Bob Giloth

Green Mirage?

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:57:00 +0000

"The notion that green investments would be large, permanent net creators of jobs is mostly a mirage. Somehow these investments must be paid for. If that happens through higher prices, higher taxes or cuts in other government programs, then most green jobs will substitute for other types of jobs."

Robert Samuelson, "Obama's Economic Choice," Washington Post, December 1, 2008

Nothing like an economist throwing cold water on a fashionable idea. But I have to admit that sometimes when people talk green jobs they are really talking about government training programs or subsidized jobs, which certainly have their place, but do not represent a market-based explosion of green. And I think the green jobs movement now recognizes that a green plumber is a plumber.

But economies do grow over time with the right kinds of investments. Different types of infrastructure, whether roads, ports, or the internet, do provide platforms for private sector innovation and growth -- and thus job creation. These longer term effects in a world of global warming and diminishing oil suggest larger payoffs and job creation from smart investments in energy independence. But in the here and now? We need to put in place the policy framework, prioritize key investments, and innovate on the ground.

Public Service Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:05:00 +0000

"As a dreary Thanksgiving comes and goes, one answer is to mobilize Generation O tohelp the nation's struggling nonprofit sector...Of nearly 1 million nonprofits up and running, as many as 100,000 will fail over the coming six months...[Obama] wants to expand Americorp to 250,000 members. A million might be a better target, especially as part of an economic stimulus package."

Paul C. Light,"Obama Must Mobilize Supporters to Help Nonprofits," Washington Post, November 28, 2008

In spring 1976, I turned down a VISTA position in rural Missouri to take a job with a start-up community development corporation (CDC)in the Pilsen neighorhood of Chicago that paid even less. We rebabbed abandoned buildings while training young people in the trades. Over the next few years we used CETA Title Vl, Public Service Employment (PSE) slots to pay wages for this construction training as well as for a few administrative positions. I recount some of this experience in Nonprofit Leadership.

I'm not sure that I was the targeted beneficiary of CETA at this time, but in my experience these slots combined opportunities for low-income, unemployed young people in inner-city neighborhoods along with newly-minted college graduates who wanted to do good. In the process, a whole generation of nonprofits got started or strengthened along with a generation of people who went on in their careers and lives to contribute in many ways.

One opportunity today for this type of public service employment is to help build the grassroots infrastructure for energy conservation and urban agriculture. A Green Corp strand of expanded public service could help weatherize homes, build community gardens, launch agricultural/food enterprises, scale up farmers markets, and provide technical assistance to residents and businesses. This kind of human resource could help build out community-wide plans for local food and energy.

Green Jobs Truth

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:32:00 +0000

"'A job training program that's not linked up to specific industries with documented demand for labor 'never works,'says Dan Kammen, director of the University of California-Berkeley's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory...But if you have a federal mandate for clean energy,and you have job training in association with industry, there is a big success route...' But in the US where industrial job training policy is haphazard?"

David Roberts,"The Truth About Green Jobs," Mother Jones, November/December, 2008

So much insight in so few words. Link job training to industry and demand; leverage federal mandate for clean energy for job training. US job training is a mess. I was beginning to think that environmentalists and green jobs advocates were reenacting the old, failed scenario of first the job training program and then the jobs. Doesn't work that way. Of course, green stuff does provide a good venue for public or transitional jobs.

We need a whole bunch of workforce intermediaries or partnerships (See my: Workforce Intermediaries for the 21st Century) on the ground in regional economies that bring together industry, community colleges, labor, and other key actors. Building these partnerships requires capital and some industry-specific "community organizing." The new National Fund for Workforce Solutions (NFWS) offers one mechanism to build these partnerships in conjunction with local, regional, and national philanthropy. It's purpose is to align funding streams around partnerships that meet the needs of industry and workers.

But these partnerships need the demand-side kicker for clean energy at all levels to stimulate the job creation. Timing is critical and we often get this wrong in the world of job training.

Pork Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:16:00 +0000

"The United States is one of the few countries in the world to make the majority of its transportation investments without first conducting any kind of economic analysis to determine whether these investments will have any practical benefits...The results are telling."

Mary Peters, Secretary, Department of Transportation, quoted in David Leonhardt, "Monuments of Waste Pile Up in Scattershot Infrastructure Spending System," New York Times, November 19, 2008.

