This HuffPost account choked me up. Proud to have supported Elizabeth Warren. Barbara Mikulski barely came up to Elizabeth Warren's shoulder as the two embraced on the floor of the upper chamber. Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, released Warren and attached an official Senate pin to the lapel of the incoming Massachusetts senator's all-black pantsuit. Think of it, Mikulski said she told her, "like the croix de guerrefor all the battles we women have fought." "Congratulations," Mikulski told her, with her eyes watering as she beat her hand against her heart. "You stand here now in the footsteps of so many women who for so long would have liked to have been here, should have been here, but didn't get the shot. You've got the chance. You have a band of sisters. And we're going to not only make history, we're going to change history."

cross-posted from the Transparency and Accountability Initiative blogThe TABridge network promotes dialogue across gaps of expertise and geography, but also across sectors. We were fortunate to have several donors attending from foundations that support fiscal and natural resource transparency around the globe.Because of the spirit of trust and equality among participants, donors and non-donors were able to have forthright conversations. Too often, the traditional requirements of foundation giving and the practical realities of grassroots advocacy leave donors and grantees straining to meet each other's expectations. This is especially true in technology projects, where many donors are less familiar with online tools and many NGOs are experimenting for the first time.One NGO participant reminded the colleagues that, while foundation officers must make grants in accordance with foundation missions and their boards' expectations, community based organizations are answerable to communities on the ground, and the vision that created an organization in the…

Originally posted on my brand-new Huffington blog page.In the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, proto-human primates circle an ebony monolith from another world, entranced and enraged at the mystery, the otherness, of an object that in one transformative instant brings them technology, war and the power to reach the stars. A lot of the people I meet in the nonprofit world are similarly flabbergasted by the Internet. I'm not saying that nonprofits are stuck in the Paleolithic Era. After military research, advocacy may have done more than anything else to spur the evolution of online tools (with mayhem and disaster running close behind). Most of what I've learned about the Internet over 15 years I've learned from the community of activist techies and thinkers whose commingled DNA now runs through the digital staffs of newsrooms, political campaigns and advocacy organizations. But for every nonprofit Internet guru, or strategist, or 20-something who can…