The Talent Agenda

Nonprofits employ 13.5 million people, making the sector the third-largest private workforce in the United States. During the recession, jobs at nonprofits grew by 2% while for-profit jobs declined by 4%. And nonprofits are still hiring. As we grow, nonprofits face increasingly complex management environments and endure ongoing pressure to provide more services to communities in the face of budget cuts.

In Memoriam: Jill Benderly

On January 10^th Jill Benderly, one of our nation’s leading activists in the Baltic region, passed away after a struggle with colon cancer. Benderly was a beloved employee of Tides in the early 90’s and an instrumental part of the team that has developed Tides into the organization it is today. Her death leaves a huge hole in the activist community. She will be missed.

The Center for Care Innovations: An Interview with Jane Stafford

The Center for Care Innovations (CCI) supports California community health centers that provide care for underserved populations. Offering programs and grants in technology, capacity building, leadership and networking, CCI ensures that community health centers are vital partners in building healthier communities. A joint project of Tides and The California Endowment, CCI launched in 1999 initially as a grant-making program and has since grown into a $113 million program.

Budget Breakthroughs: Nonprofit Strategies for Resolving a Funding Crisis

When faced with a funding crisis, you might panic, or ignore it. You might blame others, yourself, or the economy. You might throw yourself into organizing a big event or apply for every grant possible.

Knowing What You Don't Know: A Case Study in Flexible Leadership

The Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund Flexible Leadership Awards (FLA) Program, a Tides Center project, recently released a video case study of our work with the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR). The video highlights the importance—and the impact—of investing in social justice leadership.  The video tells the story of how NCLR, in a very short time, grew from a well-respected but relatively small nonprofit to the forefront of the movement for marriage equality. And it shows how—lacking the time or knowledge to create a broader culture of leadership or a solid structure for decision-making—NCLR leaders Kate Kendell and Shannon Minter felt pressure to do it all themselves.

Why You Need an Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Tides CEO Melissa Bradley participated in a January advisory board meeting of Dell’s recently established Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) program. Led by clean energy entrepreneur Ingrid Vanderveldt, the EIR concept has created a corporate innovation shop inside Dell to foster creativity and new ideas. The concept is distinct from traditional R&D as it focuses on vetting new ideas with a panel of serial entrepreneurs.  In other words, the EIR concept brings external creativity to “R” before moving to “D.”

New Year, New Tides

We are so excited to kick off this year with new and exciting programs and initiatives aimed at better supporting our clients, partners and the field.  Last year Tides spent a great deal of time revising internal systems to support organizational sustainability and improve service delivery to our partners and clients. This year we are poised to continue to offer our current services to donors and activists as well as explore new opportunities to support positive social change.  We look forward to partnering with you to make 2012 a record year for Tides and the communities we serve.

Announcing the 1% Campaign

This month, one of our newest board members, Anne Mosle, kicks off the 1% Campaign.  The campaign is designed to engage Tides donors in support of Tides’ vision for social change. By investing 1% of her DAF back into Tides, Anne is supporting many of the new and exciting programs and initiatives.  Join Anne and other Tides’ donors in this effort by contacting your fund advisor—think of this as the social change 1% that will yield real positive results.

Racial Justice at Tides

It's an exciting time at Tides. Not only do we have a wonderful CEO in Melissa Bradley, who has just completed her first year of service with Tides, we have been building our capacity to build Black donor engagement and increase our support to Black communities. Tides has long been committed to racial justice. This is an important time for Tides to build it's relationships with communities of color broadly.

Fiscal Sponsorship: Proving Potential, Sustaining Impact

Those of us, who care deeply about the nonprofit community, find ourselves working overtime to navigate this period of economic, social, and political uncertainty.  While moments of uncertainty can cultivate confusion, I believe they can also breed a level of clarity and vision that produces tools for sustainable change.  There are significant opportunities to strengthen our sector and deepen the positive impact we make every day in our communities.  It is in this context, that the concept and practice of fiscal sponsorship should be discussed amongst the nonprofit and philanthropic communities—fully embracing the concept will prove to be a wise investment in sustaining and scaling the social sector.