Foundation Grants
Community Vital Signs
About Us
Operating Archetypes Webinar - Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
Foundation: Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Skoll Foundation, California Wellness Foundation
Operating Archetypes is a new resource created by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to help philanthropies and other donors better understand their distinct position in the philanthropy ecosystem. The webinar was moderated by Renee Karibi-Whyte, Senior Vice President of RPA. A Talent Agency is in the business of spotting emerging leaders, often using open competitions to get new ideas into the field. An Underwriter is an insurance company is an underwriter, although they're kind of close to it. There is no philanthropy that works the way a Talent Agency does, although that would be fun to see.
A Campaign Manager partners with other organizations and often the public sector to try and tackle a very big, complicated problem that needs a lot of players. Think Tanks don't just fund experts in a field, they hire experts and bring them into their enterprise. Field Builders look to fill in gaps where things don't even exist. The California Wellness Foundation's mission is to support health and wellness across the state of California. Georgia's organization Humanize works with sustainability and income generation of vulnerable populations in Brazil.
Richard's top three out Operating Archetypes are Campaign Manager, Field Builder, and Venture Catalyst. I think the power of archetypes is it helps you understand both your intention and what it is that you're doing. It's a combination of things, and all the archetypes bring some angle that you've never thought about as a donor in the ecosystem. Richard and Renee ask Georgia and Melissa about whether their teams are equipped to operate in the archetypal mode of Sower and Designer. Georgia: Net weaving helps us to evolve as a group of systematic thinkers on how to do philanthropy in these tough times.
Many of the people that we spoke to talked about transitioning from one kind of archetype to another, as the field they're working in changes. We are moving into a period at Cal Wellness where we're examining our current strategic framework. It's a strategic planning tool I find really valuable. Are we achieving what we intended? What's happening in response to the way that we're behaving in the world?
And what capacities do we need to build out? Thinking about how you assess your internal capacity is a great opportunity for funders for many reasons. One of the innovations that we've seen in the last 10 years is recognizing what Georgia called soft power: influence, convening capacity, voice. Those require a different set of muscles, and skills may be there, but you may need to work inside your organization to develop those muscles.
Read the Entire Article
Selected Foundation News
A customized collection of news from foundations from around the Web.
The Tampa Bay Innovation Center is kicking off its spring accelerator program, and it's got eight startups on its list. Among them: AgWise, which focuses on the climate impact of agriculture's...more
A "first-of-its-kind impact investing network" in the Philippines is putting its money where its mouth is, in the form of collateral-free loans to women-led social and environmental...more
"It is simply not good enough that, for many advisers, their understanding of AI is that information goes into a black box,'magic happens' and something comes out." So said the outgoing director...more
"The future is green, and it's ours to invest in." That's the takeaway from Elysabeth Alfano, CEO of VegTech Invest, who is offering an online course on "Impact Investing with Plant-based...more
"Without actively looking for it, I came across a problem to solve, a powerhouse co-founder and an idea worth pursuing, so I decided to go for it," Alba Forns tellsEquities News. Forns is the...more
It's no secret that Africa's livestock industry plays a big role in the region's economy. In fact, the demand for livestock products is expected to grow by 50% by 2030, notes Business...more
The New Mexico town of El Rito has been named one of America's 10 most livable cities by Time. The honor goes to El Rito for the third year in a row, thanks in large part to the work of its...more
"This research pushed me outside my comfort zone and forced me to interact first-hand with hard truths about what social media is being used for in the modern day," Daisy Rehbock writes in her...more
The CEO of the nation's second-oldest civic monument has been ousted over allegations of financial impropriety at Dallas' Fair Park, the Dallas Morning News reports. On May 1, Brian Luallen...more
Quebec City's Mus ? 'e des beaux-arts du Qu'bec museum is getting a major boost from a single man. Michael Audain, chairman of the Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation, has pledged $10 million toward...more
Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
Social Enterprise: Reaching Out to the Private Sector for Help
John Converse Townsend, a Forbes contributor, shares what can the private sector do for a social enterprise. He encourages social enterprises to reach out to corporations for help to scale up their businesses.