Sunday, May 07, 2006

Times they are (Not) changing

Saturday night was my youngest child's senior prom. Caitlin's headed to Boston in the fall to attend BU. Change, change, change. Sunday, I spent some time working in my garden...a flawless day here in Central Illinois.

The prom got me thinking yet again about how fast time passes. Caitlin was putting on plays in pre-school about 48 hours ago. And yet time returns, in an annual rhythm. The garden had me thinking about that.

We've made so much progress in the nonprofit sector in Caitlin's lifetime. Better run organizations, more academic centers, more transparency, outcome measures, MSO's. But at the same time, we're just going round and round in so many ways, fiscal year after fiscal year. Poverty and homelessness are still there, and growing, even here in the richest country in history. Funders are even more suspicious than they were 10 years ago, and the press is mixed at best.

Over all, are we better at what we do? In terms of real outcomes?

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