E-News

May 2007  

E-Newsletter

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

Featured Research

Activity Update

People in Action

People in the News

Featured Research

Spotlight on The History of the Nonprofit Sector
For the past three decades, Peter Dobkin Hall has been exploring the development of philanthropy, voluntary associations, nonprofit organizations, and their relations to business and government.  As a founding participant in Yales Program on Non-Profit Organizations, in the late 1970s Hall took part in this pioneering effort to conceptualize and gauge the scope, scale, and dynamics of the nonprofit sector.  In exploring these issues, Hall has produced four major bodies of work, each of which is a book in progress. The first is a synoptic overview of the development of philanthropy, voluntary associations, and nonprofit organizations in the United States from colonial times to the present. The second is a study of religion in American public life. The third examines the development of nonprofit board governance and its role in civic and organizational leadership. The fourth explores a particular style of civic leadership -- civil privatism -- in New Haven, Connecticut since the eighteenth century.

As he wraps up his earlier research, Hall is beginning work with Hauser Center colleagues Marion Fremont-Smith, Dave Brown, Alnoor Ebrahim, and Dutch Leonard on a collaborative investigation of federated organizations. Although very nearly all nonprofits research focuses on freestanding organizations, Hall says, the reality is that the most important nonprofits -- religious denominations, trade associations, labor unions, political parties, health care providers (hospital chains, HMOs, Blue Cross-Blue Shield), advocacy groups (ACLU and the Sierra Club), patriotic and veterans organizations, and service clubs (Rotary, Kiwanis) -- are federated entities.  Crises at the American Red Cross, United Way, Nature Conservancy, and in major religious denominations -- as well as the fact that federation is the form of choice for new global NGOs -- underscores the urgent need for better understanding of these organizations and how they work, Hall believes.

Activity Update
 

Capital Ideas Symposium
The Capital Ideas: Moving From Short Term Engagement To Long Term Sustainability Symposium convened on March 15^th to examine and extend the role of funders in strengthening the nonprofit sector and enhancing its impact with leaders from foundations, intermediary and consulting organizations, nonprofits, academic or research institutions, and government. The Symposium was designed to profile the diversity of pro-sustainability approaches along with their relative merits and to examine why these approaches are not embraced more fully. A set of draft funding principles were presented based on insights from informant interviews, participant experience and a survey of funders with pro-sustainability giving programs, and were discussed and revised during breakout groups.  The Symposium concluded with a focus on mobilizing the funding community to more aggressively shift away from traditional charitable gifts and tightly monitored restricted grants on contracts to more substantial and longer term financial support. The Symposium was co-convened by Kathleen Buechel and Elizabeth Keating of the Hauser Center and Clara Miller of the Nonprofit Finance Fund. Conference proceedings should be available in July with articles and subsequent conferences to follow.  Find out more on the Capital Ideas website.

Program on Religion and Public Life
On April 30^th, the Program on Religion and Public Life (PRPL) held a seminar as part of the Religion, Politics and Public Life Faculty Seminar Series.  The seminar focused on the theme Religion and Politics: The Middle East and the U.S. and included the distinguished speakers John L. Esposito, University Professor of Religion and International Affairs and Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, and Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religion Action Center of Reform Judaism.  This faculty seminar series (by invitation only) is convened by Father J. Bryan Hehir and is a primary activity of the Program on Religion and Public Life at the Hauser Center.

WIEGO
From March 18-28^th, Marty Chen took part in three WIEGO events in South Africa that focused on the informal economy.  The first was an exposure dialogue, part of a series involving activists from the Self-Employed Womens Association of India,  economists from Cornell University, and researchers from the WIEGO network. During the exposures, participants live with and work alongside a working poor person for two days, followed by personal reflections and a technical dialogue on whether and how mainstream theories and policies fit the reality experienced.  The second event was a policy-dialogue on the Second Economy in South Africa with government officials in Pretoria, organized by the University of KwaZulu Natal, the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, and WIEGO.   The third was an international conference called Living on the Margins in Cape Town for which Marty Chen gave the opening keynote address entitled The Working Poor in the Informal Economy: Different Patterns of Marginality and Exclusion.  WIEGO also held a research design workshop April 2-3^rd at Harvard University on the topic of Informality, Poverty, and Inequality: Labour Markets in China and India.   Teams of researchers from both China and India planned a comparative research project which would analyze employment trends in both countries with a specific focus on informal employment and its links with poverty, inequality, and other outcomes.

