New COF Report on Leadership

Listen up, future leaders.  We've got a must-read for you about a topic none other than philanthropic leadership.  The Council on Foundations recently released their Career Pathways to Philanthropic Leadership 2009 Baseline Report, which examines the characteristics of foundation and grantmaking executives appointed during a five-year period (2004-2008).  The report looks at how the philanthropic sector chooses its leaders and what leaders themselves say about the process.  The report is part of the Council's broader initiative, Career Pathways to Philanthropic Leadership, which focuses on inclusive practices in philanthropic leadership, talent acquisition, and management.

Microsoft Launches "7 Ways to Change the World"

Today at the Business for Social Responsibility Conference in San Francisco, Pamela Passman, corporate vice president of Microsoft Global Corporate Affairs, announced “7 Ways to Change the World,” a new online competition to celebrate the general availability of Windows 7 tomorrow, and the power of technology to help change the world.

The competition challenges people to share their idea about how a new PC could help a nonprofit, school or non-governmental organization (NGO) to make an even greater impact in the world. People can submit a short video explaining or illustrating their suggestion at www.7waystochangetheworld.com. The 7 people with the best submissions, as chosen by the judges, will each win a new PC running Windows 7. Each winner's chosen community organization will receive a $7,000 grant from Microsoft.

Winners will be announced beginning Nov 16. More information is available by:
• Visiting the competition website: http://www.7waystochangetheworld.com
• Following the latest news on the competition via Twitter and Facebook

Also, Microsoft is announcing a special opportunity for non-profit organizations and NGOs to request donations of Windows 7 upgrades at http://www.techsoup.org/go/windows7.

The competition and the program with TechSoup are two of many initiatives Microsoft has to provide NGOs with access to software, knowledge, and best practices. For more information on how Microsoft believes technology can transform the ability for NGOs to advance social and economic opportunity, please see the recently published whitepaper: Technology to Advance Social and Economic Development.

buildOn New York

Perhaps you've seen coverage on NBC's Today Show about the remarkable work of buildOn, a national organization that empowers American students, primarily in urban areas, not only to volunteer in their communities but also to help eradicate illiteracy and poverty internationally by building schools. Learn more about buildOn here.

On November 11th, the leadership committee of the New York chapter is hosting its first annual fundraiser in support of this effort.

Clearly, we're a fan. It's an open invite to all FLiPs. We hope you can join in!

Our Compliments to the Chefs

Enjoying a Le Cordon Bleu student-prepared dinner before taking in a private screening of Julie & Julia?  Who knew philanthropy could be so…delicious! 

And FLiPs who are working on building or implementing volunteer programs at your organizations, take note; be inspired by this creative example: Career Education Corporation launched its new partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) with the special Le Cordon Bleu promotion, of which RMHC was the beneficiary. In Columbia Pictures’ Julie & Julia, Julia Child attends and graduates from Le Cordon Bleu Paris before becoming a culinary icon for professional and home cooks.  Fourteen of  the Le Cordon Bleu schools in the U.S., owned by Career Education Corporation, celebrated the film’s release with an exclusive “Dinner and a Movie” series. On Aug. 5, Le Cordon Bleu students created and served a special movie-inspired menu.  Each dinner guest also attended a private screening of the movie in his or her area.  More than $13,000 was raised and donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities.

But the partnership only begins there.  Employees, faculty and students at Career Education Corporation’s headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill., and 68 ground and three online institutions in the U.S. will make monetary and in-kind donations and provide volunteer services to support global and local RMHC operations and programs.  Career Education Corporation’s more than 90,000 students and 12,000 employees in the U.S. represent a substantial volunteer workforce to support RMHC and the nearly 3.7 million children worldwide it serves every year.  The company has established a number of programs with its schools to facilitate relationships and generate monetary donations for individual Houses across the U.S.

For more information on RMHC, please visit www.rmhc.org. For more information on Career Education Corporation, please see the company’s website at www.careered.com.

Standard Chartered Bank Scores More Goals for Girls

 
 FLiP friend Alisha Fernandez Miranda, who works in Community Investment for Standard Chartered Bank in London, writes to us with good news.  Standard Chartered Bank has committed to a large scale expansion of its Goal programme, aiming to empower 100,000 adolescent girls over the next four years. Goal will bring its combination of sport training and life skills education to five countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The announcement was made last week by Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered, at the second meeting of the World Bank Private Sector Gender Leaders Forum.  He commented, “Standard Chartered realizes that women are key drivers of economic development in its markets. Goal gives young women in deprived communities the skills and confidence they need to fulfill their full potential and support their families, communities, and economies for years to come.”

The global expansion of Goal will target girls in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Jordan with a training programme including sport, financial literacy, health and hygiene, communication skills and rights. In addition to direct participants, the expansion is expected to reach an estimated 5 million family and community members.

A number of studies have shown a strong return on investment for programmes focused directly on women and girls. In India for example, where Goal began as a pilot in 2006, an estimated $32.6 billion in growth per year is lost due to girls out of school. Further, it’s been shown that when women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families.

Standard Chartered is now in the process of identifying NGO partners with deep local knowledge of their communities to deliver the programme alongside staff volunteers. 

At its core, Goal is about transformation and building self-confidence, empowering girls with limited opportunities in the past to create a better future for themselves and for their families. Congratulations to Alisha and her team on scaling up and scoring more goals for girls!

To learn more about Goal, visit www.goal-girls.com.   

A New Spin on Things: Responding to Increasing Challenges in Microfinance

By Shikha Dalal

On Monday, September 21st, Women’s World Banking, a network of 40 leading microfinance institutions and banks in 29 countries that bring financial products and services to low-income women entrepreneurs, launched the Center for Microfinance Leadership.   MasterCard Foundation, founding sponsor of the Center, provided $3.1 million in funding to jumpstart the effort.  Also among the Center’s partners are The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Creative Metier Limited. 

The Center was founded on the premise that challenges were arising in the microfinance industry which needed to be addressed; among the most pressing include the increase in commercialization, decreased presence of women staff and rapid growth which have all threatened the quality of leadership in the economy today.  In response to these challenges, the Center will provide workshops, coaching and support for CEOs and senior managers of microfinance providers, and develop the skills needed to steer institutions through this period of organizational change.  It will also support high-performing microfinance providers in improving the gender diversity of their leadership team and staff to optimize performance.  

Learn more about Women’s World Banking at http://www.swwb.org/