Definition:

friend-ly ( frend-lee) adjective

1. showing friendship

2. kind, helpful

3. inclined to approve, help or support

4. amicable

vis-i-tor (viz-i-ter) noun

1.a person who visits as for reasons of friendship, business, travel or the like.

Jewish Family Service (JFS) in Boulder is looking for volunteers for our seniors. If you consider yourself friendly and like to visit, please consider this volunteer opportunity! Many of our seniors are isolated, new to the area or just in need of a friend.

For more information, please contact Ingrid Swords, Volunteer Coordinator, at 303.415.1025 or iswords@jewishfamilyservice.org.

Both philanthropic approaches remain important, necessary and effective not only for their nonprofit beneficiaries and society at large but for the businesses that implement them, and have been discussed in prior columns (see “Businesses Have Big Stake in Improving their Communities” from The Denver Post on March 20, 2011).

Increasingly, however, businesses are implementing a third approach to addressing social problems by adding social innovation to their community investment portfolio.

In “Social Innovation, Inc: 5 Strategies for Driving Business Growth Through Social Change,“ (2011), author Jason Saul argues:

To link social change and business outcomes, companies must rethink their approach to social change. This isn’t a matter of retrofitting your existing social contract strategies with better business justifications; it’s about coming up with fresh, innovative strategies that are specifically designed to create business value through social change.”

Social innovation is not traditional corporate philanthropy, or social responsibility, or giving back, or putting values first and profits second. Rather, it is about “innovating creative, market-based solutions that result in high growth, profitable business opportunities.” To accomplish this, Saul explains how businesses can:

• Create revenues through submarket products and services.
• Enter new markets through backdoor channels.
• Build emotional bonds with customers.
• Develop new pipelines for talent.
• Influence policy through reverse lobbying.

To develop strategies to solve social problems, business leaders must first determine in what ways their business might impact, or be impacted by, social issues. Health care, education, hunger, environmental degradation, food deserts, depletion of nonrenewable natural resources, the uninsured and homelessness are just a few of the social problems that businesses impact and that impact businesses, and can be addressed with profitable business innovation.

Then ask where the company’s core competencies can make the biggest difference. In what areas of expertise is the company a market or thought leader? The answers to these preliminary questions will begin to shape the discussion of how to generate profits while making a difference in the world.

Examples of social innovation abound. Coca-Cola Recycling LLC is a for-profit subsidiary seeking to recycle 100 percent of Coke’s beverage packaging and containers in the U.S., lowering its costs of production, reusing nonrenewable resources and reducing litter. Walmart’s $4 prescriptions helped it become one of the largest pharmacies in the country, while saving consumers billions of dollars, and making access to medicine easier and more affordable for the uninsured and patients on Medicaid. Office Max’s “A Day Made Better” campaign provides free school supplies to thousands of classrooms, while boosting market share, revenues and employee engagement. Encana Oil & Gas converts nonprofit and government vehicles to cleaner, less expensive and domestically produced natural gas and partners with community colleges to train mechanics to work on those vehicles.

Encana community investment adviser Joyce Witte observes: “Everyone wins when companies generate business value through social change.”

Architect and sustainability expert William McDonough said, “There are three ways to change the world: change China, change California, or change Walmart.”

Business has unprecedented power, reach, resources and impact on the lives of nearly everyone on the planet. Letting business do what it does best — generating profits through innovation — may be our best hope for creating solutions to the challenges of our time.

This post originally appeared in the Denver Post on Sunday, January 22, 2012 and is posted here with permission by the author.

The difference between a donor and a philanthropist does not depend on how much time or money one gives to charity, but, rather, on one’s approach to giving.

A donor reacts to needs and donates time and money, often to a wide spectrum of worthy and unrelated causes. A strategic philanthropist, however, engages in a thoughtful process of ascertaining and articulating clear philanthropic values and goals, develops a proactive strategy to achieve them, collaborates with others, makes a charitable investment, and evaluates the process to determine whether desired impacts and goals are being achieved. This process helps ensure that philanthropists will not only have a greater impact on the people, organizations, or causes they wish to benefit, but will derive more satisfaction from their charitable initiatives.

Recently, several excellent books on strategic philanthropy have been published offering insights into the journey from donor to philanthropist.

