Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

A Matter Of Leadership: Connecting A Grantmaker's Investments In Collaborative Leadership Development To Community Results, Julia D. O’Brien, Jennifer N. Littlefield, Victoria Goddard-Truitt

The Foundation Review

· Foundations are increasingly supporting cross-sector collaboratives that focus on developing collaborative leadership skills, in addition to strengthening collaborative accountability. This article tests the Theory of Aligned Contributions change model, as implemented by the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Leadership in Action Program.

· Path analysis results show that grantmakers can support cross-sector collaboratives by providing skilled implementation teams that promote public and individual accountability and build strong collaborative leadership skills. Through this support, collaboratives develop effective strategies that affect important social issues.

· This research sheds light on how grantmakers can fund and encourage a process for cross-sector community members …

When Local Solutions Aren’T Enough: A Strategic Funding Partnership To Restore A Large River System, Pam Wiley, Ken Bierly, Todd Reeve, Kendra Smith

The Foundation Review

· Freshwater ecosystems are increasingly imperiled, and funders, nongovernmental organizations, community groups, and government agencies around the world are working to restore ecological function and resiliency to these critical resources.

· What does it take to structure, support, and implement truly effective, broad-scale watershed restoration? This article will describe the unconventional funding strategies catalyzing collective impact across multiple restoration groups working in a diverse set of watersheds and share the challenges and opportunities encountered while implementing these strategies.

· In Oregon, an experimental 10-year collaboration aimed at improving the health of the Willamette River system is being led by the …

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Achieving Synergy With Collaborative Problem Solving: The Value Of System Analysis, Douglas Easterling, Elizabeth Mayfield Arnold, Jessica A. Jones, Allen J. Smart

The Foundation Review

· Collaborative problem solving has a long and important tradition in philanthropy. While there are notable success stories, it is clear that large-scale impact does not occur by simply bringing various stakeholders together around a common agenda and then offering them funding for planning and implementation.

· One of the most critical ingredients is a high-leverage strategy, which in turn requires a coherent understanding of the system that surrounds the problem.

· Reclaiming Futures, a national initiative aimed at promoting juvenile-justice reform at the local level, explicitly promotes system-level problem-solving by offering a conceptual framework that each site uses to …

Implementation Guide For Community Change: Tools From First 5 Marin, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Moving From Partnership To Collective Accountability And Sustainable Change: Applying A Systems-Change Model To Foundations’ Evolving Roles, Karen W. Linkins, Lynda E. Frost, Becky Hayes Boober, Jennifer J. Brya

The Foundation Review

· In a time of scarce resources and significant needs, funders may seek to maximize the impact of their grantmaking through collaboration. While many foundations move well from identifying a problem to building broader awareness and forging key partnerships, they typically flounder in trying to move beyond collaboration to a sense of mutual responsibility or collective accountability for the greater good, which is a precondition for sustainable systems change.

· This article discusses three complex initiatives that made sustainable changes in integrated behavioral health and primary care. Using a conceptual framework based on the Building Blocks of Systems Change model, …

Funding Leadership-Development Training For Cultural Activists: A Reflective Essay, Susan J. Erenrich

The Foundation Review

· Throughout history, artists have led grassroots movements of protest, resistance, and liberation that have culminated in transformational change. Often, these artists have been overlooked or given too little attention by funders, even though the consequences of their courageous crusades include censorship, imprisonment, torture, and even death.

· There are a number of models for leadership-development training for cultural activists.

· Opportunities for these cultural activists to engage in special leadership-development training can enhance individual campaigns for social justice; provide opportunities for them to network, strategize, and reflect in safe spaces away from the turmoil of day-to-day organizing; and allow …

Getting To Collective Impact: How Funders Can Contribute Over The Life Course Of The Work, Douglas Easterling

The Foundation Review

· Foundations have a long tradition of convening and funding collaborative groups with the hope that this will lead to large-scale impact.

· Although funder-driven collaboration sometimes leads to breakthrough solutions, foundations have also pushed the participating organizations into artificial, awkward, and unsustainable efforts.

· This article argues that funders should support naturally emerging networks and should tailor their support to match the network’s stage of development.

· A five-stage developmental model is introduced and illustrated through a case study of the Central Appalachian Network (CAN).

· Over CAN’s 20-year history, a succession of regional and national foundations have played …

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Eyes Wide Open: Learning As Strategy Under Conditions Of Complexity And Uncertainty, Patricia Patrizi, Elizabeth Heid Thompson, Julia Coffman, Tanya Beer

The Foundation Review

· Foundation strategy is hampered by a failure to recognize and engage with the complexity and uncertainty surrounding foundation work. This article identifies three common “traps” that hinder foundation capacity to learn and adapt: 1) linearity and certainty bias; 2) the autopilot effect; and 3) indicator blindness.

· This article urges foundations to alter their mindset, questions, and processes to foster a more committed approach to strategy and adaptation. In essence, it argues for learning as strategy.

