Friday Rewind

The Friday Rewind offers a snapshot of PhilanthroNews —  that means news stories, articles, events of note, or information updates — from around our network and throughout the broad world of philanthropy. Whether you take a quick skim of the material or a deep dive through each item we hope to help inform your work and inspire your thinking.

1. “Diversifying Perspectives and Sharing Power at a Family Foundation,” an article from the Stanford Social Innovation review, discusses how having voices from outside the family as independent trustees and advisors has proven a vital step toward sharing power, bringing them closer to the issues and communities they care about, and pushing them to have the most positive impact possible. Bringing non-family members, people with diverse perspectives, and professional advisors into the decision-making fold can help family foundations move past family dynamics, and take greater risks and bolder action toward their missions.
2. Since DAFs provide an excellent entry point into philanthropy, ensuring your DAF holders feel fulfilled can have big returns in the future. This article lists 6 practices that community foundations can use to maximize the impact of donor advised fund programs, including providing donor education, investing for impact, and facilitating personal connections. Read it Here
3. The Center for Effective Philanthropy is currently working on their definition of philanthropic effectiveness and looking for input, feedback, and suggestions. Information regarding how to give this feedback is in the article. What do you think? What do you like? What do you dislike? Is something essential missing? CEP believes that effectiveness requires the following four mutually reinforcing elements.
   • Goals – what you seek to achieve
   • Strategies – the ways in which you work to achieve your goals
   • Implementation – what you do (e.g., “the work”)
   • Performance indicators – how you know you’re doing the work effectively.
4. The Central New York Community Foundation recently announced that it will spend $2 million over four years to help renovate homes, build new housing, conduct lead inspections and train contractors. At least 600 children in Syracuse were poisoned by lead paint last year, according to the Onondaga County Health Department. These toddlers join the generations of older children who have suffered the ill effects of elevated blood levels after ingesting lead paint.
5. New York State senators are offering new steps they feel will help end the heroin and opioid epidemic. The New York State Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction released its annual report on Wednesday, which includes 11 recommendations to use resources to help underserved populations and support systems already in place.
   These recommendations include: Improve the use and collection of data to better identify, investigate, and prosecute high-volume opioid prescribers, Improve access to treatment in rural parts of the state, such as establishing Centers for Excellence on Substance Use Disorder, and Reduce the cost of naloxone and enhance public education and outreach on naloxone use (among others). Read the summary and full report here!

Friday Rewind is published each Friday by NY Funders Alliance staff. To submit a story for the Friday Rewind, please email programs@nyfunders.org.