Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Strengthening Youth Leadership In A Metropolitan Region: Examining Lessons From A Multiyear Community Foundation Initiative, Katie Richards-Schuster, Katie G. Brisson

The Foundation Review

This article examines the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan’s launch of a broad-based, multilayered strategy to promote youth leadership in the region, and showcases what can be accomplished when foundations invest in such strategies.

In partnership with the University of Michigan School of Social Work and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University, the foundation helped develop comprehensive programs aimed at building the capacity of youth-serving organizations to engage youth as leaders, support a youth-driven research assessment and social-justice project, and provide funds for youth-run efforts aimed at strengthening the region’s schools and communities.

As …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Following The Money: An Analysis Of Foundation Grantmaking For Community And Economic Development, Keith Wardrip, William Lambe, Mels De Zeeuw

The Foundation Review

The article challenges the perception among some in the field of community and economic development that small and socioeconomically distressed metro areas do not attract a proportional share of grant capital from the nation’s largest foundations.

The analysis presented in this article reviewed nearly 169,000 community and economic development grants made by the largest foundations between 2008 and 2013 to identify metro- area characteristics that are associated with higher levels of grant receipt.

The density of nonprofit organizations and the presence of large, local foundations are shown to be consistently significant predictors of grant receipt. After controlling for these and …

Community Innovation Network Framework: A Model For Reshaping Community Identity, William P. Moore, Adena M. Klem, Cheryl L. Holmes, June Holley, Carlie Houchen

The Foundation Review

The REACH Healthcare Foundation created its Rural Health Initiative to encourage the development of innovative strategies to improve access to health care and reduce health inequities in three rural counties in Missouri and Kansas. The intent was to develop a systematic, sustainable, and coordinated approach to community change that would increase the odds of breaking through the persistent barriers to health care access for the rural poor and medically underserved in these counties.

This article discusses the foundation’s original approach to the initiative and how it adjusted that approach in response to its rural partners’ experiences. It reflects on the …

Foundation Support Of Immigrant Communities: Insights From A Survey Of Immigrants In Minnesota’S Twin Cities, Nicole Martinrogers, Ryan Evans, Paul Mattessich

The Foundation Review

Immigration brings both benefits and challenges to communities. This article provides insight into the needs of these communities and offers suggestions for how foundations can consider immigrant and refugee communities in their work.

This article combines information from Minnesota Compass, a foundation-governed social-indicators initiative, and Speaking for Ourselves, a study of immigrants and refu- gees in Minnesota’s Twin Cities metropolitan area that identifies the needs and strengths immigrants bring to our communities.

The results can help guide foundations and their grantees on how to improve a community’s quality of life for immigrants and refugees – to the benefit of all …

A New Domain For Place-Rooted Foundations: Economic Development Philanthropy, Deborah Markley, Janet Topolsky, Don Macke, Travis Green, Kristin Feierabend

The Foundation Review

This article suggests that economic development philanthropy is a new domain for place-rooted foundations, and highlights the important system-actor role that these foundations can and are playing to advance economic development that produces better outcomes for families and communities.

Economic development philanthropy requires foundations to play integrating or missing roles to advance regional economic development – that they act to fill gaps that other organizations and agencies in the community or region are not addressing. To ensure that a foundation is playing this value-added role requires identifying what others are doing and the outcomes they are seeking or achieving – …

Partnering For Impact: Developing The Mcknight Foundation’S Carbon Efficiency Strategy, Gayle Peterson

The Foundation Review

This case study challenges us to redefine our definitions of community and philanthropic practice as we tackle global climate change — one of the most Wicked Problems facing our planet and our people. Driven by a deep commitment to “walk the talk,” CEO Kate Wolford and McKnight Foundation leadership committed $100M of the foundation’s endowment to find solutions to global warming. This bold step required building a new type of partnership with McKnight’s team of financial advisors — Mellon Capital Management, Mercer, and Imprint Capital (now Goldman Sachs). McKnight and Mellon Capital had to build a new cross sector partnership …

Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

More Than Cookies: A Study Of Trends And Promising Practices In Programming For Older Girl Scouts, Jennifer Ottersbach

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This study examine rates of 'older girl' (ages 15-17) retention in Girl Scouts of the USA. Enrollment numbers and troop activity/participation are examined from the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana Council to assess the reflection of this regional council to the nationwide organization. Benefits such as character building, developing leadership skills, international and domestic travel opportunities, democratic opportunities, and public work or service projects for older girls are described as promising practices for older girl retention. This qualitative study lead to the development of “The Five Keys of Effective Older Girl Programming” as follows: designing specialized experiences, building relationships with adults …

The Nonprofit Nerd (August 2016), The Nonprofit Institute At Portland State University

The Nonprofit Institute Newsletter

Welcome to the Inaugural Issue of The Nonprofit Nerd! The Nonprofit Institute (NPI) at Portland State University (formerly the Institute for Nonprofit Management) is excited to introduce you to our new e‐newsletter, The Nonprofit Nerd. In each newsletter, we’ll provide you with to some great research, data, and best practice resources on a particular theme, as well as introduce you to some amazing nonprofit nerds who are making research and data “work” for them.

We hope the resources and insights we share in The Nonprofit Nerd will inspire you to get your nerd on and find innovative ways to make …

A Social Marketing Plan For The Lester C. Howick Animal Shelter, Joseph Michael Spiegelhoff

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Lester C. Howick Animal Shelter (Howick) is a non-profit organization serving Washington County, Arkansas and the Northwest Arkansas community. This thesis offers Howick a comprehensive Social marketing plan. The goal of the animal shelter is to increase the total number of cats and dogs adopted, increase the total amount of donations, and increase the number of volunteers helping at the facility and various events. In order to accomplish these goals for 2016, a Social marketing plan was developed through research on other non-profit organizations, other animal shelters, communication with the shelter employees, crafting a public service announcement (PSA), and …

A Human Resource Approach To Improving An Alternative Break Experience, Mikaela Shupp, Luther T. Denton, Katy Kaesebier

Honors College Theses

Alternative breaks are intensive service experiences that allow students to address social issues while impacting the communities they serve. This thesis examines Georgia Southern University’s Alternative Break Program in depth, specifically the participant selection process. Seven alternative break coordinators of programs across the United States were interviewed in order to evaluate the various participant selection processes used and to determine the main characteristics that these programs seek in participants and site leaders. Through this analysis, it was determined that programs look for site leaders who are flexible, passionate, and responsible. The research also revealed that coordinators look for participants who …

Benchmarking, Brokering, And Branding: Resources For Success Across Sectors, Maureen Scully, Lisa Deangelis, Katie Bates

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

The fellows in the Center for Collaborative Leadership's Emerging Leaders Program practice collaborative leadership skills by working together in peer-led teams on projects that involve multiple stakeholders and have a civic impact. The theme that emerged for the 2016 projects was Benchmarking, Brokering, and Branding: Resources for Success Across Sectors - recognizing that the fellows' social capital and ability to step back and take a wide comparative view provided new resources for their partners.

Family Asset Building Coalition's Case For Support, Nada Bakir, Kailyn Wells

Fundraising and Marketing

The Family Asset Building Coalition (FABC) is a partnership of nonprofit and community organizations united by the common goal of assisting low-income families achieve economic mobility.

This is their case for support.

Book Review: Laugesen & Gauld. Democratic Governance & Health: Hospitals, Politics And Health In New Zealand, Vivienne Byers

Articles

No abstract provided.

Getting Real With Strategy: Insights From Implementation Science, Douglas Easterling, Allison Metz

The Foundation Review

Foundations are increasingly coming to appreciate the importance of strategy. But simply having a strategy – even an explicit strategy – does not guarantee that a foundation will actually achieve its goals.

To implement a strategy effectively, a foundation needs to operationalize it in the form of specific functions that staff will carry out and needs to create an organizational infrastructure that supports the strategy. The field of implementation science offers a set of tools for helping foundations address these tasks.

After introducing some general principles of implementation science, this article describes in depth the concepts of practice profiles, which …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teri Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Partnerships, Paradigms, And Social-System Change, Patricia Jessup, Beverly Parsons, Marah Moore

The Foundation Review

Social systems structures stem from underlying paradigms that are made up of beliefs, perspectives, and assumptions. Changing paradigms is a powerful way to change social systems. Such change is difficult and old paradigms keep pulling systems back to their former state.

This article examines three types of partnerships that focus on these deep structures and paradigms, and that go beyond implementing a project or initiative to create fundamental, lasting change in the underlying beliefs, perspectives, and assumptions on which such systems are grounded.

