Do and Learn

I read this just-published Stanford Social Innovation Review article yesterday, written by my friend and longtime colleague Philippe Sion and Catherine Crystal Foster — and I really, really love it.

If you’re a funder, donor, or work in social impact, this piece is a must-read. It’s not long and it’s very good, putting our current moment into focus for funders who feel uncertain but want to act strategically rather than stay stuck.

The authors center on one key idea: Instead of waiting for clarity, funders must “do and learn.” They offer 10 probing questions to break out of inertia by grounding in your why, what, and how. You don’t need to answer all 10 (that would be a lot!), but you could choose a couple to reflect on. The two that popped out for me were:

2) How can you help grantees build capacities that improve their resilience?
7) How can you leverage assets beyond your checkbook?

And of course, I’m wholly in favor of going beyond the minimum 5% payout. The money is needed now — it’s no good to us when, say, democracy is gone. These are wild, volatile, heart-hurting times. But we have an opportunity to think about philanthropy differently, to do things differently. Is there risk? Sure. But we’ll only know if something works if we do and learn.

Take 10 minutes to read the article and let me know what you think. You can read it here.

With love and appreciation,

Sarah

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👏 EVERYONE WANTS TO WORK IN WOMEN’S SPORTS

I’m definitely obsessed with this brand-new job board from TOGETHXR. You can find all the best women’s sports openings — from front-office positions to marketing and operations and more — on this one site. Check it out and pass it along!

💡 DO YOU HAVE AN AWESOME IDEA?

If so, you can seek a grant from The Awesome Foundation. The $1,000 grant is awarded via an extremely fast and simple process; no strings attached. The grantee doesn’t even need to finish the project (which just seems…different?).

Trustees of The Awesome Foundation each contribute $100 a month and meet monthly to read grant applications. Together, they decide whose project is awesome enough to earn the $1,000.

Started in 2009 by a group of students and friends at MIT, The Awesome Foundation now has chapters around the world. You can apply for funding for your awesome project here.

🎨 A COLORFUL JOURNEY ACROSS THE U.S.

Apartment Therapy, in partnership with Benjamin Moore, recently launched the United States of Paint — a map of the U.S. in which every state is assigned a color based on its vibe.

I dig this map for its fun-ness (hey, I’m grasping for alllll the fun these days). What do you think — do you agree with the assigned colors?! 😉

💘 NONPROFIT LOVE

My new favorite tagline is: “We serve the servers.” And it belongs to ToolBank USA, which is getting my nonprofit love today.

ToolBank USA is based in Atlanta with a mission to strengthen local communities through the lending of tools. ToolBank grew out of Community Reinvestment, Inc. in Atlanta, a program that offered no-cost home repair (essentially neighbors helping neighbors). CRI’s tool inventory grew organically as a result of volunteers donating equipment. And then those tools would be borrowed by neighbors, churches, nonprofits — giving rise to the core concept of ToolBank.

ToolBank now has affiliates in Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, Phoenix, and Richmond, with more on the way. Each of these affiliates lends tools to nonprofits for community projects. The organization also operates ToolBank Disaster Services, which offers mobile-lending support in emergencies.

This is one super cool nonprofit with a lot of oomph and impact behind it. Check out all the ways to get involved here!