That doesn't speak well for the ready-to-go $18 billion of infrastructure projects as part of the next economic stimulus, much less the trillions of needed infrastructure investments. We currently spend about $400 billion per year, still not up to rates of the 1950s, and $100 billion more projects may be ready.

"The current system is so inefficient that even a minimal amount of change would represent progress."

I suspect the pressure to act may make "a minimal amount of change" seem out of reach. I like the threshold requirement that proposed infrastructure projects must serve a documented goal.

Sometimes economists just nod their heads and say, "It's all in the multiplier. No need to worry about the details." Well, we're at a point where having infrastructure projects also serve a purpose would get us more bang for the buck. My experience tells me that some infrastructure projects create more of the kinds of jobs we want than others. President-Elect Obama and Congress should include an infrastructure goals review as well as linkages to workforce training.

Green Agenda

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:57:00 +0000

"From the South Bronx to South Dakota to South Central LA, the tender shoots of a new economy are pushing up through the cracks of the asphalt. The reality, however, remains sobering. Encouraging and instructive as they are, these early signs of hope simply are not succeeding at the scale necessary to secure the future for vulnerable communities--or for the Earth itself."

Van Jones,The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems

This is Van Jones at his best -- inspiring but pragmatic. The second half of the book offers a tour of promising initiatives and a fairly specific agenda for action for the local and federal governments. It offers a policy roadmap for President-Elect Obama and anybody else taking the time to listen.

The first half of the book is a different story. Its outrage at environmental destruction and inequity sometimes is at odds with the notion that anything can be done. Yet, it needed to be said. And the green agenda sometimes reads like a hopeful recipe for resurrecting the Left. We need a broader coalition.

At the heart of the book is the deep concern about "eco-apartheid," that low and moderate income communities of color will be left out of the new green economy. The green economy offers a win/win/win for many Americans. Van Jones is outfront showing the way.

Philanthroemperors

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:14:00 +0000

"In this new economic, political, and intellectual environment, the "emperor" has retained much of his clothing but has lost his crown, no longer the sole figure in a triumphal procession towards the permanent supremacy of the market. Those of us lining the streets must keep a careful watch on what happens next, and be prepared to enter the fray if we see Napoleonic tendencies returning."

Michael Edwards, Philanthropcapitalism:Old Myths, New Realities, November, 14, 2008.

An extremely useful summary and interpretation of reactions to Just Another Emporer: The Myths and Realities of Philanthropcapitalism concludes with the above enigmatic exhortation.

Let me give it a try. I understand the economic downturn and new presidency; I'm not sure of what's new intellectually (more books to read). The "emperor" (philanthropcapitalism) has lost its crown (money,prestige)and is no longer the "big cheese" in the march to market supremacy (so, we don't have any options left, really). As spectator citizens we go to the parade to watch (the triumphal march to market supremacy)but stand ready to join a fight against "hyperagents" in a war that we have already lost.

It is a confusing time.

Green Break Up

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:54:00 +0000

"[W]e should see this whole process as a "break up" situation. When you break up with your lover, it is tough at first. But the next weekend you start going to the gym, you quit smoking, you buy some new clothes. You can use the energy unleashed by one big change to positively transform your life for the better. Well, we in America are about to break up with oil. Why not break up with poverty and discrimination too?"

Van Jones, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems

Another "metaphor" car crash. I always thought that "breaking up was hard to do," but maybe I'm just too sentimental, not about oil, of course. Rarely can all the untangling be done by the weekend, especially if you share space, kids, and a mortgage. After all, oil is a long-term relationship, not a one-night stand, except, I guess, in the long sweep of history.

So, following the easy-to-break-up idea, we are then asked -- as America, I guess -- to break up with "poverty and discrimination" as well. A very good idea.

At the individual level, maybe even community level, we can shoulder some modest pain to live different lives related to consumption, transportation, waste, recycling, etc. I fear, however, that breaking up with oil will be a long, messy, vindictive, lawyer-driven divorce.

