Changing Our World now accepting applications
for the 2013 summer fellowship

When: 27 August 2012 (8 weeks long)

Workload: 8-10 hours/week

About the Course

This course introduces the academic approach of Sustainability and explores how today’s human societies can endure in the face of global change, ecosystem degradation and resource limitations.  The course focuses on key knowledge areas of sustainability theory and practice, including population, ecosystems, global change, energy, agriculture, water, environmental economics and policy, ethics, and cultural history.

This subject is of vital importance, seeking as it does to uncover the principles of the long-term welfare of all the peoples of the planet.  As sustainability is a cross-disciplinary field of study, this foundation requires intellectual breadth: as I describe it in the class text, understanding our motivations requires the humanities, measuring the challenges of sustainability requires knowledge of the sciences (both natural and social), and building solutions requires technical insight into systems (such as provided by engineering, planning, and management).

About the Instructor(s)

Dr. Jonathan Tomkin is the Associate Director of the School of Earth, Society and Environment and a research Associate Professor in the department of Geology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  Dr. Tomkin directs the undergraduate program in environmental sustainability at the University.

His research aims to uncover the processes of how changing climates, glaciers, and landscapes interact.  This study has involved fieldwork all over the world – including the Olympic Mountains, the Swiss Alps, Patagonia and Antarctica.  He is the co-editor and contributing author of the college textbook Sustainability: a comprehensive introduction.

Course Syllabus

Week 1: Introduction. Pessimism vs. optimism
Neo-malthusians, J-curves, S-curves and the IPAT equation

Week 2: Population. Demographics and the disappearance of the third world
Demographics, population trends

Week 3: Tragedy of the Commons.

Fisheries, pastures, public vs private solutions

Week 4: Climate Change. The climate of the near future: hot, hotter, or hottest?

Weather vs. Climate, Proxy and data climate evidence, Climate projections

Week 5 : Energy. What happens when we reach “Peak Oil” Renewable energy: is there enough to make the switch?

Peak Oil/Fossil Fuel, Energy survey, availability, and density, EROI

Week 6: Agriculture and Water. Is there enough water and food for the 21st Century?

GMOs and the Green Revolution, water stocks and flows – physical and social constraints

Week 7: Environmental Economics and Policy. Can economists lead the way to sustainability?
Environmental Evaluation, project and policy evaluation, Incentive policies

Week 8: Ethics and Culture and Measurement. The long view

Carbon Footprints, Energy and water efficiency metrics, Sustainability Ethics, Environmental ideology and conservation movements

Suggested Readings

The course will use a free, online textbook “Sustainability: a Comprehensive Foundation (Theis and Tomkin, Eds.).”  Participants can download the book as a pdf or html file (for laptops and computers) or as an epub file (for tablet readers) http://www.earth.illinois.edu/sustain/sustainability_text.html

FAQ

Will I get a certificate after completing this class?

Participants who successfully complete the course will receive a certificate of completion from the School of Earth, Society and Environment.

What resources will I need for this class?

Got an up-to-date browser and a decent internet connection? You’re good to go!

What is the coolest thing I’ll learn if I take this class?

We’ve just passed 7 billion people on the planet – but population growth isn’t the biggest threat to a prosperous global future.

Outsourcing of operations, foreign affiliate sales, the rise of CSR as a profession. These events are all catalyzed by momentous global shifts in population demographics, labor provision, industrial structure, and financial integration. Together with a mounting imperative for sustainable business operations, the restructuring of economies and industries worldwide will have far-reaching implications for business and the corporate social engagement (CSE) space. As a window into this year’s Corporate Investment Fellowship, Changing Our World’s summer Fellow Nicolas Picard will share his perspective on timely topics that intersect with these large macroeconomic trends.  Look out for the full report to be released later this year.

Analysis of several McKinsey surveys of global senior executives reveals an evolution of the core tenants of leadership. As societal forces push and pull at a faster and more volatile pace, businesses in developed and emerging markets are finding it difficult to keep up with a mounting number of stakeholders and issues.

Meanwhile, the talent supply pipeline is changing as well. Young professionals who seek meaningful and inspiring careers are demanding more social and environmental responsibility courses in their MBA’s, a trend that most B-schools are struggling to process. There are also changes in non-profit sector education, with a move towards a more formalized academic path into the sector. For example, Indiana University recently awarded the world’s first undergraduate degrees in philanthropic studies.

