On Tuesday evening, the famed cartoonist Milt Gross made an appearance at the Council on Foundations annual conference. In a session called Strategic Philanthropy: Theory and Practice, the speaker Paul Brest, President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, flashed on the monitor a cartoon of howling wolves gathered at the edge of a cliff. One of the wo…

The Council on Foundations deserves two thumbs up for putting together a thought-provoking leadership summit that attracted philanthropists and foundation staff from across the globe. Unfortunately, their effort to communicate what was happening at the event to people who could not attend was less successful.

The homepage of the Council on Foundations does not feature a single headline about the conference. Visitors can…

Last night, attendees of the Council on Foundation’s annual conference were treated to a special event at the recently opened Newseum in Washington DC. Filmmaker Katrina Browne—a descendent of the DeWolf family, the largest slave trading family in the United States during the 19th century—took audience members on a 1.5 hour journey across geographic, historic, and racial borders.

In Traces of the Trade: A…

For micro-philanthropy groupies, including me, yesterday’s session on Philanthropy 2.0 at the Council on Foundation’s annual conference featured a star studded panel. The founders of DonorsChoose, Facebook Causes, and The Motley Fool we…

I’m tucked away in a remote corner of the enormous Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center, the site of this year’s annual conference of the Council on Foundations.

Before heading over to the next event, I want to quickly share seven tips I heard today on how foundations can “push the envelope” of philanthropy.

The following ideas come from three sources:

• An interview with Bill Somerville, author of “Grassroots Philanthropy”
• A session called “Social En
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