Greening Vampires

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:08:00 +0000

"Right now, we are still scurrying about our planet's surface, eking out our living as part of a vulture society--living off the dead. Out of the Earth we suck the liquefied remains of dead organisms. We burn our ancestor's remains in our engines, without ceremony. Then we go back to the Earth, like vampires, to suck out even more oil. Our coal-fired power plants munch daily on the the black bones of the ancients -- and belch out death."

Van Jones,The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems

We do have a big problem and Van Jones's advocacy and ideas are certainly pointing toward viable green solutions. But this statement of the problem reads more like an introduction to the Dark Lord Sauron and Mordor than an inspiring pitch to build a broad coalition for a green economy. All that burning, munching, and sucking of dead things -- and "without ceremony."

It's a tough moment for a new book that argues that escalating oil prices produce stagflation and the ultimate death-spiral of the economy. With oil at $55 a barrel and the economy tanking, I think we need a more complex analysis. But I agree that in the longer term than this summer oil prices will continue to climb.

I believe that Barack Obama has the communication skills to help us see through the present to the need for energy independence. We need a different rhetoric than apocolypse. I read on.

Writing Power

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:05:00 +0000

"Among full-time students, 29% said they had written four or fewer papers of any length during the current school year."

Mary Beth Marklein, "Report: Community Colleges Must Expect More," USA Today, November 16, 2008.

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement shows a mixed bag of experiences across 343,000 students at 585 community colleges.

"Colleges that keep expectations high also need to create an environment that enables success."

"The real story is that good writing assignments are definitely a good thing. When courses provide extensive, intellectually challenging writing activities...students engage in a variety of positive activities. They are more likely to analyze, synthesize and integrate ideas from various sources. They grapple more with course ideas both in and out of the classroom. And they report greater personal, social, practical and academic development."

"Faculty who encourage writing multiple drafts are also likely to emphasize approaches to learning that call on students to think critically and reflect on their learning."

Writing is thinking so first drafts, for most of us mortals, are usually very messy things. It took me too many years to recognize and practice the art (and pain) of drafting. What a miraculous idea for teachers to reward the drafting process. We need to become a nation of writers.

Recent Site News: Links, JARC Newsletter and Rutgers Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Josh) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:23:00 +0000

A few quick updates...

First, the Rutgers Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation has published an interview with me on community economic development. You can learn more here or download the mp3 here.

Second, the Jane Addams Resource Corporation has thanked me in their latest newsletter. As you may know, all profits from Nonprofit Leadership are donated to JARC. Here is a clip from the newsletter:

And Finally, I'd like to thank the sites who have linked here in the past few weeks. If I left anyone out, please let me know:

http://philanthropy.com/giveandtake
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/poverty/2008/10/new-blog-and-ne.html
http://www.nonprofitboardcrisis.typepad.com
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/poverty/2008/11/08-mayors-actio.html
http://gateskeepers.civiblog.org/blog/_archives/2008/11/6/3964313.html
http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org/blog/view/weekend_links_philanthropy_maps_green_business_and_more

Digesting Mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:15:00 +0000

"Newt Gingrich said Republicans should be honest 'about the level of failure for the past eight years' to avoid repeating mistakes."

Adam Nagourney, "Sparring Starts As Republicans Ponder Future," New York Times, November 11, 2008.

Yet it is just that level of reflection that is unlikely. David Brooks, in "Darkness at Dusk," New York Times, November 11, 2008, concludes that "...the Republican Party will probably veer right in the years ahead and suffer more defeats...Their supposed heroism consists of living inside the large conservative cocoon and telling each other things they already agree with."

For me, this was sadly shown in the recent election, in which attack dog campaigning substituted for coming to grips with the big mistakes. Not that reflection could have trumped timing.

Job Hunting

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:12:00 +0000

“Briefly describe the most controversial matters you have been involved with during the course of your career.”

Prospective employment questionnaire for the Obama administration

(Where do I start?)

“Please list all aliases or “handles” you have used to communicate on the Internet.”

(All of them?)

“Diaries: If you keep or have ever kept a diary that contains anything that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-Elect if it were made public, please describe.”

(Aren’t diaries embarrassing by definition?)

“Have you had any association with any person, group, or business venture that could be used – even unfairly – to impugn or attack your character and qualification for government service?”

(Who do I leave out?)

Answering these 63 questions requires a full time assistant. Maybe I’ll pass on applying. Who would be stupid enough, or understaffed enough, to leave something out. I guess we’ll know soon enough.