The functions of each type – project focused, formal-systems-focused, and community-grounded partnerships – are identified, along with …

Building A Field: Blue Shield Of California Foundation's Strong Field Project Leaves A Legacy And Valuable Lessons, Hanh Cao Yu, Jennifer Henderson-Frakes, Lucia Corral Peña

The Foundation Review

Relatively few comprehensive evaluations have assessed the principles, elements, and impacts of philanthropic organizations’ field-building endeavors. To help fill this gap, this article shares the results of a five-year evaluation of a large-scale field-building initiative: Blue Shield of California Foundation’s Strong Field Project.

The project’s goal was to strengthen the domestic violence field by equipping it with a critical mass of diverse individuals and organizations to lead a stronger movement to end domestic violence in California. Its approach aimed to strengthen field leadership and organizations, and to create vibrant collaborative networks.

Evaluation data show that the project achieved much of …

Developing A Framework For Grant Evaluation: Integrating Accountability And Learning, Shelley Scherer

The Foundation Review

Despite broad consensus among foundations on the value of capturing grant outcomes, there is no consensus on what to evaluate and how to define success, which makes it difficult for staff and grantees to navigate and apply multiple interpretations of evaluation “best practices.”

This article presents three questions designed to help foundations develop a framework for grant evaluation that reflects their beliefs about accountability and learning, balances evaluation costs and benefits, acknowledges the diversity of grants within the foundation’s portfolio, and allows their grantees to understand the foundation’s expectations for evaluation reporting.

A key takeaway from this article, drawn from …

Enhancing Foundation Capacity: The Role Of The Senior Leadership Team, Melissa A. Berman

The Foundation Review

This article examines the issue of foundation organization design and assesses how foundation leaders might think about their organizations as institutions.

Noting that any organization structure inhabited by human beings creates silos and territorial issues, foundation leaders are increasingly using two primary mechanisms to minimize these artificial barriers and maximize collaboration: enhanced headquarters functions to help integrate across the organization, and senior leadership teams.

This article reviews the structure, roles, responsibilities, and value-add of senior leadership teams at 19 foundations. The senior leadership team plays a crucial role in foundations, functioning as an advisory group to the president and chief …

Key Ingredients For School Food Systems: An Evaluation Of The Orfalea Foundation’S School Food Initiative, Holly Carmichael Djang, Barbara Andersen, Tatiana Masters, Jan Vanslyke, Blair Beadnell

The Foundation Review

In 2007, the Orfalea Foundation launched a nine-year strategic effort aimed at empowering public school districts in California’s Santa Barbara County. The purpose was to implement food-service operations that offered nourishing meals and to create a culture that prioritized the health and wellness of children and families.

The initiative, which involved 84 schools and more than 50,000 students, assessed the capacity of the county’s school food services, including existing skill levels and equipment needs. Striving to tailor programming to specific needs, the foundation emphasized stakeholder involvement throughout the process.

The foundation took a number of steps to understand the value …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Critical Team-Building Tools In Philanthropy, Ali Webb, Michael F. Bell

The Foundation Review

Using the experience of a team at a large, U.S.-based foundation over a four-year period, this article examines four essential tools for cultivating high-performing teams in the philanthropic sector.

The tools are giving and receiving feedback, the art of appreciations, organizing meetings to produce accountability, and assessing team communication styles, all applied with a racial equity lens. Use of these tools resulted in a more cohesive team that performed well when buffeted by changing priorities and substantial global problems.

The tools are likely applicable in every sector. But when used by foundations where large-scale social issues are the crux of …

Appendix - Program Officer Practice Profile - Using Implementation Science To Translate Foundation Strategy, Allison Metz, Douglas Easterling

The Foundation Review

APPENDIX Program Officer Practice Profile

The Art And Science Of Place-Based Philanthropy: Themes From A National Convening, Giannina Fehler-Cabral, Jennifer James, Hallie Preskill, Meg Long

The Foundation Review

This article shares insights and implications generated at a convening titled Is This a Better Place? The Art and Science of Place Evaluation. Participants included funders, evaluators, and community partners who came to discuss and share effective learning practices and the role of evaluation in place-based work.

Place-based work requires a long-term investment in collaborative partnerships to create, nurture, and sustain local and systemic changes. In order to support this complex work, partners have to incorporate approaches that are nimble, iterative, and responsive to the changing needs of a “place” over an initiative’s life span.

The convening produced a number …