Lessons Learned about Change Capital in the Arts: Reflections on a four-year evaluation of Nonprofit Finance Fund's Leading for the Future initiative

This report takes stock of a four-year evaluation of Leading for the Future: Innovative Support for Artistic Excellence (LFF), an experimental $15 million funding initiative administered by Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF). The purpose of this analysis is to reflect critically on what was learned from the initiative for the benefit of funders, individual philanthropists and others with an interest in the theory and practice of capitalization as applied to nonprofit arts organizations.The LFF initiative was unique in its exclusive focus on change capital – substantial, flexible, multi-year capital intended to transform how an organization operates and delivers its programs, with the long-term goal of increasing reliable revenue, net of costs. By definition, change capital aims to strengthen an organization's financial position.Ten performing arts organizations received$1 million in change capital, drawn down according to individual plans for change, and an additional $75,000 in planning funds. Exit grants of up to$225,000 were awarded to organizations that made the most progress on their change efforts, for the purpose of advancing ongoing change efforts or seeding new plans.1 The 10 grantees invested LFF change capital in a wide variety of "business model transformations" ranging from building technologies with the potential to attract new donors and audiences, to experimenting with different models for touring, to investing in marketing and development capacities.NFF has previously published a series of working papers, case studies and video highlights from the LFF initiative, exploring the concepts of capital and financial reporting for capital, and documenting the 10 grantees' experiences.2 We will avoid citing the accomplishments and challenges of specific grantees in this report, and focus instead on program level issues and ideas that might be helpful to future investors of change capital. Indeed, the LFF initiative has played out against the backdrop of a national dialogue about capitalization in the nonprofit arts sector, both learning from, and contributing to, a good deal of productive thinking about capital.While the LFF initiative involved large grants, much was learned that might be of value to funders with more modest resources who are interested in exploring the role of capital in the artistic and financial health of the sector

Dual language immersion : the educational practices that contribute to the success of English only kindergarten students in learning Spanish

The focus of this study is to learn what the formal and informal educational practices are that contribute to the success of English-only (EO) kindergarten students participating in a two-way immersion (TWI) program in learning Spanish. In order to research this topic I conducted a case study of two EO kindergarten students. Over an eight-week period I worked with each student once a week in a small group lesson. Throughout each lesson, I observed which teacher scaffolds proved to be most effective in helping the students not only learn Spanish, but also be able to access the content of each lesson. In addition, I audio-taped each lesson so that I could later listen to each lesson and collect evidence of student learning in order to validate that the teacher scaffolds that I had used were indeed effective. Furthermore, I interviewed the parents of these two EO students in order to learn what techniques they use with their children at home to help them learn Spanish. I also spent a lot of time observing these students interact with other students during recess and exploration to see how their classmates helped them in learning Spanish

Chutzpah

A Review of Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowit

Nathaniel Dorsky: religion, Buddhism and film

This dissertation examines the life, films, and manuscript, Devotional Cinema, of American Buddhist experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky (1943-present). Dorsky’s work shifts the point of intersection between religion and film from the ability of movies to immortalize subjects, engage with eternal themes, or provide experiences of transcendence to the immanence of the materials of film, and by extension the contingency and impermanence of our lives. His approach has developed religious meaning in keeping with particular Buddhist teachings and meditation practices by opening up possibilities of how films might do religion, revealing the ways the study of religion and film can become a means of expanding and refining our vision of religion itself. Dorsky’s life intersects with a variety of significant institutions, leaders, and communities of American Buddhism and avant-garde film from the 1950s to the present. His story illustrates a history between religion and film unique in its fluidity, hybridity, and symbiosis: he has studied Buddhism with Asian Buddhist emissaries like Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who engaged in and wrote about filmmaking as a mode of Buddhist knowledge; he is among a collection of American avant-garde filmmakers who experimented with Buddhist ideas and practices in their lives and work; and has been a friend and follower of Stan Brakhage, a leader of a particular lineage of 1960s avant-garde film, who voiced religious devotion to film itself. By situating Dorky within American Buddhism and avant-garde film, I consider the religious depth underlying his work, challenge definitions of authenticity present within Buddhist and religious studies, and examine the intensity and diversity of religious aspirations among filmmakers and enthusiasts. Doing so encourages a reading of Devotional Cinema and Dorsky’s films that highlights the physicality and temporality of film in religious understanding, emphasizing the worldly, material, diverse, contingent, and impermanent dimensions of both

New Media, New Influencers and Implications for Public Relations

Marketers and public relations professionals today are confronted with an astounding array of new communications channels. Internet-based social media tools like blogs, podcasts, online video and social networks are giving voice to the opinions of millions of consumers. While mainstream media continues to play a vital role in the dissemination of information, even these traditional channels are increasingly being influenced by online conversations. The "new influencers" are beginning to tear at the fabric of marketing as it has existed for 100 years, giving rise to a new style of marketing that is characterized by conversation and community. Marketers are responding to these forces with a mixture of excitement, fear and fascination. They're alarmed at the prospect of ceding control of their messages to a community of unknowns. Yet at the same time they're excited about the prospect of leveraging theese same tools to speak directly to their constituents without the involvement of media intermediaries.The Society for New Communications Research set out to conduct an examination of how influence patterns are changing and how communications professionals are addressing those changes by adopting social media. The goals were to discover how organizations:Define new influencers;Communicate and create relationships with them;Use social media to create influence; andMeasure the effects of these efforts.Another goal of the study was to use these discoveries to offer a set of recommendations to professional communicators