See: Jackie Calmes, "For a Washington Job, Be Prepared to Tell All," New York Times, November 13, 2008.

Whose Leverage?

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:49:00 +0000

"Now, people are asking whether the recent struggles of some of capitalism's biggest winners, and the growing suspicion of some of capitalism's core methods, including Wall Street's use of leverage, mean that philanthrocapitalism is in trouble, too...In fact,there is reason to think that the need for philanthrocapitalism will be greater than ever, and that leverage will be one of the main reasons."

Matthew Bishop, "A Tarnished Capitalism Still Serves Philanthropy," New York Times, November 11, 2008.

Bad timing for a new book,Philanthropcapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World to hit the streets. Who said "Let Them Eat Cake?"

I just read Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits. Not much mention of philanthrocapitalism, although I'm sure it played a role with individual nonprofits in some form.

"Being an extraordinary nonprofit isn't about building an organization and scaling it up. It's not about perfect management or outstanding marketing of having a large budget. Rather, its about finding ways to leverage other sectors to create extraordinary impact. Great nonprofits are catalysts: they transform the system around them to create greater good."

Feels like a battle of titans: Philanthrocapitalist Hyperagent versus Catalytic Force for Good. I'll bet on the extraordinary nonprofits. Yes, I know, we should all work together.

Experimental Cities

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:54:00 +0000

[N]o amount of mere reading can prevent the beginner from making mistakes. If the initial venture is a large one, the mistake may prove financially disasterous...[T]he only alternative to experienced guidance is experimenting on a small scale. Mistakes can be considered part of one's education."

Frank Borsodi,Flight from the City

Of course this Depression-era classic's articulation of action learning and prototyping is about chickens -- and goats, too. Borsodi and his family fled the city in order to be self sufficient and live healthy lives.

Now, we have a flight to the city in the U.S, at least some cities, to take advantage of density and the potential for environmental sustainability. The long-term fate of McMansions is unknown.

So, what about chickens -- one of the next frontiers of municipal policy. Too many different, restrictive laws apply. Check out www.urbanchickens.org for an update on chicken legislation and a portrait gallery of chicken tractors. Just for the eggs.

The Shadow

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:40:00 +0000

"The Shadow President: How John Podesta invented the Obama administration"

Michael, Crowley, The New Republic, November 19, 2008.

What's in a headline? Who even writes the headlines? It's the words "shadow" and "invented" that get to me, as if Obama isn't really in charge, as if all this electoral fuss, outreach, and grassroots organizing was besides the point. Behind Obama stood a Clinton guy all the time, John Podesta and his anger management alter ego, Skippy. More on Skippy later.

I can't recall the number of conversations I've had with people and the statements I've read by knowing insiders about how they spent some time with Mayor Washington a few days before, or the day of, his untimely death. It reminds me of that series of kids books, I Was There at..... My recent email traffic would suggest that Obama served on the board or sponsoring committee of just about every organization in Chicago and even beyond. Good for him.

Now for Skippy. The wierd thing is that I know several other high-performers like Podesta who have an "evil twin" they call Skippy. "I really want to avoid Skippy tomorrow, [CAP staffers] ..might say." Is having an "cutting, acerbic, impatient" bud named Skippy a requirement for effective leadership?

That said, CAP has played a galvanizing policy role in the past five years -- and a lot of the credit goes to John Podesta. But he's no Shadow.

Redeemed?

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:32:00 +0000

"The last thing I want to tell someone who's been my customer for 20 years is, 'You've been a fool for 20 years, you never should have been coming in'... I want to create choice."

Douglas McGray, "Check Cashers, Redeemed," The New York Times Magazine,November 9, 2008

That bit about choice tells a lot of the story about check cashers and payday lenders. Low-income folks have few choices when it comes to financial services, even when they have a bank account. Alternative financial service providers supply accessible, customer focused products that overlook problems of credit and identification for a price. In one Baltimore neighborhood residents said they wanted a check casher brought into the neighborhood for just these reasons. And tight family budgets sometimes make payday loans and RALS (rapid anticipation loans) a necessity.

