E-News

March 2007  

E-Newsletter

This edition of the Hauser Center E-News highlights activities and events from
January - February 2007.
 

Featured Research

Activity Update

People in Action

People in the News

Featured Research

Spotlight on Improving Legal Regulation of the Nonprofit Sector
Since publication in 2004 of her award winning book, Governing Nonprofit Organizations: Federal and State Law and Regulation, Marion Fremont-Smith has been working on several Hauser Center research projects focusing on improving governance and accountability in the nonprofit sector.  She has conducted a survey of the state and federal laws regulating solicitation of funds by charities; has published a paper recommending that the disparate provisions of the Internal Revenue Code regulating private foundation and public charities be integrated; and at the request of the Senate Finance Committee has provided a critique and analysis of far-reaching proposals made by its staff to increase federal regulation of exempt organizations.  She served as co-convener of an Expert Advisory Committee to the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector established by Independent Sector at the request of the Finance Committee to respond to its staff proposals.

Marions on-going research continues to address issues of governance and accountability and ways in which legal regulation of the non-profit sector can be improved.  She addressed the laws governing donor intent and recent legal developments affecting the sector at conferences sponsored by the Center on Philanthropy and the Law at New York University School of Law in 2005 and by the Hauser Center and Harvard Law School in 2006.  At the end of March 2007 she will present a paper at a conference sponsored by Fordham Law School and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts that updates and expands on these two studies. This paper is to be published in the Fordham Law Review later in 2007.  Finally, she is continuing a study of alternative governance structures in various domains of the nonprofit sector, such as academic institutions, hospitals, or social welfare agencies, that might be appropriate for wider adoption throughout the sector.  She is also collaborating with Peter Dobkin Hall on a preliminary study of federated organizations, reviewing their history, legal structure and present day status.  They are preparing case studies of several federated organizations, looking for patterns of governance and trends in performance.  They anticipate expanding this project in collaboration with colleagues at the Hauser Center, as well as with faculty and researchers at Harvard and other institutions throughout the country.
 

Activity Update

People in Action

Alnoor Ebrahim spent a portion of January in India building partnerships with research institutes for a project on Accountability and Representation in Policy Contexts.  The project involves six countries and will build a network of partners that are studying civil society relationships with national governments and international financial institutions on issues of poverty policy.

From January 3-19^th, Marshall Ganz co-taught a winter term seminar with Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres at the Harvard Law School on Social Movements, Law Stories and Law Making.  The seminar looked at the relationship between lawyering practices and social movements that challenge unjust social, economic, and political hierarchies.

On Jan 7^th, Marshall Ganz spoke at the Eitz Chayim congregations Adult Education Series.  Ganz spoke on the topic of Rabbi Hillels three questions:  If I am not for myself, who will be for me?  If I am for myself alone, what am I?  If not now, when?

Dave Brown and Jim Honan in cooperation with faculty from the Center for Civil Society Studies at Beijing University developed and delivered a five-day workshop to approximately 50 Chinese NGO leaders in Beijing from January 12-16^th.  The workshop included half-day segments on civil society and development, strategy for nonprofit organizations, strategic fund-raising, financial management, and intersectoral partnering.

On January 20^th, Marshall Ganz ran a half-day workshop on narratives for the Merrimack Valley Project.  Ganz also ran a public narrative workshop from January 23-25^th for 50 communications staff drawn from the 33 national environmental organizations associated with the Green Group in Washington, DC.  Participants worked on developing narratives to mobilize the public and strengthen the environmental movement, especially in light of the global warming challenge.

Dave Brown, Jim Honan and Mary Hilderbrand worked with faculty from Monterrey Tec in Mexico City from January 23-27^th to develop and deliver two two-day executive education workshops for Mexican NGO leaders.  The first workshop focused on Civil Society Identity, Legitimacy and Accountability, and the second focused on Performance Management for NGOs.  These workshops are part of an ongoing partnership between KSG, the Hauser Center and the Public Administration Program at Monterrey Tec.

On January 29-30^th, the Hauser Center sponsored and helped teach in the first annual nonprofit training for student officers of Harvards Philips Brooks House Association (PBHA).  PBHA is a student-run public service organization at Harvard that consists of 72 program committees and over 1,800 student volunteers.  The Hauser Center designed the two-day training, and Hauser Center Principals Tiziana Dearing and Jim Honan taught in it.  Philips Brooks House intends to make the two-day crash course in running a nonprofit an annual event for its new officers.

Dave Brown gave two presentations at a Conference on Citizen Participation and Democratic Governance organized by the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) in early February.  One presentation, on Capacities for the Community Sector: Setting the Stage focused on the impacts of globalization on local development; the other discussed Practice-Research Engagement as a Strategy for Mobilizing Community Knowledge.

On February 1^st Marty Chen gave a talk on Renewed Interest in the Informal Economy: Different Players and Perspectives at the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok.

