Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

Building The Bridge For Diversity And Inclusion: Testing A Regional Strategy, Vicki Rosenberg, Lynn Perry Wooten, Mary Mcdonald, Kimberly Burton

The Foundation Review

· Transforming Michigan Philanthropy Through Diversity & Inclusion (TMP) is a six-year research and development effort of the Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF). A unique experiment, TMP is the only statewide, comprehensive effort to promote diversity and inclusiveness among foundations in the country.

· Organizational excellence through diversity and inclusion requires an organization to find a goal that resonates with its stakeholders and then create collaborative communities that focus on achieving that goal. This strategy positions an organization to use the full diversity of those stakeholders for tasks such as problem-solving, innovation, quality initiatives, and the acquisition of resources.

· …

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Going Deeper: Can Investigative Reporters Add Value To Assessment And Evaluation?, Larry Meyer

The Foundation Review

· The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supplemented its standard evaluation approach by engaging professional journalists to elaborate on evaluation findings.

· The resulting reports are more direct, even critical, than any prior Knight Foundation attempt to evaluate and assess.

· It produced deeper looks into the intent and outcome of major initiatives, analyzing and addressing flaws in the theories of change underlying initiatives.

· The goal of reaching external audiences was not achieved.

Leveraging Grant-Making—Part 2: Aligning Programmatic Approaches With Complex System Dynamics, David Peter Stroh, Kathleen A. Zurcher

The Foundation Review

· The purpose of this two-part article is to enable foundations to increase the leverage of their grantmaking resources by working effectively with the dynamics of complex social systems.

· This article examines how foundations can align planning, implementation, and evaluation efforts with the behavior of the social systems they seek to improve.

· Asking powerful questions of staff, board, grantees, and other stakeholders helps to transform how they think about their goals and strategies.

· In addition to using the power of questioning, foundations function more systemically by suspending their assumptions about their effectiveness and what is possible, creating …

Speak Your Peace: A Communications Strategy For Changing Community Culture, Douglas Easterling, Holly C. Sampson, Beth Probst

The Foundation Review

· Strategic communications can play a crucial role in advancing tangible community-wide impacts.

· “Speak Your Peace: The Civility Project” (SYP) was developed by The Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation and the Millennium Group to improve the civility of public discourse, under the premise that this would strengthen community decision making, expand civic engagement, and increase residents’ interest in elected office.

· The SYP campaign promotes nine principles (or “tools”) adapted from Forni’s book Choosing Civility (e.g., pay attention, take responsibility, apologize, give constructive criticism).

· City councils, county commissions, and school boards in the region adopted the nine tools …

Who Becomes A Foundation Ceo? An Analysis Of Hiring Patterns, 2004-2008, Renée B. Branch, Michael P. Moody, Sue Marx Smock, Donna N. Bransford

The Foundation Review

· This study provided baseline data about the professional and individual characteristics of 440 candidates selected to be the top executive in a grantmaking institution during a five-year study period (2004-2008), and about the hiring patterns of the diverse institutions making these appointments.

· Most new chief executive officers (79.5 percent) were not hired from within the same foundation. The percentage of external appointments grew in each successive year of the study period.

· Most new foundation CEOs (67 percent) were not working for a grantmaking institution when they were appointed. This majority made the transition from fields outside of …

Demand Versus Supply: Assessing The Capacity Of Mpa Programs To Satisfy The Growing Need For Professional Management In Local Government, Gerald T. Gabris, Trenton J. Davis, Kimberly L. Nelson

Public & Nonprofit Studies: Faculty Publications

This article addresses concerns expressed by members of the International City/ County Management Association (ICMA) regarding whether the supply of qualified local government managers will keep pace with the future demand for this occupation. The authors developed several important observations, which are based on decades of experience with a Master of Public Administration (MPA) program focused on local government management, plus strategic planning experience in over 100 local governments. First, it is likely that the impending retirement of the Baby Boom generation of city managers will cause some supply shortages of professional managers in specific geographical regions of the country. …

Book Review: The Concept Of Community: Lessons From The Bronx, Angela M. Eikenberry

Public Administration Faculty Publications

A book review of DeRienzo, H. (2008). The Concept of Community: Lessons From the Bronx. Milan, Italy: IPOC di Pietro Condemi.

Giving Circles, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

A giving circle is a group of members pool their funds and information in collective or joint donations to organizations, causes or individuals. The article reviews some of the research on giving circles in the first decade of the 21st century.

The Market And The Social Economy: Can The Twain Meet?, Willie Cheng

Social Space

Can the different paradigms of the market and social economy be reconciled? Willie Cheng suggests that the current remaking of both economies offers an invaluable opportunity.

Promoting Third Sector Leadership: Letting A Thousand Flowers Bloom, Filippo Addarii, Ben Rattenbury

Social Space

How do we foster leadership and social innovation in the third sector? Filippo Addarii and Ben Rattenbury share a European method through the peer-led Euclid Network.

Community Building For Children’S Health: Lessons From Community Partnerships For Healthy Children, Dorothy Meehan, Kathleen Hebbeler, Stacie Cherner, Dana Petersen

The Foundation Review

· This article describes Community Partnerships for Healthy Children (CPHC), a 10-year, $17 million initiative of the Sierra Health Foundation targeted at improving children’s health in northern California by mobilizing communities to use their assets. Implementation grants were modest ($50,000 annually), but technical assistance and communications support were also provided.

· The initiative rolled out in four phases. Overall, a total of 31 communities participated in the initiative. Twenty-six communities remained through phase three, with 18 engaging in the final fourth phase.

· Evidence indicates that CPHC improved the health of some children in some communities with regard to some …

Philanthropy And Mistakes: An Untapped Resource, Robert Giloth, Susan Gewirtz

The Foundation Review

· Sharing and leveraging lessons learned from mistakes is an important but underutilized resource to improve philanthropic investments and nonprofit performance.

· Philanthropic mistakes extend beyond the results of program evaluations to include questions of mission, role, investment strategies, and implementation.

· Distinguishing between “constructive” and “nonconstructive” mistakes focuses attention on those factors that shape the outcomes for even the most well-designed investments.

· Sharing and reflecting upon mistakes has the potential to improve philanthropic capacities for anticipation, learning, and adaptation.

· Philanthropy must recognize the sometimes blurry lines between success and failure, constructive and nonconstructive mistakes, and philanthropic and …

Community-Based Collaboration: A Philanthropic Model For Positive Social Change, Lynda Frost, Susan Stone

The Foundation Review

· A highly publicized incident served as a catalyst for the Austin, Texas, community, convened by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, to address gaps in the behavioral health system.

· The foundation worked with the local behavioral health authority, the mayor’s office, police and sheriff’s departments, and the city health department to design the Austin Mayor’s Mental Health Task Force. The task force was succeeded by a monitoring committee that identified six focus areas in which to develop action plans and monitor community progress.

· This collaborative process aimed to strengthen public commitment to behavioral health services and create …

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Supporting Asian-American Civic Engagement: Theory And Practice, Wing Yi Chan

The Foundation Review

· This paper is a review of relevant research related to the civic engagement of Asian-American youth.

· Little work has been done to understand the civic engagement activities of Asian-American youth. However, unique promoters and barriers to Asian- American youth civic engagement exist, given this group’s distinct historical, cultural, and sociopolitical experiences.

· Asian-American youth may have two different ethnic and racial identities, and these identities may be related to different kinds of civic engagement. Asian-American students who have a stronger pan-Asian identity are more aware that their fate is linked with other Asian-Americans and therefore are more likely …

The Art Of Community Double Dutch: Knowing When To Jump In, Lesley Grady

The Foundation Review

· This article uses the childhood experience of learning how to play Double Dutch jump rope as an allegory to navigating complicated community leadership through civic engagement.

· There is both an art and a science to deciding when and why to work with a broad base of stakeholders to attempt comprehensive community change.

· The key lessons are the following: (1) follow the noise and find the excitement, (2) ask questions and get into conversations, (3) set the rules of the game, 4) keep score, 5) get the right equipment and players, 6) know when to jump in and …

Turning The Ship: Moving From Clinical Treatment To Environmental Prevention: A Health Disparities Policy Advocacy Initiative, Mary Kreger, Claire D. Brindis, Abigail Arons, Katherine Sargent, Annalisa Robles, Astrid Hendricks, Mona Jhawar, Marion Standish

The Foundation Review

· This article examines success factors for a statewide initiative to reduce health disparities by establishing environmental policies to reduce asthma risk factors for school-aged children.

· Twelve local coalitions and a statewide network focused on schools, housing, and outdoor air policies.

· Multiple types and levels of policy advocacy were encouraged by the Initiative so that issues at the local level linked to larger issues across the state, and conversely state-level policies supported local endeavors.

· Factors that contributed to the success of the initiative included: structuring the initiative on a systems change model; employing multiple technical assistance providers …

The Potential Of Partnerships For Health Advocacy And Policy Change: The Legacy Of The Partnership For The Public’S Health Initiative, Clarissa Hsu, Dave Pearson, Ron Maynard, Carol Cahill, Allen Cheadle

The Foundation Review

· This article reports on a study of 11 partnerships between public health departments and community organizations that were funded by The California Endowment to support advocacy and organizing to improve health outcomes in the communities.

· The evaluation examined the sustainability of the partnerships as well as the policy and advocacy work of the organizations.

· Almost 90 percent of the activities in policy change and community capacity building was sustained, whereas partnership and health department capacity building activities were the least likely to be sustained.

· The policy change legacies at the community level were strong and included …

Children’S Futures: Lessons From A Second-Generation Community Change Initiative, Karen E. Walker, Claire Gibbons, Marco Navarro

The Foundation Review

· This article describes Children’s Futures, a 10-year initiative in Trenton, N.J., that seeks to improve the health and well-being of children from 0 to 3 years old and ensure that they are ready for school.

· During the first five years, the initiative was successful in implementing a number of evidence-based practices to improve children’s health, such as providing home visits to pregnant women, measuring and improving the quality of day care centers, and improving the use of information systems to track childhood immunizations.

· Efforts to provide services for fathers and improve home-based child care were not successful; …

The Blind Men And The Elephant: Learning A Little At A Time About Civic Engagement, Melanie Moore Kubo, Ashley Mckenna

The Foundation Review

· This article, written from the perspective of the evaluator, describes what happened in one community in which four noncollaborating funders were supporting community development programs.

· The Treeline Collaborative evolved from grassroots origins to become a leading organization in the community, serving as a one-stop shop for many programs and providing a structure for civic engagement of residents.

· A collaborative evaluation would have enabled a deeper understanding of the Treeline Collaborative, the outcomes it attained and missed, and the multiple roles it plays in the community, perhaps leading to more effective program and funding decisions.

A Model For Multilevel Advocacy Evaluation, Tanya Beer, Ehren D. Reed

The Foundation Review

· The Colorado Trust provided three years of general operating support to nine advocacy organizations working to increase access to health through policy change work.

· The nine grantees had a variety of goals and strategies and had different levels of organizational capacity, but were evaluated using a uniform evaluation approach.

· The evaluation was designed to build grantees’ own evaluation capacity to incorporate real-time feedback, monitor progress toward goals, and to assess growth in the overall health advocacy community in Colorado.

· Individual grantees identified short- and intermediate- term outcomes related to The Trust’s intermediate outcomes, which were in …

Manchester Center: A Comparative Analysis Of Similar Local Nonprofits Using Financial Ratios, Brittani Wilson

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The Manchester Center is a nonprofit agency located in Lexington, KY whose mission is "to enrich lives in our neighborhood through educational, recreational, and social activities." A project team from the University of Kentucky studied the Center's finances, internal business processes, employee development, and services to customers to develop a balanced scorecard. It became evident to the team that the center was strained financially and additional funds would be beneficial to the organization However, before any suggestions could be made it was important to determine where the Manchester Center stood financially compared to similar nonprofit organizations in the Lexington area. …

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

The Colorado Trust’S Healthy Communities Initiative: Results And Lessons For Comprehensive Community Initiatives, Ross Conner, Doug Easterling

The Foundation Review

· This article summarizes how 29 diverse communities throughout Colorado implemented the Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative (CHCI), which was conceived and funded by The Colorado Trust to engage community residents in the development of locally relevant strategies to improve community health.