In “Give Smart: Philanthropy that Gets Results” (2011), authors Thomas Tierney and Joel Fleishman state that “Whether you’re giving away your money or you are a steward of another’s money, your philanthropy is fundamentally about your values, your life, and your legacy.” Philanthropists, they suggest, should answer these questions:

• What are my values and beliefs?
• What is “success” and how can it be achieved?
• What am I accountable for?
• What will it take to get the job done?
• How do I work with grantees?
• Am I getting better?

In “Giving 2.0: Transform Your Giving and our World” (2011), author Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen asserts “to make the greatest impact, we must put our minds to work as well as our hearts. It is truly important to think beyond why and what you give to how you give. Turn your charity into strategic philanthropy. Turn reactive into proactive. By taking stock, equipping yourself with knowledge and experience, and thinking innovatively, you can make your giving an even more powerful force for good.” The book describes many ways philanthropists can increase their effectiveness.

“Do More Than Give: The Six Practices of Donors Who Change the World” (2011), by Leslie Crutchfield, John Kania and Mark Kramer, advises that the first step of a philanthropic journey is to focus on a particular cause. “Donors who do pick a strategic focus are able to achieve more than donors who scatter their funding and attention across many disparate causes. . . . [B]y getting clear on what they aim to achieve, donors are suddenly able to see what they need to do — as well as what they need to stop doing.” The authors recommend that after selecting a cause, philanthropists should:

• Advocate for change as part of the charitable initiative.
• Tap into the power of business for achieving good.
• Forge nonprofit peer networks to foster collaboration.
• Include the beneficiaries of donations in developing strategies and assessing impact.
• Employ an adaptive leadership mind-set to solve problems.
• Continue learning about what’s working and what needs to be changed to advance the cause.

Two other worthwhile books on strategic philanthropy are “The Art of Giving: Where the Soul Meets a Business Plan” (2009), by Charles Bronfman​ and Jeffrey Solomon, and “Inspired Philanthropy: Creating a Giving Plan and Leaving a Legacy” (2007), by Tracy Gary.

If you want to have more impact on both the causes you care about and on yourself, your family or your business — make the effort to become a strategic philanthropist. You’ll achieve a better return on your social investments and experience more joy and meaning in your charitable efforts. Let’s make 2012 “The Year of the Strategic Philanthropist”!

This post originally appeared in the December 18th edition of the Denver Post.  Reposted by the author.

“I can’t imagine going to sleep without my mother reading to me,” said one wide-eyed girl in the class. “We are always reading or talking about reading. Even when we’re driving in the car, my mom tells me a story or talks to me about what we’re going to read.”

The children in this classroom are participating in Light Up Literacy, an innovative Hanukkah program of Reading Village, a Boulder-based organization that brings the joy of reading to rural Guatemala, where approximately half of the population cannot read, and lives in the darkness of illiteracy.

In this particular activity, these second graders learned about their counterparts in rural Guatemala, who do not have books in their houses or people to read to them.

Light Up Literacy is a resource-rich program that teaches children the joy of g’milut chasadim (acts of loving kindness) and brings tikkun olam (social action and the pursuit of social justice) to Hanukkah. Through Light Up Literacy, our children can learn the important Hanukkah lessons of hard-won freedom, justice, and tzedakah, and be a shamash — an important source of light in the lives of others.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) recently mentioned Light Up Literacy as a way to add make Hanukkah celebrations more memorable in its December 12, 2011 article, “Giving the gift of tikkun olam.”

“We love the work of Light Up Literacy,” said Vinny Green, the K-6 administrator of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple Religious School. “We are adopting Light Up Literacy as our tzedakah (charity) project for November and December this year.”

For the third year in a row, congregations from the Reform and Conservative movements around the country will participate in this innovative Hanukkah program that teaches children the joy of giving and of helping others in need. In Los Angeles, participating congregations include the Stephen S. Wise Temple, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, and the University Synagogue.

“Through Light Up Literacy, families dedicate one night of Hanukkah to celebrate reading and the gift of literacy,” said Linda Smith, co-founder of Reading Village, the creators of Light Up Literacy. “Parents set aside money they might have otherwise spent on gifts to support reading in a country where there are few books and where the literacy rate in rural communities less than 50%.”