Along comes Tom Nix who sold his check cashing chain in California to one of the country's largest credit unions, Kinecta Federal Credit Union, and then got retained to put a credit union office in each check casher. Prices on payday loans are being dropped a bit and rebates are offered.

"The fees are still astronomical, and more troubling, right now the average borrower at Nix takes out seven loans a year -- with fees that can equal an annualized interest rate of 312 percent."

I'm not sure redemption is really in sight. And my sense is that the mainstream financial services industry is the culprit that needs redemption, especially after binge drinking at the federal trough. And don't forget the stagnation of wages and the creation of more low-wage jobs.

Maybe enlightened check cashers are the best we can do.

Energy Direction

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:47:00 +0000

"Make way for millions of new community organizers."

Nicholas D. Kristof, "The Obama Dividend," New York Times, November 6, 2008

Every grassroots political campaign faces the inevitable challenge after victory of where and how to direct all that grassroots energy it drummed up. How to keep the campaign spirit and engagement is the question that is asked while candidates transition to legislate or govern. There have been few satisfying answers to this question over the years.

President-elect Obama has two groups of activists he might want to think about. The first group comprises all those people in his campaign who went door-to-door, set-up offices, and organized rallies and events. An electoral campaign is not community organizing per se, although it uses many of the techniques of community organizing. I hope these activists adopt or jumpstart local and regional campaigns in the spirit of the Obama campaign and/or build a pipeline and capacity for expanding the pool of progressive candidates and officials.

The second group is all those people, many of them young and new voters, who have been inspired by the unique voice and agenda of President-elect Obama. Much like in the 1960s, this group may want expanded opportunities for national service. There are a lot of old and new ideas out there about how to do this. In my mind, I hope that Obama puts together a Green Corp that works as a kind of energy independence and sustainable economy extension and outreach service for cities and regions. We need to figure out ways to seed household conservation, urban agriculture, and community solutions as the big picture gets attention.

We should remember too that good community organizers are talented at inventing their own next round.

Transitions

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:44:00 +0000

"When I was not reappointed by Mayor-Elect Greg Nickels in 1992, the gardeners decided that Interbay should be the site of my own renewal...I brought along photocopies of my termination letter and asked people to shred them as I read it aloud. Then, as I turned the compost, people took turns adding the shredded letters."

Jim Diers, Neighbor Power: Building Community The Seattle Way

When I quit working for Harold Washington in August 1987 I tied together my worn dress black shoes by the laces and tossed them off the Ashland Street Bridge into the Chicago River. Mine was a voluntary departure after Harold's reelection, driven by family obligations and a four-year attention span. Symbolic acts are important.

I touched down at Midway Chicago on Election Day for a connecting flight and read about another transition. The Feds finally got the cuffs on "Fast Eddie."

"Former Chicago Ald. Edward Vrdolyak ...becoming yet another former politician to become a convicted felon, pleading guilty to plotting to take a bogus finder's fee in a Gold Coast real estate deal."

Jeff Coen, "Vrdolyak pleads guilty in fraud case," Chicago Tribune, November 4, 2008.

Fast Eddie and his partner Ald. Edward Burke led the City Council 29 in opposition to Mayor Harold Washington and the 21, leading to Chicago's infamous name Beruit on the Lake.

So, a grand slam for Chicago.

It's Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:50:00 +0000

"It's Time," The Economist, November 1, 2008

In Nonprofit Leadership I devoted a chapter to "time," not just as an obstacle but as a friend and teacher.

"It's Time" refers, of course, to the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. "It's Time" does not simply express our exhaustion with an 18-month campaign. It captures the sweep of history in electing the first African American president and the absolute need for a new form and direction of national and international leadership for 2009 and beyond.

"It's Time" reminds me of Miles Horton's advice for activists to "burn like an ember," not flame out all at once.

"..Mr Obama will make mistakes; but this is a man who listens, learns and manages well."

Time is about the past as well. For me, the untimely death of Mayor Harold Washington ended a promising era of municipal reform. Yet this same era birthed Barack Obama and the unlikely coalition that emerged in Chicago (and then across the nation) among many kinds of political actors. It's Time!

Lessons for Barack

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:17:00 +0000

"To residents like Bradley and Mack, COO seems like the latest in decades of all-talk-no-follow-through plans to overhaul the city's southeastern neighborhoods — longtime victims of blight, unemployment, illiteracy, and crime."

