It’s fascinating that while the San Francisco Bay Area is often hailed as the center of technical innovation and social change (and deservedly so) many companies are still operating with old and traditional mindsets of workforce development and community engagement...
Read MorePhilanthropy in the Age of Innovation
The PF office is at the heart of Silicon Valley, where new ideas and new approaches are constantly brewing, and ‘innovation’ is a word you hear daily. In the PF priorities, after People, the Idea is the second element we are concerned with-- “the relative importance of an idea, whether it matters...
Read MoreNumber 1 Priority
One Friday evening I had a few minutes to decompress and like many people do I pulled out my phone to see what I could catch up on. After browsing Instagram I tapped my work inbox. A couple of new messages, one of which was pertinent to our Regional Portfolio, so I quickly forwarded it...
Read MoreCEO Spotlight: Eileen Richardson of Downtown Streets Team
Looking back, I’m embarrassed at my naivety. I raised two kids as a single mom, all the while climbing my way up the corporate ladder. I became a successful Venture Capitalist, and then took the helm as CEO of Napster and another high-tech startup. After that, I thought solving homelessness...
Read MoreThe Agile Classroom: Embracing an Agile Mindset In Education
In 2001, a group of 17 software developers met at the Snowbird resort in Utah to discuss alternative ways of building software, and published the influential “Manifesto for Agile Software Development”. The roots of the Agile movement can actually be...
Read MoreWelcoming New Program Associate to the Team
This September we were excited to welcome Lindsey Padjen as Program Associate. She will be supporting our grantees and Portfolio Directors, as well as sourcing pipeline. Here is a message from Lindsey with a little more background about herself and her journey to the Peery Foundation...
Read MorePF Grantee Guide to Site Visits: For Funders
Recently on Funder Feedback we asked our grantees to anonymously weigh in on these questions: “What advice do you have for funders preparing for site visits? What makes a site visit easier/better for you?” People had a lot to say on this subject. We got so many fabulous suggestions...
Read MoreWhere does success start?
A very popular opinion piece by Paul Tough was recently published in the NYT. "To help kids thrive, coach their parents" is another indicator that this country is continuing to place greater emphasis on the home environment as a place where school success starts. This is common sense to most people, but has taken decades...
Read MoreShifting Accountability from the Funder to the End User
“Which part of the Spark process has been the most beneficial?” I asked a mother in the Waroco Paco village in northern Uganda after a community meeting. She responded, “The government advocacy training. We now know how to approach our officials and ask them for what we need.” A year later...
Read MoreSemi-Annual Reflections
Last week the Peery Foundation had its team retreat to reflect on the past year, bond as a team, and look towards the future. As a new team member at my first retreat, here is what stood out to me. Take the time to reflect: Who are we and what are we doing here? After a few team bonding activities, one of our first discussions...
Read MoreAsk Questions, First to Learn but Then to Act
When grantmakers go looking for feedback from their grantees, they can ask a lot of questions. But grilling grantees and listening to them are two different things, and the distinction is as much about intent as impact. Sometimes grantmakers’ questions focus on day-to-day program administration...
Read MoreTaking the Plunge into Philanthropy
In July, we welcomed Natalia Schoorl to the team as the new Program Assistant. She will be supporting the Peery Foundation team as they serve grantees, and ensuring the smooth operation of the foundation office and internal systems. Here is a message from Natalia about why she is excited to be at the Peery Foundation...
Read MorePeery Foundation In Prison: Defy-ing Labels
Two lines facing each other, separated by mere inches, but those standing on them are worlds apart. One, a group of professionals – from VC’s and startups, tech companies and foundations – just volunteering for a day. The other comprised of female inmates from the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California...
Read MoreLetter from the Director of At the Crossroads
“Success” has become a dangerous word in our field that has led to organizations turning their backs on the people who need help the most. We get asked the question “how do you measure impact” by potential funders more than we ever have before. Loosely translated, it means “How can you quantitatively show that...
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Mythbusters - Busting Fundraising
Last week, I sat down with Jane Leu – founder of one of the first social entrepreneur models, Upwardly Global, and current Founder & CEO of the social enterprise services organization Smarter Good – to have a general catch up, but the theme that quickly took hold was the common misconceptions that we see in our jobs daily...
Read MoreAccess to justice for all? Now that would be a measurably good thing
When a housing programme in the Indian state of Haryana guaranteed land to impoverished families in Raniyala, a village in Mewat district, it seemed like welcome news. Instead, government officials seized the land and refused to hear the villagers’ objections. Could a newly agreed global framework support...
Read MoreDowntown Streets Team: Chuck on Learning to Trust
Nothing in the years that Chuck Jagoda spent as a student of ancient and modern Greek and an educator in New York City schools prepared him for the hardest challenge of his life: homelessness. By the time he graduated on December 8 from...
Read MoreRetain, Double Down, No-Not Yet, Think Time & Other Great Conference Insights
A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation conference for their social entrepreneurs. It is an extraordinary event bringing together some of the world’s top minds for several days of inspiration and sharing. Having spent several days listening to the young...
Read MoreThe Most Impactful Leaders You’ve Never Heard Of →
Collaboration has taken the social sector by storm. Collective impact, social media, and other tools play important roles, ensuring that the right structures, resources, and technologies are in place for groups to successfully work together. But while these approaches have advanced collaboration in practice, we believe...
Read MoreDo Ask, Do Tell
Our friends over at the Open Road Alliance recently released a report on contingency funding in the non profit space. They interviewed funders and fund raisers about this topic. How often does something go wrong in a non profit's plan? How do they weather storms they couldn't predict? How does funding come in to help shore up unforeseen gaps?
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