Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

How Inclusion And Equity Are Transforming A Foundation And A Community, Rebecca Arno, Lauren Casteel, Maria Guajardo, Adrienne Mansanares

The Foundation Review

· Racial inequities in health care, education, incarceration rates and economic stability have persisted, in spite of federal policies to promote equity.

· The Denver Foundation launched what is now known as the Inclusiveness Project in 2002 to help nonprofits, including funders, become more inclusive of people of color.

· The Project defines diversity as one component of inclusiveness; inclusive organizations are defined as learning-centered organizations that value the perspectives and contributions of all people.

· The Project operates on three levels: individual, organizational and sector.

· An extensive evaluation has shown that there are impacts at all levels, including …

Managing Expectations When Measuring Philanthropic Impact: A Framework Based On Experience, Frank Ridzi

The Foundation Review

· In order to achieve more targeted community change than possible in conventional grantmaking, foundations have developed a portfolio of activities ranging from capacity building to venture and catalytic philanthropy.

· Key to each of these approaches is a desire for meaningful impact. Yet, funders across the nation express dissatisfaction with their ability to prove or demonstrate impact.

· Conversations with colleagues and personal experience suggest that part of this dissatisfaction is due to a disconnect between the expectations of board members, donors, staff, and participants on one hand and what is actually feasible to measure on the other.

· …

Lessons In Building A Better Community, One Voice At A Time, Erica Wood

The Foundation Review

· By 2035 there will be an estimated 1.2 million new jobs and 900,000 new households in the San Francisco Bay Area (Association of Bay Area Governments, n.d.); without planning and management, this population increase will result in rising air pollution levels, climate change, escalating cost of living, increasing traffic, and less green space.

· Silicon Valley Community Foundation partnered with area nonprofits and government agencies on a two-year initiative, Envision Bay Area, to engage residents and community leaders in conversations about growth.

· At a series of 10 public forums more than 800 participants came together, including those who …

Practice, Practice, Practice: Preliminary Findings From An Evidence-Based Practice Funding Initiative At The Peter And Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation, Nicholas G. Randell

The Foundation Review

· The Tower Foundation supported a five-year initiative to support the implementation of evidencebased practices (EBP). The average award was a three-year award of $84,050.

· The underlying grantmaking theory of change was that behavioral health providers could bring empirically tested protocols to their communities and sustain them over time if supported by long-term funding to support the real costs of implementation (e.g., training, technical assistance, adherence to program protocols, and cultural change).

· Grantees cited the high cost of training, certification, and recertification – especially in the face of high staff turnover – as a primary challenge to implementing …

Bridging Silos, Improving Systems, Deidre Johnson, Phillip Chung, Jennifer Schroeder, Judith Meyers

The Foundation Review

· Systems that provide services to children tend to operate in silos; foundations can play a role in helping bridge these silos by supporting “systems building” efforts.

· Using examples from two foundations and two communities, this article explores the challenges and lessons learned in systems building work.

· Educating grantees and other community members about systems and systems building is a critical first step in the process.

· Supporting systems building requires an iterative process and foundations should continuously reinforce the importance of systems building activities.

Impact Investing: A 21st Century Tool To Attract And Retain Donors, Amy L. Cheney, Kathryn E. Merchant, Robert Killins Jr.

The Foundation Review

· A familiar private foundation tool is being used by the Greater Cincinnati Foundation as a way to engage donor advisors to make a positive difference in the community.

· While due diligence and risk management of the financial return for these investments is crucial, the social return to be achieved is the primary consideration.

· Donors can achieve a modest financial return, which is recycled into their donor-advised fund, by investing locally in projects that make a significant difference.

· Initial donor interest in participating in impact investing has been strong and provided valuable insight into program design.

· …

Models Of Social Change: Community Foundations And Agenda Setting, Nathan Duan-Barnett, Jessica Wangelin, Haley Lamm

The Foundation Review

· This article focuses on a particular approach to large-scale, community-based educational change – Local College Access Networks in the state of Michigan – to answer two key questions: What factors serve to shape the social-change agenda? How can community foundations serve to promote and advance the agenda?

· A multidimensional framework is developed for agenda setting, drawing on linear transformation models, layering, and collective impact to examine the contributions of community foundations to the formation of local college access agendas.

· Particular attention is paid to the horizontal alignment of partners within a community to address local challenges and …

Strategies For Impacting Change In Communities Of Color, Kenneth W. Jackson, Alandra L. Washington, Russell H. Jackson

The Foundation Review

· Historically, organized philanthropy has given scant attention to giving among communities of color; however, as the population changes it is becoming more important to learn about and promote giving in these communities.

· The W. K. Kellogg Foundation supported the Cultures of Giving (COG) initiative over a five-year period to understand, develop, and support philanthropic giving within and among communities of color.

· COG began with two major principles of action – advancing strategies, approaches, and tactics of community philanthropy and connecting leaders of color in a community of practice such that they might learn, share, and collaborate with …

Using Civic Engagement And Collaboration To Create Community Change: Lessons From Charlotte, N.C., Joanne G. Carman, Rebecca A. Hefner

The Foundation Review

· The city of Charlotte, N.C. undertook a deliberative democracy process using the AmericaSpeaks “21st Century Town Meeting” process.

· The University of North Carolina-Charlotte performed a retrospective, process evaluation of the initiative examining the initiative’s components, coverage, participant feedback, short-term outcomes, and lessons learned.

· Early planning and implementation was done by volunteers, which ultimately was not sustainable. A new center, housed within an existing organization, was created to implement the recommendations.

· The initiative achieved a number of early successes, such as increasing the number of school nurses, expansion of an early childhood development program and an increase …

Dimensions Of Change: A Model For Community Change Efforts, Jara Dean-Coffey, Nicole Farkouh, Amy Reisch

The Foundation Review

· The Dimension of Change Model (DOCM), developed by the authors, is offered as a potentially useful tool for foundations, government, bodies, consultants, coalitions, and even individual organizations that are initiating or engaged in substantive efforts to bring about community change.

· The dimensions contained in the model - structure, parameters, intention, approach, and people - offer a frame for addressing key aspects that emerge from the literature as fundamental to all change efforts. The model is offered as a way to design, implement, adapt, and evaluate change initiatives.

· The work of First 5 Marin Children and Families Commission …

The Role Of The Congregation In Community Service: A Philanthropic Case Study, Mark T. Mulder, Kristen Napp, Neil E. Carlson, Zig Ingraffia, Khary Bridgewater, Edwin Hernández

The Foundation Review

· The Family Leadership Initiative (FLI), part of the larger Gatherings of Hope Initiative, was a collaboratively designed program to strengthen families and improve children’s education in Grand Rapids, Mich.

· FLI was launched in 2011 with two cohorts of 20 congregations who took part in a six-step design process.

· Programs were implemented in fall 2011. The program entailed holding monthly meetings for parents and children that included bonding time, parent education and homework support for students, and time for ministry.

· The initial evaluation shows high levels of satisfaction, with students reporting some academic improvements.

· For the …

Gender Disparity In Professional City Management: Making The Case For Enhancing Leadership Curriculum, Leann Beaty, Trenton J. Davis

Public & Nonprofit Studies: Faculty Publications

Professionally trained administrators are critical to the operation and management of governmental agencies. That is particularly true with respect to local government, where city managers are situated at the top of the organizational hierarchy. However, these senior management positions remain largely the domain of males; female represent just 12% of the positions. This disparity, for reasons still unclear, comes to the fore at a time when the field of public administration faces a new set of global challenges, and many in the field have expressed concern about a looming leadership gap. As the world of public administration changes, so must …

Book Review: Sievers, B. R. (2010). Civil Society, Philanthropy, And The Fate Of The Commons, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The selection of civil society institutions (which the author refers to as strands) around which the volume is woven is interesting because it contains several novel elements in a novel combination: civil society is said to consist of philanthropy, the common good, rule of law, nonprofit and voluntary institutions, individual rights, free expression and tolerance. This book is important reading for political philosophers, doctoral students and theorists interested in the connection of civil society and philanthropy. Yet it has a number of weaknesses that are enumerated in the review.

