The Civic Minded Companion

What's civic language?

2009-07-14T07:46:00.003-06:00

Watching the Sotomayor hearings, I am reminded that there is a vast political lexicon that Senators have at their disposal to signal their ideological differences. It strikes me that active citizens have an equally powerful vocabulary which I call civic language.

What are civic words? Literally, the collection of terms and phrases that express our shared goals as community-builders as well as active citizens.

Our civic language has expanded over time to reflect our evolving ideas about what it means to be good citizens.

The aspirations of today's citizens include commitments to national service, careers in the nonprofit sector, and most recently, the emergence of social entrepreneurs who bridge the public and private spheres to create innovative, large-scale solutions to the world's most urgent needs.

Civic life today is more varied and more exciting than at any time in history. Recognizing our civic lexicon brings us together and mobilizes other people to join us.

--Wendy Bay Lewis

CivicDictionary—Defining a Better World

2009-07-04T09:57:00.000-06:00

Today marks the launch of CivicDictionary.com—Defining a Better World, an online guide to the words and concepts we use to talk about nonprofits, national service, and civic engagement.

You are still subscribed to The CivicMinded Companion and you can still click on CivicMind.com to see the CivicDictionary.

The CivicMinded Companion will send you an update when a new word or phrase is posted at CivicDictionary.com.

More importantly, please post your comments here about new words, definitions, and examples of current usage.

At CivicDictionary.com, you’ll also find quotes from leaders in the social sector, government, and business who are shaping how we use the language of civic engagement. Today’s quote is from The White House forum June 30 honoring social entrepreneurs.

Looking forward to hearing from you. We speak the same language!

--Wendy Bay Lewis, Founder, CivicDictionary.com

Leadership Fellows complete semester

2009-04-24T21:13:00.003-06:00

The first class of Leadership Fellows at Montana State University has given a formal Presentation of their service-learning projects, including, for example, plans for students to serve Homeless Connect in Bozeman, a proposal for a university-wide Minor in Sustainability, advocacy for a Tobacco-Free Campus, a curriculum on sustainability for elementary school students, and a Day of Service coinciding with the Freshmen Convocation each fall.

Teaching leadership

2008-12-24T11:40:00.003-07:00

Beginning January 15, 2009, I will be teaching a class at Montana State University (which I designed) for the new Leadership Fellows Program. In my last entry--April 2008--I wrote about the need to mentor the next generation of leaders for social change. At that time, I had absolutely no idea that I would be so directly involved in finding a solution. The class will use service-learning methodology -- and I'll be blogging about that as the class gets underway.

Making room for young leaders

2008-04-18T10:01:00.003-06:00

Turning 59 has sent me into a spin. I want to be young again. One of my favorite blogs is FLiP – Future Leaders in Philanthropy. The contributors are passionate, entrepreneurial, professional, and most of all: demanding. They have high expectations of themselves and the nonprofit sector. And, they will have more fun that I did!

Our Boomer expectations were too low—way too low. I am not saying we did not aim for high results. But, we thought long hours and low pay were measuring sticks of our integrity and commitment. We thought operating “on a shoestring” was admirable. So did Foundations and Boards, and now that’s proving problematic when organizations recruit successors.

Is there truly a leadership shortage taking place because Boomers are retiring from executive positions? There is no shortage of young people who can lead if they have the right tools and support. Lots of changes are already underway to give them what they need (more professional training, better salaries, more benefits, license to be entrepreneurial). More has to be done and I’ll be blogging on that in the future.

You can read about the life changes I’m experiencing in “My Journey: Looking at Nonprofit Work in a New Way,” Chronicle of Philanthropy. April 17, 2008.

--Wendy Bay Lewis

Town Halls for Nonprofits

2008-03-07T09:54:00.004-07:00

In anticipation of the Nonprofit Congress June 1 - 4 in Washington, DC, statewide nonprofit associations are convening town hall meetings at the local level. Earlier this week, I was part of the town hall meeting convened by the Montana Nonprofit Association in Bozeman. Our discussion focused on three priorities for the Nonprofit Congress:

Organizational effectiveness,
Advocacy for the sector, and
Building public awareness and support for the sector.

