While we often assert that Nonprofit Centers are valuable assets to the communities they serve, the tragedy in Japan has reminded us just how true that is. The Sendai Miyagi NPO Center in Sendai, Japan is located in one of the epicenters of the devastating earthquake. In its aftermath, the NPO Center has become a de facto lifeline for that ravaged community. As you can see from their web site, the Center is serving as a critical resource to help people find lost loved ones, access basic social services, and coordinate the...
Business 3.0 – Not Business as Usual
Saturday, April 2, 2011
10:00AM 5:00PM
Palace of Fine Arts Theater
3301 Lyon Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
To receive a 10% on tickets for TEDxPresidio, click here and enter the password: partner2011.
In 2007 a group of Carbondale, Colorado residents had a vision that an empty elementary school building could become a dynamic community resource filled with artist studios, social service offices, and meeting space for organizations, businesses, neighborhood groups and environmentalists of all kinds. With the town's vision and ongoing support, a broad partnership grew that included a local developer, an architect, a community development corporation, a local bank, and a social entrepreneurship fund. Rather than start from scratch, this group decided to see if anyone else had tried this idea and what they could learn from them.
Tides is pleased to participate in the 2010 Community Foundations Fall Conference in Charlotte, NC. Be sure to check out one of two sessions where Tides will present on innovative shared space and services for nonprofits, and stop by Exhibit hall Booth #401 to say hello! We hope to see you in Charlotte.
"Running the business of this thing called 'Justice' is extremely difficult," proclaimed Lateefah Simon, Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights during her panel discussion at the Craigslist Nonprofit Boot Camp this past Saturday. I had the opportunity – as did many local nonprofit supporters, professionals, and entrepreneurs – to see her and a mixture of other social justice and community leaders at this convening. The day was themed around "Empowering Communities." I went to get a pulse on what these leaders and our communities are working on, talking about and thinking about. From the people I engaged with and the workshops I attended, I concluded that the buzz words of the day were: community building, social media, and collaboration.
I was asked by the conference organizers to talk about fiscal sponsorship in the context of other infrastructure services provided by Tides. Attendees included heads of federations of nonprofits; representatives of women- or people of color-led organizations; senior leaders of the U.K. equivalent of Independent Sector and the Council on Foundations; and groups providing services on the county and local levels. Although, in fact, fiscal sponsorship does exist in the U.K. on an informal level (as it does in the U.S.), there are no organizations providing comprehensive fiscal sponsorship programs like Tides and Third Sector New England provide in the U.S. Indeed, many attendees had never heard of the concept. So my presentation was well received and my workshops well attended. I'm looking forward to follow up from attendees with Tides and Tides Canada on the viability of this smart, efficient, cost-effective model for the U.K.
I am excited to announce the launch of What's Possible: the Tides Blog – written by and for people interested in creating strong infrastructure for the social change sector. In this sector, what we do (the mission work that gets us up every morning for a vision of a just and equitable world) is interwoven with how we do it (the organizations we create to implement our vision). If we don’t pay attention to the infrastructure we are putting in place to support the work necessary to implement our visions, the lack of strong organizational practices and efforts will ultimately cause us distraction from our work, at best, and at worse, result in the dissolution of the very organizations we have created to do the work.
Tides is a values based, social change platform that leverages individual and institutional leadership and investment to positively impact local and global communities.
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