Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Placing Bets In A Complex Environment: One Foundation’S Approach To The Opioid Epidemic, Jill Yegian

The Foundation Review

Across the globe, foundations grapple with how to tackle complex, cross-sector societal problems. A major effort by the California Health Care Foundation to reduce opioid-related morbidity and mortality, launched just as opioid use was becoming understood as a problem that could reach epidemic proportions, presents an instructive case study of impact.

Starting in 2015, the foundation placed several “big bets” on initiatives aimed at stopping overdose deaths and preventing new addiction. That early investment had dramatic returns, laying the groundwork for scaling pilot projects statewide as hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding became available to address the crisis. …

The Development And Operation Of Foundations In China, Qun Wang

The Foundation Review

Chinese foundations flourished in the 21st century, and empirical studies emerged to address multiple aspects of their activities and relations with the government. Yet there has been little research synthetically reviewing their development and operation. As a result, we often lack the knowledge of the context in which these organizations interact with state and society.

This article divides the history of Chinese foundations into three phases: in search of identity, 1978–2004; in search of legal status, 2004–2016; and in search of the role in civil society, from 2016 onward. Within those three periods, it also examines overseas foundations and their …

A Mission To Improve Health: Lessons From Missouri’S Expanding Coverage Initiative, Anna Saltzman, Shayla Spilker, Megan Klenke-Isgriggs

The Foundation Review

To support the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, in 2013 Missouri Foundation for Health launched the Expanding Coverage Initiative. The fiveyear effort sought to reduce Missouri’s uninsured rate from 13% to less than 5% by developing a broad-based state coalition and employing a three-pronged approach of awareness building and outreach, enrollment assistance, and increasing health literacy.

While the initiative did not achieve its rate-reduction goal, the rate of uninsured Missourians dropped to 9% during the ECI’s time frame, a decrease on par with the national average despite the fact that at the time Missouri was one of 17 states …

Funder-Initiated Communities Of Practice As A Means For Sharing And Creating Knowledge In Order To Strengthen The Adaptive Capacity Of Systems, Claire Nicklin, Timothy Chancellor, Angelo Garcia, Linnet Gohole, Bettina Haussmann, Prudence Kaijage, Jane Maland Cady, Keith Miller, Marah Moore, Rebecca Nelson, Megan Powers, Batamaka Somé

The Foundation Review

Planned communities of practice can be an effective means to spread and create knowledge. This article explores the degree to which communities of practice can be initiated by funders, and presents the lessons learned and outcomes achieved from the long-term commitment to this concept by the McKnight Foundation's Collaborative Crop Research Program.

This article provides a novel contribution to the literature by showing that a funder can initiate, support, and participate in a community of practice comprised of its grantees, which can succeed in sharing and creating knowledge. Factors that organizations should consider when investigating this concept include long-term investment …

13.1 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Investing In Leadership Development: A Tool For Systems Change In The Community Health Center Field, Michael P. Arnold, Natalie J. Blackmur, Brenda Solórzano, Carolyn Wang Kong, Bobbie Wunsch, Sunita Mutha

The Foundation Review

Over the course of 12 years, the Blue Shield of California Foundation committed nearly $20 million to growing a pool of community health center leaders who were prepared to be effective agents of change in their organizations and in the safety net field. This signature investment, the Clinic Leadership Institute, was implemented in partnership with the Healthforce Center at University of California, San Francisco, in anticipation of a generation of California health center leaders beginning to transition into retirement.

During the institute's 10 cohorts, access to community health centers dramatically increased with the Affordable Care Act, and this — coupled …

Catalyzing Change In Higher Education: Social Capital And Network Leadership In The Competency-Based Education Network, Bruce William Haupt Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Collaborative inter-organizational networks can be effective at catalyzing and supporting the generation and diffusion of new models and practices. With shared purpose, structure, and resources, network organizations can facilitate knowledge exchange and the growth of inter-organizational relationships. In this study, I sought to better understand how network organizations influence social capital and the spread of innovative practices. Of particular interest were the roles of national network and sub-national network organizations (sub-networks), and the interactive learning processes of network newcomers. I focused on the diverse array of colleges and universities involved in the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), and their efforts to …

Examining The Impact Of Entrepreneurship Training On Entrepreneurial Mindset And Economic Well-Being, Sombo Muzata

Theses and Dissertations

This study used a mixed methods research design to examine the impact of entrepreneurship training on entrepreneurial mindset and economic well-being using the RVA Works Entrepreneurship Training Program as a case study. With human capital theory as a theoretical framework, a combination of 55 interviews and 36 surveys were used to answer the research questions. The study found that entrepreneurship training positively impacts an entrepreneurial mindset. The impact of the training on entrepreneurial mindset differed by participants age and educational level. Study participants applied their entrepreneurial mindset to their businesses, jobs, and other aspects of life. Participation in the program’s …

Regional Inclusive Growth Through Systems Philanthropy In Essex County, Massachusetts, Lisa Payne Simon, Stratton Lloyd, Beth Francis

The Foundation Review

In 2016, the Essex County Community Foundation forged a cross-sector coalition of business, community, and civic leaders to identify the Massachusetts region’s greatest challenges and to develop a strategy for action. Income inequality was identified as the county’s most pressing issue, and the foundation and its partners launched a systems philanthropy strategy to address that issue and stimulate inclusive growth.

The strategy involves a multipronged approach aimed at amplifying the county’s strengths, launching inclusive-growth initiatives, expanding workforce training and skill development to increase a broad target population’s earning potential and net worth, incentivizing and supporting small-business resiliency and growth, and …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Juan Olivarez

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Overcoming The Systemic Challenges Of Wealth Inequality In The U.S., David Peter Stroh

The Foundation Review

The galvanizing public murder of George Floyd and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and Hispanic people have put structural racism and its influence on wealth inequality in the U.S. into stark relief. As multiracial groups express outrage at these visible disparities, we risk missing the other side of the coin: that wealth inequality in turn fans structural racism. Moreover, as they reinforce each other, these two factors erode the social, economic, and political viability of our democracy. Understanding and then breaking this vicious cycle are essential to realizing our renewed commitment to a country that works everyone.