Business: A Talent Gap

At the center of the debate are two general trends with ensuing implications:

First, business sales and operations are increasingly international. Foreign affiliate sales have increased by 96% from 2002 to 2010. IBM expects to earn 30% of its revenues from emerging markets by 2015. Meanwhile, in the US, less than 10% of directors of the largest 200 companies are non-US nationals.

It has never been more important to adequately recruit and manage top business talent.

For emerging economies, the problem is that executives are scarce, expensive, and hard to retain. A 2008 survey by Ashridge/EABIS and the UN Principles of Responsible Management reports that 76% of senior executives believe their organizations need to develop global-leadership capabilities, but only 7% of executives think they are doing this very effectively. There are also challenges in the West, where the proportion of staff ready to relocate and expatriate for a job has decreased over time.

Second, business leaders are beginning to rethink and redefine business as usual. Megatrends like ‘sustainability’ and ‘shared value’ call for a more engaged relationship with civil society, and output that goes beyond pure profit. The economic effects of aging, income and population growth are stressing the public sector beyond capacity, with the remaining responsibility falling to business.

A need is emerging for leaders to become “tri-sector athletes”[1], effectively adapting to crises by understanding and navigating the private, public, and civil society sectors.

This translates into an expanded scope of work, and different recruitment criteria. A McKinsey Global Survey reported that 63% of business respondents already feel that their organizations build effective relationships with governments and communities. Increasingly, businesses need to go further and build direct rapport with customers. Greater scrutiny of all business aspects has magnified the complexity of managing risk, and justified the importance of “adaptive” leadership.

Education: Creating the Pipeline for Future Leaders

There are clear evolutions in the aspirations of current Generation Y job seekers. Research by Net Impact organization shows that 65% of graduating students expect to make some impact for good 6 years after starting their first job. 74% of job-seeking students want to work for organizations that share their values, and 65% want the possibility to contribute to society as part of their job.

There are also indications that business school administrators are responding to demand. In 2007, the Financial Times reported that 84% of the top 50 Global MBA programs required some ethics or CSR component in their curricula. The UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (UN PRME) were created to inspire and champion responsible management education, research and thought leadership. 463 universities and business schools are current adherents to the six core principles. The Aspen Institute’s “Beyond Grey Pinstripes” project creates an online repository of B-school classes worldwide that in integrate social, environmental or ethical perspectives. Finally, continued growth of Net Impact, a student-run organization, signifies growing interest in more socially responsible careers (for example in the nascent field of Corporate Social Responsibility).

However, research by the Business Civic Leadership Centre, the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association, and IBM shows there is much to be done to formalize the corporate responsibility (CR) profession. Professional recognition of the role of a CR officer is limited by the lack of a formal certification, professional association, or clear toolkit of knowledge and skills tracing a clear career path for aspiring practitioners. Furthermore, the number of CR-related dissertations has consistently stagnated at around 25% of the number of dissertations in finance fields.

The corporate move up the food chain from reactive traditional business to proactive global-but-local management must be catalyzed by forward-thinking educational institutions. Though a formal CSR career track may be premature, business schools that are attuned to student demand for social and environmental content are better aligned to meet the future corporate demand for tri-sector leaders.

Nicolas Picard is the 2012 Corporate Social Investment Fellow at Changing Our World’s New York office. Currently a Master’s candidate at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Public Policy and Management, Nicolas is also co-directing an international consulting non-profit (SCIO) doing development work in Ghana. Before graduate school, Nicolas was working in development at the United Nations University and in curriculum-design at a Singaporean micro-business school. Nicolas is French and holds a B.A. in International Development from McGill University in Canada.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aquila, Kate, Martin Dewhurst, and Suzanne Heywood. “McKinsey Global Survey results – Managing at global scale.” McKinsey Quarterly June 2012: McKinseyQuarterly.com. Web. 12 Aug. 2012.

Barton, Dominic, Andrew Grant, and Michelle Horn. “Leading in the 21st Century.” McKinsey Quarterly June 2012: McKinseyQuarterly.com. Web. 12 Aug. 2012.

Dewhurst, Martin, Jonathan Harris, and Suzanne Heywood. “The global company’s challenge.” McKinsey Quarterly June 2012: McKinseyQuarterly.com. Web. 12 Aug. 2012.

