Public Administration Commons^™

Aging In Bedford: A Community Needs Assessment, Caitlin Coyle, Rebecca Mailman, Jan Mutchler

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

This report describes research undertaken by the Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging within the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston, on behalf of the Bedford Council on Aging (COA), to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of Bedford’s population of residents who are age 55 and older. The contents of this report are meant to inform the Bedford COA, and other municipal entities, for the purposes of planning and coordination of services, but also to build awareness about issues facing the Town of Bedford’s senior residents.

Child Abuse Prevention In Rural Southern California: A Participatory Action Research Project, Nelly Zambrano

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research project examines resources and services to prevent families and children from entering the child welfare system in a rural town in Southern California. There is constant struggle to get the adequate services, resources and trained staff in this rural area because it is isolated and it takes about two hours’ travel time to get to the metropolitan cities. The literature review discusses child welfare services challenges, strengths and social capital to support families and children as well as the child welfare system itself in rural areas. Constructivism is the appropriate framework for this research project, because the goal …

Less Is More: How Grantmakers Are Using Simple Financial Metrics, Hilda H. Polanco, Luther K. Snow

The Foundation Review

This article explores how the Financial Health Analysis Tool can bridge the gap between the capacity of grantmakers to conduct financial analysis and the need to incorporate financial considerations into both grantmaking and ongoing engagement with grantees.

The tool presents four years of key financial indicators in graphs and charts that create a kind of dashboard of a nonprofit's financial health over time. This small set of simple metrics highlights patterns and trends that can help grantmakers and nonprofits see how the financial management of an organization is advancing its mission and strategy.

Using a series of interviews with a …

Resilient Funders: How Funders Are Adapting To The Closing Space For Civil Society, Chris Allan, A. Scott Dupree

The Foundation Review

The closing space of civil society around the world over the last decades has created profound challenges for funders. Many analyses of how to respond to this reality focus on advocacy and promoting enabling policy environments. Few consider key practices of resilient funders that enable them to continue to operate under shifting political circumstances.

Increased adaptive capacity along three dimensions – varied procedures, multiple strategies, and an adaptive environment – promotes the flexibility to weather the shocks and stresses of tightening restrictions and increasing violence. Within those dimensions, funders are finding that three characteristics of resilience are especially critical: flexibility; …

Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teri Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Summary

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Partner-Centered Evaluation Capacity Building: Findings From A Corporate Social Impact Initiative, Lisa Frantzen, Julie Solomon, Laura Hollod

The Foundation Review

Funders can play a proactive role in helping to fill the gap between funders’ expectations and nonprofits’ ability to evaluate grant results. Using a partner-centered design, Johnson & Johnson piloted an evaluation capacity-building initiative that supported eight grantees in strengthening their ability to measure and use findings concerning health-related outcomes, by focusing on key evaluation challenges identified by the grantees.

Grantees’ approaches to capacity building naturally grouped around the areas of evaluation- framework development, data-systems strengthening, and staff training. Through individualized projects, grantees increased their ability to both do and use evaluation.

This article describes the design, implementation, and results …

Developmental Evaluation Of A Collective Impact Initiative: Insights For Foundations, Glenn Landers, Kelci Price, Karen Minyard

The Foundation Review

The 2011 publication of John Kania and Mark Kramer’s influential paper, "Collective Impact," caught the attention of organizations across sectors, including nonprofit organizations and philanthropies. The Colorado Health Foundation was one of the organizations that saw the potential of collective impact to help tackle the state's complex, systems-level health issues.

This article describes a collective impact initiative and the role that developmental evaluation – and a realist framework – played in aiding both the initiative’s steering committee and the Colorado Health Foundation in making decisions about the initiative's accomplishments and future.

The article highlights the developmental evaluation approach, how that …

Cricket Island Foundation: A Case Study Of A Small Foundation’S Impact Assessment, Anna Pond, Seema Shah, Elizabeth Sak

The Foundation Review

In 2015, the Cricket Island Foundation conducted a multimethod assessment of its grantmaking portfolio to examine its impact and inform future decision-making and strategy. The foundation, which supports youth-led social change using a cohort-based model, focuses on emerging and medium-sized organizations and provides capacity-building supports to help organizations achieve greater organizational sustainability.

The assessment focused on two of the foundation's three cohorts and found positive trends in five key areas of desired impact: organizational capacity, youth leadership, nonprofit executive leadership, grantee collaboration and learning, and funder policy and practice. The assessment also identified areas for improvement to strengthen future impact, …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Unpacking The Role Of Data In Philanthropy: Prospects For An Integrated Framework, R. Patrick Bixler, Marisa Zappone, Lin Rui Li, Samer Atshan

The Foundation Review

This article reports qualitative research that explores the role of data in philanthropy and proposes an integrated framework. Interviews with charitable foundations in central Texas, including members of a regional evaluation and learning collaborative, reveal an orientation toward data that is becoming increasingly institutionalized.