This …

Can Civil Society Be Inclusive? Strategies For Endowed Foundations, Irene M. H. Davids, Lucas C. P. M. Meijs

The Foundation Review

Literature on inclusion and exclusion within civil society distinguishes two broad approaches: the managerial, based on the private sphere, and the democratic, based upon the public sphere. Regardless of the approach, however, the influence of cultural distance or proximity between endowed foundations and grassroots associations has remained understudied. This research aims to address this gap.

This article shares results of a quantitative comparison of the patterns of funding awarded by a regional endowed foundation in the Netherlands to immigrant grassroots associations and to other grassroots organizations. The results reveal differences in funding despite the foundation’s inclusive strategy. An exploration of …

What Does It Take? Reflections On Foundation Practice In Building Healthy Communities, 2010–2020, Prudence Brown, Tom David, Anand Sharma

The Foundation Review

Foundation practice — how a foundation goes about its work — plays a significant role in determining the results of the work, particularly for foundations that take on roles that position them as part of the action rather than solely as sources of funds.

This article aims to build upon the lessons from past place-based work by examining the practices of The California Endowment as it designed and implemented Building Healthy Communities, a 10-year initiative to promote health equity. The initiative combined intensive investment in 14 historically disinvested communities with sophisticated state- and regional-level policy campaigns and coalition-building strategies to …

Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

At Your Service: Nonprofit Infrastructure Organizations And Covid-19, Christopher R. Prentice, Jeffrey L. Brudney, Richard M. Clerkin, Patrick C. Brien

The Foundation Review

This article examines the role played by nonprofit infrastructure organizations in assisting service-delivery nonprofits as they confronted the COVID-19 crisis. These organizations are differentiated by their service focus, but are united by a common mission to offer support to other nonprofits.

The service areas of nonprofit infrastructure organizations can be divided into three categories: those that support the nonprofit sector as a whole, those that assist nonprofit organizations and their staffs, and those that devote their resources to the communities or region they serve. For this article, leaders from these three types of organizations were asked to share their responses …

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Measuring The Effectiveness Of Equitable Economic Development Strategies, Amy Minzner

The Foundation Review

There is anecdotal evidence that equitable economic development activities can foster inclusive growth and unlock the full potential of local economies by dismantling barriers and expanding opportunities for low-income people and communities of color. These strategies are being used with increasing frequency, and advocates and funders are pressing for their use throughout the country. Because of this, there is a need to better understand the link between equitable economic development activities and their ability to foster equitable opportunities and resulting impacts.

Establishing this link will require a new measurement strategy because traditional measures of economic development effectiveness focus on communitywide …

Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Advancing Social Determinants Of Health Through Investments In Postsecondary Attainment And Sustaining Employment, Melissa B. Eggen, J’Aime C. Jennings, Molly O’Keefe, Brandy N. Kelly Pryor, Leslie Clements

The Foundation Review

In 2018, the Humana Foundation shifted the focus of its work to the social determinants of health, with the key aim of promoting health equity. With this new focus came a recognition that larger, long-term investments would be needed to support strategies addressing upstream determinants of health. The foundation also recognized the need to co-create processes with communities to understand how to provide essential holistic supports.

This article explores one area of the foundation’s new efforts, the Strategic Community Investment Program, which focuses in part on postsecondary attainment and sustaining employment. The foundation partnered with the University of Louisville’s Center …

Emergent Learning: Increasing The Impact Of Foundation-Driven Strategies To Support College Enrollment And Completion, Kimberly Hanauer, Stacy Sneed, Bill Debaun

The Foundation Review

This article examines lessons learned as part of the continued development of the Get2College Pilot School Program, an initiative of the Woodward Hines Education Foundation, designed to test a strategy for increasing college enrollment among Mississippi students through greater college exploration opportunities and application and financial aid supports.

While a review of the first three years of the pilot found it had an impact on college-going culture at its eight participating schools, Get2College found no significant increase in college enrollment over the 2016–2018 academic years and a retrospective analysis revealed flaws in the program’s design and theory of change. In …

Scaling Rural Access: One Foundation’S Partnership To Expand Fafsa Completion Across Mississippi, B. Tait Kellogg, Ann Hendrick, Kierstan Dufour, Patricia Steele

The Foundation Review

This article highlights Get2College, a program by the Woodward Hines Education Foundation that provide financial aid counseling to Mississippi high school students, and outlines a study that assessed efforts to scale the FAFSA completion initiative to increase the number of students statewide who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Get2College’s approach to scaling involved a partnership with the state’s rurally based community colleges and leveraged their established support networks to expand its outreach to the state’s often underserved students and increase FAFSA completion rates among that population.

In rural states like Mississippi, underresourced groups are sometimes left …

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Moving The Needle Or Spinning Our Wheels? A Framework For Long-Lasting, Equitable Change In Education, Heather Mccambly, Eleanor R. Anderson

The Foundation Review

In the quest for equitable and lasting reform in postsecondary education, philanthropy’s great strength is its flexibility to make use of multiple strategies. However, as most grantmakers know firsthand, not all strategy combinations lead to lasting systemic change.

This article offers an actionable approach for designing and analyzing philanthropically funded movements in order to remake an area of educational policy or practice. It begins with a review of philanthropic literature that identifies the primary change strategies used by funders in the education sector. It then introduces a tool, rooted in organizational research, to understand and predict the circumstances under which …