The New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits piloted The Primary Project to engage presidential candidates in talking about the nonprofit sector. See the video report.

--Wendy Bay Lewis, CivicMind.com

Even lawyers do national service

2008-02-21T11:12:00.004-07:00

Broadly defined, national service could be any employment for the public good. In fact, it could include all of us in the nonprofit sector. However, national service is more often narrowly defined as a formal program in which participants work on community development, or teach, or serve in the military, usually for a year or more for nominal pay and sometimes in exchange for a small amount of funds toward college tuition. National service also comes with prestige.

One of the jobs I have not seen described as national service is Legal Aid Lawyer. Does national service assume an employment commitment for a limited period of time rather than a career choice for low pay? In an e-newsletter I received yesterday from the Legal Services Corporation, legislation has been passed by Congress for a loan repayment program for legal aid lawyers. The U.S. Department of Education would be required to “provide loan repayments of up to $6,000 a year—$40,000 for a lifetime—to full-time civil legal aid lawyers who agree to remain employed as such for no less than three years.” The U.S. House and Senate still need to reconcile different versions of the legislation and send it to the President.

The Legal Services Corporation was created by Congress in 1974 “to promote equal access to justice and provide civil legal assistance to low-income Americans.” Legal aid serves Americans who fall at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty level, about $25,000 a year for a family of four. For the 50 million Americans who are eligible for services, more than 50 percent go unserved because of the limited capacity of legal aid offices.

Does a 3-year commitment and a loan repayment option mean that legal aid lawyers are performing national service? Without those provisos, are they just low-paid do-good lawyers? For some people, national service is a career.

A table of contents for social change

2008-02-14T08:48:00.003-07:00

This week I wrote a Table of Contents for The CivicMinded Companion, a dictionary for nonprofit and philanthropic professionals as well as everyday citizens. I hope The Companion will be a book that nonprofit executives can give to their Board members, young people will use to plan socially-meaningful careers, and Baby Boomers will read to learn how they can choose volunteerism or engaged philanthropy over retirement.

The book has four sections, each with two or three chapters. The opening section--Serving--will cover community service, service-learning and nonprofit essentials. The second section, on civic engagement, will inventory concepts like “public policy” and “transparency.” Section three, called One Nation/One Planet, will catalog the concerns that motivate, mobilize, and empower us, such as civil rights and environmental justice. The final section--Giving--is devoted to the philanthropic and business sectors, with special attention to new terms like social investing and venture philanthropy. At the end or along the way, I plan to include sidebars about historical and contemporary leaders for social change.

I know the Table of Contents will change as I write the book and I would appreciate hearing your suggestions.

Invest in leaders as well as projects

2007-12-03T09:30:00.002-07:00

Foundations often seem separated from nonprofits by a moat. Each side communicates with the other when the drawbridge is down during a grant cycle. In contrast, Susan and Albert Wells, founders of the Windcall Resident Program for social justice leaders, built a footbridge for their private philanthropy. Over the course of 17 years, between 1989 and 2005, they welcomed 400 activists to their Montana ranch for two weeks of reflection and renewal. Susan tells the story of Windcall in her just-published book, Changing Course: Windcall and the Art of Renewal with Seven Profiles by Sally Lehrman (Heyday Books, Berkeley).

Although I have known Susan and Albie for 20 years, I learned much more about the Windcall Program from Susan’s book than either of them ever told me. Windcall alumni are community activists and organizers who work in low-income, usually urban communities and, prior to their mini-sabbatical at Windcall, rarely took time for themselves, much less vacations. As a direct result of their intense work, they suffered debilitating burnout and came to Windcall for a two-week respite. As Susan explains in her own words and those of the residents, they regained their equilibrium through experiences as varied as horseback riding, throwing clay pots, hiking, and writing poetry.

For the first time in their lives, these community nurturers were nurtured – by their hosts, by nature, and by each other. When they returned to work, they took their Windcall experience with them. As one Windcall alum told me, the program is transformative because Residents extend the lesson they have learned to their organizations, colleagues, friends, and families.

