Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Barriers For Small Businesses To Adopt Sustainable Practices In The Sioux Falls Area, Meredith King

Honors Thesis

Sustainability is a broad concept that encompasses environmental, social, and economic factors to meet current and future needs. Many individuals and large businesses are becoming conscious of the effects they have on the planet and the people around them. However, despite the financial benefits and positive publicity of environmentalism, many businesses are not adopting sustainable practices. This study interviewed local business owners to answer the question “What are the main reasons that small businesses in the Sioux Falls area of South Dakota do or do not adopt sustainable practices that benefit the environment and the community?” Five business owners were …

A Promising Place-Based Collaborative Impact Investing Fund Strengthens Community And Informs Philanthropic Practice, Benjamin Kerman, Clara Miller

The Foundation Review

A recent evaluation of the Western New York Impact Investment Fund adds to the proof-of-concept literature regarding “doing good and doing well” while pointing to experience-based best practices in philanthropic impact investing. Born of a collaboration between regional and national philanthropies, the fund brings together corporate, individual, and philanthropic investors to deliver an inclusive impact investment mechanism. Founded in 2017, the fund evolved from concept to operating entity, focusing on mitigating capital gaps, longterm economic decline, and wealth divides.

Evaluation at Year 5 describes how the professionally managed, collaboratively governed fund has attracted and deployed capital, contributing to ecosystem improvements …

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

The Field-Building And Grantee Experimentation Role Of Foundations In Impact Investing As Illustrated By A Gender-Lens Investing Case Example, Courtney Bolinson, Laura Allan

The Foundation Review

This article argues for foundations to play two critical roles in the impact investing ecosystem: to commission and/or support research that helps build more equitable and socially just impact investing and to fund grantee-specific experimentation in areas of impact investing and social enterprise that are nascent or developing.

To illustrate what this can look like, this article presents action research conducted on gender-lens investing, describing in detail a 2019 Mastercard Foundation grant to Engineers Without Borders Canada. The project involved two main goals: testing and developing gender-lens investing tools and processes with seed-stage investees during pre- or post-investment phases and …

The Ford Foundation’S Work To Build The Field Of Impact Investing, Margot Brandenburg, Abeda Iqbal

The Foundation Review

Impact investing has grown dramatically over the past 15 years, with foundations playing a critical role through their program-related and, increasingly, mission-related investments. A smaller number, including the Ford Foundation, have dedicated grant and other programmatic resources toward growing the field. Without this funding, the metrics, engagement, policies, and norms needed to underpin capital markets at scale will be slow to materialize.

This article looks back at the long history of aligning financial investments with social values; touches on the Ford Foundation’s pioneering role in the emergence of PRIs as a tool to stretch grantmaking budgets; and details the impact …

Donor-Advised Funds And Impact Investing: A Practitioner’S View, Sam Marks

The Foundation Review

Any discussion of foundations embracing impact investing must include some discussion of one of the largest — and growing — sources of philanthropic capital: donor-advised funds. These philanthropic accounts allow donors of all sizes to access many of the functions of a private foundation, including the potential to invest for impact. Sponsors of these funds, however, face unique challenges in catalyzing impact investments.

Like the larger institutional foundations that have led the way as mission investors, sponsors must often educate and inspire governance boards and investment committees. Unlike foundations with professional program staff, decisions regarding philanthropic resources at sponsors of …

Using Foundation Capital For Good: Opportunities In The Balance Sheet, John Sherman, Veronica Olazabal

The Foundation Review

Foundations increasingly use their full balance sheets to unlock more of their capital for good. They look beyond conventional grantmaking to pursue their charitable purposes in many ways that exemplify innovative, full-balance sheet approaches: investing in nonprofit and for-profit companies that offer clear social and financial returns; investing their corpus in companies whose products and services align with their missions; using social bonds to inject new resources into their programs; offering guarantees to help grantees manage risk; and avoiding companies whose practices run counter to their grantees’ efforts.

