Just Awards

Nominations Now Open for 2011

Admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:46:09 +0000

We have started accepting nominations for the Spring 2011 awards. We will be awarding these two awards again:

Narcissism in Philanthropy

Abominable Media Coverage of the Nonprofit Sector

Please submit your nominations for Narcissism and Media Coverage activity that happens from Spring 2010 thru Spring 2011.

Learning from the first year of Just Awards

Jan Masaoka — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:21:01 +0000

Wow! What a strong response in the first year of the Just Awards! Michael (Gilbert) and I are gathering data about where the Awards were posted, tweeted, and written about, and the impacts on the awardees and runners up. We’ll be posting soon about what we’ve found out, and how we’ll be improving the Just Awards for next year. In the meantime if you have something we should know about the impact, or a suggestion for next year’s process, or a nominee for the 2011 Just Awards, let us know! You can also see more comments about the Just Awards where the announcement appears on the Blue Avocado site: http://blueavocado.org/content/rockefeller-foundation-and-ny-times-win-just-awards Jan Masaoka

Winners: Rockefeller Foundation and NY Times

Admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:00:38 +0000

Other industries have their “Worst Dressed” awards, the “Golden Fleece” awards for public waste, and the Ig Nobel Prizes for dubious science-related achievements that “first make people laugh, then make them think.” Until now, the nonprofit sector has lacked its own such award program. Announcing the “winners” for the first year’s “Just Awards”: one for Abominable Press Coverage of the Nonprofit Sector, and the other for Narcissism in Philanthropy.

Award for Abominable Press Coverage of the Nonprofit Sector

For Abominable Press Coverage of the Nonprofit Sector the Just Awards panel of judges chose Stephanie Strom’s November, 2009 article in the New York Times: “Charities Rise, Costing U.S. Billions in Tax Breaks.”

The article reported that the I.R.S. approved 99% of applications for charity status last year, and picked some easy targets to suggest that there are too many nonprofits, and that many or most of them are frivolous. The article asserts that the U.S. government lost $50 billion in taxes due to donations given to nonprofits . . . making the false assumptions that a) contributions to the nonprofit sector would remain the same without the tax exemption, and b) government could ignore the enormous financial impact of demand for services (such as emergency room visits) that would inevitably follow from fewer nonprofit programs. Furthermore, the article neglected to provide, as a basis for comparison, information on the many billions more in tax breaks provided to the commercial business sector. The article can be found here.

In making the Award, the judges did praise the New York Times for covering the nonprofit sector, and Stephanie Strom as “generally a very good reporter.” But judges felt this story was the “worst story of the year” and that its lack of research led to “bad journalism.” A better headline, said one of the judges, would have been, “Charities Rise, Saving U.S. Government Billions.”

Award for Narcissism in Philanthropy

For the much-anticipated Narcissism in Philanthropy Award, the Just Awards panel of judges chose the Rockefeller Foundation, citing the “overwhelming and relentless promotion” of its president, Judith Rodin.

Additional research confirmed this consensus among the expert judges based on their experiences and observations. A comparison was made of online mentions of three top foundations and their presidents: the Ford Foundation and Luis Ubiñas, the Kellogg Foundation and Sterling Speirn, and of course, the Rockefeller Foundation and Judith Rodin. Looking only at mentions since 2008 (when Ubiñas, the newest of the three, started his tenure at Ford) we find that, in proportion to their online mentions in general, Rockefeller promotes its president more than 12 times as often as Ford and more than 176 times as often as Kellogg.

Runners-up

As a runner-up to the Abominable Coverage of the Nonprofit Sector Award, the panel chose to cite “all of journalism” for the coverage of ACORN over the past several months. “It was a giant frame piece,” commented one of the judges.

And the judges chose two funders as runners-up for the Narcissism in Philanthropy Award. One is a California community foundation that gives out approximately $4 million in grants each year, and is building an “$8 million plus headquarters.” The nominating statement commented, “They are openly touting the building and have architects’ plans displayed in their offices for nonprofit grantees to see as they grovel for grants of $5,000 and $10,000.”

The other runner-up is a large bank that gives out funding based on American Idol-like popularity contests where nonprofits must urge their supporters to vote for them on the bank’s website. Judges noted wryly that this type of giving is a demonstration of “successful corporate philanthropy,” which inherently involves large doses of self-promotion.

The Just Awards are sponsored by Blue Avocado and Nonprofit Online News. Nominations were received from the public; a nominator was required to submit his or her name to the sponsors, but could request anonymity in public. Winners were notified of their upcoming selection but did not respond by press time.