Ryan Blitstein, The Fix Isn't In, San Francisco Weekly, August 2, 2006.

Someone was skeptical about Communities of Opportunity two years before the Management Audit by the San Francisco Budget Analyst released in October 2008. See my posting: CCI Failure. The Obama administration should look closely at this experience before launching its Promise Neighborhoods initiative.

"The 2006 Plan states that Communities of Opportunity will "manage change dynamically by quantifiable outcomes; expand successful approaches, stop failed ones, and introduce new evidence-based approaches," and the 2008 Plan highlights the need to track program engagement in the short term while evaluating progress toward long term goals."

San Francisco Budget Analyst, Management Audit of Communities of Opportunity, October 15, 2008

"When you are working with meta-indicators such as poverty and are working across a diverse set of interventions in every field that touches family's life a specific causal relationship between any one action and the overall impact is impossible to define -- just as the City holds itself accountable for the overall outcomes for our families but does not attempt to create a single framework that connects every effort of every department into a model that shows cause and effect linkages throughout."

Director of Communities of Opportunity's Written Response to the Management Audit of Communities of Opportunity, October 15, 2008.

Yet COO committed to assist half of the families move to "fiscal stability with income more than 185 percent of the federal poverty level by 2011, or within five years of the 2006 implementation plan. The Audit found that few families had progressed and many interventions were still in the planning stages.

What's striking is that two years of implementation is barely enough time to fail. CCIs take decades -- almost an impossible incubation space with government in charge. Is this the time for the real plan to be developed?

The problem of time is compounded by the scope of COO. In Nonprofit Leadership I report on the common mistake of "Swinging for the Home Run." I remember a famous former mayor counseling the COO planning group, and its venture philanthropy consultant, Bridgespan, to take the field with a sweeping vision. Was there enough time to build it up the organic way with developers breathing down everybody's necks? Maybe the housing and economic downturn can be an asset in this regard.

Managing CCIs is not something local government does well. Look at Empowerment Zones. Expectations and politics trip the best-laid plans. And watch out when plans call for resident-driven and cross-system coordination in the same breath.

And with a big, bold goal you can't fudge on how to measure progress.

Skills Choice

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:16:00 +0000

"Timely reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act and full funding to ensure significant investment in lifelong learning for every American."

The United States Conference on Mayors, National Action Agenda on Poverty for the Next President of the United States, Los Angeles, September 23-24-2008.

At this historic moment we need a few big, practical ideas. The mayors have missed this moment in relation to adult education and skills enhancement, although they made sure to say who is in charge of metro areas. "As Mayors, we serve as the CEOs of the nation's metropolitan areas--the engines that drive the national economy." Is that the way to build regional collaboration?

After WIA reauthorization has laid around for a few years it's a bit oxymoronic to talk about "timely" reauthorization. And last time I checked, WIA serves a very small percentage of Americans in need of skill enhancement. A few hundred training vouchers per city isn't going to do the trick.

So, with a big, bold goal like poverty reduction, why not come up with big, bold solutions. Isn't it about time for a new version of federal workforce training -- every ten years or so seems about right? Workforce certainly won't be on the very top of the list for the next president -- but it should be up there in the second tier of things to get to work on quickly.

It seems to me that energy independence and climate change represent our "sputnik" goal for the next decade. Why not use this emerging consensus to at least model what a different workforce framework and system could look like. Start on the demand side of new investments, jobs, and businesses and then identify those "middle skill" jobs that require skills enhancement. Fund consortia of community colleges on a regional basis to map career pathways into these jobs and industries in conjunction with relevant industries, unions, and partnerships. Expand financial aid for low-income studients and workers and incentivize employers to chip into lifelong learning for entry-level workers. If done right, these pathways could link to relevant apprenticeships, transitional jobs, and barrier removal.

If we could get this right for energy independence maybe we could expand this workforce framework to other industries. Not all presidential agendas are equal in being willing to think about such ideas. Take a look.

Philanthrostartrek

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:11:00 +0000

"It is October 25,2025. In the library of Lord Branson's luxurious eco-friendly space mansion, beneath a hologram of Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates is celebrating his birthday with his closest friends. The views are spectacular."

