March 10th: Half the Sky Book Club Event

Half the Sky Book Club Event

Please join us for our next event, co-hosted by long-time bookstore partner Booksmith and co-sponsored by Human Rights Watch:

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Wednesday, March 10, 2010,

Discussion:6:30 to 8:00 pm 6:30 pm

7:30 pm Refreshments and Networking

@ BookSmith (1644 Haight Street, San Francisco)

Join us for a provocative discussion of Kristof and WuDunn’s critically acclaimed book which explores how women can have a powerful role in ending poverty and extremism.

Joining us for our conversation are 2 guest experts:

* Heather Murphy (Institute of International Education): Heather currently works for the Women in Technology Program with the Institute of International Education where she manages the program in six countries in the Middle East and North Africa providing oversight of in-country staff and partners, trainings and project implementation.

* Deborah Goldberg (International Development Exchange): Deborah currently works as Development Associate at International Development Exchange, a nonprofit grantmaking organization that promotes sustainable solutions to poverty in six countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America focused on women’s empowerment, building local economies and care for the environment.

If you have any questions about the event, please email us at bookclubsf@ynpn.org

Please RSVP to the following link: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=198604

Highlights of Uncharitable

THANK YOU to everyone who came to the YNPNsfba Book Club Event Uncharitable!

Event Highlights:

• A rich discussion on many of the topics covered in Uncharitable, including: how the Puritanical history of the United States reveals our underlying assumptions about the nonprofit sector today, the importance of PR & marketing in achieving an organization’s mission and the problems with measuring effectiveness by use of the efficiency ratio.  We also addressed the issue of how we, as young nonprofit professionals, can shift the perspective of individual donors and institutional funders on all of these matters.
• An ABC News interview featuring Dan Pallotta, reinforcing his ideas so that the nonprofit sector can actually solve society’s problems.
• 16 young professionals participated in this month’s book club

Check out the Dan Pallotta’s interview on ABC News: http://www.uncharitable.net/2009/10/dan-pallotta-interview-on-abc-news.html

Uncharitable – What are your Thoughts?

We’d like to know what you think about the book — please share your  general thoughts or use some of these questions to guide you:

1.  Pallotta argues that non-profit professionals should be compensated at market-rate.  While probably everyone would agree non-profit professionals deserve to be paid more, is market-rate really reasonable?  Do you think some of the passion in non-profits would be lost if the salaries were equivalent to corporate counter parts?

2.  Of the 5 errors discussed in chapter 2 (Constraints on Compensation, Prohibition on Risk, Discouragement of Long-Term Vision, Discouragement of Paid Advertising, and Prohibition on Investment Return)  Which ones do you agree with the most?  Which one do you think would be the easiest to “correct”?  Which would be the most difficult to “correct”?

3.  Of the efficiency measures that Pallota includes in his book:  Real Dollars, Incremental Effects, Intangibles, Future Value of Money and Economic Values of the Result, which did you find most striking?