Future Leaders in Philanthropy: The Second FLiPiversary and the First Ever FLiP TRiP (how clever are we?) by Will Schneider

FLiP Jobs!

Two fairly monumental things are happening this week – which I wanted to share with the FLiP community.

1) First things first: Yesterday, FLiP turned two! That’s right, we published our first-ever post on May 11, 2006. In that post I said, “In order to be successful as fundraisers, we need to create a standard of excellence for field professionals to aspire to.” We’re clearly not done yet, but I’ll say this: Between normal daily hits, forwarded emails, and our subscriber-base, between 2,000 and 3,000 people will read this post.

FLiP is just one of the forces pulling together a large, international community of young fundraising and grantmaking professionals. This community will share ideas, it will create educational standards, and it will reward talent and excellence. I’m happy to see FLiP is playing our small part in this process – and I’m excited to see what’s going to happen next.

There is no better example of the need for a community like FLiP to exist than the 841 members of the FLiP facebook group. With virtually no promotion, people from around the world have found this group – and more people join every day.

So, our baby turned two! I think the endorsement below is a good example of the kind of impression we’ve made (and will continue to make) on the sector. This is from the blog, The Civic Minded Companion.

Turning 59 has sent me into a spin. I want to be young again. One of my favorite blogs is FLiP – Future Leaders in Philanthropy. The contributors are passionate, entrepreneurial, professional, and most of all: demanding. They have high expectations of themselves and the nonprofit sector. And, they will have more fun than I did!

2) But wait, I said two monumental things are happening. Thing two is the first-ever FLiP TRiP! If you happen to be at LaGuardia Airport at 6:00 tomorrow morning, you will see my bleary-eyed colleague Anastasia and I boarding a flight bound for Detroit, Michigan! From there, a short a date with the summer interns in the Development Office of the University of Michigan. We’ll be hosting a FLiP-on-Tap (minus the tap) event to welcome the (I assume) wide-eyed youngsters to the field.

Check back later this week for an event wrap-up. The success (or massive failure) of this event will help determine how and when we head to new cities and expand to new markets.