Suzanne Skees - RE:Philanthropy

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India: My Five-Star Experience in Uttar Pradesh

19 Apr 2013

Blistering sunlight broils our small group as we gingerly perch around the edges of the raised bed our hosts have set out for us in front of their hut in Godha Village. We’ve come to visit a few of the 100 ultra-poor women in rural Uttar Pradesh recently employed by our local partner, a social-venture [...]

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Politics and Philanthropy in Bed Together

In: Advocacy| My Giving Story| Partnerships and Collaborations| Public Policy

12 Feb 2013

When my class (The Philanthropy Workshop West) arrives, a light snow dusts the ground and U.S. President #44, Barack Obama, has just been sworn in for a second term. As we progress through a week of presentations, spring thaws early and soft rains fall, cleansing our cynical capital and washing away [...]

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The Greedy Giver

In: Donor Engagement| Family Philanthropy| Philanthropy

20 Dec 2011

The world reverberates with crashing economies and toppling dictatorships from Detroit to Italy, Egypt to Syria; and one vital outcome of these changes is this: Everyday people know more about one another, feel connected through communication, and take action in the collective. The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street have demonstrated that we–as a global [...]

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(Small) Size Matters: Sometimes It Pays to Be the David Among Goliaths in Philanthropy

In: Donor Engagement| Family Philanthropy| Global Philanthropy

10 Nov 2011

Growing up in a family of nine in the suburbs of America’s Heartland — Ohio — actually provided good training in strategic philanthropy and kept me rooted in cost efficiency as an adult. Now running a dynamic family foundation on a tiny budget, I am living the lessons of middle-class family budgeting. We leverage our [...]

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Why Do We Fund Girls and Women?

In: Diversity and Inclusion| Family Philanthropy| Governance

12 Oct 2011

We’re often asked why so many of our educational and microfinance programs invest more heavily in women than men . . .
. . . after all, we love the exuberant energy of boys and the gentle strength of men. In our family of 30 members across 3 generations, we do have a few more [...]

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Going Back to School to Learn to Communicate

In: Leadership| Management| Nonprofits| Partnerships and Collaborations

28 Sep 2011

Lessons on talking and not talking from the Stanford Nonprofit Management Institute …
As the autumn leaves unfurl their brilliant foliage and crisp days wane, I still get that urge to go back to school. And here in Palo Alto, California, about 325 of us from 15 countries and 35 states are doing just that, this [...]

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The Real Motivation Behind Going Public in Philanthropy

In: Donor Engagement| Philanthropy

6 Jun 2011

Could there be another reason beside constant craving for publicity, for both giant philanthropists as well as us small givers? Just maybe, intention has more impact than zeros.
Carlos Slim just found himself on the short list of the world’s biggest philanthropists. The richest man on the planet at a net worth of $74 billion, Slim [...]

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Is It Time To Be More Uncharitable?

In: 2011 Annual Conference

15 Apr 2011

Dan Pallotta, bestselling author of “Uncharitable” and founder of the AIDSRide and 3-Day breast-cancer walk, tells 1,000 foundation representatives that nonprofits should “step boldly” into radically new ways to scale their impact.
His first time to address a large group of philanthropists, Dan Pallotta challenges 1,000 members of the Council on Foundations gathered in Philadelphia this [...]