Building Momentum at Tides

Innovation and impact are words that we hear more and more often these days in the nonprofit world.  The truth is, we need more of both in an era of stagnant foundation endowments and besieged individual donors reeling from recession. Yet innovation and impact are imprecise terms that are hard to both qualify and quantify. What distinguishes innovative from interesting?  To jumpstart the conversation, I am delighted to announce the inaugural issue of Momentum, a new quarterly publication of Tides dedicated to advancing thought leadership and action in support of progressive social change.

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.

HIV Response at a Turning Point

This World AIDS Day, we have much to reflect on about our current HIV response. In 2011, a groundbreaking study by the National Institute of Health revealed that HIV treatment called antiretroviral therapy is 96% effective in reducing HIV transmission in couples where one partner has HIV. However, this incredible news has not resulted in increased funding for critical HIV treatment and other services.  As the world looks towards the future of the AIDS response, there is a critical need to enable a new generation of advocacy, activism, and action that can contribute to changing the unacceptable reality of a world in which some people get sick and die, while others access medicine and live.

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.

The Future of Tides

With major political and economic changes around the globe Tides is needed even more than ever before. Therefore, we have a moral, political and economic mandate to be a strong and stable organization to support such important work. We are poised to address these new and difficult challenges of the sector by building on our history with new staff, new ideas, new partners and a new structure.

A Time for Change

It is hard to believe but it has been one year since I came to Tides as Chief Executive Officer. This past year has seen some major changes and we’ve also had some major successes in our efforts to remain sustainable, competitive and innovative.  When I arrived at Tides, 35 years after its founding, the organization was faced with increasing competition, rapidly declining interest rates and systems pressures to update antiquated IT systems. Over the past several months, we have been working diligently to improve client service, create career pathways for staff, expand our geographic focus and improve the overall sustainability of Tides.

Tides Applauds Social Citizen Ambassadors

Tides is pleased to join the Case Foundation in congratulating its inaugural cohort of Social Citizen Ambassadors, ten Millennial generation leaders whose passion and engagement in cross-sector work is truly innovating the social change sector.  As the Case Foundation highlights, all of the Ambassadors demonstrate "an appreciation for openness and transparency, a passion for technology, a strong desire to collaborate in new and innovative ways – and all are having a transformative impact in their respective fields."  We couldn't agree more.

How Do YOU Define American?

Define American, a project of Tides founded by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas dedicated to changing the conversation about immigration, just launched a story feature that enables anyone, anywhere, to share their personal experiences as well as thoughts and beliefs about what it means to be an "American" today. Over 500 stories and definitions have already been submitted by immigrants and their allies, and will be unveiled over the next few days.  As Vargas noted, "I shared my personal story to lay bare the realities and complexities of living as an undocumented immigrant. But I'm just one person; it's just one story."  Take a look at Jose's video:

XL Victory as Keystone XL Pipeline is Delayed

The State Department announced this afternoon that a decision on the proposed pipeline from Canada to Texas, known as Keystone XL, would be delayed until 2013. Reversing what was once seen as inevitable approval for the project, this is a major victory for those concerned with protecting our environment and combating climate change. Many Tides clients, donors, and partners were at the forefront of the nationwide effort to combat the Keystone pipeline and they deserve thanks from all of us for their contributions to this victory.

The Story of Broke

We’re not really broke—our public money has just been hijacked.  Annie Leonard talks about her new film, The Story of Broke, which shines a light on the choices our leaders are making with our money: handing out tax breaks for oil companies reaping record profits; paving public roads that only go to one place—a new Walmart; granting permits to mine public lands at prices set in 1872; cleaning up toxic messes made by giant chemical companies; and offering public funds for corporations building nuclear reactors and other risky ventures.