Burnout is a serious threat to leadership in the nonprofit sector. A survey conducted by the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network found nearly half of respondents intend to leave the nonprofit sector (some forever) and of those, 90 percent cited burnout “as a likely reason for leaving” followed closely by low salary, lack of career advancement, and job related stress. Stepping Up or Stepping Out: A Report on the Readiness of Next Generation Nonprofit Leaders is available from YNPN as a PDF file.

The nonprofit sector, like society as a whole, has embraced a work ethic based on “productivity and efficiency” which, in Susan’s words, “are antithetical to the very essence of social justice work.” She calls on funding institutions to take a longer view, beyond project performance, and “affirm the important relationship between healthy individuals, healthy organizations, and high-quality, enduring progress."

Philanthropy is not just a word

2007-11-20T09:11:00.002-07:00

Over the past several months, I have collected about 200 words, names, and phrases for a lexicon that I think knits together civic, nonprofit, and philanthropic communities. Terms include everything and everyone from Bono, the rocker fighting poverty, to Yunus, the Nobel Laureate who created micro-lending. Now that I’m in the process of drafting definitions, I realize that words like philanthropy have an emotional power that exceeds what a simple definition can convey. Two examples landed on my desktop last week.

The Wall Street Journal and USA Today ran compelling stories on November 15 about the intersection of philanthropy, higher education, and economically disadvantaged students. The WSJ profiled a “nonprofit start-up in Palo Alto” called QuestBridge and several other organizations that help low-income students attend prestigious colleges (Matching Top Colleges, Low-Income Students).

USA Today ran a front-page story on The Fund for Veterans’ Education and similar programs modeled after the GI Bill to assist Iraq-war veterans with college tuition (College-bound GIs get extra help).

In both of these articles, individual funders were an integral part of the story because they were rich and well-intentioned. The new chief executive of QuestBridge, employed without pay, is “one of the multimillionaires” who left Yahoo; the founder of The Fund for Veterans’ Education is a “billionaire financier” who made an initial gift of $4 million; and a substantial donor to veterans’ scholarships is the “son of billionaire George Soros.” The emphasis on their monetary donations seems simplistic. True, they are philanthropists. But more than that, as these stories demonstrated, they want to remedy deep educational and economic inequities that nag at their social consciences. I would call them social justice philanthropists.

WSJ reporter Jim Carlton quoted the founder of QuestBridge, physician Michael McCullough, as follows: “We hope that in 10 years we’ll have added a new generation of talented and thoughtful minds to American leadership, drawn from the lowest economic spectrum.” In addition, as the article pointed out, universities benefit from admitting QuestBridge students by “increasing the diversity of their student bodies without relying solely on race.”

Reporting for USA Today, Mary Beth Marklein quoted Jonathan Soros about why his support reaches beyond scholarship recipients: “Veterans benefit from a liberal arts education, and the community benefits by learning from people of different backgrounds and confronting realities they wouldn't otherwise directly encounter.”

Philanthropy is not one size fits all. Phrases like “venture philanthropy” and “engaged philanthropy” have come into usage to describe strategies where donors take an active role in the organizations they fund. Perhaps “social justice philanthropist” might be used to describe donors, whether traditional or engaged, whose focus is economic, social, and environmental justice. Isn't philanthropy a tool for social change?

A rising tide lifts all the boats.

2007-11-08T17:57:00.001-07:00

My research this past week focused on the common good and I got help from Congress. The House and Senate wielded their override power to circumvent the President’s veto and pass legislation to benefit the nation as a whole. The mammoth Water Resources Development Act authorizes $23 billion for water projects including everything from restoring the Florida Everglades and the Gulf Coast areas hit by Hurricane Katrina to sewage plants, dams, and beaches.

According to the New York Times, “Some critics said that the measure did not do enough to reform the Army Corps of Engineers, which would handle much of the work; that there is already a huge backlog of water-related projects waiting for money; and that the current bill was larded with political pork.”

Forty-five years ago, upon approval of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project in Pueblo, Colorado, President John F. Kennedy had a much different outlook. He said, “A rising tide lifts all the boats.” Therefore, progress in Colorado is progress for the nation. “We are not 50 countries—we are one country of 50 States and one people. And I believe that those programs which make life better for some of our people will make life better for all of our people.”

He then called on Congress to write “a conservation record second to none,” to add three national seashore areas to the National Park System (Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Point Reyes in California, and Padre Island off the Texas coast) and enact “an open space program for our cities; a significant wilderness bill; and youth employment opportunities which would authorize a youth conservation corps.”

Kennedy recognized that truly beneficial programs have "significance" beyond their specific location, their immediate constituencies, and their moment in time. For him, the common good was a very expansive concept. I'm trying to capture that momentum in a definition. So far, I have a working draft.

Social justice and 49 other words

2007-10-29T14:54:00.001-06:00

I’m working on my 2008 New Year’s resolution now because I’m going to need a head start, and besides, there are only 9 weeks left until the end of 2007. So here it is. I want to identify and write essay-style definitions for the 50 most-frequently used words that tie together those of us working toward social change. First, I’ll have to decide whether “social change” is in fact the ideal that brings us together in this so-called nonprofit slash philanthropic slash social benefit sector. Words are so slippery!

It may take me several more weeks to define social change or find a more suitable phrase. I don’t want to replace social change with something glib, like “making the world a better place.” That defeats the purpose of defining the words we share. I want our lexicon to be sharper, not muddier, and inspiring, not tired.

Last week I attempted a succinct definition of social justice (equal and fair treatment for all people regardless of race, ethnicity or economic status). I thought I could work my way back to social change once I understood social justice. The short definition serves its purpose, but it fails to communicate the emotional power of an ideal like social justice.

I kept reading and rereading a Haitian proverb about justice quoted in Mountains Beyond Mountains, the story of Dr. Paul Farmer and his campaign to bring quality health care to the world’s poorest people. His organization, Partners in Health, is celebrating its 20th year.

The Haitian saying is, “God gives but doesn’t share.” Author Tracy Kidder quotes Farmer’s explanation: "God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he’s not the one who’s supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge is laid upon us."

Is that the charge we have laid upon ourselves? Are we redistributing wealth, health care, housing, food, clean air, and even justice itself so that society is more equitable? The work of social justice requires social change; but not all social change requires social justice. Or, does it?

Why fundraising is civic-minded

2007-10-15T15:27:00.001-06:00

People often tell me they could “never be a fundraiser because they could never ask for money.” Me, too. I never ask for money. I ask people to join a group of folks who are passionate about an organization or a cause that is enriching their lives. When I am extolling the benefits of supporting a science school, sending the high school marching band to the Rose Bowl, or cleaning up a toxic waste dump, I am recruiting and mobilizing people to engage in community-building. What’s more civic-minded than that? Maybe that’s why I lost my fear of fundraising a long time ago.

To check my gut on this one, I decided to surf the Internet for organizations whose sole mission is to raise money for public entities like schools, libraries, and national parks. I was curious whether their mission statements would be dedicated to “acquiring support in the private sector” or “matching public needs with private funding.” Lo and behold, their mission statements demonstrated a dual purpose: raising money AND “increasing public awareness” or “advocating for public education” or “broadening and diversifying citizen involvement.” So, fundraising is civic-minded. What a relief.

Robert Reich's definition of charity

2007-10-07T12:00:00.001-06:00

In a succinct Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times on October 1, scholar Robert Reich made two scary arguments. First, he suggested that universities, cultural institutions, and organizations that do not directly benefit the poor “are not real charities” because they primarily benefit the wealthy. Second, he proposed changing the tax code so that donors who support “cultural palaces” like museums, Ivy League schools, and symphony halls would be able to deduct only half the amount of their contributions.

I have been a fan of Robert Reich since I read his book, The Work of Nations, 15 years ago, so I’m wondering what he is thinking. Perhaps Professor Reich is trying to ignite a debate about authentic philanthropy. Possibly he wants donors’ motivations to be based on pure generosity rather than the reflected prestige of high culture. Maybe he really wants to change tax policy to shift donations to poverty organizations that now receive, he said, “only an estimated 10 percent of all charitable deductions.”

Call me biased. I have been raising money for as long as I have been serving the nonprofit sector as a volunteer, donor, and paid staff. Tax-deductibility is a HUGE incentive for donors, even if it’s irrational, and reducing it would hurt every nonprofit organization. All donors like recognition and few get to name a building. So, a tax-deduction gives them something tangible. Oh, how many times I have labored over the “thank you” letter to the donor who wants the tax-deductibility clause edited for clarity! All those calls when April comes around….