Hard Truths About Heart Work: An Interview With Jennie Chua, Lien Centre For Social Innovation

Social Space

Just as there are calls for leadership to bridge the business and social worlds, there are also calls for new models and inspiration in the nonprofit sector. Social Space catches up with the inimitable Jennie Chua,fundraiser and chairman of the Community Chest, to hear her thoughts on these issues. True to form, Jennie delivers a few hard truths about fundraising and charity in Singapore.

Beyond The Veneer Of Strategic Philanthropy, Patricia Patrizi, Elizabeth Heid Thompson

The Foundation Review

· “Strategic philanthropy” has become a dominant theme among foundations in the past few decades.

· While many foundations have developed strategic plans, few have made the internal changes necessary to actually behave strategically.

· Four challenges to strategic philanthropy are identified, including strategies developed in isolation from grantees that execute them and misaligned foundation structures, processes, and cultures that do not support strategic endeavors.

· In order to get beyond the veneer of strategic philanthropy, foundation leaders need to be clearer about their own role in creating change, develop the strategic capacities to do so, and then apply those …

Is The Policy Win All? A Framework For Effective Social-Justice Advocacy, Barbara Klugman

The Foundation Review

· This article offers a theory-of-change framework to help those engaged in social-justice advocacy to reflect on whether social-justice values are being retained in the process.

· A reproductive rights effort in South Africa provides an example of how social justice values can be lost in the advocacy process.

· The failure to sustain work on the ground pointed to the need to maintain a base of support even after a policy victory.

· Strategies must be revisited as social and political contexts change.

· One of the critical social-justice values that supports the establishment and maintenance of alliances is …

Reframing Assessment Of Grantee Perceptions: Reconsidering Effectiveness With Broader International Stakeholder Engagement, Laurel Pendleton, Michael Y. Moon

The Foundation Review

· Stakeholder engagement is important in philanthropy because it allows grantmakers and grantees to pool their respective resources more effectively to address their shared target issues.

· As more and more foundations and other grantmaking entities venture into the expansive world of self-evaluation, it is prudent that these methods be examined in light of international funding relationships.

· In order to better understand how these tools and methods can be used internationally, we outline the opportunities presented when using frames as one basis for decision-making in complex situations.

· Using the hypothetical case of a U.S. funder seeking to understand …

Leadership Development In The Social Sector: A Framework For Supporting Strategic Investments, Grady Mcgonagill, Claire Reinelt

The Foundation Review

· While much of the research on leadership and leadership development has historically studied private sector settings, recent work has begun to build knowledge about leaders in public and community settings.

· New models of leadership, including collective leadership, are being developed and implemented by foundations.

· A framework for identifying the level of intervention (individual, team, organization, network, or system) and the level of impact (individual, team, organization, community, or field of policy and practice) is proposed as a tool for more strategic investing in leadership development.

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Achieving Foundation Accountability And Transparency: Lessons From The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’S Scorecard, David C. Colby, Nancy W. Fishman, Sarah G. Pickell

The Foundation Review

· The purpose of this article is to help foundations in their accountability and transparency efforts by sharing lessons from one foundation’s journey to develop a scorecard.

· A commitment to funding and sharing the results from rigorous evaluations set the tone for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) accountability.

· The Scorecard is a powerful tool for RWJF to set goals, track organizational effectiveness, and motivate responses to shortcomings.

· Foundations can tailor their scorecard to include what best serves their needs.

· With its Scorecard, RWJF found that comparative and quantitative measures are the most powerful forces to motivate …

Evaluation Of Greater Mankato Area United Way's Annual Allocations Process From The Partner Agencies' Perspective, Erin A. Trytten

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This project aims to provide information to GMAUW about the annual allocations process and level of engagement with partners from the partner agencies/programs themselves. GMAUW values their relationship with their partners and realizes the importance of evaluating their own practices to ensure that the relationship remain strong and mutually beneficial. GMAUW has never had the internal capacity to complete an evaluation of this nature and will use the findings to improve their processes.

