The Future of Philanthropy Looks Bright

Eileen R. Heisman is teaching for the 22nd time the Philanthropy & Fundraising Survey Course at the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. This year, Eileen has philanthropy expert and practitioner Barrie Levine as her Co-Instructor and Steven Field as the Graduate Teaching Fellow.

👩‍🎓 👩🏾‍🎓 🧑🏽‍🎓 There are 21 students in the class all of whom were pretty engaged last night and I saw no laptops out, all were taking notes with pen and paper.

🏫 This is one class I wish I had in grad school with broad coverage of current and perennial issues facing the nonprofit landscape. 

🌃 Last night, it was a thrill to return with two other outstanding individuals (see below) to share a literature review as well as a slice of my research on the market for philanthropy of LGBTQ+ funders and donors. 

===> I followed marketing and communications expert Tina Terrell Brown, MBA from The Giving Gap, now in its fifth year, has successfully been working to close the racial gap in giving by uplifting Black-founded nonprofits.

===> Closing the presentations, nonprofit data expert and impact strategy leader Héc Maldonado-Reis, MS, AM, MPH (who is currently pursuing a doctorate in public health, leadership, practice and research at Rutgers School of Public Health), shared practices and high level approaches to understanding how nonprofits can use data for strategy and decision making.

💵 As part of my presentation, I explained that I use the same process of research for other movements to identify new sources of revenue including but not limited to:

* Indian diaspora in the United States giving practices to programs and services in India;

* Western European and North American supporters of education and community development in Africa; and,

* Chinese American philanthropy within the United States. 

Thanks to Eileen, Barrie, and Steven for making the experience meaningful for all of us.