Social Capital Lessons from the Sunday Globe

Submitted by David B. Crowley on Wed, 09/12/2012 - 6:23am
Volunteers creating a community garden

Feeling stressed by having too much to do? Maybe you should think about signing up to volunteer, or spend some time helping a neighbor with some yard work. Though this suggestion may seem rather counterintuitive, new research cited in Sunday's Boston Globe Ideas column, "How to make time expand", supports this notion. The study by three business school professors indicated that "Those who donated time, spent time doing tasks for others," felt more "time affluent" than those who wasted time or spent it on themselves. The article explains research that shows feeling time affluent is a key factor in happiness, and it is linked more to our perception of time and how we use it, as opposed to actually having free time.Read more

8 Reasons for Nonprofits to Get Social with Foundations

Submitted by David B. Crowley on Mon, 08/06/2012 - 12:32pm

I probably shouldn't be writing this blog post. I ought to relish the news that most of my nonprofit colleagues are not using social media to connect with the foundations that fund them. According to a new report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), only 16% of the grantees used at least one social media tool created by the funders included in the study. I believe the other 84% are missing out and giving a big competitive advantage to those of us that do see social media as a way to engage with funders.  I've come across thoughtful posts by the Knight Foundation  and the Patterson Foundation sharing the funder perspective on the benefits of engaging with grantees.Read more

Network Weaving: Have Lunch, Add Twitter

Submitted by David B. Crowley on Mon, 07/23/2012 - 12:56pm

How's this for network weaving? Last week, I wrote about how getting together for lunch with SCI Fall River partner Wendy Garf-Lipp led to her leading a canning workshop for Woburn residents. Today Wendy shared this anecdote of how the workshop led to a neat new re-connection for her: "My former first and fourth grade student from Providence  was visiting her boyfriend in Woburn, saw your tweet and came to the workshop without knowing it was me. Turns out Hannah works for Farm Fresh RI and is doing very similiar work that we are doing in Fall River with Partners.  We have now connected and will be meeting to see where our work intersects."Read more

Reason #97 to Build Relationships: The Canning Connection

Submitted by David B. Crowley on Thu, 07/19/2012 - 8:53am

We often preach the value of relationship building for accomplishing our goals. But I'm also a big fan of the good things that happen serendipitously when we take the time to get know people. When Wendy Garf-Lipp and I made plans to meet for lunch, I certainly didn't suspect that one result would be people in Woburn learning how to can food from one of our community partners in Fall River. This unanticipated benefit provides yet another example of why it's important to focus on relationship building. (warning: don't go searching on this site for the other 96 reasons to build relationships, my point with the title is that I could probably come up with that many instances where relationship building has proven helpful...and also that a canning class is a neat outcome yet one far removed from the top-of-list things we are working on.) Read more

6 New Social Capital Articles Worth Reading

Submitted by David B. Crowley on Thu, 07/12/2012 - 6:32am

Important social capital readings seem to come in bunches, which lend themselves to roundup posts like this. These recent articles explore how social capital can address issues like health, obesity and poverty, and include some broader lessons on social capital and social networks. We also learned of a neat to app to encourage sharing among neighbors. Enough with the preview; on with our list of interesting social capital articles we've come across in the past few weeks. Please let us know if you've come across some good social capital reading that we should check out!Read more