From February 1-4^th, Marshall Ganz, Sarah Staley, and other members of the Sierra Club Leadership Development Project committee kicked off the third series of Sierra Club workshops on leadership development in Seattle, WA with the Cascade chapter of the Sierra Club.   The team led a 1-1/2 day facilitation training followed by a 2-1/2 day workshop on strategic deliberation and action.  The participants learned to structure an effective leadership team, conduct creative strategic deliberation, take effective action, strengthen their own reflective practice, and set personal and group goals.

On February 4^th, Marty Chen served as a panelist at the New Delhi launch of the book, Trade Liberalization and Indias Informal Economy, edited by Barbara Harriss-White (University of Oxford) and Anushree Sinha (National Council of Applied Economic Research), and published by Oxford University Press in January 2007.

Peter Dobkin Hall delivered the public lecture No Margin, No Mission: Mount Auburn Cemetery as a Charitable Enterprise on February 7^th at the Boston Public Library as part of Mount Auburn cemeterys 175th anniversary celebration.

Dave Brown taught three classes in the Leadership for Development Program for senior government leaders from Pakistan from February 19-21^st.  The classes focused on the challenges and potentials of multi-sector partnership for solving development problems.

At the annual Bridge Builders Conference Peter Dobkin Hall presented the seminar Demystifying Harvard: Higher Education and Development, 1636 to the Present on February 26^th.  The Bridge Builders Conference is a student initiative which brings together grassroots activists from around the world.

On February 28^th, Alnoor Ebrahim attended the annual meeting of the International Studies Association in Chicago.  He and a colleague, Edward Weisband, presented their work on Global Accountabilities: Analytical Dilemmas which is part of a forthcoming book.

Marshall Ganz presented on leadership development and task design on February 28^th in the Achieving Excellence in Community Development Executive Education session at the Kennedy School.
 

People in the News

The article Misgivings: Recent studies raise an uncharitable question: Is nonprofit accounting off track? in the January 10^th  edition of CFO.com features research conducted by Elizabeth Keating and includes quotes by her.  Link to the article here.

The WBUR portion of Morning Edition on February 7^th included comments by Father Bryan Hehir on the sale of hospitals owned by the Archdiocese.

Christopher Stone co-wrote the article on police accountability Human Rights Commission Needed for the February 13^th edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The book Transnational Civil Society: An Introduction, edited by Srilatha Batliwala and Dave Brown, was reviewed in the New Books section of The Chronicle of Philanthropy on February 22^nd.

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Student Organizations Activities Fund Recipients

Philanthropy Classics Access Project Update

With support from the Surdna and Charles Stewart Mott Foundations, the Hauser Center sponsors the Philanthropy Classics Access Project.  The Project is putting important out-of-print texts relating to the history of philanthropy, voluntarism, and nonprofit organizations on-line, whence they can be downloaded for free by students, faculty, and the general public.  Each text is accompanied by an interpretive introduction written by a leading scholar.  For information and to download texts visit the Philanthropy Classics Project website.

Volumes currently available include:

Leonard Bacon. 1832-1870. Four Essays on Organizational Governance. With a new introduction by Peter Dobkin Hall, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Merle Curti and Roderick Nash. 1965. Philanthropy in the Shaping of American Higher Education. With a new introduction by Andrea Walton, Department of History, Indiana University.

Francis Goodale. 1893. Literature of Philanthropy. With a new introduction by Darwin Stapleton, Rockefeller Archive Center.

Howard S. Miller. 1961. The Legal Foundations of American Philanthropy, 1776-1844. With a new introduction by Peter Dobkin Hall, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

William Rhinelander Stewart. 1922. The Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell, Containing a Biographical Sketch of Her Life, Together with Her Public Papers and Private Letters. With a new introduction by Joan Waugh, Department of History, UCLA.

Frank Dekker Watson. 1922. The Charity Organization Movement in the United States: A Study in American Philanthropy. With a new introduction by Joel Schwartz, National Endowment for the Humanities.


Forthcoming volumes include:

Leonard Ayres. 1911. Seven Great Foundations. With a new introduction by David C. Hammack, Department of History, Case Western Reserve University.

Russell Sage Foundation. 1956. Report of the Princeton Conference on the History of Philanthropy in the United States. With a new introduction by Frances Heuhls, Payton Philanthropy Library, Indiana University.

Carl Zollmann. 1924. The American Law of Charities. With a new introduction by Marion R. Fremont-Smith, Kennedy School of Government and the Law School, Harvard University.

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This edition of the Hauser Center E-News highlights activities and events from January - February 2007.

The Hauser Center E-News provides bi-monthly updates of Hauser Center events, activities, people and publications.  Past issues of the E-News can be found here.  The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations is a University-wide research center based at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government (KSG). The Center is not a degree granting institution.  Please email Laura Ax with E-News questions and feedback.