Yesterday, the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Foundation announced that the BBB Wise Giving Alliance (BBB WGA) is one of five awardees of the 2018 Innovation Grants Award Program.  BBB WGA’s “Advancing Collaboration” project featured an article series created in partnership with the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) that sought to capture and encourage a new spirit of collaboration among charities and others engaged in philanthropy. With a strong recognition of the importance of trust in establishing collaborations, such partnerships can help organizations reach larger audiences while sharing the risk and help achieve more than an organization can do alone. The project also introduced a Collaboration Pledge which helps display a charity’s commitment to seeking out potential partners to carry out shared goals. Such partnerships are not only possible between charities but also with others entities engaged in social good. 

The ASAE Foundation indicates that during the past six years, it has awarded a total of 25 IGP grants and has received close to 300 applications from organizations of varied sizes, locations and missions. 

The Advancing Collaboration article series is accessible on Give.org and includes pieces written by executives from GuideStar, Center for Effective Philanthropy, Mission Partners, BoardSource, 92^nd Street Y, Association of Fundraising Professionals, American Red Cross, ALS Association and others. In addition, a summary of the article series appears in the latest issue of the Wise Giving Guide: Better Together: Charities and Collaboration. 

We are honored and greatly appreciate this recognition and support and will use the $10,000 grant to help further address collaboration issues in the current year. We thank all the authors who contributed to this effort as well as SSIR for helping to make this series available to social change leaders throughout the world. 

Video of the Week 

For this week’s Building Trust Video Series entry, we are pleased to provide a playlist featuring interviews with some of the authors of the Advancing Collaboration article series. The playlist includes interviews with Carrie Fox, Founder, Mission Partners, Pratichi Shah, Founder and CEO, Flourish Talent Management Solutions, Peter Panepento, Co-Founder, Turn Two Communications, Jake Porway, Founder and Executive Director, DataKind,  Gail McGovern, President and CEO, American Red Cross, Jacob Harold, President and CEO, GuideStar and Art Taylor, President and CEO, BBB Wise Giving Alliance.  The videos can be viewed individually on our YouTube page.

Recent Reports 

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:

• CARE USA
• Lewy Body Dementia Association
• National Marine Sanctuary Association 

Finally, remember to let us know by going to https://give.org/ask-us-about-a-charity1/ if you are  interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.   

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance