Philanthropy, 2020 - Post # 3

As foundation leaders, what will be the greatest opportunities and the most daunting challenges in the decade ahead? The January 14, 2010 issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy decides to take an educated guess. This is the last post on the topic.

Increase in Charitable Business

For profit companies and nonprofit organizations currently occupy two ends of the spectrum. What about the middle? This article predicts that by 2020, many more hybrid entities like L3C's (low-income limited liabilty companies) will be the rule and not the exception. The millenials are already questioning the status quo. Will they succeed in driving corporate culture away from the single mindedness of shareholder value towards a lower-profit, more socially conscious model of operation? The authors of this article certainly think so. It is a simple matter of following the current trend lines.

In other words, some charities will become more business like, and some businesses will become more charity like. The lines between the two will blur. And the result for nonprofits? Despite their favorable tax status, they will no longer entirely own the charity space.

Philanthropy, 2020 - Post # 2

As foundation leaders, what will be the greatest opportunities and the most daunting challenges in the decade ahead?  The January 14, 2010 issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy decides to take an educated guess. This is the second of three posts on the topic.

Technology Gets More Interactive

What will be the impact of technology on the nonprofit sector in the next decade? This article in the January 14 issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy tries to envision this.

According to some United Nations research, 6.3 billion people, or a whopping 83% of earth’s population, will own a cell phone by 2014. This ever increasing connectivity and resulting networking and access to information will certainly modify the nonprofit world’s fundraising activities, communications with donors, and program evaluations. It will also enable donors to better understand how their dollars were spent.

Of course, there’s a predicted downside as well. There will be increased competition from other entities who will find it increasingly easy to attract resources to their causes.

I personally enjoy the challenge of staying on top of our technology communications game. But technology is just a tool. Like community foundations everywhere, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia works hard to more deeply understand the needs of our community and focus philanthropy on them. It is our primary purpose. If we do that job well, then the technology tools we choose to communicate the resulting knowledge is just a question of organizational process.

Philanthropy, 2020

As foundation leaders, what will be the greatest opportunities and the most daunting challenges in the decade ahead? The January 14, 2010 issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy takes an educated guess at this using known demographic data. This is the first of three posts on the topic.

The Graying of America

Today, 13% of our population is over 65. That percentage will rise to 16% by 2020. The graying of America will continue to present both opportunities and challenges.

First, the opportunities:
1. The over 65 population in the next decade is going to offer quite an impressive cache of skills and experience. The volunteer opportunities alone are significant, let alone the part time employment pool.
2. The “explosion” of philanthropic wealth is staggering. The article says that baby boomers will pass on $41 trillion to their heirs before all is said and done!

Next, the challenges:
1. Funding the increased demand for health care services will certainly be a huge challenge.
2. Growing philanthropy to help address multigenerational issues will also be a trend.