Matthew Bishop & Michael Green, Philanthrocapitalism: How The Rich Can Save The World

Everyone is there. Melinda,Pierre, Richard, Jeff, Mo, Angelina, Bill C.,Larry, Oprah, and so many others. And, of course, Bono. Celebrating Bill's birthday is just a trifling ruse for their new venture to travel together beyond the stars to fight disease and poverty. So much in the universe still requires their attention.

Before they get down to the business of philanthrocapitalism they recite solemnly from their bible, Andrew Carnegie's The Gospel of Wealth, "the man of wealth [is] the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves."

"Well, we can dream," the authors wistfully admit.

Philanthropcapitalism is a good scan of the current landscape and emerging trends of philanthropy and giving, whether or not you buy into the new language.

What's missing, however, is any comparative analysis of other social strange strategies and how they stack up. I suspect we still need the "agency" of communities, governments and other civil institutions as well as the "hyeragency" of the rich.

Back in the here and now, Spence Limbocker reports in an NFG Reports article that "ACORN estimates the monetary impact of its campaigns across the United States to be more than $15 billion." These impacts include living and minimum wages increases and CRA and predatory lender victories.

How much have philanthropcapitalists invested in community organizing, a tried and true approach to achieving scale and institutional change?

Royal Largesse

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:53:00 +0000

"Another rapidly evolving category...is the working royal. The leading pioneers in this branch of philanthrocapitalism have been two British royals...Diana's philanthropic tiara has been inherited by Queen Rania of Jordan."

Matthew Bishop & Michael Green. Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save The World

The authors name this branch of philanthrocapitalism celanthropy (i.e., celebrity + philanthropy). Neologisms are habit forming. I predict neither of these catchy synthetic words will catch on fire.

Now my big problem. Philanthropcapitalism comprises living business people using their wealth, companies, and expertise in businesslike ways to solve big social problems. The notion of "hyperagent" makes me gag a bit but I'm coming around. Then this stuff about the "royals" -- Prince Charles and Princess Di.

First a reminder about capitalism from Jerry Muller in The Mind and the Market, "a system in which the production and distribution of goods is entrusted primarily to the market mechanism, based on private ownership of property, and on exchange between legally free individuals."

Royals live off property, trusts, taxes, and brand. Such a life is pre-capitalist. That they do good is a great thing but hardly breaks new ground or cries out for a neologism.

I fear the authors have gone off the rail by hanging with the rich and famous.

Radical Noir

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:35:00 +0000

"One of the first works of art with the courage to live up to our historical moment.The Army of the Republic is brilliant, terrifying, and much too close for comfort."

Naomi Klein, Backcover blurb, The Army of the Republic

The book is a sci-fi-like thriller about groups of eco terrorists with strange names, above-ground protest movements and the machinations of capitalists and their own army of security mercenaries. These domestic terrorists are certainly more competent and interesting than Bill Ayers and his ilk, but they are squashed like flies when the powers-that-be grow weary and put up the cash to stop them cold.

Beneath all the convoluted security precautions, odd revolutionary talk and word pictures and simplistic movement strategizing is a love story between boy and girl and another version of bad son and daddy dynamics.

The book strangely ends with the terrorist son sacrificing himself to the crackdown funded by his father and the father's redemption as he crosses the picket lines to join the protesters. Finally! Was it just about daddy all along?

I know it's a novel but ninety-nine percent of society seems to be missing as this noir revolutionary tale takes place in Seattle. Is there no civil society? Nothing left of democratic process? Politics? Anyone try nonviolent protest? So, maybe all that is gone, destroyed, withered away, irrelevant, forgotten. Unfortunately, all we are left with are bombs and guns and a trite story about love and redemption.

To me, this feels like looking backwards to nineteenth century Russia, not into the future.

Creepy Philanthropy

noreply@blogger.com (Bob Giloth) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:58:00 +0000

"Ray likes to save people, you know, sweep them off their feet with his generosity. It's a cheap high if you've got the money, but basically it's all about him."

"[H]e chronically confused making... a dent with making a splash."

Richard Price, Samaritan

Yes, being a philanthropist is hard work, believe it or not. Achieving some self-understanding is too high a threshold for many. But without it investment mistakes are compounded and remain unrecognized.