideas and grow as leaders?  Here are three ways in which I believe stories can influence innovation: 🚀 Inspiring Vision: Stories help us dream big and think creatively. 🚀 Learning from Challenges: Narratives of perseverance teach us resilience about overcoming challenges we will encounter. 🚀 Building Empathy: Shared experiences foster connection and collaboration. 🔗 Check out the full article, "A Lesson from Jackson Ward: How Our Stories Can Inspire Innovation", on Jordansydnor.com to explore how we can use storytelling to innovate and grow as leaders. Let's transform our communities by embracing the lessons from Jackson Ward. What stories from your past inspire your innovative thinking? Share in the comments below! 👇🏾 #Innovation #Leadership #Storytelling #JacksonWard #Inspiration #Community

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More than just a data strategy, an impact framework lets you: 🌍 Align your mission with measurable outcomes 📊 Make smarter decisions with data 🤝 Build trust with stakeholders through transparency 💸 Strengthen fundraising and attract more funding 🧠 Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement ⏰ Streamline reporting and save time An impact framework is more than a tool—it’s a strategic imperative for nonprofits that want to achieve meaningful, measurable change. Check out our new blog to learn more and start your impact framework today: https://lnkd.in/e3yBeeqq #impactframework #nonprofits #missiondriven #impactmeasurement #datamanagement #socialimpact

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