Next Breakfast Event on June 9th!
We clearly didn’t get enough pastries last time around ‘cause we’re gearing up for our next breakfast event in less than two weeks, on June 9th. This time around, Melissa Kearney of the Brookings Institution will be dropping by to share with us her recent impact study of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant. Kearney and Philip Levine of Wellesley College collected data from various sources – Twitter, Google, Nielsen and the Vital Statistics birth dataset – to quantify the influence of the reality show on teen childbearing behavior. Check out this clip for more. And be sure to RSVP here too!
Language Games
A new study by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication has found that “global warming” tends to resonate more with Americans than “climate change.” In fact, for Democrats, Independents, liberals and moderates, using the term “climate change” seemed to reduce engagement with the issue while “global warming” was much more likely to generate a response. Advocates have known for some time that words matter a great deal. Communications research provides guidance on when to use certain language – and with whom.
Polarization and Adaptation
Teles and Schmitt, co-authors of “The Elusive Craft of Evaluating Advocacy”, are making a return to the Stanford Social Innovation Review with a new article: “Philanthropy in a Time of Polarization”. They, along with collaborator Heather Hurlburt, describe a partisan political landscape in the U.S. that is disrupting the way philanthropy has traditionally approached policy advocacy. Instead of prioritizing bipartisan coalitions, they suggest foundations would do well to pick a side. In other words, philanthropy “must be unafraid to reckon” with polarization and adapt.