Dewhurst, Martin, Matthew Pettigrew, and Ramesh Srinivasan. “How multinationals can attract the talent they need.” McKinsey Quarterly June 2012: McKinseyQuarterly.com. Web. 12 Aug. 2012.

Ghemawat, Pankaj. “Developing Global Leaders.” McKinsey Quarterly June 2012: McKinseyQuarterly.com. Web. 12 Aug. 2012.

Gitsham, Matthew, and Jo Wackrill. “Launch of landmark report on the rapidly changing role of business leaders.” IBLF.org. International Business Leaders Forum, 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 12 Aug. 2012. <http://www.iblf.org/latest-news/2011-2012/March-29-2012-IBLF-Ashridge-report-launch.aspx>.

Jackson, James. “Outsourcing and Insourcing Jobs in the U.S. Economy: Evidence Based on Foreign Investment Data.” Congressional Research Service (2012): irl.cornell.edu. Web. 12 Aug. 2012.

“The State of the Corporate Responsibility Profession.” bclc.uschamber.com. Business Civic Leadership Center, n.d. Web. 12 Aug. 2012. <bclc.uschamber.com/sites/default/files/documents/files/FINAL_CR_Profession_Report_0.pdf>.

The rise of China, the Euro crisis, sluggish domestic economic recovery. These events are catalyzed by momentous global shifts in population demographics, labor provision, industrial structure, and financial integration. Together with a mounting imperative for sustainable business operations, the restructuring of economies and industries worldwide will have far-reaching implications for business and the corporate social engagement (CSE) space. As a window into this year’s Corporate Investment Fellowship, Changing Our World’s summer Fellow Nicolas Picard will share his perspective on timely topics that intersect with these large macroeconomic trends.  Look out for the full report to be released later this year.

Of the 470 clauses outlined in the new Indian Companies Bill, the section mandating corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending by large companies came as a surprise to many CEOs and philanthropists. The corporate act contained the world’s first compulsory CSR clause, and makes India one of four other developing countries which have incorporated some type of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) stipulations in company regulation.

Though government-mandated corporate reporting of ESG issues is not new (between 1995 and 2008, 24 countries have instituted one or more compulsory regulations)[1], Clause 135 would be the first time a government makes holistic CSR a mandatory legal requirement, determined by a financial threshold. Debate around corporate philanthropy and CSR has a long and complex history in India. Indeed, the two terms are often used interchangeably, with some corporate families letting philanthropic passions dictate their CSR activities[2].

The bill has thus far generated a lot of debate. The former director of Tata Sons, one of India’s most revered company (and a well-known actor in the philanthropic space), has stated his outright opposition to mandatory reporting[3]. In an effort to appease criticism, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs recently changed the language in the act (to be presented to parliament in the coming months) so that companies must explain themselves to shareholders if they fail to spend at least 2% of average net profits on CSR.  A parliamentary panel has opposed this softer language, saying it will provide a “security valve” for irresponsible companies[4].

In an effort to clear the air, the government submitted national voluntary guidelines for responsible businesses in July of last year, outlining nine core principles, implementation guidelines, and a reporting framework in keeping with a broad array of industries[5]. However, before the government can begin to work effectively with the corporate community on an acceptable definition of CSR, there needs to be further debate and consultation regarding the merits of mandatory versus voluntary regulation.

Although research has shown that adoption of mandatory sustainability reporting has led to increased social responsibility of business leaders[6], the same causal link may not hold for mandatory CSR spending. Indeed, CSR casts a wider strategic net than sustainability, and ‘mandatory spending’ sounds an awful lot like a corporate tax in a country not known for its tax compliance[7]. And what of the new breed of firms which are pursuing triple bottom line profits? Should the Tata Group, innovator of a low-cost water purification device for “bottom billion” consumers, be subjected to further commitments to society[8]? Going forward, it will be important for stakeholders in India and elsewhere to weigh in on the merits and pitfalls of government mandating corporations’ societal contract.

Nicolas Picard is the 2012 Corporate Social Investment Fellow at Changing Our World’s New York office. Currently a Master’s candidate at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Public Policy and Management, Nicolas is also co-directing an international consulting non-profit (SCIO) doing development work in Africa. Before graduate school, Nicolas was working in development at the United Nations University and in curriculum-design at a Singaporean micro-business school. Nicolas is French and holds a B.A. in International Development from McGill University in Canada.