If there is any tax policy that could increase donors’ charitable impulses, I support it. If there is a definition of charity as broad as “making my community, country, and world a better place,” I endorse it.

Reich has me engaged. I’ll have to read his new book, Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy and Everyday Life.

An 11th point for TIME's National Service plan

2007-09-09T12:38:00.001-06:00

TIME magazine’s recent cover story on national service proposed an impressive 10-point plan for implementation—which I applaud. But, I would add one more point: Increase the viability of the nonprofit sector to effectively utilize national service participants. Young people who enter existing national service programs, or join the proposed Education Corps or Green Corps, are not self-directed. They serve under the auspices of a community-based nonprofit organization (or school or public entity). To be effective, they need to be integral to a local organization’s mission, not just a free-roaming agent.

With regard to costs, TIME’s article follows the current model which assumes federal underwriting augmented by contributions from the business sector. But what about the financial burden on nonprofit organizations that utilize national service members? These young people are neither free nor experienced. They bring talent and energy, but they require training, supervision, and sometimes, matching dollars. Simultaneously with expanding national service, it is imperative to support the nonprofit sector that will host them. There are lots of ways to build support, whether through government programs or philanthropy or new models for public-private collaboration.

Nonprofits are today's new media outlets

2007-07-30T10:04:00.001-06:00

With the decline of newspapers and growing skepticism about the credibility of mainstream media, many people are wondering where citizens will turn for information to inform their civic participation. Aren't nonprofit organizations already filling some of the gaps? For example, if I want to understand the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions, I'm likely to get what I need (electronically or in print) from organizations that watchdog issues like women's rights, capital punishment, and the environment. Public education may be the biggest growth area for nonprofits in the future.

Call to national service is bottom up

2007-07-19T09:30:00.001-06:00

Several candidates for President--most recently Sen. Chris Dodd--are calling for an expansion of national service programs (primarily AmeriCorps). That's a great idea and it follows a long tradition of calls to service from presidents, Dr. Martin Luther King, and others. But today's drumbeat for service is as much bottom up as top down and it is fueled as much or more by the nonprofit and private sectors as the public sector.

Two examples come to mind. First, Teach for America is a 10-year-old national organization which recruits recent college grads to teach for two years in underserved communities and make a lifelong commitment to addressing educational inequity. Second, next week's Nonprofit 20/20 Conference calls on nonprofit leaders between the ages of 21 and 40 to meet the urgent need for twice as many leaders in the next decade.

Clearly we need to think of national service in very broad terms--including, for example, military service as many have advocated--and also as a continuum of service that lasts beyond short-term participation.

When are good citizens called activists?

2007-07-13T09:33:00.001-06:00

How do you know whether you are an activist? For a long time, I resisted and resented being labeled as an activist when I was fulfilling what I thought were basic responsibilities and prerogatives of citizenship, like joining environmental organizations, displaying yard signs for candidates I supported, and calling my Congressional office. What distinguishes an activist from an informed or engaged citizen?

Bill Clinton's book on Giving

2007-07-10T10:44:00.001-06:00

Wearing hats as an author, activist, and philanthropist, Bill Clinton will be going on a book tour in September to promote his forthcoming book, GIVING: How Each of Us Can Change the World. According to Publisher's Weekly, his book profiles "charitable work done by the famous and not-so-famous."

Learn to "go big or go home"

2007-07-08T18:15:00.002-06:00

If you're looking for a good read that inspires you AND provides concrete ideas for growing your nonprofit organization, I recommend John Wood's Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children. My favorite expression, which John learned at Microsoft, and which applies in the nonprofit sector: "Go big or go home."

"Stretch gifts" show civic passion and pride

2007-07-08T13:29:00.001-06:00

News stories about philanthropy used to be dull. But ever since Warren Buffet teamed up with Bill Gates, there is more interest and more energy in tales about unusual charitable gifts. Last Friday's Wall Street Journal (7/6/07) ran a great article by Sally Beatty (on the front page of Weekend Journal) about "stretch gifts" or very large charitable donations that nearly exceed the donor's financial resources. Experience has shown me never to under-estimate the passion of potential donors.