Research Question: How do GMAUW’s partners view the annual allocations process?

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Funding Source Impact On Nonprofit Advocacy Activity, Sean Patrick Naylor

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Nonprofit organizations are often a tool by which citizens can engage in the policy process. Many nonprofit organizations engage in issue advocacy. For some nonprofit organizations issue advocacy is the purpose for their existence. For others, issue advocacy is a means of meeting organizational goals. Many nonprofits avoid issue advocacy altogether. The IRS places a financial limit on how much issue advocacy a nonprofit organization may engage in. However, most nonprofits won’t ever come close to this limit. Most simply don’t have as great a need for advocacy, while some will self regulate to avoid losing funding sources. Some literature …

Understanding Non-Profit Organizations In States With Appalachian Counties: Where They Locate And The Missions They Serve, Rebecca E. Tucker

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

No executive summary.

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

The Real-Time Evaluation Memo: A Tool For Enabling Evaluative Thinking And Learning In Foundations And Nonprofits, Melanie Hwalek, Mary Grcich Williams

The Foundation Review

· Real-time evaluation memos provide data-based feedback in a timely manner to inform decision making.

· Memos must be concise and include both data and expert synthesis and interpretation.

· The foundation must have a learning culture if the memos are to most useful; there must be time to reflect on the content and implications.

· The balance between data quality and timeliness must be managed and will be dependent on the topic.

· While useful for program management, these memos do not provide the kind of summative information that board members and other stakeholders may require.

The Quest For Quality: Lessons From A Certification Pilot Project For College Access Providers, Tania Jarosewich, Nushina Mir

The Foundation Review

· Certification programs can provide a way for nonprofits to ensure adherence to generally accepted standards.

· The KH2GO Certification Pilot Project, supported by the Lumina Foundations, developed a set of standards for high-quality college access services, including standards for programming, operations, and organizational effectiveness.

· The project was implemented in two states with an evaluation designed to assess the quality of the assessment tools and the ease and rigor of implementation.

· The more clarity that applicants had about the goals of the process, potential benefits, and details about procedures, the more benefits they perceived.

· Many applicants felt …

Embedded Foundations: Advancing Community Change And Empowerment, Paula Allen-Meares, Larry Gant, Trina Shanks

The Foundation Review

· Embedded funders are foundations that have made long-term commitments to the communities in which they are located or work.

· Foundations have a long history in funding community development, often with few concrete results.

· Political conditions, the increasing divide between rich and poor, inaccessibility of education, lack of housing, and continued segregation and racial discrimination are issues that need be addressed concurrently and resources need to be drawn from a variety of sources, particularly the neighborhoods themselves. This complexity has created an impetus for embedded philanthropy.

· Embedded funders work participatively with the community and frame evaluations in …

Beyond The Grant: How The W. K. Kellogg Foundation Went Beyond Grantmaking To Contribute To A Major Early Childhood Initiative, Stephen Greeley, Beth Greeley

The Foundation Review

· The seven-year SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids) initiative, created by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), aimed at systemically linking the pre-K and kindergarten worlds as a way to position vulnerable children for greater success in the early grades.

· At the foundation, the initiative served as a departure point for WKKF to move from its traditional grantmaking role to a changemaker role.

· To create change, a foundation must articulate – and commit to – a point of view about how change can occur. A theory of change can be a powerful tool to guide ongoing …

Evaluative Tools For Articulating And Monitoring Foundation Strategy, Helen Davis Picher, Sandra Yetman Adams

The Foundation Review

· Research shows that while foundation leadership and staff value strategy and foundations largely perceive themselves as strategic, they often struggle to articulate, implement, and track strategy. The William Penn Foundation has developed a collection of tools to articulate and assess its progress toward strategic goals.

· Each tool employs a structured format to promote standardization; flexibility, though, is encouraged in the application of each tool to ensure that form does not dictate function. Each tool provides a template for organizing information that should be tweaked as needed.

· The speed and breadth of adoption of each tool varies and …