Operating Archetypes Webinar - Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

credit: Photo courtesy to the Amador Ledger Dispatch

Operating Archetypes is a new resource created by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to help philanthropies and other donors better understand their distinct position in the philanthropy ecosystem. The webinar was moderated by Renee Karibi-Whyte, Senior Vice President of RPA. A Talent Agency is in the business of spotting emerging leaders, often using open competitions to get new ideas into the field. An Underwriter is an insurance company is an underwriter, although they're kind of close to it. There is no philanthropy that works the way a Talent Agency does, although that would be fun to see.

A Campaign Manager partners with other organizations and often the public sector to try and tackle a very big, complicated problem that needs a lot of players. Think Tanks don't just fund experts in a field, they hire experts and bring them into their enterprise. Field Builders look to fill in gaps where things don't even exist. The California Wellness Foundation's mission is to support health and wellness across the state of California. Georgia's organization Humanize works with sustainability and income generation of vulnerable populations in Brazil.

Richard's top three out Operating Archetypes are Campaign Manager, Field Builder, and Venture Catalyst. I think the power of archetypes is it helps you understand both your intention and what it is that you're doing. It's a combination of things, and all the archetypes bring some angle that you've never thought about as a donor in the ecosystem. Richard and Renee ask Georgia and Melissa about whether their teams are equipped to operate in the archetypal mode of Sower and Designer. Georgia: Net weaving helps us to evolve as a group of systematic thinkers on how to do philanthropy in these tough times.

Many of the people that we spoke to talked about transitioning from one kind of archetype to another, as the field they're working in changes. We are moving into a period at Cal Wellness where we're examining our current strategic framework. It's a strategic planning tool I find really valuable. Are we achieving what we intended? What's happening in response to the way that we're behaving in the world?

And what capacities do we need to build out? Thinking about how you assess your internal capacity is a great opportunity for funders for many reasons. One of the innovations that we've seen in the last 10 years is recognizing what Georgia called soft power: influence, convening capacity, voice. Those require a different set of muscles, and skills may be there, but you may need to work inside your organization to develop those muscles.

Read the Entire Article

How's Your Community Doing?
Check Out it's
Community Vital Signs

More Than $82 Million Nih Grant to Propel Ccts Forward
Foundation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have been awarded $82 million over seven years from the National Center for Advancing Digital Sciencea record-breaking amount for the center,...more

R.I. Foundation Awards $360K to 15 Medical Research Projects
Foundation: Rhode Island Foundation

Love is in the air, at least when it comes to the research projects funded by the Rhode Island Foundation. The nonprofit has awarded more than $360,000 in seed funding to 15 medical research...more

Four Mdc Students Awarded Prestigious Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarships
Foundation: Jack Kent Cooke Foundation

Four Miami Dade College students were surprised with "life-changing news" this week: They'd been named recipients of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation's Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, which...more

North East Foundation Passes Amazing £1Million Milestone Helping Communities

"To be able to invest a further ? 1 million in the North East at a time of such economic challenge for many is a privilege for the Foundation trustees, and we're thrilled to see the difference it...more

Community Foundation Welcomes New Staff
Foundation: Gates Foundation, Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, Packard Foundation

The Community Foundation of Jackson Hole in Wyoming has been named one of the nation's top 100 not-for-profit organizations by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Jackson Hole News & Guide...more

A Tribute to Ellsworth Kelly
Foundation: Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation

Ellsworth Kelly, widely considered the father of abstract art, died last week at his home in upstate New York at the age of 92. But his legacy lives on in the form of $1.5 million in grants to...more

Welded Art Pieces Created by Students Decorate Downtown Wausau

"It's really exciting to see students be able to learn that welding and manufacturing can have an artistic flair," the executive director of the Center for Visual Arts in Wausau, Wis., tells...more

Pottery Presentation

A wood-fired pottery kiln is a centuries-old tradition that's been passed down from generation to generation in Louisiana, and now it's making its way to western New York. The Buffalo News...more

Toddler-Targeted Smartwatches : Training Watch

The latest trend in kids' smartwatches is one that encourages healthy habits from an early age.NehBaby, a device from Kickstarter, aims to help kids ages 2 to 8 learn how to drink water, take a...more

Opinion: An Opportunity to Help Law Enforcement Protect Children

"If your child is surfing the web in Manchester, they can be targeted by a bad actor halfway around the world," writes John Pizzuro in an op-ed for the New Hampshire Union Leader. And that's why...more