While the notion of outcomes seems to be here to stay (and the jargon of outcomes is certainly everywhere), what is oddly missing in our sector is much evidence of the practice of outcomes. Although individual promising examples certainly exist, for the most part the social sector is talking about outcomes much more than it is actually doing much with outcomes, and much of the conversation centers on three questions...

Even in this era of global markets, new ideas, new companies and new jobs are still created on a local level. One of the bright spots for the future of the U.S. economy is growing evidence that a culture of entrepreneurship is beginning to spread beyond Silicon Valley to urban and rural areas across the country.

One of the population groups most at risk of dropping out of high school in Philadelphia—and throughout the country—is children who have been involved with the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. A third of the young people who drop out of school in Philadelphia are or have been involved with the Department of Human Services (DHS) via foster care or delinquent placement. Approximately 70 percent of students who have a substantiated case of abuse or neglect during the high school years and 75 percent who have a foster care placement never finish high school (Neild and Balfanz 2006). Moreover, close to 90 percent of students who have a juvenile justice placement during their high school years ultimately drop out.

The Job Opportunity Investment Network (JOIN) is a regional fund that unites Greater Philadelphia businesses, workers and social investors to build pathways out of poverty for low-skilled adults. Greater Philadelphia is currently experiencing parallel workforce crises: businesses in the region are unable to fill good jobs at the same time that an alarming number of residents are unable to find employment. The root cause of these crises is the mismatch between the skills required for the jobs of the future and the much lower skill level of many Greater Philadelphia residents. JOIN invests in industry-led partnerships that simultaneously address both crises by preparing low-skilled workers to fill available mid-level jobs. Through these partnerships, JOIN enhances the region’s workforce system to better meet the needs of 21st-century workers and businesses.

Over the course of the past 20 years, nonprofit organizations in Philadelphia have confronted significant changes in their operating environment. Corporate mergers and acquisitions, the globalization of the economy, the devolution of federal power to state and local governments, constant challenges in government budgets, and changing philanthropic patterns and priorities have all rocked the sector. In the near term, unprecedented financial challenges, brought on by the current financial and economic crisis, will have enormous consequences for nonprofit organizations in the region and across the country.

Should philanthropic foundations focus more on innovation? A new survey by Harris Interactive, commissioned by the Philanthropy Awareness Initiative, shows that engaged Americans think so. They are increasingly looking to foundations to find and fund new ways of solving society’s problems. And they prefer to hear about the innovative work of foundations over all other roles those foundations play. For foundation leaders interested in engaging critical stakeholders and building greater support, speaking up about the innovative work they do appears to be key.

Over the past 15 years, the majority of college access and success efforts have focused on discrete programming. While this fragmented approach has helped some students, it has failed to help many others, particularly those traditionally underrepresented. Leaders in the college access field have recognized the need for fundamental changes that will take us from the current patchwork of college programs to a coordinated system linking students to comprehensive services within a supportive policy environment. Partnerships are one vehicle for improved alignment, and the use of data is key in formalizing and focusing these partnerships.

It seems funny to call something an innovation when it’s been around for decades, at least in the for-profit world. But in the nonprofit world, the use of an interim executive director seems truly to be an innovation. People’s eyebrows rise when you mention the concept, as if to ask, “We can do that in the nonprofit sector?”

This article focuses on the hundred thousand registered nonprofit human service agencies that, annually, have combined budgets totaling $141,215 million. Is society getting the social value such enormous resources should yield? In human terms, are those people who depend on nonprofits to improve their lives and prospects getting the help they need and the results they deserve?

Although many in the nonprofit sector have been unaware of it, skirmishes in the battle for the soul of the nonprofit sector have been taking place over the last few decades. While most of us kept our heads down, doing what we think is “good work” and donating, volunteering, organizing or advocating, the sector’s “thought leaders” have been thrashing it out over the two most important questions ever to face the sector: how to define the value of all the work we are doing, and how to measure that value.

Revenues are declining. Endowments are shrinking. Funders are reconsidering their commitments.

Wherever you look, there are more demands and fewer resources. And then someone tells you that what you need is a new plan for today’s economy. But what’s innovative about strategic planning?  In fact, the word is that strategic planning is on its last legs. Some gurus say that planning should be confined to a one-day exercise; others posit that the environment is changing so fast that planning becomes obsolete almost immediately, and that focusing on issues such as fundraising and market development is more likely to produce results.