When: Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 5:00 PM

Where: New York University Furman Hall, Room 214; 245 Sullivan Street, New York

How:  RSVP to cic.rsvp@nyu.edu

Why:   The Center on International Cooperation at New York University presents a panel discussion on the occasion of the launch of the United Nations Development Programme’s 2011 Annual Report on Strengthening Rule of Law in Crisis-Affected and Fragile Situations. Introductory remarks by Mr. Jordan Ryan, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Panelists include: Ms. Christiana Tah, Minister of Justice, Liberia; His Honor Chancellor Kamal Bashir Idhan, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Libya; Justice Kalyan Shrestha, Supreme Court of Nepal. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Bruce Jones, Director of the NYU Center on International Cooperation, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

The high-level panelists will share their personal experiences in strengthening rule of law during highly complex political transitions, highlighting the opportunities and challenges of working towards this goal with international agencies such as UNDP. UNDP’s Global Programme on Strengthening the Rule of Law in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations frames UNDP’s activities on issues of justice, security, and rule of law in crisis contexts. It creates linkages between engagement on protection with rule of law, and on humanitarian action with development principle.

New York Idealist Grad Fair

When: Tuesday June 19, 5:00pm-8:00pm

Where: 113 West 60th Street, New York

How: RSVP and view list of participating institutions here

Why: University Graduate and Professional Schools is proud to host the New York Idealist Graduate Fair. The fair will provide an opportunity to learn about a range of graduate programs offered by local, national and international universities, engage with admissions advisors about specific programs, application requirements, and deadlines attend a panel discussion about admissions and financial aid.

What Role Can Philanthropy Play in Restoring Civility to Our Society? – 2012 Spring Colloquium

When: Friday June 15, 10:00am-1:00pm

Where: Philanthropy New York, 79 Fifth Ave., 4th floor, NYC

How: Register here

Why: Every other year, the Council brings together recognized thought leaders from both the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors for a conversation exploring topics of critical interest to the future of the social sector. The 2012 Spring Colloquium will explore the extraordinary loss of civility in our society, what does it mean for the social sector and what role can we play in restoring it.

In schools and health centers, town halls, church grounds, and Congress we are losing the ability to negotiate, to compromise, to work and live together. Regardless of the focus of your work – education, health, environment, redevelopment, workforce or something else – the push to take sides, to draw lines in the sand, to create “wedge issues” is spreading like a cancer on our society.

In its wake we see our ability to have a positive impact undermined. Students can’t learn if they are fearful of bullying; neighborhoods can’t come together to rebuild if leaders won’t get along; charities doing good work can’t raise what they need if they are pitted against one another. And Congress, polarized as never before, becomes paralyzed at a time when we can least afford it.

Join your grantmaking colleagues to attend a live video feed from the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers 2012 Spring Colloquium. Bring your brownbag lunch and learn how the loss of civility in our society impacts the work we do.

Presenters

• Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University
• David Bornstein, Author of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas
• Cathy Raphael, Chair of the Board of Directors, Ms. Foundation for Women
• Chris Satullo, Vice President, News and Civic Dialogue, WHYY Inc.

When: Wednesday-Thursday June 13-14, 8:00am-6:30pm

Where: Museum of Jewish Heritage 36 Battery Park Place, New York

How: Register here

Why: Join the Social Impact Exchange community of funders, social investors, philanthropists, and advisors to share knowledge, learn about innovative co-funding opportunities and develop a marketplace to help scale top-performing initiatives and build the field of scaling social impact.

• Strategies to achieve large-scale impact.
• How funder collaboratives can support scaling efforts.
• How major donors can co-fund with foundations to scale impact.
• Financial sustainability and exit strategies.

Speakers:

• Melody C. Barnes, CEO, Melody Barnes Solutions and Former Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council
• William I. Campbell, Senior Advisor, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• Katherine Fulton, President, Monitor Institute
• Patrick McCarthy, President and CEO, The Annie E. Casey Foundation

The Innovation Fund was first announced back in November 2011 at the Inaugural Bipartisan Conference on Innovation in Giving and Philanthropy by the Alliance for Global Good (AFGG).  It has since been designed and developed by Changing Our World, in partnership with AFGG.