The Social Entrepreneurship Collaboratory (SE Lab)
The Social Entrepreneurship Collaboratory (SE Lab) 2007, led by faculty director Gordon Bloom, and created in 2005 with participating Hauser faculty Mark Moore, Dutch Leonard and Christopher Winship, included 20 U.S. and international social change projects and 60 students from across Harvard University and MIT.  Highlights from the semester included: a) Bill Drayton, the founder and CEO of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public visited the SE Lab on April 26^th to learn about the students projects and speak about the history and future of Ashoka; b) Unite for Health!, a Harvard SE Lab team, won the Harvard Business School Business Plan Competition, Social Enterprise Track on April 23^rd; and c) Students presented their projects in SE Lab to special guests during their March 19^th and March 21^st Mid-term Presentations and for their Final Presentations beginning on April 30^th.  Feedback judges and guests included Hauser Center faculty, fellows, and staff Roy Ahn, Laura Ax, Dave Brown, Tiziana Dearing, Alnoor Ebrahim, Marion Fremont-Smith, and Christopher Stone, and additional KSG faculty and SE practitioners.  For a full list of all SE Lab projects and guests, click here.

People in Action

From Februrary 26^th-March 3^rd Gabriele Bammer was in Dhaka and Katmandu for meetings of the Global Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECAFS) research program.  For the program, Bammer is helping with methods to make the research effective in policy change.

On March 2^nd , Marshall Ganz held a session on public narrative for participants in the International Bridge Builders Conference.  Also on that day he gave a workshop on grassroots governance for Massachusetts Governor Patrick, Lieutenant Governor Murray, and over 70 members the Governors staff.  The event was a part of a collaboration between UMass/Bostons McCormack School, The Kennedy School of Government and Northeastern University to address the question of how to turn their campaign vision of grassroots governing into reality.

Alnoor Ebrahim presented a paper on The Normative Logics of Accountability at an American Behavioral Scientist Symposium held at the Institute for Policy and Governance at Virginia Tech on March 2^nd.

Liz Keating  presented her paper Misreporting Fundraising: How do Nonprofit Organizations Account for Telemarketing Campaigns? at the American Accounting Associations Government and Nonprofit Section Meeting on March 3^rd.

Dave Brown gave a keynote address on Inclusion and Exclusion in a Globalizing World at the Institute for Inclusion meetings on March 5^th in Washington, DC.

On March 6^th Srilatha Batliwala addressed the United Nations General Assembly in a high-level thematic debate on gender equality and womens empowerment.  Co-panelists included Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland), Pregs Govinder (former MP, South Africa), Beatriz Peredes (Head of the Mexican Communist Party), and Anders Johansson (Head of the International Parliamentary Union).  Click here to listen to the address (beginning at minute 40:30).

In Warsaw, Poland from March 5-7^th, Marty Chen participated in the 5^th international research conference of the International Social Security Association.  WIEGO played a central role in the organization of the conference for which Marty Chen chaired a session, made a presentation, and was on the closing panel.

Peter Dobkin Hall was a panelist for Understanding Foundation Impact: The Academic Perspective at the Center for Effective Philanthropys Assessment to Action: Creating Change Conference in Chicago on March 8^th.  Co-panelists included Peter Frumkin, James Allen Smith, and Susan Bell of the Hewlett Foundation.

On March 10^th, Marshall Ganz led a workshop on public narrative for the Catherine B. Reynolds Fellows in Social Entrepreneurship.  Participants worked on developing narratives, using a framework of story of self, story of us and story of now, to mobilize the public on behalf of a cause.

Dave Brown participated in the annual Forum Internationale de Montreal Conference on The Future of UN Civil Society Relations in Montreal March 12-13^th.

On March 20^th , Marshall Ganz led a discussion session with Fund for Service Interns, funded through the Center for Public Interest Careers at Harvard, on the importance and challenges of advocacy work.

Gabriele Bammer was one of four invited keynote speakers at the first conference of the new International Society for the Study of Drug Policy from March 22-23^rd, where she presented a paper on the role of modeling in informing research relevant to drug policy.

From March 23-25^th, Marshall Ganz and other members of the Sierra Club Leadership Development Project committee concluded the third series of Sierra Club workshops on leadership development in New Mexico with the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club.   The team led a facilitation training followed by a workshop on strategic deliberation and action.

