January Giving Carnival - The Foundation of the Future

Below is my submission for this month's Giving Carnival hosted by Trista Harris at New Voices of Philanthropy.

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I love to think about the future.  To ask questions about what the world will look like five, ten, twenty five, or fifty years in the future is very exciting.  It’s exciting because there are so many possibilities. If I was asked to describe the foundation of the future, this would be my response:

• The Foundation of the Future will be better skilled at handing turns in the market, incoming donations, and grants.  Many foundations are realizing that it’s tough to survive the storm of a poor economy.  Economy storms rain on donations and often cause nonprofits to have to shut their doors.  This will cause foundations to become more agile and mobile in their efforts to handle what is thrown at them.

• The Foundation of the Future will learn to use automated volunteer management systems.  The best being www.1-800-volunteer.org which has everything you could ever need to recruit, manage, and maintain a solid system for managing volunteers.  I would estimate that only 3% of foundations are using this kind of a web based volunteer management software system.  The best part is that it’s usually offered for free; it’s faster than keeping manual files for each volunteer; and it’s more flexible for the individual needs of the foundation.

• The Foundation of the Future will be looking more closely at a nonprofit leader’s education and experience before selecting her for highly responsible positions.  Many Universities and colleges are now offering several different degrees in nonprofit management and consulting.  The Board of Directors for many foundations will begin focus a lot of attention to a prospective employee’s work experience and college education. 

• The Foundation of the Future will find a way to fill the small leadership vacuum which will occur when some nonprofit leaders retire out of the nonprofit sector.  I don’t believe this leadership vacuum will be nearly as large as many people believe, but I do believe there will be a small vacuum that will need to be filled.

• The Foundation of the Future will focus more attention to online fundraising.  There are some nonprofit organizations that are exploring online fundraising, but very, very few are doing it successfully.  Online fundraising is tough, and successful foundations of the future will become skilled at bringing in a steady stream of online fundraising money.

I hope that I’ve given you some ideas and insight to what The Foundation of the Future might look like in the next five, ten, twenty five, or fifty years.

Comments

[Dan]

You have a very organize and systematic vision of the future. Many entrepreneurs should hear that. Have you had the chance to visit www.YoungEntrepreneurSociety.com, the Young Entrepreneur Society has similar stuff and more. Thank you for the great read.