Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

Community Philanthropy: How The Delta Region Revives, Embraces, And Promotes The Spirit Of Giving, Charlotte L. Williams, Sherece West, Joanna Klak

The Foundation Review

· Community philanthropy is the giving of time, talent, and treasure that when invested locally is characteristic of positive change and lasting development.

· This article reports on a survey of 31 small Arkansas communities of 5,000 to 15,000 in population using open-ended descriptive questions. Responses were compared across communities to assess variation in giving/fundraising, civic engagement, and leadership.

· Data confirm that giving/fundraising was substantial, particularly in communities with populations of 8,000 or less.

· Findings show that people are giving not only their money, but also their services, time, and skills – especially in times of emergency response. …

The Best Of The Humanistic And Technocratic: Why The Most Effective Work In Philanthropy Requires A Balance, Paul M. Connolly

The Foundation Review

· As a more technocratic approach to philanthropy has emerged over the past 15 years, it has been seen as the opposite of humanistic philanthropy.

· Rather than a dichotomy, these approaches are on a continuum.

· The best tools from each approach can and should be brought to bear, including the wellthought out and disciplined strategies and results orientation of technocrats and the values base, intuition, responsiveness, and flexibility of the humanists.

· Staff and board leaders at foundations should articulate the humanistic-technocratic blend they desire, deliberately distill it into the organizational culture and everyday practices, and hire staff …

Voices From The Field Iii: Lessons And Challenges For Foundations Based On Two Decades Of Community-Change Efforts, Anne Kubisch, Patricia Auspos, Prudence Brown, Emily Buck, Tom Dewar

The Foundation Review

· Building upon a previously published volume on Comprehensive Community Initiatives, this article focuses upon the implications for foundations of what has been learned about CCIs.

· CCIs can demonstrate increased community capacity and improved outcomes for some residents in their target neighborhoods, but they cannot demonstrate population-level change in key indicators of well-being.

· Five key questions about the role of funders and how they engage in community change are posed and discussed.

· Deep engagement in the community; thoughtful collaboration among funders of various types and sizes; the willingness to use other resources, capacities and tools in addition …

Editorial, Chris Tebben

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Finding The Fix: Embracing Philanthropy’S Role In Transforming An Urban Education Landscape, Kristen L. Mcdonald

The Foundation Review

· Education funders have historically used a “demonstration project” approach to funding, designed to lever change by demonstrating a new program and providing technical assistance to foster broader adoption.

· Despite demonstrating success with many of its grants, the Skillman Foundation’s education reform initiatives were derailed and undone by the instability of the district leadership, political landscape shifts, and disintegrating neighborhoods.

· A complete turnaround model must address the many issues facing a failing school, including culture, curriculum, school leadership, professional development, and classroom instruction. The stability of the central administration must also be considered.

· The new look at …

The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, And Powerful Ways To Use Social Media To Drive Social Change: Book Review, Sophia Guevara

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Getting To Results: A Tool And Lessons From The Annie E. Casey Foundation’S K-12 Education Portfolio, Tory Read, Bruno Manno

The Foundation Review

· In 2002, the Annie E. Casey Foundation adopted a results-based accountability (RBA) framework to track and report on the results of their philanthropic investments.

· The RBA tool was piloted in a few program areas, including its K-12 education portfolio.

· Grantees were highly engaged in an iterative process to determine appropriate measures, refine the theory of change, and how to track progress.

· Overall, the RBA tool enabled staff to get a sense of how grantees were doing and therefore how the foundation was doing in a way that hadn’t been possible before.

· The K-12 program got …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Creating And Scaling Innovative School Models Through Strategic Partnerships, Heather Zavadsky

The Foundation Review

· The Texas High School Project (THSP) was created in 2003 as a public-private alliance to support education reform across the state.

· This article focuses on the pivotal role of philanthropy within the THSP alliance to create early college high schools (ECHS).

· The model has been scaled at different levels to produce direct, affordable pathways for students to both attend college and attain skilled careers.

· The ECHS schools have higher test scores, greater credits earned, and reduced dropouts rates compared to traditional schools.

· Foundations with a track record for supporting successful work can increase the overall …

Developing A Master Data Sharing Agreement: Seeking Student-Level Evidence To Support A Collaborative Community Effort In Education, Neil E. Carlson, Edwin Hernández, Chaná Edmond-Verley, Gustavo Rotondaro, Eleibny Feliz-Santana, Susan Heynig

The Foundation Review

· A private foundation, a public school system, and a state university joined forces to address a difficult, long-standing challenge: closing the academic achievement gap between urban and suburban students.

· All parties agreed that sharing of longitudinal, student-level data was required to drive and evaluate multiple efforts to close the gap, but significant technical, regulatory, and political obstacles stood in the way.

· The parties worked through multiple challenges and forged a Master Data Sharing Agreement (MDSA) that will facilitate both daily intelligence for program staff and powerful post-hoc research capacity.

· This MDSA text has been released online …

The Education Collaboration Fund: Possibilities And Limitations Of Pooled Funds, Lisa Philp

The Foundation Review

· Raising money for a pooled fund is time consuming and requires expertise with the funding topic and the target audience. Yet the process of shopping around a pooled fund or collaborative concept can be valuable in its own right, even if most do not participate.