Because of the low literacy rate and lack of books, the cycle of parents reading to children has been broken. Reading Village is working to mend that cycle. The organization provides scholarships and leadership development training to Guatemalan teens, and in return, these youth give back to their communities by engaging young children in their community in reading activities.

By joining together with Light Up Literacy, these temples in Los Angeles will help repair this broken cycle.

Guatemala has the second lowest literacy rate in the Western Hemisphere. In rural areas only 25% of children complete the sixth grade and less than 10% go on to high school. Public school in Guatemala is not free, and the cost of tuition, books, uniforms, supplies and transportation can exceed a month’s income for just one child.

Reading Village is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit. Donations to this organization perform double duty: they keep youth in school by providing scholarships and they promote literacy through their teen reading promoter program. The organization’s vision is to transform the lives of Guatemalan children through literacy. For more information on Reading Village or to donate see www.readingvillage.org.

Susan Rona, JCC Board President, shared “What an incredible benefit for the community. I hope that people take advantage of this opportunity before the end of 2011 to support the Boulder JCC and have their gift doubled.”

While the community feels the excitement of the new JCC and we continue to receive incredibly generous commitments to the capital campaign, we still need to maintain our current operations,” said Jonathan Lev, Executive Director of the Boulder JCC. “We hope everyone will consider the important role the Boulder JCC plays in the Boulder community by making a gift to our Annual Fund and help us with everything from providing preschool scholarships to maintaining our building to providing innovative programs!”

Visit the Boulder JCC website to learn more or donate online and double the impact of your gift.

As of 8 pm Tuesday, more than $9.3 million has been raised for Colorado nonprofits, according to the Colorado Gives/Giving First website. This is a 10% increase over the $8.4 million raised last year. Think the community will raise $10 million by the cut off on Wednesday? Leave your guess below!

Check it out here.

More info: Colorado Gives Day; Won’t You?

Community First Foundation and FirstBank have partnered together in an effort to increase philanthropy in Colorado through online giving. Colorado Gives Day will take place during a 24-hour period on December 6, 2011. Donations to local charities will be accepted through the website GivingFirst.org, Community First Foundation’s online giving resource.

What’s even more interesting is that the participating non-profit organizations will each receive a “boost” – a proportionate share of a pool of $300,000.

Stepping Stones, Jewish Family Service, CAJE, Ramah of the Rockies and Rose Community Foundation are participating agencies – among many others.

This also gives us the opportunity to gently remind readers that the many organizations we enjoy in the greater Boulder Jewish community – arts, cultural, educational, social justice and more – could use a little gelt at year-end (yes, year-round, but particularly at year-end).

If you don’t find the organization listed on the GivingFirst.org website, you can give directly on organization websites and on other places like Givv.org, JustGive.org and NetworkforGood.org (we like to search “Boulder Jewish” on these sites). For links to the websites of Boulder-area organizations, look to the right side of your screen. That’s the sidebar. Look for the word “Find” in a blue box. Click on it. You’ll see a list that includes:

• Education, Youth and Camps
• Israel Organizations
• Jewish Community-Wide Organizations
• Synagogues and Communities

Each of those is a link to a directory page – and those pages have the links to the organization websites. However you get there, we hope you’ll take a moment to participate in the mitzvah of tzedakah and talk about it with your family.

David & Cheryl

Hint to local organizations: sign up now so you’re ready for next year: GivingFirst.org.

Daniel Sokatch, CEO of NIF

Daniel will discuss this summer’s social protest movement which swept through Israel. Nearly half a million Israelis took to the streets with the rallying cry: “the people demand social justice”. Among the topics he will raise:

•  How do we ensure that the people’s call for change is translated into positive social policies?
• Can we defeat the campaign by extremists to pass anti-democratic legislation and silence progressive voices in Israel?

The New Israel Fund — working since 1979 for a better, more just and compassionate Israeli society — has been supporting this grassroots movement while leading the fight against ultranationalist and religious extremist trends in Israel.

The event will be held at 7:00 pm on Thursday the 8th of December at the University of Denver at 2201 South Gaylord Street, Denver in the Sie Cheou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, Ben Cherrington Hall, room 150.

For questions or to RSVP to the event please contact elan@nif.org