Forefront Radio

In this episode of Forefront Radio, Delia Coleman, Vice President of Strategy + Policy, (left) has a conversation with Ayesha Jaco, Co-Founder/Executive Director of M.U.R.A.L. M.U.R.A.L, Magnifying Urban Realities & Affecting Lives was co-founded by Ayesha and her brother, Lupe Fiasco. They began by providing warm meals and coats to families in need and quickly expanded to include music education, curriculum and a host of other arts-based initiatives in Chicago inner-city communities. By 2009, Lupe and co-founder Ayesha Jaco realized the need to organize and expand this outreach, and the Lupe Fiasco Foundation was born with the mission of empowering inner-city youth as artists, activists, and global citizens. Delia and Ayesha talk about grassroots philanthropy versus institutional philanthropy and how philanthropy can be more effective when it engages different perspectives and voices throughout operations and grantmaking cycle.

In this episode of Forefront Radio, we talk with Sampriti Ganguli, CEO and Whitney Wade, Manager of Talent Acquisition, of Arabella Advisors. Arabella Advisors provides foundations and donors with strategic guidance for more effective philanthropy. Five years ago, Arabella began a journey to increase the diversity in their workforce - a journey they recently wrote about in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) this summer. While it's relatively easy to make the committment to diversity, it's much more complex to actually practice it. On the podcast, we discuss how Arabella Advisors arrived at committing to inclusion, how they made intentional changes to their hiring practices, as well as some unintended consequences of increasing the diversity of their workforce.

In this episode of Forefront Radio, we'll talk with George Aye, founder of Greater Good Studio, and Raissa Allaire, COO of the Center for Economic Progress, about human-centered design for the social sector. A problem solving process grounded in empathy and iteration, human-centered design principles create a powerful framework to turn ideas into action and facilitate alignment of people from diverse backgrounds. In nonprofits and other social impact organizations, these principles allow us to meet the needs of the people we serve faster, smarter, and more efficiently.

In this episode of Forefront radio, we’ll talk with Israel Idonije, former Chicago Bears defensive end, and founder of the Israel Idonije Foundation, about their Shop with a Cop program. Israel is joined, today, by Sargent Samuel Dickerson with the Chicago Police Department, who is participating in the Shop with a Cop program. On December 15, Team IIF will host youth from community organizations serving homeless or at-risk youth to participate in a day of bowling, pizza and a shopping spree with Chicago Police Officers from their neighborhood. Youth are given a gift card to purchase gifts for their family and themselves and are paired with an officer who promotes dialogue on social and emotional skills. Support Israel Idonije Foundation's Shop with a Cop event by visiting ILGive.com on November 29!

In this episode of Forefront radio, we talk with Don Haider, Director of Northwestern's Center for Nonprofit Management and Jean Butzen, President and Founder of Mission + Strategy Consulting about their work on the Metropolitan Chicago Nonprofit Merger Research Study. The first of its kind in the midwest, the purpose of the study was to explore how nonprofits can use mergers as effective and powerful tools to achieve their goals, advance their mission, and increase their impact. The study analyzes 25 nonprofit mergers that took place in the Chicago metro area between 2004 and 2014 and highlights the diverse paths these organizations took to arrive at positive outcomes. In the podcast, we discussed the impetus for the study as well as some of the findings and the 10 keys for success. Find the full study at http://chicagonpmergerstudy.org/

In this episode of Forefront radio, we talk with Pat Davenport, Executive Director of A Safe Place and Gail Weil, Executive Director of Community Youth Network about a collaboration they helped form in Lake County called The Partnership for A Safer Lake County. The Partnership is made up of over 30 social service organizations committed to committed to ending violence in Lake County through public awareness, coordination of services, and advocacy.  In the podcast, we discussed the circumstances leading up to the partnership, what the process was like and what advice they have for other organizations looking for collaborate.

In this episode of Forefront radio, we talk with Irene Pritzker, founding member and President of the IDP Foundation, an early leader in the impact investing space, and a member of Forefront’s Social Innovation Roundtable. We discuss what the term ‘impact investing’ really means, how it's come to be more mainstream and what its relationship is to philanthropy. We also talk about the IDP Foundation’s investment strategy and its Rising Schools program.

We recently spoke with Illinois Senator Daniel Biss (9th) about the Illinois Budget Impasse. A member of the Human Services Committee, Senator Biss offered unique insights into how the budget crisis is directly affecting the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors in Illinois. We asked Biss if we should be worried about the trajectory of the relationship between the state and the nonprofit sector, whether this impasse will cost taxpayers more in the long run, and what the role of philanthropy shoud be in all this.