The Bridgespan Group

July/ August 2010 Knowledge Letter

http://www.bridgespan.org/About/Default.aspx?id=18270

Dear Friends,

For those of us in northern climates, now is a time to watch spring’s seeds flower into the myriad plants that delight, shade, and feed us. With nonprofits like Nurse-Family Partnership, Youth Villages, and Teach For America becoming ever-more active nationwide, now is also a time to watch seeds of social change sown years ago replicating and shooting up in similarly robust fashion. But the spectrum of ways in which nonprofits are increasing their impact ranges far beyond replication. This issue of Bridgespan’s Knowledge Letter highlights some of the other ways that nonprofits are growing their impact.

Our main feature, "Scaling Impact," published recently in Stanford Social Innovation Review, looks at how nonprofits can harness technology, advocacy, and leadership to extend their organizations' reach. By way of example, our guest blog on Edutopia advocates scaling the reach of effective teachers beyond the "little red schoolhouse," in large part via technology. Another example: "Getting Clear, Real and Better," published in Monday Developments (and drawing on a previous article, "Galvanizing Philanthropy," in Harvard Business Review), describes the way Goldman Sachs’ corporate foundation scaled the economic empowerment of women by investing in their business education and leadership capacity. Variations on these themes and others surfaced in Bridgespan’s 10-year anniversary panel discussion on global development.

Finally, our featured opinion piece, "Donating $600 Billion Is Just Step One," focuses on the funding side of scaling impact through the lens of the recent Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates’ challenge to America’s richest individuals to pledge at least half their wealth to benefit society. Ensuring that the funding flows that emerge from this challenge seed perennial change will require not only smart investing, but also productive and mutually respectful relationships between the donors and those they choose to fund.

All the best,

Katie Smith Milway
Knowledge Partner, The Bridgespan Group

Each quarter, this section of the Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal brings you a selection of recent news reports and other publications featuring topics and trends related to social innovation, disruptive innovation, and social entrepreneurship. These “tidbits” offer brief summaries of stories and articles from around the country and the world, and fall under themes such as social media, technology, leadership, “what works,” evolving trends, philanthropy, and others. If you come across something you think is worth highlighting here, please send it to Caroline Ridgway at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Despite a wave of interest in recent years in what it takes to build stronger, more effective nonprofits, the sector as a whole still suffers from a chronic case of financial stress that inhibits effectiveness and stifles innovation. Philanthropy can be a part of the problem, but also a part of the solution. The following is a summary of the publication On the Money: A Review of Key Financial Challenges Facing Nonprofits Today — and How Grantmakers Can Help commissioned by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) and written by Nancy Burd with contributions from William H. Woodwell, Jr., and Molly Merriman. The entire publication is available for purchase from GEO at www.geofunders.org.

Mandated by the Constitution, the decennial Census is a time-honored measurement as old as our country, and its accuracy is essential. Population data inform key decisions on congressional representation and state and federal funding, and an accurate head count can effectively guide the government’s vision and economic planning. In Philadelphia and other cities, many leaders and advocates in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors recognize the significance of the impending Census count and feel the urgency of getting it right.

First, the good news: In the United States today, there are approximately 40,000 households with at least $25 million of “investable assets” (Brown 2007). At the country’s average annual giving rate of 2.6 percent1 (Giving USA 2008: 48) of adjusted gross income, each household at this level of wealth is capable of making annual philanthropic commitments of a half-million dollars (and many give much more). Collectively, this group has enough members, giving capacity, geographic spread, and diversity of interests to support a “social capital market.”

Promising social programs can fail. A simple framework can vet the ones doomed to failure and primed for success.

The Obama administration is poised to jump-start widespread replications of social programs that seem promising in local trials. For on-the-ground program reformers, this could prove to be an opportunity — and a challenge.

Today, more money flows into the nonprofit sector than ever before. However, the ineffective way in which we distribute these funds is preventing us from significantly moving the needle on our country’s most pressing social issues. Nonprofit organizations typically secure funds via relationships, brand recognition and storytelling. As a result, funds are spread thin, and their allocation is based on information that has nothing to do with an organization’s ability to improve the lives of those it serves.

Throughout the nation there is a growing movement of larger nonprofit organizations leveraging their high-performance and efficient back office and management services to assist the government, private business and nonprofit sectors. These management services first and foremost help ensure the proliferation of high performing, efficient and effective nonprofit organizations. At the same time, these business look-a-like functions help generate revenue for the organizations that provide them, revenue that is reinvested into the organization’s programs and services thus helping to support and expand their missions.

This article builds on three impolitic, unpleasant truths of which I have become persuaded over the course of my career working with and on behalf of nonprofit organizations.