Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Developing Foundation-University-Grantee Collaboratives As A Model For High-Impact Philanthropy, Michelle B. Nayfack, Priscilla Wohlstetter

The Foundation Review

· This article reports on results from the Weingart Foundation’s Urban School Districts Reform Initiative. The goal of the initiative was to improve urban education, and ultimately raise student achievement, by supporting sustainable reforms in school districts educating high numbers of low-income students.

· The Weingart Foundation determined the scale and scope of the effort, and set forth specific goals and timelines; the districts were invited to propose projects that were organic and integrated into their own strategic plans.

· Based on research conducted by an intermediary, potential grantees were identified; six grantees were interviewed about their strategic plan priorities …

Embedded Foundations: Advancing Community Change And Empowerment, Paula Allen-Meares, Larry Gant, Trina Shanks

The Foundation Review

· Embedded funders are foundations that have made long-term commitments to the communities in which they are located or work.

· Foundations have a long history in funding community development, often with few concrete results.

· Political conditions, the increasing divide between rich and poor, inaccessibility of education, lack of housing, and continued segregation and racial discrimination are issues that need be addressed concurrently and resources need to be drawn from a variety of sources, particularly the neighborhoods themselves. This complexity has created an impetus for embedded philanthropy.

· Embedded funders work participatively with the community and frame evaluations in …

Influencing Attitudes Toward People With Developmental Disabilities Using Arts Based Research, Marti Sue Goetz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study was conducted given as an inquiry about influencing attitudes toward people with developmental disabilities. Because resistance to homes for people with developmental disabilities situated in typical neighborhoods is still a problem, I seek a way to better assimilate people with "different abilities" into communities. For an historical foundation, I researched literature on the marginalization of this ethnographic group-people with developmental disabilities-and defined quality of life. In establishing groundwork for choice of methodology, I elaborate on arts used for social change. Arts based research methods were used to conduct the research. I created an exhibit using objects and photographs …

Environmental Migrants And The Future Of The Willamette Valley: A Preliminary Exploration, Alison Wicks

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

This report reviews existing data and research on predicted impacts of climate change in the Northwestern United States, and specifically focuses on the level of preparedness to accommodate new population growth due to climate migration in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Climate change impacts in Oregon are predicted to be less severe than in other areas of the country. Generally, models project warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers in the Willamette Valley and other areas west of the Cascade Range. This will likely make the Willamette Valley a more desirable place for environmentally displaced people to locate. This report considers how …

Travel Behavior, Residential Preference, And Urban Design: A Multi-Disciplinary National Analysis, Jessica Greene, Nico Larco, Yizhao Yang, Marc Schlossberg, Daniel Rodriguez, Noreen Mcdonald, Tabitha Combs

TREC Final Reports

This report summarizes the findings of a national project to examine the travel behavior, social capital, health, and lifestyle preferences of residents of neotraditional developments (NTD) compared to more standard suburban developments. We compare survey results from residents of matched pairs of neighborhoods in seventeen U.S. cities and towns, with each pair comprised of one NTD and one typical suburban neighborhood of similar size, age, and socio-demographic composition. The study addresses salient themes in the transportation, planning and health literatures: a national study, surveying populations of diverse incomes, collecting resident information on preferences for and attitudes towards neighborhood qualities, and …

International Programming, Local Development, And Youth: An Experience In Northeast Brazil, Frances Hansford, Andrés Thompson

The Foundation Review

· The W. K. Kellogg Foundation funded a 10-year program of local development work in selected geographic areas in Northeast Brazil from 1997 – 2007.

· This article reports on program achievements and difficulties, and examines the ways in which the practices of the foundation facilitated and obstructed advances in the local development initiatives.

· Two main strategies were used: direct funding granted to organizations in the targeted regions and the creation of a comprehensive support system (e.g., youth projects funds, capacity-building in leadership and evaluation, and transfer of expertise from organizations).

· A team of foundation staff and consultants …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Community Philanthropy: How The Delta Region Revives, Embraces, And Promotes The Spirit Of Giving, Charlotte L. Williams, Sherece West, Joanna Klak

The Foundation Review

· Community philanthropy is the giving of time, talent, and treasure that when invested locally is characteristic of positive change and lasting development.

· This article reports on a survey of 31 small Arkansas communities of 5,000 to 15,000 in population using open-ended descriptive questions. Responses were compared across communities to assess variation in giving/fundraising, civic engagement, and leadership.

· Data confirm that giving/fundraising was substantial, particularly in communities with populations of 8,000 or less.

· Findings show that people are giving not only their money, but also their services, time, and skills – especially in times of emergency response. …

Editorial, Chris Tebben

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

The Quest For Deeper Learning And Engagement In Advanced High School Courses, Suzie Boss, Cynthia Johanson, Stephen D. Arnold, Walter C. Parker, Diem Nguyen, Susan Mosborg, Susan Nolen, Sheila Valencia, Nancy Vye, John Bransford

The Foundation Review

· GLEF and a research team from the University of Washington worked with Washington's Bellevue School District to develop and assess the impact of project-based learning on upper-level courses in high school.

· Research suggests that Advanced Placement (AP) courses may focus too much on accelerated content at the expense of deeper conceptual learning.

· The number of students taking AP courses has grown, but along with this the number failing has increased. GLEF and the research team tested project-based learning (PBL) to counteract this trend.

· Results after two years are promising. Students in the PBL-AP courses are performing …

Getting To Results: A Tool And Lessons From The Annie E. Casey Foundation’S K-12 Education Portfolio, Tory Read, Bruno Manno

The Foundation Review

· In 2002, the Annie E. Casey Foundation adopted a results-based accountability (RBA) framework to track and report on the results of their philanthropic investments.

· The RBA tool was piloted in a few program areas, including its K-12 education portfolio.

· Grantees were highly engaged in an iterative process to determine appropriate measures, refine the theory of change, and how to track progress.

· Overall, the RBA tool enabled staff to get a sense of how grantees were doing and therefore how the foundation was doing in a way that hadn’t been possible before.

· The K-12 program got …

Creating And Scaling Innovative School Models Through Strategic Partnerships, Heather Zavadsky

The Foundation Review

· The Texas High School Project (THSP) was created in 2003 as a public-private alliance to support education reform across the state.

· This article focuses on the pivotal role of philanthropy within the THSP alliance to create early college high schools (ECHS).

· The model has been scaled at different levels to produce direct, affordable pathways for students to both attend college and attain skilled careers.

· The ECHS schools have higher test scores, greater credits earned, and reduced dropouts rates compared to traditional schools.

· Foundations with a track record for supporting successful work can increase the overall …

The Trenton Afterschool Partnership: Expanding Learning Time Citywide Through Public/Private Collaboration, Mark Valli, Catrin Davies, Traci Scott, Mikaela Levons

The Foundation Review

· High quality after-school programs have been demonstrated to have significant impact on student performance.

· Preceding the Trenton Afterschool Partnership (TAP) was a hodgepodge of programs that cost various contributors about $9 million. These programs, of unequal quality, served about 1,500 students in 15 out of Trenton’s 21 public schools.

· TAP (which includes the Princeton Area Community Foundation) was able to successfully implement programs in all of the Trenton schools.

· Budget cuts have forced the reduction of the programs, but about half of the schools have been able to maintain programs.

· Foundations are encouraged to support …

The Best Of The Humanistic And Technocratic: Why The Most Effective Work In Philanthropy Requires A Balance, Paul M. Connolly

The Foundation Review

· As a more technocratic approach to philanthropy has emerged over the past 15 years, it has been seen as the opposite of humanistic philanthropy.

· Rather than a dichotomy, these approaches are on a continuum.

· The best tools from each approach can and should be brought to bear, including the wellthought out and disciplined strategies and results orientation of technocrats and the values base, intuition, responsiveness, and flexibility of the humanists.

· Staff and board leaders at foundations should articulate the humanistic-technocratic blend they desire, deliberately distill it into the organizational culture and everyday practices, and hire staff …

Promoting Community Leadership Among Community Foundations: The Role Of The Social Capital Benchmark Survey, Doug Easterling

The Foundation Review

· Faced with increased competition for donors and calls for measurable impact, many community foundations (CFs) are adopting a more proactive, strategic approach to philanthropy – one that has come to be known as "community leadership."

· Community leadership has proven challenging for many CFs. In theory, community assessment is a useful tool allowing CFs to identify strategic issues where leadership activities are warranted. This article examines the effect of a large, coordinated assessment project, the 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey (SCBS), conducted by Robert Putnam and the Saguaro Seminar at Harvard University.

· Of the 34 CFs that participated …

Use Of Layering For Effective Partnership Building: Leveraging Positive Impact In Education Philanthropy, Angela Kremers

The Foundation Review

· Federal initiatives provide opportunities to link national, state, and local partnerships.

· New opportunities create a challenge of how to maximize mission-related goals while also seeking out new partnerships.

· “Layering” allows core foundation goals to be addressed while further examining how building new partnerships can expand with national and federal opportunities.

· Each “layer” represents multiple sector partnerships at the local, state, federal, and national levels.

· Layering differs from collective impact in its focus on strategic alignment with existing work to new partners versus the focus on the partnerships and organizational behavior of those relationships.

· Building …

Evaluative Tools For Articulating And Monitoring Foundation Strategy, Helen Davis Picher, Sandra Yetman Adams

The Foundation Review

· Research shows that while foundation leadership and staff value strategy and foundations largely perceive themselves as strategic, they often struggle to articulate, implement, and track strategy. The William Penn Foundation has developed a collection of tools to articulate and assess its progress toward strategic goals.

· Each tool employs a structured format to promote standardization; flexibility, though, is encouraged in the application of each tool to ensure that form does not dictate function. Each tool provides a template for organizing information that should be tweaked as needed.

