Meet Ruth: A Taproot Fellow and Top-Notch Project Manager
Ruth Van Hecke is a dedicated Allstate employee, who was granted six moths to work as a Pro Bono Fellow at Taproot. She jumped right in, used her project management expertise, and made a huge impact on Taproot and how we work. Click here to read her story.
Read MoreWhat We Can Learn From German Leadership
Interview with Markus Hipp: Executive Director of the BMW Foundation Markus Hipp is the Executive Director of the BMW Foundation, headquartered in Germany. He began his career in philanthropy at the Robert Bosch Foundation. I recently spoke with Markus about his work and his perception of German vs. American leadership. Here's an excerpt from the interview: AARON: What’s the difference...
Read MoreThe Start-Up of You
Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and perhaps the most admirable person in Silicon Valley, just published a new book - The Start-Up of You. It is a good read and translates many of the principles of entrepreneurship into practices that everyone can adopt. Here's a summary of the book: The Start-Up of You The career escalator is jammed at every level....
Read MoreTen Years Ago a Root Vegetable Was Born
Ten years ago this Sunday we launched the Taproot Foundation at the Hang Art gallery in San Francisco. It was a packed house of hundreds of nonprofit and business professionals and the energy in the room was amazing. My future wife was in the room (we had only met once and weren't dating yet). My aunt got us some great...
Read MoreAn Interview With Aaron Hurst, Social Innovator
Investing in innovation to improve current services or to envision new ones requires a great leap of faith because there is no certainty in the outcome. Yet innovation is critical to keeping programs relevant to their target audience, and viable to the organizations that produce them. I sat down with our Founder and CEO, Aaron Hurst, who has developed a...
Read MoreHow Do You Give Back?
Different perspectives on how to give back In the last two weeks, I've posted several articles digging into the many different ways individuals and organizations give back to their communities. Leading up to the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I asked two philanthropic leaders for their views on service and their work for the greater good: Tim McClimon, President of the...
Read MoreHurst on HuffPo: Gap Foundation President’s Thoughts on Passion, Gen X and Service
We conducted an interview on Huffington Post with Bobbi Silten, President of Gap Foundation and Senior Vice President, Global Responsibility for Gap Inc. For the beginning of the interview click here - it continues below: What does it take to get CEOs to see the business value of philanthropy? Part of it is showing them the multiple levels of value...
Read MoreBook Release: Nonprofit Management 101
At Taproot, we know better than anyone the importance of building infrastructure and capacity for nonprofits. It takes more than just a great idea or a worthy cause to run an effective organization; you also need solid management skills that bridge sectors and disciplines. That's why we're thrilled at the release of Darian Rodriguez Heyman's new book Nonprofit Management 101:...
Read MoreWanna Chat?
Calling all social entrepreneurs! Tired of being a serial startup and ready to be known as a serious player in the field? There's no golden ticket that turns upstart nonprofits into established organizations, but after 10 years of building Taproot into a national force and a lifetime of entrepreneurship, our president and founder Aaron Hurst has sound advice for new...
Read MoreMISSION: PRO BONO – Matt Cullen on reviving the Motor City
Motor City, Detroit, the former industrial powerhouse turned Rust Belt haven, has seen the devastating results of urban decline follow into the 21st century. The death of American Manufacturing has sucked the life out of a thriving metropolis that propelled it to heights in line with the mythology of American prosperity. The decline of this mega engineering industry has left...
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