Podcast: May 2009 Archives

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Just read this: if you sit on a nonprofit board don't think you're going anywhere soon, not until after you listen to Dan Pallotta describe Uncharitable, his riveting indictment of how we hobble nonprofits. It's a myth-busting, paradigm-shifting re-examination of what's going on in Charity, in my case, right under my nose.

I'd noticed the review in the New York Times awhile ago, so I picked up a copy then it sat in a pile. But since I sit on 4 nonprofit boards, the sub-title nagged: "How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential"; I took it on 2 long distance trips, a week each in Atlanta then Madrid. What a great companion this manifesto turned out to be.

Like many of my angel investor peers, in addition to sitting on for-profit boards of private companies, many of us end up on nonprofits, too. For myself, I'd learned quite a bit from fellow angels, especially Tech Coast Angels' Dave Berkus, and I'd enjoyed putting some new concepts on the table and into play for 2 nonprofit boards in the past year. I was enjoying the process: making an organizational change and seeing a pretty immediate positive result, then I did it again for the local school of the arts advisory board I sit on and again, an almost immediate positive change; this was fun, tweeking nonprofit boards was not only possible, but the feedback cycle could be immediate. Like learning to drive, I thought, maybe I can accelerate the cycle. So that makes me and maybe you, too, the perfect audience for Uncharitable author, Dan Pallotta. I need to create a new sub-category on this blog, "myth buster", then Dan could be cross referenced with the likes of Fools Gold author Scott Shane and Early Exits author Basil Peters.

On the 10 hour flight home from Madrid last month I lent my copy to Angel Capital Association Chairman, John Huston. Half way over the Atlantic he hands it back, "this makes my head hurt; I'm getting my own copy!". When I tell Dan, like the interviewer I'm supposed to be, he asks, "what do you think he meant by that?". I was pretty sure I knew and you'll be able to guess once you listen to Dan Pallotta.

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Has it touched your life, affected one of your loved ones?

"Alzheimer's is the public health threat of the 21st century," says Maria Carrillo, Director of Medical and Scientific Relations at the Alzheimer's Association in Chicago. Although it's the 6th leading cause of death in the US, and working its way up, "there's so many different avenues of research that are being pursued right now that give us a lot of hope". Like drugs in Phase 3 trials, for example.

Where are they at? They're doing a lot of basic science research. Maria describes how the research is working back in time; they know the end result and they believe the disease begins 20 years prior. Do the math, that means the disease is beginning for many of us right now! 

"Probably 95% of our donations come from individuals." So they have quite a marketing challenge and have to keep getting the word out, like: "there are 5.3 million Americans living with this disease today". Last year they donated $26M to fund research, a new high; a lot of it going to new investigators.