The NonProfit Times - July 1, 2008 - (Page 23)

CONFERENCE COVERAGE MARK HRYWNA Diversified Planet Council on Foundations pushes members to drive philanthropy here’s been no shortage of talk about diversity in the foundation world but change can sometimes be much more like turning a battleship rather than flipping a switch. Diversity might have been the topic around much of the Council on Foundations’ annual conference, “Philanthropy’s Vision:A Leadership Summit” in May, but in T practice, it still has a way to go to catch up if a survey of participants is any indication. Urging foundation leaders to prove that they value diversity more than comfort, Council on Foundations (COF) President and CEO Steve Gunderson told the more than 4,000 attendees in National Harbor, Md., to collectively define its work, or it will be defined by others. It ON VOLUNTEERS Continued from page 22 Maybe it’s valid to see what teachers or social workers in one community earn, but volunteer program managers (like volunteers) are active in an incredible range of organizations. The salary budget of a large hospital cannot be compared to a one-office rape crisis center. At the hospital, the volunteer resources director will earn less than the hospital’s CEO, but undoubtedly earns more than the executive director of the rape crisis center; the volunteer manager at the center will, therefore, of course earn less than her/his hospital counterpart. The only real and meaningful compari- son is: “How does the volunteer program manager’s salary compare to the other people on staff in our setting who work at the department head level?” Seeing the problem with external comparisons of salary ought to persuade managers that a similar, internal approach is needed in assessing the accomplishments of volunteers. NPT Susan J. Ellis is president of Energize, a Philadelphia-based training, publishing and consulting firm specializing in volunteerism. She can be reached via email at susan@energizeinc.com. Her Web site is www.energizeinc.com was the first time that all three of the COF’s annual conferences (community foundations, family foundations and grantmakers) got together for a unified event. Philanthropy, which comes from the Greek for “Love for mankind,” must become more of a movement, as governments at all levels are “so polarized that they have become paralyzed,” Gunderson said. “If we don’t believe change is possible, we’re not philanthropists,” said Gunderson, who was followed by six international speakers, each representing different parts of the world. Changes, however, might not come overnight, but instead over time like an evolution. Maxwell King, president of the Heinz Endowments, likened life to a Petri dish. It’s as if scientists are waiting 23 hours and 58 minutes until an astonishing change takes place within that dish. “Such is the history of humans on planet Earth. We’ve overwhelmed the Earth in which we live,” said King. If everyone lived a low to middle-class life, he added, the planet would have evolved exponentially beyond its own capacity. The Earth is expected to stabilize by about year 2200, with a population in excess of 10 billion people, King said. “We’ve shifted from passengers to pilots on the planet. We now have the ability to be good stewards of worlds.” During a lunch plenary, Gara LaMarche, chief executive of Atlantic Philanthropies, moderated a panel discussion about human rights, in commemorating the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, said food security is becoming a human rights issue, as evidenced by food Conference Coverage, page 24 JULY 1, 2008 THE NONPROFIT TIMES www.nptimes.com 23 http://www.energizeinc.com http://www.resource-alliance.org/ifc http://www.resource-alliance.org/ifc http://www.nptimes.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The NonProfit Times - July 1, 2008

The NonProfit Times - July 1, 2008 Time to Let GO Sparks Flying From Blackbaud's Bid For Kintera Holiday Jeer Contents Who...When...Where...How...What? The Wrong Arguments Calendar Measure the Unmeasureable Getting Good Advice We Barely Got to Know You Special Report: Giving USA Shows Bequests, Foundations Boosted Otherwise Flat Giving to 306 Billion Dollars National Benchmarking Nothing Is Forever Diversified Planet Business Briefs NPT Jobs Resource Directory Bridge Map Insert

The NonProfit Times - July 1, 2008

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