Uncharitable by Dan Pallotta

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing Dan Pallotta present at the Texas Nonprofit Summit.

Dan Pallotta is an expert in nonprofit sector innovation and a pioneering social entrepreneur. He is the founder of Pallotta TeamWorks, which invented the multi-day AIDSRides and Breast Cancer 3-Days. He is the president of Springboard and the author of Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential.

He is an inspiring presenter who is working to revolutionize the social sector by changing perception on how nonprofits should operate and the expectations that we as donors and funders have in those missions.

I encourage everyone to read the book Uncharitable and check out the presentation here. It is up for another week. When you watch it, start the video at 23 minutes to skip to his presentation.

Some of my favorite points he made:

• There are two rule books: one for charity and one for the rest of the economic world.
• We expect the nonprofit sector to rectify the results of a capitalist system but with using the tools of capitalism.
• We have made a market around overhead. As funders we ask the question, and as nonprofits we present them and stand behind them, even if the itemizing is subjective.
• Of the three major charity rating organanizations, Charity Navigator, Better Business Bureau and American Instute of Philanthropy...they rate 7700 charities and cummulatively have 28 staff members.
  

Social Innovation and the Nonprofit Sector

Last week, Bob Wright and I had a chance to present at the Texas Nonprofit Summit LINK in Austin, Texas. Our Texas Social Innovation collaborators One Star Foundation co-hosted the event with Greenlights Austin. The theme of the event was “Igniting a Nonprofit Revolution” and the keynote and presentations inspired just that. The energy was palpable as nonprofit leaders showed up to do things differently…to innovate.

Bob and I had two tracks, and in typical yin-yang fashion, each of us took the lead on the presentation style and agenda. I think the highlight of our time was meeting all the super cool nonprofit leaders who want to lead the charge on this revolution and explore new ideas. Plus, we got in trouble for having such a rowdy session each time. A success in both of our minds!

Highlights of our 90 minute sessions included:

Speed Networking - as refined through our informal network @SparkClub
Best thing about Speed Networking is how it (1) provides a structure for those who do not feel comfortable flitting about an event networking; and (2) forces unlikely connections among the "jeans and the suits"

Social Media Discussion - How web-based tools cannot be ignored in the world of giving and action. Plus, they offer a way to stay connected after an awesome speed networking experience.
After a quick review of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, we showed a cool social media “Conversation Prism” that shows myriad of tools and networks available.

Finally we shared how Dallas Social Venture Partners is working to help spark a social innovation ecosytem in North Texas through our efforts with the Texas Social Innovation Initiative and bigBANG! See the presentation.