· In line with the World Health Organization’s Healthy Cities model, CHCI emphasized (a) inclusive, representative planning; (b) a broad definition of “health”; (c) consensus decision making; and (d) capacity building among local stakeholder groups.

· Communities implemented an array of projects (on average, six per community) that extended well beyond traditional health promotion and disease prevention. The most …

Scope, Scale, And Sustainability: What It Takes To Create Lasting Community Change, Tina R. Trent, David M. Chavis

The Foundation Review

· This article examines success factors that relate specifically to the ability of a comprehensive community initiative (CCI) to achieve the scope and scale required to generate community-level outcomes and to sustain those positive impacts over time.

· The CCIs selected for study represent a wide range of goals, strategies, and organizational structures.

· Six factors were found to cut across scope, scale, and sustainability. These factors include having a single broker or entity that holds the vision of the change effort; clearly defined roles; alignment among interventions, resources, and geography; meaningful community engagement; competent leadership and staff; and strategic, …

Using Community-Based Participatory Evaluation (Cbpe) Methods As A Tool To Sustain A Community Health Coalition, Leslie Aldrich, Daniel Silva, Danelle Marable, Erica Sandman

The Foundation Review

· Participatory evaluation has set the standard for cooperation between program evaluators and stakeholders. Coalition evaluation, however, calls for more extensive collaboration with the community at large.

· Integrating principles of community based participatory research and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Strategic Prevention Framework, which guides much coalition work, into coalition evaluation has proved useful to foster community affiliations and support reciprocal relationship building. The resulting evaluation method, named community based participatory evaluation (CBPE), takes time, money, and skilled personnel but can lead to more accurate results and coalition sustainability.

· The CBPE method has proved essential …

The Pros And Cons Of Comprehensive Community Initiatives At The City Level: The Case Of The Urban Health Initiative, Diana Silver, Beth C. Weitzman

The Foundation Review

· This article describes the trade-offs between the city-level and neighborhood-based approaches in examining the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF’s) Urban Health Initiative (UHI), an $80 million, 10-year effort to improve the health and safety of young people.

· Eight cities engaged in a two-year planning process; five received funding for an eight-year implementation phase. Plans that engaged in bottom-up activities, but left power and control in the hands of civic, business, social service, and political leaders, were favored. Those who had focused exclusively on neighborhood-based approaches were not funded for implementation.

· RWJF chose a city-level focus because they …

The Challenges Of Place, Capacity, And Systems Change: The Story Of Yes We Can!, Pennie Foster-Fishman, Robert Long

The Foundation Review

· Yes we can!, a comprehensive community initiative (CCI) funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, was designed to improve educational and economic outcomes within the foundation’s hometown of Battle Creek, Mich. Since 2002, Yes we can! has supported five core strategies designed to trigger the systems changes needed to reduce educational and economic inequities in Battle Creek.

· Yes we can! has achieved some important wins to date; for example, more residents are involved, more neighborhoods have stronger neighborhood associations, and more organizations are engaging residents in their decision-making processes. However, the scale of wins remains small, and the …

Philanthropy’S Civic Role In Community Change, Patricia Auspos, Prudence Brown, Anne C. Kubisch, Stacey Sutton

The Foundation Review

· This article describes six key roles for philanthropic organizations’ engagement in communities. It draws on Living Cities, a consortium of financial organizations, private foundations, and public sector organizations that has been working since 1991 to improve distressed neighborhoods in 23 cities.

· The six civic roles described are (a) convening and leveraging diverse networks of relationships, (b) developing local data and plans for community change, (c) leveraging new resources on behalf of communities, (d) mobilizing political will, (e) framing new messages about community development and communicating more strategically, and (f) generating and testing new ideas and building and sharing …