Public Policy Commons^™

A New Opportunity For Funder-Nonprofit Partnership: Advancing Shared Listening Efforts To Learn From Community, Valerie Threlfall

The Foundation Review

Funders lack scalable tools and processes for advancing their community listening efforts. As foundations explore this work, there is an opportunity to leverage the nonprofit sector’s experience in listening and to partner more actively with grantees to learn from community.

Nonprofits have embraced community listening more rapidly than funders over the past 10 years. Over 40,000 organizations have affirmatively described their listening practices via How We Listen, a feedback self-assessment that is part of Candid and Charity Navigator’s nonprofit profiles, and approximately 1,400 organizations have participated in Listen4Good’s capacity-building programs. This momentum has enabled the development of tools such as …

Listening And Responding Lead To Better Outcomes: Building The Evidence Base For High-Quality Listening Practice, Penelope Huang

The Foundation Review

In 2019, Fund for Shared Insight made grants to six research teams to test the hypothesis that if direct-service organizations gain a deeper understanding of how well their programs are serving clients by listening and actively responding to client feedback, they can increase the likelihood of positive outcomes. This body of research explores the case for incorporating participant voice to improve program effectiveness.

As philanthropy seeks to become more responsive to the people and communities most impacted by their decisions, this research has important implications for philanthropic practice, including the selection of grantees, learning in partnership with grantees and community, …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Tfr 17.2 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Community Engagement: A Core Practice On The Journey To Power Sharing, Elizabeth Jordan, Tryphena A. Clarke, Raquel R. Robinson

The Foundation Review

In this article, the authors posit that equity and power-sharing are foundational considerations for responsible philanthropy given the inherently unequal balance of wealth. These considerations may be magnified for family and place-based foundations where philanthropy has an outsized impact within a particular community.

Community engagement is a core practice tied to equity and power-sharing that can bring philanthropy into closer alignment with democratic and social equity values. This article examines the 15-year journey of a place-based family foundation as a reflection on how grantmaking organizations may shift their governance, giving priorities, staffing model, and operating practices to support the tenets …

Listening And Participation Prime Funders To Honor And Build Community Ownership, Gita Gulati-Partee, Katy Love

The Foundation Review

Funder listening is an essential complement to community participation to disrupt white dominant culture habits that entrench the status quo of hierarchy and power. Community-centered listening, combined with participatory processes, offers funders an opportunity to shift in deep and sustainable ways from an individualistic, “power over” orientation to interdependent relationships with community partners.

In this article, two practitioners of equity and participatory philanthropy share how funder listening and community participation form a potent combination to help funders confront their own power and use it intentionally to honor and bolster community ownership and agency.

Drawing on the authors’ direct experience, this …

Evaluating Efforts To Shift Power Through Listening: Defining Power And Listening To All Sides, Sarah Stachowiak, Juan Clavijo

The Foundation Review

There are a variety of ways funders and nonprofits are trying to shift the power dynamics between those who typically have held it (i.e., funders and organizations) to those who have unique and important expertise: those most affected by the problems the social sector is trying to solve.

In this article, we share lessons from two evaluations that sought to understand how those who were being listened to experienced the listening process, exploring the degree to which people felt heard and their experiences of how, and in what ways, power shifted for them. One evaluation focused on the experiences of …

Reproductive Redlining: Unraveling Historical Disparities And Facility Placement In Distance To Licensed Childcare Facilities, Reproductive Health Clinics, & Crisis Pregnancy Centers For Women In The Southern Region Of The United States, Mackenzie A. Kibler

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how historical and structural inequalities shape contemporary access to reproductive health services, licensed childcare facilities, and crisis pregnancy centers across Mississippi, Virginia, and Maryland. Using feminist geography, reproductive justice theory, and historical trauma theory, this research develops the concept of reproductive redlining to explore how race, policy, and space intersect to produce health disparities. By combining GIS mapping with multivariate statistical analysis and redlining data from the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), the study evaluates spatial distributions and demographic correlates of facility access before and after the Dobbs decision. Findings reveal enduring spatial inequities that disproportionately impact …

Literature Review: Implementation Of The Concept Of Sustainable Transportation In Soreang Integrated Urban Settlement Areas Planning, Natasha Puteri Arnesto

Cities and Urban Development Journal

Research on sustainable transportation has been growing in recent years to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Urban dynamics pose a challenge in achieving these goals, as they are influenced by various factors such as population growth, urbanization, and urban expansion, which occur globally. This trend is also evident in urban areas across Indonesia, including Bandung Regency. Research on sustainable transportation has been growing in recent years as part of efforts to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Urban dynamics pose a challenge in achieving these goals, as they are influenced by various factors such as population growth, urbanization, and …

Fathers’ Experiences With Reunification With The Massachusetts Child Welfare System, Phernel Joseph Manigat

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study focused on fathers’ experiences with the Massachusetts child welfare system (MCWS) or the Department of Children and Families (DCF) during the reunification process with their children, particularly those fathers who received sole custody of their children during this process. Researchers have demonstrated that fathers are minimally engaged and mostly ignored in the child welfare system (CWS). A research gap was identified regarding the experiences of fathers who received sole custody of their children through the CWS. The purpose of this study was to explore these fathers’ experiences with the MCWS or the DCF during the reunification process with …