This article looks at the structures, pathways, and tools for foundations wanting …

Defining Your Double Bottom Line: Philanthropy And The Investment Landscape, Stephane Ligonde, Garrett De Temple, Tuokpe Ajuyah

The Foundation Review

Grantmaking traditionally has been at the heart of philanthropy, whereas impact was the exclusive expectation of any desired result. While there is still a place for this kind of pure push for change, many investors today expect more, leveraging the power of the markets to invest in a way that is both impactful and able to maximize their financial rewards. This is particularly true of foundations with an eye toward supporting the perpetuity of their missions and organizations.

This approach also offers a range of innovative mission-based benefits, including extending the utility of philanthropic capital and generating more capital to …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Leveraging Foundation Balance Sheets For Greater Impact: Piloting A Pooled Guarantee Program, Jane Reisman, Jim Baek, David Newsome, Christine Ryan

The Foundation Review

A guarantee instrument is a credit enhancement tool that can enable philanthropies to unlock millions or billions of dollars for societal impact. The Community Investment Guarantee Pool, created in 2019 by a collaboration of philanthropies and allied impact investors, or guarantors, is a novel initiative that uses guarantees to leverage the balance sheets of foundations and other institutional investors for enhancing the credit of intermediaries in the affordable housing, small-business, and climate markets. As the guarantees are unfunded, foundations continue to keep their endowment invested in the conventional market.

This article describes the Community Investment Guarantee Pool, details its theory …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Tfr 14.4 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

The Intersection Of Digital Communication & Non-Profit Organizations, Aliyah Burton

Senior Honors Theses

Non-profit organizations are actively addressing prevalent issues in society, seeking to benefit the public and those in need through various forms of intervention and programming. Non-profits have unique leadership and culture, requiring models of communication that fit these unique qualities. Communication is vital to the success of non-profits, particularly in a digital age. This thesis synthesizes the current research on non-profit culture and leadership with data on donor trends, online giving, social media practices, and more points of interest for non-profits when it comes to digital communication. Additionally, a connection is made between strong digital communication strategies and ongoing donor …

Gender Roles And The Social Agent: Framing The Women’S Movement(S) In Postcolonial Morocco, Lily Ross

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For my Independent Study, I conducted a four-week research project on what I will refer to as the “Women’s Movement” in Morocco. My initial goal was to understand the framing and aims of this movement. To do so, I sought to explore the different forces impacting the movement – such as local cultural contexts, religion, globalization and colonization – and to analyze the impact of these forces on how different women conceptualize their goals surrounding gender. I studied a variety of scholarship on the Moroccan Women’s Movement, focusing on a critical analysis of the state, international interests and non-profit organizations. …

Looking Through Their Lenses: An Analysis Of Virginia Environmental Nonprofits' Roles And Challenges In Shoreline Management For Coastal Resilience, Taiwo C. Olanrewaju Lasisi

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Environmental nonprofit organizations have emerged to attend to the environmental needs of individuals and communities. Some of these needs are usually those that have been neglected, given insufficient attention, or cannot be singularly handled by the government. In advocating for coastal resilience, environmental nonprofits have been identified as actors who address coastal issues like sea-level rise, flooding, and shoreline management.

Shoreline management involves building setbacks and formulating short and long-term defense strategies such as building living shorelines, ripraps, bulkheads, and tree plantings. These strategies formed the basis of coastal defense in coastal zones. Shoreline management is a significant area of …

Full Issue - Trauma Informed Approaches

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Learn more about the latest research of trauma informed care.

Trauma Defined: “Trauma is the experience of, or perception of, something disturbing or dangerous.” -Julie Karlinsey, LMT, CMHC

Trauma Statistics: “Estimates: six in 10 men and five in 10 women experience at least one trauma… in their lives. Trauma and distress can arise from a wide array of causes, including domestic violence, sexual assault, racism, bias, harassment, economic uncertainty, political division, and more. New challenges arise every day, and conflict and strife anywhere in our globally connected world affect us …

Case Study 4: “We Really Need This”: Trauma-Informed Yoga For Veteran Women With A History Of Military Sexual Trauma

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

“Up to 70% of women service members in the United States report military sexual trauma (MST); many develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and co-occurring disorders. Trauma-informed yoga (TIY) is suggested to improve psychiatric symptoms and shown feasible and acceptable in emerging research, yet no work has evaluated TIY in MST survivors. The current quality improvement project aimed to examine TIY’s feasibility, acceptability, and perceived effects in the context of MST.”

