Over the past six months, Bruce has given me the honor of interviewing some of his best and brightest on the intersection between communications and foundation impact. The format we implemented – known as a “diavlog” – was pioneered by bloggingheads.tv, and it’s version is featured each week on the New York Time’s video home page.  (Our home-brewed version couples Skype with split-screen recording to create a talk show format for the web.)

At a half-hour each, the conversations are way too long for this sound-bite world, right?  That’s true unless you accept, as we do, that the best stuff emerges only in the context of exploration and dialogue. (Don’t worry, we will be distilling nuggets and themes from across the conversations in the coming months.)

Here are a few of the a-ha moments I have gained through these conversations:

• Teresa Detrich, electronic media specialist for the Lumina Foundation, tells me in an upcoming episode that one of the reasons Lumina has moved so aggressively to implement social media is because “if you want to work with innovators, you have to live where they do.”
• Mark Sedway and Cheryl Heller both told me, when pressed to describe explaining what foundations have to gain from effective use of social media, “It’s about relationships, stupid!”  The days when foundations could give away money and call it a day are long gone.  Now we actually have to listen to one another, find common ground, and move together.
• Phil Buchanan spoke convincingly about the need for the charitable sector to simultaneously communicate two messages: 1.) What we do is good, and 2.) We must always work to make it better.
• Albert Ruesga, president of the New Orleans Foundation (GNOF), tells me in an upcoming episode why GNOF named its blog “Second Line Blog.”   In New Orleans, it is the Second Line which follows behind a traditional funeral march, celebrating life rather than mourning death.  From my perspective, foundation communications have been all too often deadly dull, institutional, funereal.  I want PhilanthroMedia to be part of that Second Line which sings and celebrates in truly human voices.

Running time of this episode is 30 minutes. To view selected sections, use the guide below to fast forward to the time indicated:

Why do communicators make great foundation presidents? (1:05-3:10)

Why does Grant Oliphant love to talk about failure? (3:10-5:43)

What kinds of mistakes are we talking about? (5:43-11:52)

We have to keep ratcheting up our expectations… (11:52-30:00)