[Review of] Craig Storti. Incident at Bitter Creek: The Story of the Rock Springs Chinese Massacre

In September 1885 a petty dispute among Euro-American and Chinese Union Pacific miners in Wyoming exploded into a homicidal spree which left twenty-five confirmed dead Chinese miners, and another twenty-six missing and presumed dead. In the weeks and months which followed, other Chinese miners and laborers were robbed, killed, or hounded out of the United States. Some of the parties responsible for these atrocities were arrested and brought to trial, but juries found no one guilty of these genocidal crimes. Many local, state, territorial, military, and federal government officials made good-faith efforts to protect the Chinese, but their efforts primarily hastened the exodus of the Chinese contract workers from American shores; for protection usually meant little more than safe passage away from the danger areas, and most of the western US was a dangerous area for Chinese nationals after Rock Springs. Craig Storti\u27s brief account of these events revives long dormant, shameful memories of an era in American history when racial and ethnic prejudices ran unchecked and labor unrest all too easily led to homicide

Collective Impact

Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations. Substantially greater progress could be made in alleviating many of our most serious and complex social problems if nonprofits, governments, businesses, and the public were brought together around a common agenda to create collective impact. Published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011

Allocating Resources in a Time of Scarcity

In response to declining investment returns, many foundations are implementing across-the-board cuts for grantees. This 2002 article argues, that there is a better approach. Particularly in tough times foundations should concentrate their giving in those areas in which their expertise, relationships, and grantees create the greatest value. It also makes the case that foundation-level, rather than grant-level, evaluation is the way to identify those areas with the greatest potential for social impact

Suspension and Debarment in the U.S. Government: Comparative Lessons for the EU’s Next Steps in Procurement

Governments may exclude vendors from procurement awards for many reasons, including poor performance and corruption. Excluding a vendor, whether from a particular procurement (deciding that the vendor is not qualified for award) or from an entire procurement system (suspending or debarring the vendor), calls for a complex assessment of the performance and reputational risks posed by that vendor, and of the costs of exclusion. As the EU’s Member States shape their exclusion systems consistent with the EU’s procurement directives, the Member States may wish to draw on U.S. strategies for managing risks in contractor qualification: requiring that contractors establish strong internal controls, centralizing the management of vendor exclusions, and using administrative agreements and independent monitors which allow agencies to mitigate risks even as they, and their vendors, avoid the disruption that suspension and debarment may cause. These U.S. strategies align well with the EU procurement directives, and in many cases reflect a natural extension of strategies that EU Member States are already using to address the risks posed by bad or corrupt contractors

Effectiveness of Human Hair, BGR, and a Mixture of Blood Meal and Peppercorns in Reducing Deer Damage to Young Apple Trees

We evaluated the ability of three repellents [human hair, Big Game Repellent (BGR), and a mixture of blood meal and peppercorns] to reduce deer damage on young apple trees in two Connecticut orchards. Most of the deer damage consisted of winter browsing on dormant apple buds. Little browsing occurred on leaves or buds during the growing season and only a few cases of pre-rut rubbing of trees were observed. In one orchard, buds were browsed during the winter on 52% of the untreated control trees, 45% of the trees sprayed with BGR, and 40% of the trees containing a hair ball. By winter\u27s end, the severity of deer browsing (number of buds browsed per tree) was significantly less on trees with hair balls (0.5) than on control trees (1.1), but there was no significant difference between control trees and BGR-treated trees (0.8). In two fields at another apple orchard, deer browsed 83% and 89% of the control trees, 61% of the trees containing a hair ball and 55% of the trees with a bag of blood meal and peppercorns. The differences between the control and the treated trees were statistically significant. The number of browsed buds per tree was also significantly higher on control trees (2.9) than on trees with hair balls (1.1) or trees with bags containing a mixture of blood meal and peppercorns (1.2)

Strengthening Community Foundations - Redefining the Opportunities

Commissioned by the Council on Foundations and released in October 2003, this white paper details the findings and the implications of our study of costs and revenues at nine community foundations. Offering a new perspective for community foundation sustainability, the white paper proposes that community foundations examine their strategy and operations on a product-by-product basis, taking into account their mission-driven priorities, internal costs, customer preferences and the competing donor alternatives for each type of product or service they offer

Leading Boldly: Foundations Can Move Past Traditional Approaches to Create Social Change Through Imaginative -- Even Controversial -- Leadership

Rarely do foundations publicly communicate their dissatisfaction with their grantees, withhold funds, or use tactics that carry the risks of creating ill will. Yet extraordinary results can be achieved if foundations were more imaginative, visible, and controversial. Three foundations shocked the city of Pittsburgh in 2002 by abruptly suspending their funding to local public schools. The foundations announced their decision in a news conference that attracted both local and national coverage -- a sharp departure from their usual approach of working quietly behind the scenes. Foundation executives explained that they had completely lost confidence in the ability of the local school board to run the district. Their action yielded a community-wide process that led to real change. Here's how foundations can exercise Adaptive Leadership without misusing authority