Beneficence

Hmmmm Moments

It’s been a couple of weeks now since I’ve managed to create a little space to blog. I hated to leave the previous conversations hanging, but there we have it. I also write for pay, and duty called.

Grant McCracken has created a charming trilogy on How to Blog Like an Anthropologist. I have GOT to get a photo of my refrigerator posted here (a good chance to figure out how to sync the digital camera and the blog). But I was most taken with his paean to what I call the Hmmm moment--

In short, the blog entry begins with that little ping of surprise that comes from the stray remark that will not herd, the datum that defies expectation, the observation that does not fit. Most of the time, most of us let this slide. There is no ping of surprise, because we are dumb as posts. Or there is a ping but we don’t do what Sahlins did: stop and ask “what just happened. How did the world just resist my expectations?”

These little pings of surprise, the small moments of “hmmmm,” are what I’m in search of here. Hmmmms can often lead to “whats?!” But if one is fortunate they can also lead to “Ahas!” And in a moment of grace, the hmmm can lead to Silent Awe.

The Vision Thing

Bill Schambra comments on the NCRP's examination of the success of "conservative" philanthropy and delineates some concerns shared by conservatives and progressives in regard to "establishment" philanthropy.

He doesn't tackle the accusations that conservatism and corporate gigantism are happy bedfellows, mutually fueling some massive power takeover, but his observation, quoted below, does make this accusation look rather farfetched, given the comparative giving power of "conservative" and "establishment" foundations:

While conservative grantmakers might be tempted to bask in this lavish praise, doing so would miss the point of these reports. Their real purpose is to shame liberal foundations such as Ford, Rockefeller, and MacArthur—each one of which annually disburses more than the 79 foundations NCRP studied combined—into adopting the techniques described. NCRP and its allies assume that if one could just attach effective conservative methods to liberal purposes—that is, if one made grants for general operating support over many years to groups marshaled behind a coherent liberal vision—the result would be a progressive movement in America every bit as powerful as the one nurtured by conservative foundations.

emphasis mine

Munnecke on Copenhagen

Tom Munnecke has an interesting post that raises issues of problem framing, expert evaluation, and perverse incentive structures in relation to the well-intentioned efforts of the Copenhagen Consensue to define the most pressing world problems. We need to hear more from Tom and his colleagues at Giving Space on these important and largely ignored issues.

Wirearchy

I like the concept of "wirearchy" defined by Jon Husband

The working definition of wirearchy is:

An n-way dynamic flow of power and authority, based on transparency, knowledge, trust, credibility and a focus on results, enabled by interconnected people and technology.

There is much more of interest at Wirearchy, including a great read on self-organizing parties!

I've GOT to learn how to use one of those aggregators so I can keep up with things out there!! Suggestions on the best--read that easiest for a blog neophyte?!

Remembering Reagan

For those following the multitude of reflections on Ronald Reagan's life and times--or not--two recent essays with particular focus on Reagan's much maligned social policy may be of interest.

Bill Schambra reminds us that Reagan challenged the progressive confidence in government as the primary arbiter of social policy and site of national unity:

In “Let the People Rule,” a remarkable but largely forgotten speech delivered to the Executive Club of Chicago in September, 1975, he argued that big government was harmful not only because it dampened individual initiative. It also weakened the local, voluntary institutions within which citizens had traditionally managed their own affairs, according to their own moral and spiritual principles. And so he called for:

An end to giantism, for a return to the human scale – the scale that human beings can understand and cope with; the scale of the local fraternal lodge, the church congregation, the block club, the farm bureau. . . . It is activity on a small, human scale that creates the fabric of community. . . . The human scale nurtures standards of right behavior, a prevailing ethic of what is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable

In the June 10, 04 issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Les Lenkowsky argues that "Ronald Reagan Helped Philanthropy, Despite How Much Nonprofit World Objected to His Policies." Lenkowsky concludes that

At a time of increased questioning of how the nonprofit world works, and proposals for new government regulations (or perhaps even worse, new public-private partnerships), Mr. Reagan's legacy of confidence in the ability of philanthropists and other private organizations, if left to their own devices, to improve American life is as relevant today as it was two decades ago.

Nonprofit Blogs

What's a Blog, and Why Should Nonprofits Care? by Zafar S. Shah. I found this look at the potential usefulness of blogs to not for profit organizations worth the read. Turns out I actually know the work of Wayne Jennings and the IALA , one of the blogs cited! This is encouraging to me, as I believe that the folks pursuing learning alternatives are imagining the schools of the future. They are the visionaries and early adapters who realize that todays schools are largely remnants of the industrial age, ill-suited to the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly digital, global knowledge economy.