To find out more about the Innovation Fund, click here

Two of our FLiP staff members Grace Spangler and Irene Kelly, attended this year’s NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco on April 2-4. They discuss their reactions and major takeaways from the conference below:

Grace: Well, it’s been a little over a month since we left NTC 2012 in San Francisco, and I am still working on processing what I learned there.

Irene: Me too. There was so much! I usually leave conferences with only a few takeaways, but I left this one with so many ideas for our clients. How many sessions did you end up going to?

Grace: I went to seven total. It really was great to be surrounded by people from all walks of the nonprofit sector, you know?

Irene: It was. There were so many people there from all types of organizations. I was even more impressed by the variety of titles there; Leadership, IT, marketing, fundraising and the list goes on! It was definitely more than just “tech” people. Maybe we’re all becoming techies!

Grace: Oh absolutely. I am an aspiring techie at best, and I felt right at home.

Irene: It’s incredible that so many organizations made the Nonprofit Technology Conference a priority for all levels and titles. It shows how many organizations are evolving into the digital age.

Grace: Definitely. I also found it interesting to hear what strategies were working well for organizations of all sizes, but also which weren’t. It was an opportunity for members of digital teams to vent a bit, and to help solve each others problems in the process.

Irene: What types of problems were most people having?

Grace: Some concerns about how to integrate the ideas and innovations that come out of a conference like this. I heard a lot of conversations about how to make technology a part of the “culture” of an organization.

Irene: I heard a lot of that, too. A common question in every session I attended was “This information is great, but how do I get buy in from leadership or manage the leadership’s excitement and expectations?”

Grace: And what was the response?

Irene: It seems that organizations fell into two categories: (1) lack of buy-in from leadership around the digital world, or (2) extreme enthusiasm from the leadership around the digital space (this one seems like the ideal, but I heard many managers say it led to being pulled in many directions and led to distraction). It doesn’t seem like there are many organizations there that have found the perfect balance yet

Grace: I mean, that also makes sense, with the landscape changing so frequently and rapidly but it also helps you see the value in getting a group like this together.

Irene: Definitely — which is why it’s exciting to see so much representation from leadership there.

Grace: Many of my sessions were focused around technology as it relates to fundraising, so there was also a lot of conversation around how to have fundraisers and communications teams work with program staff to work together with new platforms.

Irene: How did they suggest that these teams collaborate?

Grace: Well, it varied by the size and scope of the organization. Suggestions ranged from having bi-weekly brownbag lunches to discuss new social media platforms to having program staff generate content for platforms by using a flipcam or iphone to film the work that they are already doing.

There was also a great session on content curation that emphasized the ways sites like Pinterest can help maximize efficiencies for organizations of all sizes, both internally and externally.

Irene: Great ideas. One suggestion I heard was to send out bi-weekly reports that track the “essential” data on your platforms (taken from Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, etc.). The data in these reports should show your progress towards achieving goals that were originally set for the website and other digital properties.

Goals were a major discussion point in many of my sessions. Every digital property should have goals around them. These goals should include not only the organizations goals, but also the audience’s goals. If a user isn’t getting what they want out of an organization’s digital properties, then he/she isn’t going to interact with them.

Grace: Agreed.

Irene: This was a common answer in sessions where managers asked about how to manage enthusiasm at their organization, too. When someone in leadership asks why the organization wasn’t doing something new in the digital space, a manager can present the goals that were previously set forth to illustrate why that new technology won’t align with the goals for the organization’s digital properties.

Grace: I think that was one of the biggest takeaways from my conversations throughout the week. It’s all about alignment and integration. The best applications of new technologies are those that enhance the work that’s already being done by an organization, not just because it’s shiny and new.

Irene: Absolutely. Everything should work towards a goal.

Irene: I think in the “Story of Stuff” presentation, we saw real integration and alignment in action. Annie Leonard, the co-director of The Story of Stuff Project, shared her “offline” strategy for engaging people and this was well reflected and well aligned in their digital strategy as presented by Christina Samala, the Director of Online Strategy & Media for The Story of Stuff Project.

Grace: I completely agree. And I’m a great little case study on that. I found the Story of Stuff Facebook page right after her talk, and have been sharing articles and updates with friends of mine since then. They have done a great job taking something that started as a lecture series and launching it with great success on social media platforms. She’s reaching an audience she never thought possible, all while generating the same content she always had.

