General operating support can provide nonprofit organizations with the flexibility to plan, innovate, and pivot in their work. So, why don’t more foundations provide general operating support as part of their grantmaking strategies? In this post, we chat with Mary Jo Mullan, a former and longtime member of the Heron team, about the importance of general operating support.
In 2018, Dana Bezerra became the new president of Heron. However, Dana has been at Heron for 13 years in total, starting as a program officer in 2006. She’s seen Heron grow and change and is now sharing her guidance, leadership, and lessons learned as we focus on the intersection of communities and capital markets. In this podcast episode, we ask Dana to reflect on her first year as president, and share what’s next for Heron.
When Heron declared its intention to invest 100% of its assets for mission, we needed to find new ways to track and visualize the portfolio as it changed over time. Six years later, we want to share where we stumbled in the process, what we have learned from our attempts, and where we are today.
We’re launching a new series called “Questions We’re Asking This Week” that catalogs some of the inquiries we’re chasing in order to help people and communities help themselves out of poverty.
Pension liabilities can be a detriment to community prosperity, while pension funds can be a source of power for workers. With those dynamics in mind, here are a few pension-related questions we’re asking this week.
In this issue, debate on views of the poor and the policy challenge, how to think about and use financial capital to improve society, and our greatest hits.
Heron’s Buzz Schmidt responds to Stanford’s divestment from fossil fuels and says it offers lessons for reevaluating all investments for social impact.
Heron investee Aseptia brings job opportunities back to a rural North Carolina county via food processing.
Why was the Great Recession so Great? On The Upshot, two professors argue that it was a lack of attention to household debt.
In this issue, new thinking on impact investing and social enterprise, the dirty debates going on in philanthropy, and some good news about jobs.
In this issue, more thinking on work and the minimum wage debate, Thomas Piketty and the scrutiny of wealth, and the role of social investment.
Here’s Greg Duncan, author of Restoring Opportunity, on how reducing income inequality starts with better education.
The country is part of a growing movement to entice expats to invest in their home areas to provide potentially vital new influxes of cash.
Today we’re tuning in to what’s new in the ever-evolving landscape of impact investing.
In this issue, more thinking on poverty, prosperity and the role of capitalism, the trillion dollar opportunity for investing locally, and making accounting have impact.