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November 16, 2010 Health Evaluation of the Dental Health Aide Therapist Workforce Model in Alaska, a report funded by the W.K. Kellogg, Rasmuson, and Bethel Community Services foundations, finds that dental therapists practicing in Alaska typically provide safe, competent, and appropriate dental care to underserved populations in the state.... More»
November 13, 2010 Public Affairs According to Foundations for Civic Impact: Advocacy and Civic Engagement Toolkit for Private Foundations, a new publication from the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest, foundations can do more to advance their missions, influence public policy, strengthen the democratic process, and create systemic social change by supporting civic engagement and advocacy efforts.... More»
November 10, 2010 Public Affairs City Fiscal Conditions in 2010, a new research brief from the National League of Cities, paints a grim picture of municipal government finances after a difficult year and warns of additional declines in tax revenues in 2011.... More»
November 7, 2010 Education According to the College Board report Trends in College Pricing 2010, even as tuition costs and fees continue to climb, average net costs for full-time college students have held steady over the last five years.... More»
More Connections
Comparison of Provisions From Colorado's Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform and Federal Healthcare Reform (November 4, 2010)
Localizing the Millenium Development Goals: Unlocking the Potential of the Local Public Sector to Engage in Development and Poverty Reduction (November 1, 2010)
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How Better Data Will Shape the Future of Social Problem Solving
Andrew Wolk, CEO and founder, Root Cause; Colette Stanzler, Director of Social Impact Research, Root Cause

There's no question that the need for better data is on the minds of just about everyone who is working to address seemingly intractable social problems. If you run a nonprofit, you've undoubtedly felt the push from funders to demonstrate the impact of your programs. If you're a foundation program officer or an individual donor, you are probably looking for data that enable you to compare programs and choose the most effective ones. And in today's tough economic climate, government leaders at the local, state, and federal levels are urgently seeking ways to use data to make better use of increasingly limited resources.
 Fortunately, we're on the brink of a sea change in how we generate and use data to address social problems — and change is exactly what we need. Although significant data on social issues exist, much of it is not publicly available or is not action oriented. Indeed, quality information about nonprofit performance is scarce and not typically standardized to make it possible to compare organizations working on the same issue. As a result, we don't know whether the billions of dollars invested annually in nonprofit organizations by the public and private sectors is achieving the desired results — or any results at all....
Read Wolk and Stanzler's commentary» |
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 Q&A with David Kaplan, Director, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

 In the latest article in PND's Alliance@PND series, Alliance magazine editor Caroline Hartnell asks Kaplan about his organization's unique brand of "watchdog journalism" and why it should matter to foundations wanting to promote social change. Caroline Hartnell: Can you tell me what you mean by watchdog journalism?
 David Kaplan: We also talk about investigative journalism, where the emphasis is on long-term, in-depth research and reporting. Our approach is: something has happened, here is my working hypothesis, how do I go about proving it in an honest way? If the evidence doesn't support it, I have to re-evaluate my assumptions. But if it does pan out, then we're going to publish a broadly constructed, deeply rooted investigative feature that spells out in depth why something has gone amiss.
 We recently completed an eight-month investigation into the asbestos industry. Since asbestos markets dried up in Europe and North America, producers have been exporting it in huge amounts to developing countries, despite the fact that independent scientists predict that five to ten million people will die from asbestos by the year 2030. This is an extraordinary story to us: the industry is in effect dumping its product on places like India and China where there are very few workplace safeguards, and the industry knows this. We put together a team and traced how the industry had spent nearly $100 million on international marketing since the mid-1980s.  The story took us eight months to put together, and that's why you need specialist teams of investigative journalists. You can't do that as a beat reporter while you're turning around quick stories to meet a deadline. You need a dedicated team in order to help put an entire issue on the map. I think we did that in this case — ultimately it was covered in twenty languages, and we reached more than thirty million people....
 Read the Q&A»

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 Alliance@PND Q&A with David Kaplan, Director, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
 Conference Calendar
 Commentary "How Better Data Will Shape the Future of Social Problem Solving"
 Connections Education, Health, Inter- national Affairs/Develop- ment, Public Affairs
 NPO Spotlight Native American Rights Fund
 On The Web Zafèn
 PhilanTopic The PND Blog

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 Native American Rights Fund

NARF works to assert and defend the rights of Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals nationwide and to educate the public about Native American laws and issues.... More» |
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 Zafèn

Zafen.org features pages that link to fund- able projects in Haiti with the potential to create jobs, educate children, and/or provide new services in the impoverished Caribbean nation.... More»
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On the blog, Communications Network exec- utive director Bruce Trachten- berg announces a new Web site designed to get us all thinking about the value of annual reports; we take a look at this year's New York Times "Giving" section; and Regina checks in with her weekly link roundup.... More» |
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 December 3, 2010 6th annual Philanthropy Conference: Fostering Innovative Ideas for Social Change Yale School of Management Philanthropy New Haven, Connecticut
December 7 - 8, 2010 2010 Annual Conference European Forum on Philanthropy and Research Funding Stuttgart, Germany
For more conference listings, visit our Conference Calendar.
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PND Connections -- January 26, 2011
PND Connections -- January 26, 2011.
Posted by WPWI on 01/26/2011 at 04:01 PM in ANNOUNCEMENTS, COMMENTARY, Domestic Issues, EDUCATION/TRAINING, FOUNDATION CENTER, FUNDING SUPPORT, PND Connections | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)