· The speed and breadth of adoption of each tool varies and …

Assessing Nonprofit Networks Prior To Funding: Tools For Foundations To Determine Life Cycle Phase And Function, Patricia Zerounian, Janet Shing, Kristi D. Hanni

The Foundation Review

· Foundations and other funders can use life cycle analysis tools to determine a nonprofit network’s stage of development and functional characteristics as a precursor to funding network activities. Characteristics that determine a network’s readiness for funding include network cohesion (trust and communication), cooperation (mutual purpose and goals), and capacity for externally focused action.

· Network Mindset Survey analysis can help determine a network’s readiness for funding by measuring members’ understanding of the power and utility of networks; degree of membership engagement; identification of specific, common concerns; and readiness for productive action.

· Three networks that received foundation support for …

Voices From The Field Iii: Lessons And Challenges For Foundations Based On Two Decades Of Community-Change Efforts, Anne Kubisch, Patricia Auspos, Prudence Brown, Emily Buck, Tom Dewar

The Foundation Review

· Building upon a previously published volume on Comprehensive Community Initiatives, this article focuses upon the implications for foundations of what has been learned about CCIs.

· CCIs can demonstrate increased community capacity and improved outcomes for some residents in their target neighborhoods, but they cannot demonstrate population-level change in key indicators of well-being.

· Five key questions about the role of funders and how they engage in community change are posed and discussed.

· Deep engagement in the community; thoughtful collaboration among funders of various types and sizes; the willingness to use other resources, capacities and tools in addition …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

The Quest For Quality: Lessons From A Certification Pilot Project For College Access Providers, Tania Jarosewich, Nushina Mir

The Foundation Review

· Certification programs can provide a way for nonprofits to ensure adherence to generally accepted standards.

· The KH2GO Certification Pilot Project, supported by the Lumina Foundations, developed a set of standards for high-quality college access services, including standards for programming, operations, and organizational effectiveness.

· The project was implemented in two states with an evaluation designed to assess the quality of the assessment tools and the ease and rigor of implementation.

· The more clarity that applicants had about the goals of the process, potential benefits, and details about procedures, the more benefits they perceived.

· Many applicants felt …

Beyond The Grant: How The W. K. Kellogg Foundation Went Beyond Grantmaking To Contribute To A Major Early Childhood Initiative, Stephen Greeley, Beth Greeley

The Foundation Review

· The seven-year SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids) initiative, created by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), aimed at systemically linking the pre-K and kindergarten worlds as a way to position vulnerable children for greater success in the early grades.

· At the foundation, the initiative served as a departure point for WKKF to move from its traditional grantmaking role to a changemaker role.

· To create change, a foundation must articulate – and commit to – a point of view about how change can occur. A theory of change can be a powerful tool to guide ongoing …

Editorial-Open Access, Teresa Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Reframing Assessment Of Grantee Perceptions: Reconsidering Effectiveness With Broader International Stakeholder Engagement, Laurel Pendleton, Michael Y. Moon

The Foundation Review

· Stakeholder engagement is important in philanthropy because it allows grantmakers and grantees to pool their respective resources more effectively to address their shared target issues.

· As more and more foundations and other grantmaking entities venture into the expansive world of self-evaluation, it is prudent that these methods be examined in light of international funding relationships.

· In order to better understand how these tools and methods can be used internationally, we outline the opportunities presented when using frames as one basis for decision-making in complex situations.

· Using the hypothetical case of a U.S. funder seeking to understand …

The Real-Time Evaluation Memo: A Tool For Enabling Evaluative Thinking And Learning In Foundations And Nonprofits, Melanie Hwalek, Mary Grcich Williams

The Foundation Review

· Real-time evaluation memos provide data-based feedback in a timely manner to inform decision making.

· Memos must be concise and include both data and expert synthesis and interpretation.

· The foundation must have a learning culture if the memos are to most useful; there must be time to reflect on the content and implications.

· The balance between data quality and timeliness must be managed and will be dependent on the topic.

· While useful for program management, these memos do not provide the kind of summative information that board members and other stakeholders may require.

Trends In Global Philanthropy Among U.S. Foundations: A Brief Review Of Data And Issues, Anne C. Petersen, Gail D. Mcclure

The Foundation Review

· International grantmaking has increased dramatically in the past two decades, at a rate faster than domestic grantmaking.

· The increase in international grantmaking, stimulated by increased interest in global issues, was fueled by increased foundation assets and especially by new foundations created since 1990.

· While many of the issues confronting international grantmaking exist with domestic grantmaking, they have special aspects and increased importance because of the global context.

· Many foundations have now accumulated information about how best to work in partnership with other foundations, governments, and business; these lessons would benefit all foundations.

· Thoughtful collective action …

Leadership Development In The Social Sector: A Framework For Supporting Strategic Investments, Grady Mcgonagill, Claire Reinelt

The Foundation Review

· While much of the research on leadership and leadership development has historically studied private sector settings, recent work has begun to build knowledge about leaders in public and community settings.

· New models of leadership, including collective leadership, are being developed and implemented by foundations.

· A framework for identifying the level of intervention (individual, team, organization, network, or system) and the level of impact (individual, team, organization, community, or field of policy and practice) is proposed as a tool for more strategic investing in leadership development.