Irene: She’s also using the same basic strategies online as she was using offline — strategies like: keep the message simple, don’t talk down to your audience, don’t talk about yourself all the time, etc. These are all points we learn in fundraising when interacting with a donor in person; why would it not carry over online?

With that said, I think it’s a lot more difficult than it seems. It’s like having a donor with you (in person) all the time.

Grace: Right, and that’s where the curation piece comes in.

Irene: What did you think of the Nonprofits and Innovation panel? It was pretty controversial.

Grace: I thought it was really interesting; I liked the idea that nonprofits have as much right to innovation as for profit organizations and that making room for innovation is just as important for nonprofits, maybe even more so.

Irene: I was struck by the discussion of how it’s a high risk/high reward scenario. As you said, Innovation is extremely important for nonprofits, but they also have a lot more to lose. Beyond losing funders, their risks will impact and could hurt the community they’re trying to help.

Grace: It’s the same story that’s been told again and again in the private sector over the past 20 or so years, but the stakes are so much higher from nonprofits. There’s a lot more to lose than profit margins when you are talking about human service organizations, or healthcare, or education.

Irene: Definitely. Brian Reich (who we interviewed back in October) mentioned that this fear of potential failure leads to a culture of iterations instead of innovation. Nonprofits will keep improving on the last model instead of reworking the problem and creating an innovative new model.

Do you think some of the organizations there will accept his challenge to nonprofits to give up fundraising for 30 days and come up with solutions to the problems they’re trying to solve?

Grace:  Well, judging by the reactions of people in the room, there are a lot of people who are adamantly against the idea, but I think it would be an interesting exercise.

Irene: It would be and it could potentially bring some incredible results. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s realistic.

Grace: And I think a lot of the audience agreed with you.

Irene: I loved Meg Garlinghouse’s idea of next year’s panel featuring nonprofit leaders that tried something new and failed in the last year. It would be interesting to hear what they tried and learned.

It would also help the rest of the community feel a bit more comfortable with the idea of failure.

Grace: Yes! Exactly. Presenting concrete ideas that have happened would make risk-taking less scary for nonprofits.

Grace: What was your biggest takeaway from the whole week?

Irene: My biggest takeaway, in terms of nonprofit strategy, was that it’s important to have digital staff at high levels in the organization, if not at the c-level. Having someone at this level allows the organization to fully integrate a digital strategy into the organization’s overall goals. A thought out, well-planned digital strategy also means less “shiny object syndrome” from staff and leadership, alike. It’s important that organizations think of digital less like a toy and more like a tool. Organizations need a staff person that is experienced with this tool and can create strategies around it.

Irene: Tactically, I’m not sure I could pick just one major takeaway! Sending a bi-weekly dashboard (with major analytics related to goals) to staff and leadership was a great idea, though.

Irene: How about you? What was your biggest takeaway?

Grace: I think the biggest thread throughout the week for me was the importance of “demystifying” technology for your organization. The first step is thinking about digital integration in a realistic way, ensuring that you have the funding and the staff in place to allow it to succeed and then working toward making it a part of the culture of your organization, to avoid that “shiny object syndrome” that you mentioned.

Grace: But mostly, I just can’t wait till next year.

Irene: Agreed! NTC 2013 in Minneapolis will be a blast!

Read FLiP’s immediate reactions to the various sessions on our Twitter Page, twitter.com/networkflip.

Changing Our World is a proud sponsor of NTEN. For more information on NTEN and its members, or to register early for next year’s conference, please visit www.nten.org.

Are you a nonprofit interested in learning more about how to develop your digital philanthropy strategy?  Changing Our World’s innovative digital practice helps nonprofits develop and implement digital strategies that increase revenue and impact. Follow us @fundraiseonline or contact us here, we’d love to hear from you.

SW now reaches children in more than 150 countries across the world. Can you discuss how you bring new programs or expand existing programs into new countries?

There is really no one way in which we establish new programs. Sometimes we are invited by a local NGO or funder to assess whether Sesame Street can make a difference, and whether the local infrastructure needed to support a media project exists. Other times, we are more strategic in terms of deliberately thinking about where we want to be and why. We are always looking to see how we can address the core needs that have been locally identified as the most pressing. For example, in Northern Ireland, Sesame was well-positioned to address issues around social inclusion, mutual respect and understanding in a society emerging from conflict.  Our Sesame Tree program, which included broadcast on Cbeebies, web content on the BBC and educational outreach materials, was able to deliver on a unique set of objectives that no other media property could tackle.