· Shared interest around a topic or community is a necessary but insufficient reason for participating in a pooled fund. A pooled fund provides an opportunity for individuals and family foundations to learn and grow as donors.

· Someone with passion, organizational skills, and persistence needs to drive the process forward or it will …

Challenges And Strategies For Family Foundations With Geographically Dispersed Board Members, Melanie A. Mckitrick, Deborah Hirt

The Foundation Review

· This article, based on interviews with leaders of 10 family foundations, investigates the impact of geographic dispersion on governance, administration, decision making, and grantmaking activities.

· The greatest challenges for family foundations with dispersed boards involve assembling an appropriate staff, ensuring strong communication between staff and board members, and focusing the organization’s mission. Maintaining family board member interest in the foundation’s geographic area and bridging and strengthening ties between generations were also concerns.

· In order to maintain family legacies, all case-study foundations found unique ways to overcome challenges and were deliberate in ensuring that board members stayed actively …

Editorial, Michael Moody

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Next-Generation Philanthropy: Examining A Next-Generation Jewish Philanthropic Network, Stephanie Lerner

The Foundation Review

· As a result of mobility, philanthropy among a Millennial group of Jewish donors is becoming divorced from the communities in which their parents live.

· This group’s members generally perceive themselves as thinking and acting more strategically than past generations. They expect philanthropic organizations to operate with increased transparency, and those entities will need to adapt to these expectations in order to thrive.

· The characteristics that define the Millennial generation – open-mindedness, a desire for meaningful employment and philanthropic activity, technological adeptness, innovation – are changing philanthropy.

· Despite those changes, philanthropic priorities among families remain substantially constant …

What Is A Family Foundation?, Michael Moody, Allison Lugo Knapp, Marlene Corrado

The Foundation Review

· Family foundations are important institutions, making up a significant portion of the foundation universe and having both local and global impact. Yet we have no shared definition of this diverse and evolving category. Clarifying the definition will help challenge persistent misconceptions, get perspective on the diversity, and improve foundations’ understanding of their own family dimensions.

· This article surveys the different definitions of family foundation that are, and have been, used by key organizations in the field and by researchers. It also reviews examples of the variations and complicating factors that make answering the title question difficult.

· A …

The Family Difference? Exploring The Congruence In Grant Distribution Patterns Between Family And Independent Foundations, Jasmine Mcginnis, Shena Ashley

The Foundation Review

· Using a broad group of family and independent foundations from a representative sample of Georgia foundations, the authors examined differences in giving patterns between family and independent foundations.

· Findings confirm the result of previous work that studied large foundations.

· There are no substantial differences between family and independent foundations’ preferences even when controlling for a nonprofit’s location and size.

· These findings are relevant for discussions about the role of non-family members on boards.

A Hedgehog Moment: The Roles And Pitfalls Of Strategic Philanthropy For Family Foundations And Donors: Book Review, Charles H. Hamilton

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

I'M Not Rockefeller: Implications For Major Foundations Seeking To Engage Ultra- High-Net-Worth Donors, Katherina M. Rosqueta, Kathleen Noonan, Miriam Shark

The Foundation Review

· This article describes how a group of 33 ultrahigh- net-worth philanthropists (UHNWPs) approach their giving.

· A few key areas dominated their giving priorities: education; health; poverty and social welfare; and children/youth initiatives each were a priority for more than a quarter of participants – with education expressed as an interest of 55 percent.

· A third of the 24 who responded to the question spent less than 10 percent of their full working time devoted to philanthropy, and 13 dedicated less than 20 percent of their working time.

· UHNWPs view their peers as their most trusted information …

The Quest For Deeper Learning And Engagement In Advanced High School Courses, Suzie Boss, Cynthia Johanson, Stephen D. Arnold, Walter C. Parker, Diem Nguyen, Susan Mosborg, Susan Nolen, Sheila Valencia, Nancy Vye, John Bransford

The Foundation Review

· GLEF and a research team from the University of Washington worked with Washington's Bellevue School District to develop and assess the impact of project-based learning on upper-level courses in high school.

· Research suggests that Advanced Placement (AP) courses may focus too much on accelerated content at the expense of deeper conceptual learning.

· The number of students taking AP courses has grown, but along with this the number failing has increased. GLEF and the research team tested project-based learning (PBL) to counteract this trend.

· Results after two years are promising. Students in the PBL-AP courses are performing …

Use Of Layering For Effective Partnership Building: Leveraging Positive Impact In Education Philanthropy, Angela Kremers

The Foundation Review

· Federal initiatives provide opportunities to link national, state, and local partnerships.

· New opportunities create a challenge of how to maximize mission-related goals while also seeking out new partnerships.

· “Layering” allows core foundation goals to be addressed while further examining how building new partnerships can expand with national and federal opportunities.

· Each “layer” represents multiple sector partnerships at the local, state, federal, and national levels.

· Layering differs from collective impact in its focus on strategic alignment with existing work to new partners versus the focus on the partnerships and organizational behavior of those relationships.

· Building …