The In Vitro Permeability Of Skin And Buccal Mucosa To Selected Drugs And Tritiated Water

The permeability of whole human skin, human dermis, whole pig skin, and canine buccal mucosa have been determined for four chemically different solutes: tritiated water, amphetamine, estradiol, and ouabain. Several new in vitro techniques for isolation, preservation, and permeability determination of these membranous tissues are described. Water permeabilities of human epidermis and dermis using these techniques agree well with published results. Human and porcine skins are very similar with respect to water permeability, while buccal mucosa is similar to dermis in its permeability characteristics to the four representative test agents. The permeability of hydrated whole skin is determined by the permeability of the epidermis, and the dermis and buccal mucosa behave as if they are water barriers exhibiting a permeability of about 30% of the diffusion through pure water, a difference that can be ascribed to the porosity and/or tortuosity of the tissue matrix

DESENT: Smart Decision Support System for Urban Energy and Transportation

The focus of this paper is on the DESENT project, which aims to develop, test and disseminate a comprehensive decision support system for smart energy and transport in cities. Transport energy consumption modelling, building supply and energy demand tools are combined to provide a common decision support system for appraisal of city-wide energy use. The system will be set up as planning toolbox that consists of several models and tools providing different functionalities to show actual data for energy demand and transport energy demand and furthermore allow to predict the energy demand on building and city level for future planning scenarios. Thus, the relationships between sustainability objectives, transport, spatial design of the built environment and rational use of energy are considered. The paper describes the concept and structure of the planning toolbox and its models and tools developed so far. Furthermore, it outlines methodologies developed and the data acquisition process for the city of Weiz, which serves as one of the pilot cities in the project. Keywords: energy demand prediction, smart city development, transport energy demand, uncertain supply, optimal energy distribution The focus of this paper is on the DESENT project, which aims to develop, test and disseminate a comprehensive decision support system for smart energy and transport in cities. Transport energy consumption modelling, building supply and energy demand tools are combined to provide a common decision support system for appraisal of city-wide energy use. The system will be set up as planning toolbox that consists of several models and tools providing different functionalities to show actual data for energy demand and transport energy demand and furthermore allow to predict the energy demand on building and city level for future planning scenarios. Thus, the relationships between sustainability objectives, transport, spatial design of the built environment and rational use of energy are considered. The paper describes the concept and structure of the planning toolbox and its models and tools developed so far. Furthermore, it outlines methodologies developed and the data acquisition process for the city of Weiz, which serves as one of the pilot cities in the project

¿Algo viejo en lo nuevo?: La vinculación entre China y América latina

Debido a la escasez de recursos que presenta su territorio, la diplomacia china ha encarado un proceso de vinculación externa para establecer la dirección de sus inversiones que puedan ser complementarias a las necesidades de materias primas, petróleo y alimentos. En este sentido se han dirigido las Empresas Estatales (EE) en las áreas estratégicas para la economía china, a través del desarrollo de infraestructura y procesamiento de materias primas en las naciones que no cuentan con los medios para explotarlas. Los recursos naturales que China necesita se pueden clasificar en tres categorías: minerales, energéticos y alimenticios. África (Norte y la costa occidental) se ha erigido como la región fundamental para hacerse de los dos primeros, con fuertes inversiones en varios países del continente y sin los requisitos y pautas que generalmente piden las Instituciones Financieras Internacionales (IFIS). La RPCh. ha logrado desplazar a las inversiones occidentales en varias naciones, consiguiendo el apoyo de estos gobiernos africanos al tiempo que obtienen la desconfianza de los antaño inversores occidentales. Esta política de la Inversión Directa Extranjera (IDE) china sobre África ha sido acompañada con condonaciones de deuda y algunas ayudas en la construcción de edificios públicos que son visibles a la población nativa. De esta manera China va construyendo una imagen positiva en la región. Así el gigante asiático ha impulsado una serie de inversiones a través de sus EE para invertir en aquellos países o regiones que sean complementarios con sus intereses y requerimientos. De esta manera la IDE china ha comenzado a competir con la occidental, ya no sólo en el área de influencia natural de China, como es Asia, sino también en África y América latina.Fil: Nacht, Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Instituto de Estudios Históricos, Económicos, Sociales e Internacionales. Instituto de Investigaciones de Historia Económica y Social; Argentin

A Method for Measuring Desquamation and its Use for Assessing the Effects of Some Common Exfoliants

Desquamation has been measured in the past by a counting chamber technique after corneocytes are removed from the skin surface and disaggregated in a dilute surfactant solution. However, we have found that complete corneocyte disaggregation is not always possible when these aggregates are recovered from sites where patent peeling is induced. Corneocyte counting in such instances is difficult or impossible. We have devised a method of measuring desquamation wherein the desquamating cells are determined as the total alkali-soluble protein after they are removed from the skin surface with an inert, self-hardening gel. Highly reproducible desquamation rates are obtained, characteristic of the individual subject. Using some common exfoliants, we show that pharmacologic response, observed as an increase in desquamation rate, is also an individual characteristic