Threads: Insights from the Charitable Community

Our world is changing rapidly and the charitable community is not immune to economic globalization, technological change, and other epic developments sweeping across the horizon. Change of this magnitude offers unparalleled promise for the charitable sector and the people we serve -- if we take deliberate, proactive steps to build the future we desire.In the spring of 2015, Independent Sector partnered with more than 80 organizations to launch Threads, an intensive series of community conversations held across the country. Threads brought together a diverse cross-section of leaders from organizations of every size and mission. In total, the conversations generated thousands of comments, reflecting an incredible range of experiences and perspectives.This report puts a finger on the pulse of our sector. It reveals what's working and what's not. It captures the frank thinking of leaders from nonprofits and foundations. And, most importantly, it gives us insight into what our shared path forward might look like

Improving Quality and Achieving Equity: A Guide for Hospital Leaders

Outlines the need to address racial/ethnic disparities in health care, highlights model practices, and makes step-by-step recommendations on creating a committee, collecting data, setting quality measures, evaluating, and implementing new strategies

The Nonprofit Marketplace: Bridging the Information Gap in Philanthropy

Argues for improving the supply of and demand for information and strengthening intermediaries and interactions to boost strategic grantmaking, effective nonprofit operations, and dialogue about transparency, organizational performance, and social impact

Leveraging Latinx Parents’ Cultural Wealth: Pláticas With Parents About Their Involvement In Post-Secondary Educational Spaces In Western North Carolina

Everyday practices continue to normalize racism and perpetuate deficits and disparities. In North Carolina, for example, appalling projections indicate that Latinxs will fall short in educational attainment for the next 40 years. This project serves as both an invitation to revisit and transform educational attainment in the region of Western North Carolina, the rest of the state, and the nation as a whole. Critical Race Theory (CRT) informed by LatCrit “consciousness,” referred to as CRT/LatCrit, is used as the theoretical lens to explore this phenomenon. This lens centralizes race and ethnicity, along with their many intersections, and promotes critical attention be given to disparities of outcomes that continue to be related to race and ethnicity. Further, this study provides a space via pláticas in which the lived experiences of Latinx parents and families, including my own, are funds of knowledge. This idea runs contrary to divergent views, such as colorblindness, that render communities of color invisible and buries the formidable cultural wealth that communities of color employ to foster success. By design, this project uses Thinking with Theory interwoven with analysis, theories, my own observations, thoughts and complications, and the co-participants of this project as we occupy the willed and planned space of confianza produced by our arrangement. This project recognizes that its very presence is disrupting, preparing, and plowing the ground before seeds can be sown and cultivated. Moreover, this paper promotes pragmatic solidarity for innovation and transformation by paying attention to programs that are already helping to change the landscape of education in our region by being culturally responsive, collaborative, and thinking of families and parents as crucial participants in the educational experience. In conclusion, this study entreaties for more spaces in which teaching and learning can simultaneously occur, particularly from those who are silenced and marginalized. Pláticas present a possibility worthy of consideration

This place: Conversations with the provost about leadership and change

Professor Heather Corcoran invited faculty members across Washington University to interview Provost Edward S. Macias about key issues in higher education, including diversity and interdisciplinary research, as he concluded 25 years of leadership to the university. This book, published in 2013, is an archive of the interviews.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/books/1008/thumbnail.jp

The 21st Century University President: Building Blocks for Effective Rural Leadership

This paper was written to examine the fundamental areas of influence that can help to shape effective leadership for the 21st century college or university president in a rural setting. In the last few years, centuries of long held traditions, behaviors and expectations inside and outside of the university community have quickly and radically changed. The new and evolving knowledge-based economy of America has created an exceedingly competitive marketplace for higher education that has forever changed the social and financial contract between higher education and the American public. This new world features extremely complex and competitive organizations that must exist and flourish with less public funding, greater public oversight and increased private costs to consumers. An in-depth examination of the literature concerning the most effective methods by which presidents might shape their leadership to cope with this new world reveals the significant impact and influence the core skills, experiences, behaviors and values have on effective leadership in a rural setting. This paper specifically focuses on how the skills, experiences, behaviors and values identified by the presidents themselves can offer a root-cause analysis of how to effectively lead rural colleges and universities in this new era. It also reveals that while every rural college and university president is striving for leadership and institutional excellence in a highly competitive marketplace, only those who identify and manage their leadership through their skills, experiences, behaviors and values will be able to accomplish that goal

Harnessing Collaborative Technologies: Helping Funders Work Together Better

This report was produced through a joint research project of the Monitor Institute and the Foundation Center. The research included an extensive literature review on collaboration in philanthropy, detailed analysis of trends from a recent Foundation Center survey of the largest U.S. foundations, interviews with 37 leading philanthropy professionals and technology experts, and a review of over 170 online tools.The report is a story about how new tools are changing the way funders collaborate. It includes three primary sections: an introduction to emerging technologies and the changing context for philanthropic collaboration; an overview of collaborative needs and tools; and recommendations for improving the collaborative technology landscapeA "Key Findings" executive summary serves as a companion piece to this full report

Boosting Upward Mobility: A Planning Guide for Local Action

Are you a member of local government who wants to increase upward mobility in your community? If so, this guide can help you better understand impediments to upward mobility and build a cross-sector team that can plan, advocate for, and implement a set of systems changes focused on bringing all members of your community out of poverty and creating more equitable results.We developed this guide with you—the user—in mind. It provides practical advice for people driven to boost mobility from poverty and asking, "Where do I start?" More specifically, this guide is intended for city and county government leaders who can plan, advocate for, and implement a set of policy and program changes—informed by the Mobility Metrics (explained in the next section)—that are focused on boosting mobility from poverty

A Tapestry Of Educational Technology Women Leaders In Higher Education: A Qualitative Study

A qualitative study was used to understand the experiences of 12 women, leaders in Education Technology in higher education. Through interviews, women leaders described their environment as well as personal and behavioral aspects of their work. Findings revealed four threads of descriptive concepts including relationships, leadership, persistence, and advice. Relationships were from workplaces and professional networks. Leadership was defined by vision and teamwork. Persistence was addressed as either values-based or relationship-based. The fourth thread in the findings, advice, was divided into three sub-threads: education, family (both personal and work), and managing emotions. A qualitative approach was used to highlight interview responses to demonstrate the experiences of women leaders in Education Technology in Higher Education