Philanthropy Today

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From senior editor Drew Lindsay: Jamie Merisotis arrived as CEO of the Lumina Foundation with a radical idea: to direct virtually all of the fund’s resources to improve one national statistic.

It’s rare for a foundation — particularly one as large as the $1.5 billion Lumina Foundation — to throw everything at moving the needle on one measurement. Rarer still are those that succeed. But 17 years later, Lumina has done it, or at least has come close enough to claim victory.

The foundation set out in 2008 to create a movement to lift the share of Americans with college degrees, certificates, or industry credentials from 38 percent to 60 percent. Today, that figure stands at 55 percent — improvement that arguably can boost the economy and the prosperity of individual Americans but also help close the education divide that fuels inequality and political division.

In The Commons this week, Merisotis spoke with me about the strategy behind this push and its ups and down. He also talked about the number that will drive Lumina’s work for the next 15 years. Read about his lessons and Lumina’s plan for the future.

We continue with our series of recommendations from nonprofit leaders of books, podcasts, TV shows, and movies.

At a moment when federal funding cuts and the uncertain economy are forcing groups to scramble, backfill, and reinvent, Katie Loudin is reading Reinventing Organizations, by Frederic Laloux. The deputy director of the West Virginia Community Development Hub, Loudin was a guest on our podcast episode discussing democracy efforts at the local level.

“I believe this moment in history, especially within the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, will push us into a new management paradigm. Laloux refers to it as the ‘teal’ organization, whose employees self-manage, have evolutionary purpose, and seek ‘wholeness.’ We are really pausing to examine the systems that have brought us to this moment, and we are honoring the wisdom of our staff, our partners, and our community members as we build the future in Appalachia. The idea of the ‘teal’ organization is the next management evolution, which may be upon us.”

In an age when the nation’s leaders routinely label opponents as “evil,” can we find a way to disagree better?

Tim Shriver believes we can. In recent years, the chairman of Special Olympics International has turned his attention to the idea that division in America is not the result of our differences. Rather, he thinks it’s a byproduct of how we treat each other when we disagree. Shriver is the co-creator of the Dignity Index, which ranks rhetoric — particularly that of politicians — on a scale to measure the contempt or respect we show one another.

Shriver joins Chronicle of Philanthropy deputy opinion editor Nandita Raghuram to talk about the index and how demeaning discourse deepens our polarization and increases the risk for violence.

Register now for this free, live event on LinkedIn on Tuesday, September 23, at 12 p.m. ET.

Here are a few noteworthy releases from all parts of the field:

• The New Pluralists funder collaborative released a report with lessons learned from its $10 million investment in 32 locally led, place-based projects working to bring people together across differences.
• Leaders of efforts to refashion journalism as a booster shot for ailing civic health have published “It’s Time for Civic Media,” a 52-page magazine with essays from such writers and leaders as Darryl Holliday, co-founder of City Bureau, and Jesse Hardman, co-founder of the Listening Post Collective.
• The George W. Bush Institute’s journal Catalyst devotes its summer issue to “Profiles in Pluralism,” with examinations of the “world’s most diverse organization: the U.S. military” and considerations of what diversity means today.