We are now taking stock, assessing where our areas of focus should be. Africa, China and India are among our key priorities in the next few years.

Can you highlight one program that demonstrates the success of SW’s model?

In Egypt, with Alam Simsim, we established the program under the auspices of USAID and built a local coalition of partners. We deliberately selected talent from an ad agency, trained them to do children’s educational media and helped to build their capacity. Over the course of ten years we built a strong base of local support, and we made significant inroads in the areas of girls’ education.  We now have local partners in Egypt who are stewarding Alam Simsim, helping to build a sustainable long term presence to maximize the value of their local Sesame project.

India is an example of a different model for success. There, we set up the first wholly-owned subsidiary of SW, Sesame Workshop India, managing the production of our program there, Galli Galli Sim Sim. We built a local staff that is creating a relevant Sesame Street experience for Indian preschoolers, and exploring new platforms and content formats that will work best in India.  Through a new model for SW, they are opening the first SW preschool (a separate for-profit company), as a way to align both mission and revenue objectives. Through this venture, they can offer a higher quality preschool education at an affordable price; while simultaneously creating a sustainable revenue stream that can cross subsidize its other outreach activities.

What are the most common challenges SW faces within its international programming?

We are always looking to understand the best way to reach the most kids with the best content, in a financially responsible way. There is no one size fits all formula and we need to apply all of our lessons-learned differently to each new country and project. Achieving a long term meaningful presence is always our goal, but it is often a challenge.

For example, in Northern Ireland, we developed two seasons of television programming supported by various funders; pursuing a third season of television production was not feasible given shifts in funding patterns and the effects of the financial crisis on other funding sources. We also recognized that Sesame Tree would perhaps have the greatest benefit as an on ground outreach project, utilizing many of the media assets that had already been created.   We are now developing a strategic partnership with an organization called Early Years , with whom we’ve partnered in the past around the development and distribution of our materials. We believe they can effectively use Sesame as a strategic asset to deliver on our mutual goals around promoting respect and understanding amongst the preschool population in the Northern Ireland.

SW continues to be relevant and successful more than 40 years after it was established. What do you attribute that to?

We don’t settle and just sit on our laurels. We are constantly reinventing and trying to stay relevant. Our brand has so much trust and is universally loved by people- from parents to educators to government officials. In fact, there is a waiting list for celebrities that want to appear on Sesame Street; this gives our programming a level of caché. It reinforces that we do something unique and in a way that is fun, funny relevant, thoughtful and measureable in terms of the impact we deliver. Also, we are always interested in doing new things or reaching new audiences – for instance, we launched programming targeted at military families in the U.S.

Many of members of FLiP have grown up with SW. What advice do you have for young professionals navigating the philanthropic / nonprofit sector during these challenging economic times?

Don’t accept conventional guidance or formulas from your parents or more mature advisors because they may no longer work or be relevant.  We are living in dynamic times. Don’t assume what worked yesterday will work tomorrow.

To learn more about Sesame Workshop, visit www.sesameworkshop.org

“Haiti: Where Did the Money Go?” – a special UNA-NY panel, including a screening of the film by Michele Mitchell

When: Monday, March 12, 2012 at 6:00 PM

Where: Steelcase, Inc. 4 Columbus Circle (58th Street at Eight Avenue)

How:  For more information and to register, visit http://www.unanyc.org/events/current/20120312_media_panel_haiti.html

Why:   In January 2010, when a 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti, people across the world gave more generously than to any disaster in history. In the United States alone, half of all households gave a total of $1.4 billion to charities. Yet almost two years later more than half a million people still live in squalid camps. Only a few have access to drinking water. Sanitation is woefully inadequate. Malnutrition and cholera are on the rise. What happened?  The award-winning journalist and author, Michelle Mitchell of Film at Eleven, takes her cameras to the camps and asks: why did so much money buy so little relief?  This event features a film screening, followed by a panel discussion, which will include Manolia Charlotin

Editor, Boston Haitian Reporter and co-founder of the HAITI 2015 campaign; Jonathan M. Katz, Award-winning journalist and former AP chief correspondent in Haiti; Michele Mitchell, CEO and Executive Editor, Film@11; and Amanda Pitt, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).  FLiPpers interested in learning more about the results and impact of a massive philanthropic effort such as this should consider attending.  The event is free for UNA members, and $15.00 for non-members and guests.