For more information or to share a laugh, contact:

Michael Gilbert

news@gilbert.org

Jan Masaoka

jan@blueavocado.org

Nominations Now Closed

Admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:39:23 +0000

We have now closed nominations. Next we will be reviewing and vetting all nominations received, and working towards choosing winners.

Stay Tuned!

Deadline for Nominations!

Admin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:47:07 +0000

The time has come to announce the deadline for submitting your nominations: It will be 5 pm (Pacific Time), March 30, 2010. That’s only 11 days from now, so get those nominations in to us as soon as possible!

Nominate Someone Now!

New Judge: Aaron Dorfman

Admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:50:40 +0000

Aaron Dorfman – Executive Director, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP)
NCRP is a research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. NCRP works to ensure America’s grantmakers are responsive to the needs of those with the least wealth, opportunity and power. Before joining NCRP in 2007, Dorfman served for 15 years as a community organizer with two national organizing networks, spearheading grassroots campaigns to improve public education, expand public transportation for low-income residents and improve access to affordable housing. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Carleton College (where he studied under the late Senator Paul Wellstone) and a master’s degree in philanthropic studies from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Dorfman frequently speaks and writes about the importance of diversity in philanthropy, the benefits of foundation funding for advocacy and community organizing, and the need for greater accountability and transparency in the philanthropic sector. (Read More)

New Judge: Alana Conner

Admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:45:24 +0000

Alana Conner, PhD – Senior Editor, Stanford Social Innovation Review
Alana Conner, PhD is a social science writer, editor, and consultant whose specialty is cultural psychology. She received her doctorate in social psychology from Stanford University and her postdoctoral certificate in psychology and medicine from the University of California, San Francisco. Her award-winning research explores class and cultural differences in decision making and health. By day, she serves as the senior editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, a Stanford Business School magazine about saving the world without breaking the bank. By night, she writes about culture, psychology, and health for a variety of venues, which have included The New York Times Magazine, Static, and her blog. She also speaks and consults about culture, health, and social innovation. (Read More)

New Judge: Rosetta Thurman

Admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:36:26 +0000

Rosetta Thurman – Writer, Speaker, Professor, Consultant
Rosetta is a creative nonprofit leader of color who has been working in the nonprofit community for over seven years with expertise in fundraising, human resources, financial management, leadership development, diversity training and marketing and communications. Rosetta is a writer, speaker, professor, and organizational development consultant who has been featured in articles about the nonprofit sector in the Washington Post, DC Examiner, Nonprofit Quarterly, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy. In addition to her work as a practitioner, Rosetta teaches graduate courses in nonprofit management as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Professional Studies at Trinity University in DC. She is also a prolific nonprofit blogger at Perspectives from the Pipeline, Change.org and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. In 2008, Rosetta was named a “New Leader in Philanthropy” by Greater DC Cares. Rosetta is an active member of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network DC, and the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). (Read More)

Announcing Just Awards

Admin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:32:31 +0000

The Just Awards are civil society’s pointed mockery of itself.

Inspired by such diverse awards as the Razzies and the Ig Nobel Prizes, the Just Awards will highlight the irrational, the irresponsible, and the irrelevant organizational behaviors that most damage the work of the nonprofit sector. With the support of a panel of respected judges and with a particular emphasis on the worlds of philanthropy and the press, we will offer awards each year to those organizations who best exemplify the foibles of our sector.

Some awards of this nature are just for fun. Others are intended to help make change. The Just Awards will be both. In the case of philanthropy, this means looking sharply at how funders behave in ways that separate them from the people they serve, damage the organizations they support, and subvert their missions. In the case of the press, this means calling attention to the worst coverage of civil society.

We will award two “Justies” in 2010: one for most amazing example of narcissism by a U.S. philanthropic organization and another for most abominable coverage by a U.S. press organization. Judges for the award will be selected in December 2009. The award process will be announced publicly in January, 2010 and anyone may submit nominations at that time. The awards will be announced during the week of April 20, 2010, immediately preceding the annual conference of the Council on Foundations.

Just Awards is a joint project of Blue Avocado and Nonprofit Online News.

New Judge: Priscilla Hung

Admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:42:24 +0000

Priscilla Hung, Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training/GIFT

GIFT provides fundraising resources, training, and analysis to organizations nationwide, especially those that are working for social justice and are based in communities of color. GIFT also publishes Grassroots Fundraising Journal founded by Kim Klein, and organizes Raising Change: A Social Justice Fundraising Conference. Priscilla is Executive Director of GIFT and she got started in fundraising almost ten years ago as a GIFT intern at the Center for Third World Organizing. She has been a fundraiser, trainer, and teacher. She is on the boards of National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. (Read More)