Gordon Bloom presented at the Oxford University Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship March 27-29^th about The Social Entrepreneurship Collaboratory (SE Lab): A University Incubator for a Rising Generation of Social Entrepreneurs his chapter in the edited volume Social Entrepreneurship: New Models of Sustainable Social Change (A. Nicholls, Oxford University Press, 2006), with a group of contributors to the book including J. Gregory Dees (Duke CASE), Jed Emerson (Generation Foundation), Alex Nicholls (Oxford University), Sally Osberg (Skoll Foundation).

At the Department of Environment and Society in the College of Natural Resources of Utah State University, Logan, Gabriele Bammer presented two formal seminars on Integration and Implementation Sciences from April 2-4^th.  These included a workshop for senior staff involved in integration research, a mini-workshop for graduate students and several one-on-one and small group meetings.  She also gave a talk to the ADVANCE program and met with a group of women graduate students around academic leadership issues.

On April 5^th, Alnoor Ebrahim presented his work on Creating Accountability: What do Business, Government and Nonprofits Have in Common at the Mossovar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Kennedy School of Government.

At the 20^th Anniversary Conference of the Synergos Institute, Dave Brown presented Multistakeholder Partnerships at Synergos: The First Decade to help catalyze reflection on the impacts of the Institutes programs at Pocantico, New York, April 9-10^th.

Alnoor Ebrahim participated in a workshop on The NGO Accountability Debate in The Hague April 10-11^th organized by the Institute for Social Studies, the Ford Foundation, and Hivos.  He provided a synopsis and commentary on the topic Does more accountability lead to better results?

Tiziana Dearing, Alnoor Ebrahim, and Dave Brown worked with colleagues at the Mossovar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government to organize and facilitate the workshop Corporations and Human Rights:  Accountability Mechanisms for Resolving Complaints and Disputes April 11-12^th at Harvard.

On April 14^th, Marshall Ganz spoke on leadership development and organizing faith-based communities at the 2007 Voices of Faith Conference: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Methodist Federation for Social Action.  During the conference he also led three small group workshops on organizing, leadership, public narrative, and community building.

Marty Chen attended meetings from April 16-19^th of two working groups of the High Level Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor (co-chaired by Madeleine Albright and Hernando de Soto) - one on labor rights, and the other on informal enterprises.

Gabriele Bammer and colleagues at the Australian National University taught a successful new course for research leaders on Research Integration for Knowledge and Action, from April 17-18^th.  The course focused on developing more comprehensive understanding of problems by integrating research and practice knowledge, as well as methods for effective application of that knowledge into practice change.

On April 21^st, Marshall Ganz moderated the panel The Intersection of Organizing, Politics & Policy: Challenges and Opportunities in 2008 at the Latino Law and Public Policy conference. The panelists focused on the challenges and opportunities that exist in the context of the upcoming presidential campaign for organizing in the Latino Community.

Gabriele Bammer was an invited visitor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research in Christchurch, New Zealand from April 23-24^th where she helped plan a program of research on framing and scoping of complex problems, presented a seminar on Integration and Implementation Sciences, and ran a workshop on core methods for integrating disciplinary and practice knowledge.

Marshall Ganz participated in the April 27-28^th Convening on Law and Social Movements at Harvard Law School. The purpose of the conference was to address the gap in legal understanding of the relationship between social and legal change.
 

People in the News

In the Federal Computer Week April 26^th article Harvard to study government response to crises Christopher Stone is quoted throughout as the faculty and chairman of the Acting in Time initiative that will examine these issues.  Link to the article here.

Marion Fremont-Smith is quoted in the article Nonprofits aim for carbon neutrality in the April 23^rd New York Sun.  Link to the article here.

Research by Christopher Stone is featured in the Jamaica Gleaner news article on April 22^nd  US study cites improvement in local justice system.  Link to the article here.

In the article At Red Cross, a New Head is Appointed From I.R.S. in the April 19^th  edition of The New York Times, Peter Dobkin Hall provides wry comments on the management change at the Red Cross.  Link to the article here (archived article).

Marshall Ganz is quoted in the April 10^th The Harvard Crimson article Panel endorses Obama at KSG event as expressing his support for the candidate.  Link to the article here.  The Harvard Crimson article from April 9^th  Learning beyond the classroom describes the impact Ganzs course Practicing Democracy: Leadership, Community and Power had on its students.  Link to the article here.

In The Boston Globe April 5^th article Learning to be of two minds Dutch Leonard is quoted about the new joint degree offered by the Kennedy School and the Business School.  Link to the article here.

Christopher Stones research on crime and economic growth in South Africa is cited in the March 29^th Moneyweb article Manuel says crime undermining growth.  Link to the article here.

