Creating Shared Value in the Real Estate Industry

Editor's Note: This guest post comes from Colleen Poynton and Anna Ruman at Investing In Communities.

“You gotta spend money to make money.” It’s a familiar phrase, and whether you’re a company spending millions on advertising or a nonprofit paying a full-time grant writer, new income comes at a price.

But what if we replace the word “spend” with “give”? Imagine the resources that would be unleashed if philanthropy became an integral part of profitable commerce, rather than simply an...

The Secret to Going Viral: Harnessing the Kevin Bacon Effect

Editor's Note: This post comes from Darian Rodriguez Heyman, former Executive Director of Craigslist Foundation and the founder of the national Social Media for Nonprofits conference series.

My diligent research has proven that I hear the word “viral” within 42 seconds of talking with any nonprofit interested in marketing their cause online. But what does that mean, anyway, and what’s the key to unleashing the immense word-of-mouth power that is the allure of social media?

As I’ve been traveling around the...

Playing Politics with Women's Health

Editor's Note: This guest post comes from Cecile Richards, President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and is cross-posted on the Huffington Post under the title "The Craziness in Congress."

Republican leaders in Congress just don't get it. At a time when Americans want government focused on jobs and helping families weather the toughest economy in recent memory, they have submitted a budget that guts the nation's birth control funding and eliminates access to cancer screenings for millions of women. They have...

Beyond Politics: Navigating a New Reality

Earlier this month, the Tides Learning Community hosted a call with Greenlining Institute's Samuel Kang and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' Ellen Nissenbaum about the ongoing debt ceiling and deficit reduction talks, and the upcoming deadlines from the joint congressional committee.   In addition to providing historical background and fiscal context, Nissenbaum warned of the dangers of possible outcomes that rely too heavily on spending cuts without generating new revenue.  As Nissenbaum noted, Congress...

Tides Returns to Washington, DC

I have just completed my first week as Vice President of Tides. As I prepared to take on this new role, I received warm welcomes from Tides staff, partners, clients, and others involved in the work of this amazing organization.  But far more important than the welcome I received at Tides, is the welcome that Tides has received here in Washington, DC. Members of Congress, Administration officials, and other power players in our nation’s capital responded alike in asking “What took you so long to get here?”  We’ve...

The Neverending Data Story

Editor's Note: This post was originally written as a guest case study for the NTEN Blog, and we are proud to cross-post it here.

Quantitative and qualitative data are often positioned as opposing or complementary means of documenting impact.

Data reports and personal snapshots are often generated separately, then placed side-by-side with the hope that the juxtaposition of hard metrics with an emotional picture and blurb will resonate with a wide range of people. In other cases, organizations produce statistics...

Be Prepared: Emergency Preparedness is Not an Option

Pauline Vela is the Network Services Manager at Tides.  This post is in commemoration of the UN International Day for Disaster Reduction, October 13.

In 2011 alone, the US has witnessed more than its fair share of natural disasters, from blizzards to heat waves, wild fires, the unexpected earthquake that rocked Virginia, and most recently, the flooding and damage wreaked by Hurricane Irene.  For those of us who have escaped or survived disaster, we are hopefully reminded that it’s time to get our act together and...

Knowing Your Limits: Advocacy in the Age of Twitter

Editor's Note: This blog post comes from Abby Levine, Legal Director of Advocacy Programs at Alliance for Justice.

Right now at Alliance for Justice headquarters, our staff are getting ready to release a new documentary film and a campaign to mobilize our grassroots activists. We’re looking at how to promote the film on YouTube, how to use Twitter to spread our message, how to organize meetings on Facebook, and how to encourage our members to take action via email. It’s a very different campaign than we would...

Why We Support the #OccupyWallStreet Movement

The Zinn Education Project has been promoting the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in actively shaping history for years. I can only imagine how the 99 percent movement will be taught in years to come.

#OccupyWallStreet is clearly a people’s movement. There is a minimal presence of organized labor and it has purposely forgone the sometimes distracting charismatic personalities of many other movements in the making. Understated, organized, and committed are adjectives that...

Tides ECO Initiative Awards $850K to New Voices in Chemicals Policy

Editor's Note: This post was co-written by Catherine Lerza, Senior Consultant and Francisco Martinez, Philanthropic Advisor at Tides.

We are happy to announce that the Tides ECO (Environmental Equity, Community Opportunity) Initiative has awarded  $850,000 to 24 groups for its New Voices in Chemicals Policy program, which aims to support organizations that bring new voices into toxic chemicals policy at the local, state, and national levels.

More than 80,000 chemicals are in use in the United States...