· This article draws on literature from systems theory, business strategy, and philanthropic practice as well as data from foundation benchmarking surveys.

Book Review Of The Generosity Network: New Transformational Tools For Successful Fund-Raising, Terry Horton

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Lessons From Patchwork Nation: A New Framework For Building Community Indicators, Stephen Borders, James Edwards, Ashley Miller

The Foundation Review

· As interest in outcomes continues to rise, community indicators have become a widely used tool to measure progress. While indicators provide a vehicle for understanding and addressing community issues from a holistic perspective, current efforts seem to suffer from both a notable absence of local-level data and end-user information overload, whereby the presentation of numerous and often disconnected indicators makes it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions from the analysis.

· We highlight the results and our experiences with a community health needs assessment conducted through an indicator project in Michigan’s Kent County. The analysis and visualization of the indicator …

Collaboration And Foundation Leadership: Challenges, Opportunities, And Impact, Jennifer Pereira

The Foundation Review

· This article describes a successful collaboration among foundation, city government, and nonprofit stakeholders that leveraged an initial investment of $60,000 to $4.5 million in public and private funding to create a sustainable Green & Healthy Homes Initiative™ for low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in Providence, R.I.

· Through a partnership with the Rhode Island Foundation, the Council on Foundations, and the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, the city of Providence developed a comprehensive approach to integrated health, safety, lead-hazard reduction, energy-efficiency, and weatherization interventions for low- and moderate-income families.

· The project was led by a steering committee of …

Four Network Principles For Collaboration Success, Jane Wei-Skillern, Nora Silver

The Foundation Review

· This article identifies a set of four counterintuitive principles that are critical to collaboration success and offers insights for how nonprofit leaders can ensure that their collaborations can have an impact that is dramatically greater than the sum of the individual parts.

· Based on a decade of research developing detailed case studies on a range of successful networks, the authors have identified a common pattern of factors that are essential to effective networking.

· The principles are: focus on mission before organization; manage through trust, not control; promote others, not yourself; and build constellations, not stars.

Benchmarking Evaluation In Foundations: Do We Know What We Are Doing?, Julia Coffman, Tanya Beer, Patricia Patrizi, Elizabeth Heid Thompson

The Foundation Review

· Evaluation in philanthropy – with staff assigned to evaluation-related responsibilities – began in the 1970s and has evolved, along with philanthropy, in the four decades since. What has not changed, however, is a regular questioning of what foundations are doing on evaluation, especially since the world of philanthropy regularly shifts, and changes in evaluation resourcing and positioning tend to soon follow.

· This article presents new findings about what foundations are doing on evaluation and discusses their implications. It is based on 2012 research that benchmarks the positioning, resourcing, and function of evaluation in foundations, and follows up on …

Talent Philanthropy: Investing In Nonprofit People To Advance Nonprofit Performance, Rusty Morgen Stahl

The Foundation Review

· This article argues that people are the primary asset that drives performance in the social sector, but that despite their importance they are undersupported. Funders could make major strides in their own effectiveness and in the performance of their grantees by explicitly investing in grantee talent and talent-support systems. Such support could build a critical mass of diverse leadership in society and dramatically improve the ability of the social sector to advance social change.

· The first part of this article reframes the talent challenge facing the nonprofit sector, highlighting urgent issues and chronic structural flaws.

· The second …

Book Review Of Practical Project Management For Agile Nonprofits: Approaches And Templates To Help You Manage With Limited Resources, Megan Murphy

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Designing For Learning: One Foundation’S Efforts To Institutionalize Organizational Learning, Rosanna Tran, Sanjay Shah

The Foundation Review

· This article explores the California HealthCare Foundation’s internal efforts, inspired in part by the process of design thinking, to institutionalize organizational learning.

· One outcome of this process has been a “grantmaking toolbox,” which represents an attempt to document new, effective, and innovative grantmaking tactics.

· While creating this toolbox, the foundation realized that the process of learning holds as much – if not more – value as the products of learning. Moreover, we gained three valuable insights that may be relevant for other foundations interested in advancing their learning efforts: effective learning is a collaborative, rather than an …

Measuring Dimensions Of Network Functioning: The Knowhow2go Network Survey, Tania Jarosewich, Nushina Mir, Linda Simkin

The Foundation Review

· As foundations more often encourage networks and other interorganizational strategies, they need tools to measure network effectiveness and outcomes. Gathering network members’ perspectives on their engagement with the network can provide insights and avenues for improvement.

· This article describes a network survey that was created for Lumina Foundation’s KnowHow2GO initiative, which focused on strengthening college access networks.

· The network survey measures five dimensions of effective networks: network management; sustainable service systems; data-driven decision making; policy and advocacy; and knowledge development and dissemination.