A Qualitative Case Study Exploring The Decision-Making Criteria Of Policymakers In The State Of Michigan To Reinstate A Universal Helmet Law, Eberley Nicole Adams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Policymakers are elected to create, amend, or repeal legislation that impacts public welfare; however, little is known about the specific criteria used when making public health and safety decisions, particularly regarding motorcycle helmet laws. In 2012, Michigan repealed its universal helmet law (UHL) after 35 years, replacing it with a partial helmet law specifying requirements for helmetless riding. Despite an increase in unhelmeted fatalities, the UHL has not been reinstated, raising questions about the legislative decision-making process. Prior research has found that factors such as budgeting, statistical data, interest groups, education, income, political stability, and public opinion may guide these …

Inequality And Covid Risk At School: Racial Disparities In Indoor Density, Vaccination Rates, And Consequences For Absenteeism, Michael C. Quinn, Michah W. Rothbart, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Brian Elbel

Center for Policy Research

During the COVID pandemic, schools were widely believed to be a venue that facilitated disease transmission. While some worried Black and Hispanic students would disproportionately face greater risk of COVID exposure at school (school COVID risk) – given well-documented racially disparate school environments and resources – little empirical evidence exists documenting or refuting potential disparities in school COVID risk. This paper begins to fill this gap by examining racial disparities in the school environments that contribute to COVID risk at school—specifically, vaccination rates and classroom space per pupil (indoor density) - in New York City elementary schools. We then document …

Perceived Impact Of Participating As A Former Immigrant High School Athlete In A Program That Prioritized Social-Emotional Needs And Self-Determination Of Young Adult Males, Filip Cejovic

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many studies have confirmed the positive impacts of extracurricular activities on students' academic achievement and social success, but also revealed that few educational policies go beyond addressing the most basic needs of language and lunch for immigrant students. As the process of assimilation can impact numerous factors and long-term outcomes for these students, this study explored extracurricular program structures that prioritize participants’ psychological needs and whether these structures have a positive impact on immigrant students’ self-determination, intrinsic motivation, and future success. This qualitative, practice-focused case study examined a purposeful sample of one boys’ high school soccer program at a public …

Who We Are: Four Questions For A Life And A Nation, Joe Gunn

Consensus

Sinclair, M., Sinclair, S., & Sinclair, N. J. (2024). Who we are: four questions for a life and a nation. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN: 9780771099106

Perspectives On Ethnic Federalism In Ethiopia, Girum Grbremariam Alemayehu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ethnic federalism in Ethiopia has garnered significant scholarly attention for its role in shaping ethnic identity, governance, and national cohesion. However, limited research has explored how this political structure affects Ethiopian diaspora communities. This study addressed the problem of increasing ethnic divisions among Ethiopian immigrants in the Denver metropolitan area, which challenges community integration and shared national identity. Despite the growing presence of Ethiopian Americans, the literature lacks an in-depth understanding of their perspectives on ethnic federalism. The purpose of this ethnographic qualitative study was to explore how Ethiopian immigrants in Denver perceive its impact on their social, political, and …

A Chat Room In A City Of Missouri's Public Safety Answering Point, Rochele Wynee' Young

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite new and emerging communications technologies to improve access to 911 emergency services for people with speech, hearing, and cognitive disabilities, there continue to be access barriers for those who may require silent communications due to the nature of the emergency. Chat rooms in 911 communications present a promising solution to this challenge. However, the current literature has inadequately examined the use of chat rooms in 911 communications, mainly due to the nascent nature of this technology. This study aimed to fill that gap by providing valuable insights to enhance access to 911 emergency services for individuals who may require …

Intelligence Reform At 20: How Joint Military Intelligence Lost Its Groove And How To Get It Back, Laura J. Coco-Hampton, Karalee G. Picard

Joint Force Quarterly

On the 20-year anniversary of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act (IRTPA), two DIA officers examine the impact of analytic tradecraft reforms and the over-emphasis on intelligence analyst skills over intelligence product outputs, particularly to the Joint Force. As a result, a large number of intelligence analysts no longer speak the same language as the Joint Force, instead adhering exclusively to analytic tradecraft and processes developed independent from joint doctrine warfighter support requirements. This paper aims to identify and outline structural reasons behind key gaps in intelligence analytic support to the Joint Force and also to recommend changes to …

The Insurgent’S Dilemma: A Struggle To Prevail, David E. Spencer

Joint Force Quarterly

David E. Spencer’s review of The Insurgent’s Dilemma highlights David Ucko’s nuanced analysis of the strategic challenges insurgent movements face in balancing military efficacy with political legitimacy. Drawing on his expertise in Latin American insurgency, particularly the FARC, Spencer uses Ucko’s framework to explain why some insurgent groups, like the FARC, failed to adapt to post-Cold War conditions, while others, like the Zapatistas, successfully evolved ideologically, locally, and institutionally. Ucko argues that modern insurgencies must navigate complex trade-offs between violence and popular support, especially as traditional strategies become obsolete. The book offers critical insights into how both insurgents and counterinsurgents …

Space Warfare: Strategy, Principles And Policy, 2nd Ed., Todd W. Pennington, Emmy Kanarowski

Joint Force Quarterly

The second edition of Space Warfare by John J. Klein offers a timely and comprehensive update to a foundational text in spacepower strategy. Reviewed by Pennington and Kanarowski, this expanded volume deepens Klein’s signature analogies between maritime and space domains while addressing the significant geopolitical, doctrinal, and legal changes that have reshaped military space operations since the book’s original release in 2006. Notable additions include new chapters on space-based offensive and defensive platforms, “Guardian Angels” and “Celestial Demons,” and a thought-provoking call for a future Space National Guard. While some proposals are forward-looking, Klein’s work remains grounded in strategic theory, …