I’m sitting in my dorm room listening and watching K.D. Lang sing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah…the opening of the Vancouver Olympics, 2010. The performance is quite glorious. My Tom said he got tears in his eyes. I understand. Cohen’s lyrics. Lang’s voice and phrasing and…
Thanks to Cathy Mann for introducing that in the Cohort 23 classroom.
Welcome to Saint Mary’s University Masters Program in Philanthropy and Development. I’ve taught here since 2000, beginning with Cohort 9. Leadership. Governance. Organizational development. Strategic planning. Ethics. Fund development. Global philanthropy. Cross-cultural philanthropy. An amazing program.
So back to Cohort 23…and some of their cage-rattling questions. CRQs is what we call them!
- To what degree does exclusivity benefit or detract from a community’s health?
- What role does experiencing life differently play in the health and effectiveness of a nonprofit corporation?
- To what degree does social justice matter in a society?
- To what degree can an organization have a greater impact in its community if it keeps the same process over and over without the willingness to change?
- What stops us from fixing things?
- How do we integrate segregated communities?
- Why do we wait until the intervention time to consider solutions?
- To what degree are communities changed when other cultures migrate in?
- To what degree does sameness at work help or hinder an organization’s effectiveness?
And now, how about some bumper stickers? These are rather long – but we like them anyway!
- A crisis is a disruption. Disruption does not have to be a crisis.
- Group dynamics are not more important than the learning.
- You can visit “Pity City” but don’t unpack your bags.
- Establish a feedback and recognition culture
- Courageous conversation
- Money is neither good nor bad. But our use of it can be.
Did you listen to K.D. Lang yet?
Thank you Cohort 23!