Nonprofit Spotlight: Rise Up School Of Dance

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Mission

To harness the power of dance, mentorship and community to empower students to realize their unique value and develop physical, mental, emotional and social skills that equip them to become the people they are meant to be.

Nonprofit Spotlight: Trauma-Informed Utah

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Mission

The mission of the TIU Center is to promote and support efforts to move Utah toward becoming a trauma-informed state

The Soft Stuff Doesn’T Have To Be Hard: Foundation Investments In Grantee Workers Are Necessary, Valuable, And Measurable, Rusty Stahl

The Foundation Review

There is an urgent need for funder investments in the ability of grantee nonprofit organizations to support their staff. Such investments, when done well, can yield significant value for individuals, organizations, and fields of work or movements. Furthermore, the value of these investments can be evaluated and communicated.

This article explores the reasons for and implications of the inadequate response by funders, offers a path forward for designing investments in grantee staff, and documents how funders can capture and communicate the value of these “talent investments.”

Powerful myths serve as barriers to widespread funder investment in grantee staff, and the …

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Advancing Philanthropic Strategy Through Evaluative Thinking: One Foundation’S Approach, Christine Baker, Margaret Eigsti, Kathryn Racine, Laurence O’Connell

The Foundation Review

The Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland supports Catholic sisters and their ministries in northeast Ohio through the grantmaking, partnership, capacitybuilding, and evaluation efforts of its Catholic Sisters Program Area. The decline of sisters actively engaged in ministry, due both to their rising median age and a decades-long decline in their overall numbers, called for a reconsideration and likely revision of the CSPA existing theory of change.

Unlike other strategic approaches at the foundation, such as ending homelessness or improving health equity, transitioning from sister-led to lay-led leadership of ministries remained largely unexplored: Basic research was lacking, and model practices …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Learning As We Go: How Emergent Process Supports Sustainable Community And Philanthropic Change, Elizabeth Myrick, Rachel Mosher-Williams, Laurie Zierer

The Foundation Review

Beginning in 2014, PA Humanities, one of 56 state and territorial humanities councils across the country, drew upon the work of Orton Family Foundation to deploy the Community Heart & Soul method, which centers community planning and civic engagement around connecting people to each other, and to the many assets of the places they live, through individual storytelling and collective narrative building.

Between 2015 and 2018, PA Humanities awarded matching grants to three locations in Pennsylvania — Greater Carlisle, Meadville, and Williamsport — to pilot PA Heart & Soul, a humanities-based, resident-driven community planning process that cultivates a shared sense …

Book Review: In Defence Of Philanthropy, Nabih Haddad

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Case Study 1: Trauma-Informed Care For Children And Young People Who Have Been Trafficked: From Theory To Practice

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Human trafficking is known as modern day slavery, and it is a human rights violation that impacts millions of children and young people (CYP) around the globe. “Research suggests a high prevalence of physical and mental health consequences from the trauma experienced, with potentially profound neuro-developmental and life-long health consequences for survivors. Trauma-informed care (TIC), which aims to meet the complex and unique needs of trauma survivors, is suggested as a way of working with trafficked CYP.” There is currently little research on the needs of trafficked children and young people and how to address these needs by implementing TIC …

Case Study 2: Evaluation Of Trauma Informed Care Training At A Level I Pediatric Trauma Center (Ptc)

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Statement of Purpose

“To evaluate baseline attitudes and confidence related to providing Trauma Informed Care (TIC) and quality of professional life of Emergency Department (ED) Staff at a Level I PTC, and to examine pre-post changes after a training session.” This study hypothesizes that “TIC training will improve attitudes and confidence in delivering TIC.”

Case Study 3: Next Steps: Applying A Trauma-Informed Model To Create An Anti-Racist Organizational Culture

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

“Although there has been a significant increase in the delivery of evidence-supported, trauma-informed care over the past few years, there has been less discussion around the consideration of the broader cultural, political, and societal factors that contextualize client trauma and that also need to be recognized and understood to promote healing and prevent future trauma."