For the last two weeks, I have been picturing Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner right off the cliff – and in particular I am feeling the moment he looks down and notices the ground beneath him is missing.
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Women of color leaders are guarding a dirty little secret: Our work is eroding our mental, physical, and emotional health.
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As a young executive director, I once flew across the country to meet with a new funder. I had spent weeks preparing for the meeting, in hopes of building a relationship that would lead to ongoing support and dialogue.
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About two years ago, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation launched the Sterling Network NYC as an exploration into the power of networks to catalyze system-level change around economic mobility at the intersection of racial equity.
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Today, the Headwaters Foundation, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, and The Whitman Institute announce the launch of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, a five-year, peer-to-peer funder initiative with the goal of bringing greater vulnerability, transparency, and humility to philanthropy.
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Over the last two years the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation has launched a network, grown our grantmaking, joined several national funding collaboratives, been a founding member of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, created an evaluation system, redecorated our office, brought on new board members, updated our website and started a blog.
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‘Tis the season…to be on the move. It’s that time of year when so many of us travel to be with our families and friends for the holidays.
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One of the core tenets of the Schusterman Fellowship, a program for leaders creating meaningful change in the Jewish community, is that for participants to develop as leaders, they need to feel a deep sense of trust with others in their cohort.
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We’re excited to announce today the newest Sterling Network Fellows. The Sterling Network was launched in October 2017 to build a network of systems leaders, working together to enhance economic mobility across New York City.
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Recently we have been starting our meetings with potential grantee partners by talking about where the Foundation’s money comes from. And a lot of it, you’ll be surprised to learn, has to do with…sewing machines!
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Where we left off in Part 1, I told you about the design of the Flexible Funding Impact Survey (FFIS) LINK used to test where grantee partners invested RSCF general operating grant dollars—and how those investments impacted their organization capacities. Today, I’m diving into our findings. I am pleased to report that…
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I’ll never forget the day I secured my first general operating grant.
I was a young, over-my-head development director for an immigrant rights nonprofit, and yes, we partied hard once we received the news.
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The world is experiencing profound and rapid change. To keep pace with the growing complexity of our planet, the way we work together must change as well.
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What makes for great relationships between funders and their nonprofit partners? We at The Whitman Institute (TWI) have always believed that it starts with respect, authenticity, and honesty across power differentials in ways that build trust over time.
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Hot enough for you? We are having a typical sweaty summer here in New York City – on a recent July weekend the temperature hit 100 both days, and most of my conversations have been about how miserably hot and humid it is, or else about the movies I’ve seen to escape into air-conditioned darkness.
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Tell us a bit about your professional background, and what led you to Fund the People.
Rusty Stahl (RS): I came into the field through a year-long fellowship at Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy. Ever since that experience, I’ve been thinking about how the sector could do a better job of increasing awareness and recruitment of diverse young Americans into nonprofit careers.
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I received an excellent lesson in humility a few years ago.
I was excited when a colleague told me about her idea for a grant program to help retiring baby boomer executive directors of nonprofits transition out of their roles and into consulting positions at other nonprofits. I thought this was genius.
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About two years ago, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation had a chance to rethink both what we do and how we do it. We adjusted our giving programs—painfully letting go of important issues and organizations with the belief that we could do more for New York City with a more focused giving strategy.
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Here at the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation we support leadership development as an equity strategy. It is work that I believe in deeply, but at the same time – in my understanding of leadership development, it has become more and more clear to me that not everyone should be a leader.
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I’m happy to announce that there’s a new New York City Leadership and Professional Development Directory.When I began writing this blog post to share the news, I wasn’t sure where I would begin—but ultimately decided to tell my story first.
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