November 20, 2013
“Efforts to unlock and open ‘big data’ are great and sorely needed in the social sector, but if we can’t make sense of that data—if we can’t connect it with other data and turn it into useful information that is presented to the right people at the right time to help them make better decisions—then it’s all for naught.”
What if we were to take an enterprise view of nonprofit funding? Lori Bartczak, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, takes up the question with a view to building greater capacity for collaboration… The shining examples of collaboration in the nonprofit sector are inspiring. In these stories, a range of diverse stakeholders rally around a common vision […]
November 19, 2013
Talia Milgrom-Elcott, Carnegie Corporation of New York… “In the last eleven months, Harvard Business Review has featured a special collection on collaboration, with more than two dozen articles, published a book with the ten top “must-reads” on the subject, and highlighted the topic in at least three other posts and articles. Fast Company just posted […]
November 18, 2013
Markets for Good is an effort to improve the system for generating, sharing, and acting upon data and information in the social sector. Our vision is of a social sector powered by information. Our practice is open conversation with you, our audience. To date, we’ve covered many topics on our blog including: Beneficiary Insights, Open […]
November 13, 2013
Technical development of the first Basic Registry of Identified Global Entities (BRIDGE) release is currently about a half-way to completion. If you have been following the project you will know that BRIDGE aims to revolutionize data interoperability in the global social sector by uniquely identifying all the world’s NGOs in one database. Read on to […]
November 12, 2013
It’s easy to be blinded by the potential of the assets in a collaboration. You might hear, “Wow, look at what we’re all bringing to the table!” before, in fact, anything has actually been brought to the table. Dedicating the resources that fully support the daily work and desired outcomes is action. A vision to […]
November 7, 2013
We expect a lot out of technology these days. How can we use it to foster better collaboration among funders? It’s not just a question of staying current. That’s a given. It’s about quickly assimilating tools and then getting on with building things. But, first, what do we mean by collaboration? What kind of tools […]
November 5, 2013
Of course, bumping into something counterintuitive in your work (particularly in the realm of what seems mundane), expands the range of solutions, if only by clearing new paths of thought. A welcome serendipity. But, in confronting systemic or intractable problems, active awareness for unexpected or neglected ways to solve them is part of the job. […]
November 4, 2013
I hope we have your attention. (Disco ball??) This month’s theme – Collaboration – is not an easy one. Thanks to many years of the sharpest minds studying how we can better work together, we might be prone to think we understand it. But, simply understanding collaboration is itself a problem if practice lags behind. […]
November 1, 2013
Collaborations and consolidations are natural attractions – for a moment. Early reporting on them focuses, understandbly, on strategic value – synthesis, synergies, efficiency, etc. But I’ll hazard that novelty is often the real attraction, given nanosecond digital attention spans that can make significant infrastructural moves seem like ripples in the water. It’s the nature of […]
