Our world faces many big challenges, from disastrous weather patterns, to refugees without homes, to increasing inequality. To tackle these problems, we need to scale big ideas and unleash the power of social innovation. Fortunately, the opportunity for impact mirrors the immensity of the need. There are countless solutions and social innovators mobilizing to solve some of society’s most pressing problems. Unfortunately, many social innovations fail because they are unable to bridge the “stagnation chasm” — where proven ideas get stuck before they are able to maximize their impact.

Realizing that the world’s pressing challenges are becoming more complex, many philanthropic funders are reflecting on how to create more transformational impact.

As the Office Manager of a small non-profit like JFN, my responsibilities are incredibly varied. Among them are liaising between our board of directors and staff, coordinating IT between our main office in NY and our teams in Israel and California, maintaining our CEO’s hectic calendar, and of course, keeping our coffee supply well stocked in the office.

Alongside the above, I also have a level of fiscal responsibility. I work with our COO and finance teams to process all of our accounts payable files, I am connected with our banking & finance teams in processing receivables via check and credit card, and I also do some work in packaging our organizational budgets for approval during our board of directors meetings.

Authors: Shavit Madhala, Michal Almog-Bar, John Gal
From the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel

The study includes an analysis of active organizations working in the field of welfare between the years of 2013 and 2016 whose annual revenues exceeded NIS 500,000 – a total of 748 organizations. The research examines characteristics such as sources of revenue, the number of paid staff and volunteers, and the target populations they aim to reach.

The organizations are classified according to how long they have been operating, the scope of their economic activity, their geographic distribution, and other characteristics.

From Open Impact

Authors: Adene Sacks, Heather McLeod Grant, and Kate Wilkinson

How is the current economic and political environment impacting the capacity building needs of social-change leaders, nonprofits, networks, and movements? How are funders responding to these changing needs, and how can they better support this work going forward? 

Power Moves: Your essential philanthropy assessment guide for equity and justice is a complete self-assessment toolkit to determine how well you are fully how well they are building, sharing and wielding power and identify ways to transform your programs and operations for lasting, equitable impact.

It includes ready-to-use guides, insightful anecdotes and comprehensive resources to help you on your power journey towards high-impact giving.

By Clare Nolan, Janet Camarena, & Jen Bokoff

Key findings include:

• Fewer Americans give;
• Giving is distributed across more channels than ever before;
• Baby Boomers remain the most generous generation, and the number of Boomers saying they give is increasing;
• Generation X is on deck…and there are way more Gen X-ers than you think
  
  

Many foundations are adopting new approaches for creating social change—approaches that aim to influence the actions and investments of the public and private sector, as well as address the complex conditions that hold social problems in place.

Based on interviews with 114 practitioners representing 50 foundations and 8 philanthropic services organizations, Being the Change explores how foundations are applying their assets, knowledge, skills, networks, and people in new ways in order to create impact at scale and change systems.