Marshall Ganz contributed the article Staying Connected to our Moral Sources for the March 29^th edition of the blog TMP Cafe.  Link to the article here.  The article Organizing for democratic renewal, by Ganz is also featured on the blog TMP Cafe for March 27^th.  Link to the article here.

Paul Hodge is quoted in the March 25^th Cincinnati Post article Boomer power about baby boomers and leadership.  Link to the article here.  In the March 1^st Cincinnati Post article Poll: Boomers a bit of a bust, Good music but too much me Paul Hodge is quoted throughout about the perception of different generations as captured by a national survey.

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Hauser Center Research Fund Recipients

Recent Publications

Peggy Levitt: God Needs No Passport: Immigrants and the Changing American Religious Landscape. New York, NY: The New Press. 2007.
Immigrants are changing the face of religious diversity in the U.S., helping to make American religion just as global as economic and politics and subtly challenging the very definition of what it means to be an American.  Many Americans fear that the traditions and beliefs newcomers import will unravel our social fabric, but my conversations with immigrants suggest the opposite. They are the translators and bridge-builders that America so desperately needs.  They bring to light that the challenges we face are produced by forces operating inside and outside our borders, but at the same time, so are the solutions.  For more information, please see Levitt's website.

Jack McCarthy: The Ingredients of Financial Transparency. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 1, March 2007.

Peter Dobkin Hall: A Question of Empowerment: Information Technology and Civic Engagement in New Haven, Connecticut. In Michael Cortes & Kevin Rafter (eds.). Nonprofits and Technology: Emerging Research for Usable Knowledge. Chicago, IL: Lyceum Books. 2007.

Peter Dobkin Hall:  Symbolism, Ritual, and the Deep Structure of Community. In Ram Cnaan and Carl Milofsky (eds.). Handbook of Community Movements and Local Organizations. New York, NY: Springer. 2007.

New Hauser Center Working Papers
The following working papers have been added to the Hauser Center Working Papers Series and are viewable and downloadable from the included links.  For the complete list of working papers, click here

Hauser Working Paper Series Nos. 33.3-33.9 were prepared as background papers for the Nonprofit Governance and Accountability Symposium October 3-4, 2006.

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 33.3
A Framework for Analyzing Nonprofit Governance and Accountability Policies and Strategies
by Mark H. Moore and William P. Ryan (October 2006)
Abstract
Download Paper No.33.3

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 33.4
Charity Oversight: An Alternative Approach
by Marcus S. Owens, Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered (October 2006)
Abstract
Download Paper No.33.4

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 33.5
Should Mission Statements Be Promises? (And should they have to be?)
by Herman B. Dutch Leonard (October 2006)
Abstract
Download Paper No.33.5

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 33.6
Moral Systems in the Regulations of Nonprofits: How Value Commitments Matter
by Robert C. Clark (October 2006)
Abstract
Download Paper No.33.6

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 33.7
Is it Time to Address Selective Disclosure for Nonprofit Organizations?
by Elizabeth K. Keating (October 2006)
Abstract
Download Paper No.33.7

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 33.8
The Search for Greater Accountability of Nonprofit Organizations: Recent Legal Developments and Proposals for Change
by Marion R. Fremont-Smith (Updated March 2007)
Abstract
Download Paper No.33.8

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 33.9
The Simple Analytics of Accountability
by Mark H. Moore (October 2006)
Abstract
Download Paper No.33.9

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 34
"Left Behind" Social Movements, Parties, and the Politics of Reform
by Marshall Ganz (August 2006)
Abstract
Download Paper No.34

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 35
An Investigation of Fraud in Nonprofit Organizations: Occurrences and Deterrents
by Janet Greenlee, Mary Fischer, Teresa Gordon, and Elizabeth Keating (December 2006)
Abstract
Download Paper No.35

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 36
Civic Associations That Work: The Contributions of Leadership to Organizational Effectiveness
by Kenneth T. Andrews and Marshall Ganz; Matthew Baggetta, Hahrie Han, and Chaeyoon Lim (August 2006)
Abstract
Download Paper No.36

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 37
Misreporting Fundraising: How do Nonprofit Organizations Account for Telemarketing Campaigns?
by Elizabeth K. Keating, Linda M. Parsons, and Andrea A. Roberts (December 2006)
Abstract
Download Paper No.37

Hauser Center Working Paper No. 38
Comparative Advantage in Disaster Response
by Tiziana C. Dearing and Barbara J. Merz (March 2007)
Abstract
Download Paper No.38

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This edition of the Hauser Center E-News highlights activities and events from March - April 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.