The research suggests that data are generated and used in a multiplicity of ways, including identifying populations and geographies in need of investment, informing funding decisions for service delivery as well as policy research and advocacy; evaluation and learning; and measuring community impact.

This article discusses these thematic findings, notes specific practices, and presents six principles …

Learning From The Opportunities And Challenges Of A Philanthropy-Private Sector Partnership, Victoria C. Scott, Andrea Lamont, Abraham Wandersman, Leslie Snapper, Mona Shah, Erik Eaker

The Foundation Review

Cross-sector partnerships are essential for addressing such complex social issues as improving population health. Among such partnerships, a philanthropy-private sector partnership is rare in practice; they may seem incompatible due to differences in their missions and cultures. However, these collaborations can yield positive returns for philanthropy organizations and businesses, as well as the broader community.

This article draws upon an evaluation of a partnership between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Humana Inc. to highlight key insights for forming and implementing a formal partnership between a philanthropy organization and an investor-owned business.

Establishing and maintaining a philanthropy-private sector partnership is …

Morphological And Histological Description Of Small Metoposaurids From Petrified Forest National Park, Az, Usa And The Taxonomy Of Apachesaurus, Bryan M. Gee, William G. Parker

United States National Park Service: Publications

Metoposaurids are Late Triassic temnospondyls that are abundant components of freshwater deposi- tional settings. Although metoposaurids are represented by hundreds of specimens in collections around the world, the vast majority pertain to large-bodied, relatively mature individuals, and as a result, the early stages of ontogeny are still poorly characterised. Small-bodied metoposaurids from North America have traditionally been assigned to Apachesaurus gregorii, interpreted as a diminutive taxon, but this interpretation has not been rigorously tested. Here we provide a morphological description of two new small-bodied metoposaurid specimens from Petrified Forest National Park, AZ, USA. Both provide various anatomical details that improve …

Hearts And Minds: An Analysis Of Checks And Safeguards, Monitoring, And Performance Review Of Executive Boards And Their Executive Directors Within Select Nonprofit Corporations., John Michael Wagner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Horror stories of ineffective nonprofit organization management arise in the media far too often. When these stories emerge, the public demands accountability from those responsible. Ultimately, accountability rests with the fiduciaries of the organization. For nonprofit

organizations in the United States, fiduciary responsibility and accountability reside with the board of directors.

Board governance has been widely studied in the for-profit sector. Due to the critical nature of the work nonprofits perform, there has been an increasing effort to study board governance in nonprofit organizations. Employing in depth interviews, with both executive

directors and board members, checks and safeguards such as …

El Orden De La Libertad, De Mauricio García Villegas, Gabriel-Ignacio Gomez

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.

El Derecho De Acceso A Información Pública Como Mecanismo De Control Social: Análisis Comparado En Cinco Países Latinoamericanos, Erik Moreno R., Christopher Ramírez S., Matías Salazar S.

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

El presente estudio busca revisar el estado y el desarrollo institucional de las políticas en materia de transparencia y derecho de acceso a la información presentes en la región. Una vez dentro de la conceptualización pertinente, donde se consultan diversas fuentes que tratan el Accountability, se realiza una comparación que permite identificar posteriormente las condiciones para que las herramientas presentes en cada uno de los países analizados, conforme a su propia legislación, permitan ejercer el Accountability y configurar el acceso a la información, tanto como derecho autónomo como medio efectivo de control social a la gestión pública.

La Artesanía Del Orden Social, Luis Felipe Dávila

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

Lo que pretende exponer este artículo tiene que ver con la importancia de descartar la idea de que toda institución eficiente es fruto de la intencionalidad de un poder político centralizado que puede cambiar la historia por medio de herramientas artificiales, desconociendo los procesos históricos y evolutivos del orden social, en un espacio-tiempo determinado. Además, los diferentes fines que persiguen los actores involucrados pueden ser incluso antagónicos entre sí, pero en conjunto pueden llegar a producir armonía y beneficios para los sujetos involucrados, aunque el resultado sea diferente al que buscaban individualmente. Para dicho propósito, se abordan en este artículo …

La Implementación Del Acuerdo Final De Paz Con Las Farc: Un Análisis Prospectivo Desde Las Políticas Públicas, Santiago Leyva, Pablo Correa

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

Este artículo busca recobrar la expresión y el significado de la “implementación” para aquello que se refiere a ejecución de los propósitos fijados en el Acuerdo de Paz, desde el punto de vista de la gestión de las políticas públicas. Dado lo anterior, el objetivo será documentar y analizar la manera como el texto de 310 páginas define los supuestos organizacionales del Acuerdo de Paz, mostrando sus principales tendencias, especialmente el alto número de organizaciones involucradas (64) y la alta complejidad sectorial. Este estudio se hará bajo las líneas señaladas por la tercera generación de estudios de implementación, la cual …