Chair's Book Club

FOR MEMBERS Chair's Book Club

What We’re Reading:
Unicorns Unite
by Jane Leu, Vu Le and Jessamyn Shams-Lau


Unicorns Unite, by Jane Leu, Vu Le and Jessamyn Shams-Lau, provides a nitty-gritty, inside look at how foundations and nonprofits relate today. It takes readers on a truth-telling journey that also offers a series of fun and thought-provoking exercises for you to do and discuss with your team, your partners, and your board.

Unicorns Unite is a whimsical journey through a challenging conversation that could hold the key to slaying the dragons of injustice and inequity once and for all.

 

How to participate:

The Chair’s Book Club is open to all Philanthropy Southeast members! You choose how to engage – read the book, join a discussion group, or attend events. Take part in one activity or join us for all!

 

1) Read the book.


2) Join a discussion and share your thoughts.

We’ve started a private group on Goodreads so members can discuss the book with each other, ask questions, and share their thoughts on topics and themes from the work. New to Goodreads? Visit Goodreads online to get started and create an account. To join the discussion, go to our Chair’s Book Club page on Goodreads.

Zoom – offers a free Basic Plan with a 40-minute time limit on video conferences with three or more participants. The free plan includes most features and can accommodate up to 100 participants in a meeting.
Skype – the Meet Now option lets you start a chat or meeting without having to sign up for an account or download the app to your desktop. Users will need to download the Skype app to use the service on their phone. Allows for up to 50 people with no time limit.
FaceTime – if everyone in your group is on Apple devices, you can start a Group FaceTime from the FaceTime app or from a group conversation in the Messages app and add up to 32 people. See this link for more information and instructions.
Google Meet – formerly Hangouts Meet, this tool is available to all Google users. Hosts and participants must have a Google account.
Slack – provides a free option for small groups to create an online discussion forum with messaging. Video conferencing is available for 1:1 calls, but not groups. Best for ongoing or asynchronous discussions between group calls.
 

3) Attend upcoming programs.
 

As a Chair’s Book Club participant, you’ll have the opportunity to read Unicorns Unite while sharing the experience with other Philanthropy Southeast members through events addressing the topics in the book, as well as online discussions.

Do We Still Believe in Unicorns? A Candid Conversation with Vu Le 
Wednesday, April 12 at 3:00pm(ET) / 2:00pm(CT)

 

 

About the Book:

Calling all changemakers!

Open your mind, and buckle up for a bumpy ride through a truth-telling journey about the dysfunctional relationship between foundations and nonprofits. We all know that it’s broken.

So why haven't we fixed it?

Enter the Unicorns.

Join unicorns Jane Leu, Vu Le, and Jessamyn Shams-Lau for a nitty-gritty, inside look at how foundations and nonprofits relate today, and why we're stuck in the status quo. Next, get ready for a rocket-ship ride to a future filled with EPIC Partnerships grounded in equality, trust, and creativity; partnerships to help us think bigger, bolder, and better about social change. Finally, make it happen! Roll up your sleeves and dive into a series of fun and thought-provoking exercises for you to do and discuss with your team, your partners, and your board.

Unicorns Unite is a whimsical journey through a challenging conversation that could hold the key to slaying the dragons of injustice and inequity once and for all.

 

More about the book:

  • Unicorns Unite: Offers information on the book and an opportunity to sign the Unicorn Manifesto.
     
  • Unicorns Unite | Goodreads: The Goodreads site offers user reviews and questions on the book, as well as opportunities for discussion and suggestions for further reading.

About the Authors:

High school dropout turned MBA, Jessamyn Shams-Lau currently co-creates and stewards the Peery Foundation's Grantee-Centric approach to philanthropy. Jessamyn is an advocate for interdisciplinary approaches, thoughtful risk taking, and bold ideas developed through apprenticing with a problem. Jessamyn joined the Peery Foundation as its first non-family staff member in 2009, helping to shape the Foundation’s initial approach and portfolios. Currently, as Executive Director, Jessamyn shapes and supports the Peery Foundation team, develops and guides overall strategy, and brings the Foundation Board's vision to life. Jessamyn utilizes her experience as part of the founding Ashoka U team in her hands-on role as a Board. Member of BYU’s Ballard Center, where she has created curriculum now taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Jessamyn serves as an advisor to Ashoka U and GrantAdvisor. Jessamyn has a BA in Fine Arts from the University of the Arts London and an MBA from Brigham Young University. She lives in the Bay Area with her ridiculously funny husband, defiant house rabbit, and two tiny hamsters. She used to have a mohawk haircut, she met her husband on Tinder, and her favourite Christmas movie is Die Hard 2.



An Ashoka Fellow, the Founder of Upwardly Global and Smarter Good, and four other social sector start-ups, Jane Leu is intrigued by problems and their solutions. Known for both strong vision and execution, Jane has more than twenty years of entrepreneurial leadership of migration-related organizations. The common theme across her ventures is that they leverage the private sector to ensure that migration creates economic benefit for individuals, families, companies and countries. She is a Lecturer in Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Venture Partner, and has been on the advisory boards of Ashoka U, Joshua Venture, the Peery Foundation and the Migration Policy Institute, among others. Jane's contributions and leadership have been recognized by BYU Social Innovator of the Year Award, John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the Manhattan Institute Social Entrepreneur Award, among others. She holds a MA from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and a BA from Tufts University.

 


 

Vu Le (“voo lay”) is a writer, speaker, vegan, Pisces, and the Executive Director of Rainier Valley Corps, a nonprofit in Seattle with the mission promoting social justice by supporting leaders of color, strengthening the capacity of communities-of-color-led nonprofits, and fostering collaboration between diverse communities. Vu’s passion to make the world better, combined with a low score on the Law School Admission Test, drove him into the field of nonprofit work, where he learned that we should take the work seriously, but not ourselves. There’s tons of humor in the nonprofit world, and someone needs to document it. He is going to do that, with the hope that one day, a TV producer will see how cool and interesting our field is and make a show about nonprofit work, featuring attractive actors attending strategic planning meetings and filing 990 tax forms. Known for his no-BS approach, irreverent sense of humor, and love of unicorns, Vu has been featured in dozens, if not hundreds, of his own blog posts at nonprofitaf.com.







Current Selection

 · Unicorns Unite: Discussion Questions (coming soon!)
 · Unicorns Unite: Discussion Guide (coming soon!)

Past Selections

 · Lost Children Archive: Discussion Questions
 · Lost Children Archive: Discussion Guide

 · The Sum of Us: Discussion Questions
 · The Sum of Us: Discussion Guide

 · The Hate U Give: Discussion Questions
 · The Hate U Give: Discussion Guide

 · The Color of Law: Discussion Questions
 · The Color of Law: Discussion Guide & Additional Resources

 · The Sun Does Shine: Discussion Questions
 · The Sun Does Shine: Discussion Guide & Additional Resources


View our webinars from Past Selections in our Archived Programs.

If you have questions about the Chair's Book Club, please contact Stephen Sherman, Director of Research & Data, at stephen@philanthropysoutheast.org or (404) 524-0911.

 


Philanthropy Southeast
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Atlanta, GA 30303

Visiting Philanthropy Southeast:
All staff are working remotely at this time but can still be reached via email and by calling (404) 524-0911.

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Phone: (404) 524-0911
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Mission: Philanthropy Southeast strengthens Southern philanthropy, welcoming our members to listen, learn and collaborate on ideas and actions to help build an equitable, prosperous South.