Issues In Depth Webinar Series: Driving Sustainability From A Functional Role: Product Management

When: Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM PT

Where: Online

How: Visit http://netimpact.org/learn/webinar-calendar for more information and to register

Why: When we think of careers in corporate responsibility or sustainability, we often think of a dedicated CSR Manager or Chief Sustainability Officer, spending his or her working days trying to bring people, planet, and profits together. But when we look closer at the people who arguably have the most impact on responsible or sustainable business, a different picture emerges. More and more, we see people in “regular” functional roles such as operations, strategy, marketing and product development leveraging sustainability to do their day job. These professionals are helping to define — and redefine — how their companies do business.

Companies are starting to recognize that addressing social and environmental impacts during product development can have a substantial impact on both cost savings and revenue generation. As a result, many companies are placing an emphasis on integrating sustainability into the product management role, and are looking for individuals skilled in idea generation, materials analysis, prototype development, testing and deployment, and pricing analysis. Hear how two professionals at Intuit discovered and drove an opportunity to first extend the FreeCycle model to the workplace and then launched a new Intuit product offering: FreeCycle@Work, currently used by over 2000 companies.  Speakers include Intuit professionals  Greg Collins, Senior Marketing Manager, and Tom Cushna, Staff Business Analyst; and moderator Jo Mackness, Executive Director of the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business.  FLiPpers interested in incorporating the principals of corporate social responsibility into new areas of their business should consider joining this webinar.

Put Your Ideals Into Practice: Doctors Without Borders Info Session – New York

When: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 7:00 PM

Where: Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres 333 Seventh Avenue, 2nd Floor New York, NY

How: visit http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org for more information, and to register.

Why: Every day, Doctors Without Borders aid workers from around the world provide assistance to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe – treating those most in need regardless of political, religious, or economic interest. Whether an emergency involves armed conflicts or epidemics, malnutrition or natural disasters, Doctors Without Borders is committed to bringing quality medical care to people caught in crisis. FLiPpers interested in becoming involved with Doctors Without Borders should consider attending, whether they are medical professionals or not.  Attendees will meet experienced Doctors Without Borders aid workers from the New York area and hear their firsthand stories of “life in the field.” An aid worker and Human Resources Officer will discuss requirements and the application process.

“So You Want to Be an Executive Director?” What It Really Takes to Lead a Nonprofit Organization

When: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Where: The Foundation Center. 79 Fifth Avenue, between 15th and 16th Streets, Second Floor, New York, NY

How:  visit http://grantspace.org/Classroom/Training-Calendar/New-York/So-You-Want-to-Be-an-Executive-Director-What-It-Really-Takes-to-Lead-a-Nonprofit-Organization-2012-03-28-New-York-NY for more information and to register.

Why: Part of The Foundation Center’s four-part series of panel presentations that will focus on components of nonprofit sustainability, this session is focused on developing effective nonprofit leaders.  The discussion of leadership capacity will focus on these questions:  What are characteristics of effective nonprofit leaders?  What does it take to build leadership capacity and increase leadership depth within an organization?  What are the real demands on nonprofit executive directors, and what does true organizational leadership entail?  How can an organization foster collective leadership?

Presenter Rae Linefsky, principal of C3 Consulting, will lead the workshop.  FLiPpers who hope to have a leadership role in a nonprofit organization should consider attending this free event.

Webinar: Strategic Partnerships: Unlock the Keys to Maximizing Cross-Sector Relationships

When: Thursday, March 29, 2012  1:00 PM EST

Where: Online

How: For more information, and to register, visit www.changingourworld.com

Why: Great ideas, innovation, and sustainable solutions are what we all hope for when corporations and nonprofits come together to achieve a goal.  The results of high quality partnerships can be powerful, yet the hard work required to discover and effectively maximize the strengths of each organization requires creativity, discipline, and commitment.  Speakers include DeShele Dorsey, Senior Managing Director, Corporate Social Engagement at Changing Our World; Jill Bramble, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer at the National 4-H Council; and Bernard J. Milano, president and trustee of the KPMG Foundation and president and trustee of the KPMG Disaster Relief Fund.  FLiPpers who are looking for new insights on how to build and sustain strategic partnerships and better equip their organization to face potential partnership obstacles should consider registering.