· The network survey provided useful information for the foundation, initiative partners, technicalassistance providers, network …

Book Review Of Focus On Sustainability: A Nonprofit’S Journey, Matthew Downey

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Weaving An Impactful Network, Anne E. Summers, Linda Honold

The Foundation Review

· The Brico Fund set out to test a common nonprofit theory of change: individual outputs lead to outcomes, leading to systems change. An alternate theory is that systems change happens through collective and strategic action of many organizations working together toward a common goal.

· This case study examines the implementation of this theory and describes the companion development of systems, structures, tools, and processes created in a cross-sector network of nonprofits. The evolution of Brico’s funding strategy is juxtaposed with the development of the network, revealing a unique funder/organization symbiosis, relying on each to provide expertise, thus fostering …

"The Road Less Travelled;" Women's Journeys To Community Leadership In The Waterloo Region, Lyndsey A. Butcher

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this research study is to explore the experiences of women within the Region of Waterloo along their journeys to community leadership. The literature review reveals the predominance of deficits-based research on the barriers preventing women from attaining positions of leadership and a significant gap in scholarship on female community leaders. This qualitative study consisted of semi-structured interviews with 15 female community leaders. It was influenced by an intersectional feminist perspective and used a constructivist grounded theory approach. The findings of this study offer three groups of related factors that can encourage, support and recognize the increasing number …

2012 Reboot Program Evaluation: A Report To The Kisco Foundation, Laura Deitrick, Ian Martin, Roxanne Ruzic

Military

The Kisco Foundation commissioned researchers at the Center for Education Policy and Law and the Caster Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Research at the University of San Diego to work with REBOOT, a nonprofit based in Southern California, to conduct an evaluation of its program, REBOOT WorkshopsTM (REBOOT). REBOOT is a three-week-long program designed to assist members of the military in making the social and career transition from military service to civilian life by “re-booting” their skills, attitudes, and behaviors. The evaluation detailed in this report was conducted during the summer and fall of 2012, two years after the first …

2012 Applied Projects Evaluation Interim Report, Caster Family Center For Nonprofit And Philanthropic Research, University Of San Diego

USD Evaluation of Applied Learning Model in Nonprofit Leadership and Management Master's Program

In order to assess the value of applied projects completed by NPLM students for client nonprofit organizations, evaluation surveys are sent biannually. The statistics below demonstrate key findings from 69 responses to surveys administered during both the spring and fall of 2011 and 2012. The quotations included here are from the most recent survey conducted in the fall of 2012.

A Third Sector Imaginary, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

A basic theoretical challenge for third sector scholars today is to speak in general and consistent terms about the institutional and normative orders forming outside households, markets and governments in numerous countries, regions and urban centers everywhere. The third sectors of the world have formed in light of a range of distinctive local conditions, including history, culture, law and other factors. A growing international group of scholars has produced a convincing, although limited and partial model of the third sector based in the linked concepts of nonprofit organization, nonprofit sector and non-distribution constraints. We will need to pay greater heed …

Associations, Movements, Dialogues, Social Problems And News: Voluntary Action And The Life Cycles Of The Third Sector, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This is one of two summation papers presented at the conclusion of the 2012 Queensland University conference on the third sector, looking to the future. The focus initially is on the concept of the social imaginary as offered by the Canadian social philosopher, Charles Taylor. Much of the previous conceptual and theoretical work in third sector studies during the past few decades has been focused on questions of the best ways to imagine the community and national social configurations of increasingly large numbers of nonprofit, voluntary and nongovernmental organizations. The concepts of nonprofit organization and nonprofit sector have been most …

Relational Exchange In Nonprofits: The Role Of Identity Saliency And Relationship Satisfaction, Jennifer Anne Taylor

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Research and practice in nonprofit fundraising has increasingly been focused on the benefits of relational exchange. This dissertation examines relationships between donors and nonprofit organizations and their impact on the charitable giving levels using identity salience and relationship satisfaction as key mediators of nonprofit relational exchange. Previous research has shown that there are a plethora of charitable giving motivations that contribute to supportive behaviors in the nonprofit context; however, this research does not provide a comprehensive understanding of the intervening variables. This study modified previous studies by introducing relationship satisfaction in addition to identity saliency, as mediating constructs. Results confirm …

Attitudes Toward And Behavioral Intentions To Adopt Mobile Marketing: Comparisons Of Gen Y In The United States, France And China, Rebecca Wells, Catherine E. Kleshinski, Terence Lau

Management and Marketing Faculty Publications

The rapid global diffusion of mobile marketing makes it increasingly important to understand cross-­‐cultural consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions toward mobile marketing as a promotional channel. By building on the previously published research of Altuna and Konuk (2009), this work investigates the attitudes and behavioral intentions toward mobile marketing of Generation Y consumers in the United States, France, and China. Based on this analysis, Chinese Gen Y have the most positive attitude toward mobile marketing, and their overall attitude is significantly more positive than the attitudes of French and American Gen Y groups. While American Gen Y's behavioral intentions are …